Never ever use american airlines
Hello,
my name's Silent, I've been an international student for about 5 years. Used many different airlines and I finally got a chance to use American Airlines for the first time this year and here is my experience.
TL;DR - DO NOT USE AMERICAN AIRLINES.
My back home flight was scheduled and ticketed by Korean Air. Departs from Rochester to Chicago via American Airline at 17th 8:00 AM. This flight got cancelled because of the weather. The manager kiosk/desk told me she can help me with rebooking the flight. She gave me some options, but she said she honestly can't really see anything but to take the flight to Toronto and to Incheon from there at 18th of December. I told her alright, make sure to confirm everything please and she printed me a piece of paper saying how my itinerary has been rerouted. I asked her to make 100% sure that I am not missing out on anything; she said I just have to bring myself to Air Canada before the gate closes.
The next day I showed up at Air Canada desk and the lady there said I am not in the system, meaning I have NOT been booked. I showed her the little piece of paper that AA printed out for me and she said she can see what they did but seemed like AA never really did transfer all the information to Air Canada to sort everything out. I was literally panic-ing because I already stayed one night at the hotel and I really didn't want to stay another night.
The lady said there are only few people working for Air Canada right now so she has to go to the gate to help the departure. I said okay cuz I knew I am not gonna make it to that flight anyways. She comes back about an hour later. pulling out as much records she has about me and it seemed that AA did some huge **** up while trying to rebook my flight.
She brought me to AA desk and told them that the record is in the paper but it's not in their system. The guy took over saying he got it then 2 minutes later told me it's not their responsibility and I need to contact Korean Air. I was like "what do you mean Korean Air. You guys rebooked/rerouted my itinerary, you guys are responsible for this." and he just went full douche; "No, it's not our responsibility and not our fault either. It's Korean Air's. They denied something and we weren't able to process the trip. Next!"
So what can I say. He just told me in the face to get the **** out. I walked away, called AA customer service (by the way, worthless piece of **** thing ever invented in human history I swear), told the lady who picked up what's up and she said "Uh, I am looking up another options for you but I don't know why this happened." And I was so pissed I was screaming on top of my lungs "YOU GUYS ****ING PUT ME IN THIS ****HOLE AND YOU HAVE NO IDEA? WHAT KIND OF ****ING COMPANY IS THIS? GET ME YOUR SUPERVISOR" She connected me to her supervisor, gives me the same ****ing answer ("I have no idea but I can give you another option"). I told her "Then WHO can give me the answer? Connect me to whoever that has the answer for this situation" She said hold and this entire thing took about an hour; connecting from one person to another, everytime it took 30 minutes to a full hour...
At the end, I finally got to someone who actually knows what's up. It is reservation supervisor or something. She didn't openly admit but she did say that when the manager at kiosk/desk rebooked me, she DID NOT check if the alternate route flights had free spaces in them. Basically, the woman gave me the UNCONFIRMED TICKET WITHOUT RESERVATION to me. For those who do not know, if you ever hear something like "unconfirmed" in flight, you are in big trouble. If you hear something like "unconfirmed without reservation", it basically means your ticket doesn't mean jack-****. It is just a piece of paper that says you wasted your money. It is clearly on AA's fault that they gave me an UNCONFIRMED TICKET WITHOUT RESERVATION to me and told me that everything's set. Anyways, she looked for an option for me and it turned out either A.) I can wait 2 days in Rochester and take a flight to Chicago and blahblah or B.) I can go to Toronto NOW and do a 3 days trip by taking 4 different flights back home. Oh hell yea I would clearly want to take a longer trip right?
Now the problem came; I really didn't have money for hotel. I already spent 120$ for one night, and extra 2 days would make 240$. I asked her; "so is AA going to provide any amenities for this **** up?" and she was so vague in her answer because she really didn't know the answer to that question. She hooked me up with her supervisor who is 60 yos grandma who has no logic inside of her. I tried to reason with her saying that "you guys are the one that gave me the stupid *** ticket without any reservation or confirmation and I AM THE ONE WHO IS SUPPOSED TO COVER UP YOUR ****?" and she just didn't have brain up there, seriously. She was like "No, you do not have proof that we gave you the so called confirmation sir" and I told her "THEN WHAT THE **** IS THIS PAPER INFRONT OF ME THAT SAYS AMERICAN AIRLINES CONFIRMED MA'AM WHAT THE HELL". Then she was like "I CANT SEE THAT CUZ WE ARE ON THE PHONE." I replied "GIVE ME YOUR NAME MA'AM, I WILL GO TO ONE OF YOUR REPRESENTATIVES AND SCAN THIS **** RIGHT UP YOUR ***." I kept on saying that they rerouted my itinerary from Chicago-South Korea to Toronto-South Korea and her reply is just plane re-tarded; she said this: "SIR THERE IS NO FLIGHT FROM TORONTO TO SOUTH KOREA AT ALL BY KOREAN AIR." It was at this moment that I knew she isn't there to help me, but help her company from saving some few bucks. Look up KE 74 from Toronto to Incheon. I am not even making this **** up. She said there is NO Korean Air flying from Toronto to South Korea so I AM LYING that AA representative rerouted my itinerary.
Immediately after I said that, she put me on hold. Later, she said she will remove the no-go hold (means I didn't show up for the flight so the ticket is invalid) and reroute me out here by 20th of December. She sent me the confirmation ticket saying that everything is intact and good to go. I asked her about amenities, she hung up. I called my parents to send me few bucks so I can stay in the hotel for another 2 days.
THE STORY DOES NOT END HERE.... So, I really couldn't trust AA anymore. I called up Korean Air (Chicago to Incheon South Korea) to make sure the segment (flight) has been saved and confirmed with the seat assigned. GUESS WHAT; the guy told me the segment is "missing", meaning, it's just not there. Everything else is there, but just that part is just not there. THAT PART IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART AS IT IS INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT THAT WILL ACTUALLY GET ME TO MY HOME COUNTRY JESUS CHRIST...
I was like "oh god I can't believe this is happening to my life" so I called up AA service, a man with Texas/Southern accent picked up, I explained him this that this that and he was like "okay, let me go talk with my supervisor, okay?" After 15 minutes he said "Okay, the ticket is out and the seat will be assigned later. You're okay sir, you're good."
IF I TRUSTED THIS I WOULD HAVE GOTTEN ****ED UP HARD AT 20TH OF DECEMBER CHICAGO BABEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.
I couldn't trust anything that AA says, so I called up Korean Air Korean support desk (I called English support before), a young lady picked up in less than 15 seconds, I told her my personal info etc, she pulled out my entire itinerary, and realized the problem in less than 3 minutes which took 6 hours for AA.
She said that AA ticketed this itinerary so Korean Air has really no control over anything. (Ever since they rerouted my itinerary she said.) I asked her "But AA said Korean Air denied the trip or something, that's why I couldn't leave this morning" and she laughed saying "I mean, it's their ticket. It is nothing of our responsibility or authority to tell them to deny or cancel or put someone on hold." She kept on looking through the record and she saw that the 17th of December itinerary has NOT been deleted from Korean Air's database; it just said I "didn't show up". Normally when the itinerary is rerouted, they remove the previous itinerary and plan out the whole new segments; but that wasn't done on Korean Air DB. She assumed that when AA rebooked/rerouted my flight, not only they just carelessly signed me up for something unconfirmed, they didn't notify Korean Air that they are taking over their tickets.
As I've said, the original tickets were made by Korean Air. When AA rerouted my itinerary, they should have asked KA for reroute permission. THEY DIDN'T. They were basically like "nah, **** KA. Here's our ticket that doesn't mean jack-****." At this moment I was in AWE. Literally. I was like "How can a big airliner like AA do this ****?"
THE STORY IS NOT EVEN HALFWAY THERE. She looked over everything and told me "Sorry, sir but I don't think you will be able to fly on Chicago to Incheon on 20th. It's already full flight and it seems.. AMERICAN AIRLINE DID RESERVE YOUR SEAT THAN CANCELLED IT 2 HOURS LATER." I AM NOT MAKING THIS **** UP; SHE TOLD ME THEY RESERVED THE SEAT, PRINTED THE TICKET, THAN CANCELLED THE RESERVATION. WHAT THE **** IS THE REASONING BEHIND THIS, I DON'T KNOW, I DON'T CARE.
I wasn't even mad or something.. I was just so sick of it. I asked her, "miss, I just wanna go home.." and she said okay, give me some time, I will call you back when I have a firm answer because your ticket is by AA and we have no authority over it at this moment.
I just sat in my bed feeling numb and about half an hour later she called me back saying that there is a way out at 20th of December through Toronto and taking KE 74 (that doesn't exist according to AA official) but she has to make sure with her supervisors that everything is okay and they can get authority over my tickets back again. She basically went through AA service and cancelled all my flights made by AA that didn't mean jack-**** (not reserved = can't board the flight) and rebooked the entire thing to Toronto - South Korea (that doesn't exist by AA radar).
So, TL;DR... DO NOT EVER USE AMERICAN AIRLINES. I AM BEING DEAD SERIOUS. YOU TRUST THEM ONCE, YOU GET ****ED IN THE ARSE.
Thanks. God speed. Hopefully I can get back home.
