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Consumer Affairs

American Airlines Blew It As Irene Arrived

Study finds American was the worst at keeping customers informed

08/29/2011 | By | ConsumerAffairs.com | Travel
PhotoAmerican Airlines kept its customers on hold for an average of an hour and a half as Hurricane Irene disrupted airline travel around the country -- by far the worst performance of any major airline, a new study finds.  US Airways fared best.
 
American also did poorly online, failing to respond to any customer queries sent via Twitter, while Delta responded to 100% of customer tweets, clocking an average response time fo 14 minutes.
We disagree with the findings of the study.
 
An American spokesman, however, disputed the findings.
 
"We believe it is highly inaccurate and based on an insufficient sample size – eight calls and 12 tweets on average -- that skewed results and does not represent reality," said Ryan Mikolasik.  "We handled more than 100,000 calls on Friday, and during the period in question our customers waited an average of 21 minutes, far less than alleged and in line with most of our peers."
 
"Our response time for AAdvantage Executive Platinum, Platinum and Gold customers averaged from 30 seconds to less than three minutes per call," Mikolasik said.  "Of the 78 tweets directed to us from Thursday through Sunday, a significant number of which did not request action, we responded to 46 tweets either publicly or privately to assist customers, and we also sent four proactive tweets with travel information related to the storm."
 
Key findings:
  • The survey found that American Airlines fared poorest, keeping customers waiting on hold for an average of 1 hour 32 minutes and 39 seconds, almost an hour longer than Delta, which ranked ninth on the list with an average wait time of 33 minutes and 43 seconds. 
  • U.S. Airways ranked first when it comes to fastest customer support, answering customer calls in an average of 2 minutes and 38 seconds.
  • On Twitter, American Airlines also faired poorly when it comes to responding to customer queries. American Airlines did not respond to any customer queries sent via Twitter, while Delta responded to 100% of customer tweets, clocking an average response time of 14 minutes.  
  • JetBlue also did well on Twitter, responding to 80% of tweets in an average of 11 minutes.
Average call hold times of ten largest airlines during Hurricane Irene (hours:minutes:seconds)

1.         U.S. Airways 0:02:38
2.         Southwest Airlines: 0:08:10
3.         Continental: 0:08:15
4.         United  Airlines: 0:12:04
5.         Spirit Airlines: 0:24:07
6.         JetBlue: 0:24:16
7.         AirTran: 0:27:52
8.         Frontier Airlines: 0:29:54
9.         Delta Airlines: 0:33:43
10.       American Airlines: 1:32:39
 
Average Twitter response times of ten largest airlines during Hurricane Irene (hours:minutes)
 
1.          Delta Airlines: 0:14; Responded to 100% of Tweets
2.          Frontier Airlines: 4:04; Responded to 100% of Tweets
3.          JetBlue: 0:11; Responded to 83.3% of Tweets
4.          Southwest Airlines: 6:12; Responded to 83.3% of Tweets
5.          Spirit Airlines: 1:10; Responded to 41.7% of Tweets
6.          US Airways: 0:24; Responded to 16.7% of Tweets
7.          AirTran: No response
8.          American Airlines: No response
9.          Continental: No response
10.          United Airlines: No response
 
The survey was conducted on Friday, August 26th. An average of eight phone calls were made to each airline from 9am ET to 6:30pm ET on Friday, August 26th. For the Twitter data, 12 tweets were directed to each airline between 12am ET to 12pm ET on Friday, August 26th.

STELLAService is an independent company rating customer service quality. It leverages a nationwide network of full-time mystery shoppers to evaluate businesses using more than 350 metrics. 

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Keith Marzan (Wed, 31 Aug 2011 02:46:27 +0000): We are the largest carrier to the northeast of premium customers. Irene kept AA busy. Lots of pla. nes to hide too.
Andy Shane (Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:09:47 +0000): I was in the middle of this event, flying as a passenger and talking to other AA passengers. Many were contacted at home, instructed to come their Raleigh Durham departure point and board additional positioning flights created by the airline out of thin air. I was on one of those flights. The agents at Raleigh performed exceptionally well, given the circumstances. After reading the above piece, I'm sorry I declined a TV interview there, where I could have spread the word firsthand at how efficiently and professionally the "Irene Evac" was handled.
Kelly Maugans Connery (Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:26:56 +0000): I like your comments Andy....not the article's...
Tim Watters (Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:52:37 +0000): I can tell you there was something strange going on! I was in ORD trying to get back to OKC and could not check in on line. Tried from 3PM the day before travel until the next morning before heading to the airport. Called the night before (Thursday) and said it would be a 45 minute wait. Got to the airport and the kiosk didn't recognize me nor the two other travelers with me. Had to go to the counter. Never figured out what the deal was.
Rich McCormick (Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:56:30 +0000): I was glad I didn't have any issues getting out of EWN (New Bern NC) to CHAR (Charlotte NC) to ATL to OKC. I got out of there just in time (Thursday)
Fem Mystique (Tue, 01 Nov 2011 20:21:33 +0000): Yep, American Air sucks - I experienced their shoddy customer service and long wait times this summer and I switched to Southwest and Virgin consequently...you won't be getting my business anymore AA.
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