Rodrigo writes of American Airlines, "In the last 4 travels between me, my wife and my father-in-law, ALL of them had been pretty bad. But the last one was the worst by far." However, they had lots of miles to cash in, a tight budget, and travel needs, so it was back into the belly of the beast for one more adventure: "First nonsense of the day was when the lady there claimed the maximum was 50 pounds for the luggage. Ok here we go again."

My wife, suspecting this was coming again since the same thing happened last time, waves a document issued by AA stating that international flights such as this one (to and from an overseas city, including the legs inside US) were 70 pounds maximum..."

The AA lady doesn't read it and proceeds to repeat the same garbage over and over. My wife waves the document again and again stating: please read this. Is this not an AA policy? Do you question the validity of this? Why don't you go access the same information. through one ear and out the other.

Sometime later the conversation turned into the AA lady stating to my wife, and I quote: "your daughter cannot travel for free.". My wife takes out my daughter's plane ticket, takes out the ticket receipt, and shows her: "oh this is not a receipt". My wife explains: "here is the amount paid + tax + fee = total, it is printed in the same paper as a plane ticket but it is a receipt, AA said this is the receipt, we paid for it, please call the sales agent if your computer somehow doesn't show. AA lady: "this is not a receipt, your daughter is not booked in the flight and she cannot go". My wife: "that is fraud from AA". At this point I lose it, yell at the AA lady and go away to take care of my screaming daughter (she is 1 year old).

And so the conversation goes on and on for 1 hour and 40 minutes. When it was 10 minutes before the plane departure time somehow, mysteriously, everything gets resolved, my wife gets her boarding passes, luggage gets checked in, no explanations given, no apologies, no nothing.
(Thanks to Rodrigo!)
(Photo: U.S. Airways has something of a problem when it comes to transporting their customers' belongings. They're just not very good at it, On Nov 22 my 36 year old brother Mike died suddenly. So I quickly hoped on-line to get a flight from San Francisco to Pittsburgh, leaving Nov 24th.

After a few minutes I realized that I booked the wrong "come back to San Francisco-return" date. I called Travelocity less than 5 minutes after booking my flight information on line. I told the man I was frantic over my brother's death and needed to change the "return flight"---he became confused. I explained my concerns a few more times to him and he said he understood.

The man on the other end of the phone didn't know what a funeral was!!!

He said he could help me but the computers were down and he would make a note that I called right after booking my ticket so I could change it without penalty. In addition, I purchased the flight insurance.

When the funeral was over I called again and they had no record of my call. I was put on hold and the phone hung up after about 28 minutes so I called again and logged into my account with you so I could have all my info right at my fingertips...

Here is a list of a few of the problems I encountered.
-Can't get info on flights under the "my stuff" heading--was told the web site is having problems.
-Put on hold for upwards of 40 minutes--3 times.
-Hung up on twice.
-Customer service didn't know what a funeral was!!!
-Non English speaking customer service.
-Loud background noise of people talking and laughing.
-My account was not updated with the numerous calls I made after the receptionist said they were.
I was quoted $580.00 to change my flight after I was told there would be no charge.

I would like to cancel my flight with you on December 7th.
I would like to be reimbursed the 279.00.

Thank you for your time and attention in this matter,

Jason Doctor

My brother's death record.

Jason, our condolences for your loss. You have to always be careful when ordering tickets online, but we can understand how, in your grief, you made a mistake. We found some contact information that might prove helpful. First, you have to stop calling their regular customer service line. The people they hire there don't even know what a funeral is. You can't reason with such people. Instead, we want you to call the corporate headquarters and try to reach the office of Michelle Peluso, the President. Here is a picture we found of her. You can tell she is just dying to help you. The corporate HQ # is (682) 605-3000. We think her office lines is (682) 605-1374 and her email could be michelle.peluso@travelocity.com. Use the techniques we describe in How To Be Customer Service Ninja, like being polite and succinct, and you may get handed off to an executive customer service rep who knows how to give you a refund, and if you're lucky, may even know what a funeral is.

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