American Airlines Reviews

I came to Delhi, India on Nov. 13,2011 by invitation of a university and ** family for a wedding. My baggage was delivered 2 days after my arrival and several items were stolen, without any damage to the lock and zips of my bag. List items stolen with estimated price and all documents attached was mailed by certified and I have receipt of delivery with AA customer service agent's signature.

Please help me to get response and compensation.

He was left to sit at counter very upset and told nothing could be done. This was 6 pm and told there were no flights. They didn't care about anyone's situation. We had to stay overnight due to supposed mechanical problems. We were given no food, compensation or apology. Everyone feels flight was canceled because it wasn't full. Never fly US Air again! Everyone at airport said they do not book with US Air if there are any other options. This is common and always treated rudely. I fly often and will not fly with them.

On the way there I was delayed due to a mechanical malfunction. I would rather have them fix the plane than take off with it broken. When I got home, I find that the frame on my luggage is busted and some jarred goods that I had secured and well cushioned in the middle were moved during an inspection and left vulnerable at the bottom outer section of the suitcase. The jar busted and ruined several items. The suitcase looked like it had been run over. No wonder American Airlines is bankrupt, they have no customer service. I will never fly American Airlines again.

When I called, the customer service made you feel like he did not care one bit for this problem. They advised me that they can give me back my monies. I explained that I booked early because I am a single mom traveling with my 10-year-old and wanted to save money. It would cost me $14.00 for a cab from my house to JFK; to LGA, it is $28.00. And for a cab from Neward to Queens, it is $105.00.

The representative at the 800 number did not care. Then I decided to call the corporate office, and the representative was even worse. He did not care and only wanted for this call to end. I was very upset and finally decided that American will never have my business again. The week I picked is spring break, and now, I have to pay a lot more due to American changing their flights out of New York.

I used to consider American a great airline. However, after this incident (and having to spend the night at the seedy hotel where they sent us my opinion has drastically changed.)

I called back on 27 Jan 2012 and inquired as to the status of my flight whether it had been changed to business class. At that time, the reservationist advised the flight was full! So, American Airlines now has $375 of my money for points I will likely never use. Now while my co-workers fly business class, I get stuck in economy packed in like sardines and I'm out $375 dollars. All I got for my effort was an "I'm sorry". Not enough! I'm through with American Airlines and will never fly them again. I will go out of my way to ensure that in the future I will never be victimized by this company again.

My sister lives in Auburn and I will be traveling to see her at least once a year. I know things happen and sometimes cannot be controlled. However, the previous (same flights) I made is as far as Dallas. The fight was delayed and we finally boarded the plane. We went and got in line for takeoff and were told the tower wouldn’t let us take off. We sat there for almost two hours. Then the pilot came on and said we were going back to the gate for refueling. We went to the gate and two minutes later, the flight was canceled. No other flights to Montgomery but they put us on a flight to Birmingham. By this time, my sister was waiting for me in Montgomery and had to drive to Birmingham. I didn’t get in until very late and then had to drive to Auburn.

I need to get to Auburn at least once a year. I have been a frequent flyer, along with my husband James for many years (A2E8012). Two trips and two bad experiences do not make me a happy traveler. My time is also worth something and I was even willing to let the first experience pass but twice?

So finally we ended up paying $350. This is really awful. In summary, our ticket was through American, but first leg of return journey was through Emirates. So if Emirates rule applied completely, we would not pay anything. If AA rules applied completely, we would pay at most $120. But we ended up paying $350 because they applied to different rules conveniently to maximize profit. I contacted American Airlines, and they are not taking any responsibility. As our ticket is through AA I believe they should either pay themselves, or talk to Emirates to refund us $230 ($350-$120). I have no idea about where else can I complain. Thanks for any help that you might provide.

As an international traveler due to fly back to Chennai on 15th May 2012, the e-voucher is not even worth the paper. American Airlines should suggest alternative ways to in cash the voucher. The return ticket from MAA to DFW was issued by Jet Airways and therefore I will be left with no alternative other than to sue Jet Airways on return to India. AA References: 1-397214442 (1.12.2012), 1-399525463 (1.13.2012) and 1-405701635 (1.18.2012). American Airlines did not suggest remedies and hence this complaint.

After 40 minutes of waiting, we were finally ready to take off. We were taxing down the runway, almost in the air and a lady in front of us with a small baby was still not in her seat. She was in the bathroom changing her baby. The airline staff didn't even notice she wasn't in her seat! We were almost airborne when she returned to her seat with her small child. The entire flight was disorganized. When the fasten seat-belt light was on, the flight attendants did nothing to stop people from getting up to use the facilities. Usually when I'm flying, the flight attendants are very strict on the rules, as they should be.

When we were ready to take off, the person in front of me had his seat pushed right back, the flight attendants did nothing about this. So I had to ask him to please raise his seat during take off. Like I said, our first flight with AA was fine, but this flight made me feel uncomfortable and I'm not sure if I'd fly AA again.

We checked in online for our flights on Friday, December 30th at about 4pm. I also purchased a seat upgrade from Dallas to Zihuatanejo. Our itinerary had us departing from Houston at 6am and landing in Dallas at 7:05am, then leaving Dallas at 10am and landing in Zihuatanejo at 12:55pm.

At 3:15am on December 31st, I received a call from American Airlines automated system informing me that our flight departing Houston was going to be delayed and would not leave Houston until 9:40am. Obviously, this is a problem because we would miss our connection in Dallas. I then called American Airlines reservations department in an attempt to resolve the issue. When I did call, the recording mentioned that our flight had been delayed again and would not be departing until 11:40am. Once I did get to speak to a representative, they informed that there are no other options and that there was nothing that they could do. While all of this was going on, my wife was busy on the internet trying to find another flight that might get us into Dallas on time.

She found a continental flight that left intercontinental airport at 7:30am and landed in Dallas at 8:30am. I then told the representative about the flight. She made an effort to put us on the flight before getting back on the line informing me that it was not legal for us to fly out of one airport and back into another. I then asked her if it was possible for me to purchase the tickets and still carry on with the rest of our trip. She said that was fine and that I would be fully refunded for the first leg of our trip.

Which brings us to where we are now, refund. I have been attempting to get in contact with someone in their refund department to no avail. I have emailed, and called several times and have yet to hear back from anyone. I am a nearly bankrupt construction worker in Houston and cannot afford to spend $889 on tickets; then have to spend another $500 to another airline for something that I thought was already paid for. In addition to this, I paid $38 for a seat upgrade that was not given.

The agent at the airport advised me that I could board that there was a flight leaving at 5:40 but would have to pay $75 per ticket, even though I had been confirmed on that flight This is blackmail! She claimed that I was always booked on the 7 p.m. never on the 5.40 p.m. flight and my travel agent was to blame. My travel agent forwarded me the message from the airline with the changes. Never fly with American Airlines again!

Customer service advised me there were no available flights to my final destination (SBP) for four days. There was no lodging voucher, no alternate airline voucher, nada. To their credit, they did "allow" us to rebook on a US Airways flight to a nearby airport the following day.

4) 4 hours car travel time in addition to the flying time.

I have lodged a complaint with their Complaints Dept and with the DOT. Interestingly, the DOT (government) replied to my query in 24 hours. US Airways has still not responded, 14 days later.

We were speechless and mindlessly angry because of that Yakub guy who didn't know what he was doing. We lost our first flight and were also denied the second one as well and not to mention, 2 hours of wait time.

We walked back to the first gate where we met this Yakub guy and angrily demanded that he get us a new flight to SF. But this guy said, “No. Why?” Because he said I was rude to him. I asked him for his last name so I can file a complaint but he, with a smirk, refused to give it to me and said I can go find it myself.

I was really two seconds away from punching this guy. But then a female co-worker of his intervened and agreed to get us new tickets and even gives us free flight coupons. We agreed but we had still lost almost three hours because of this clown.

This is not the end of the story. An hour later, we finally started boarding the new flight and he was the guy at the ticketing booth scanning the tickets. My turn came and I looked straight in his eyes and said "shame on you." I said that because not once did he apologize but rather was smirking the whole time. Immediately after finishing the word "you", this guy flipped and started yelling repeatedly "** you, you **. I will kick you outta the flight!" The guy was total maniac. A bunch of other passengers stared at him and thought he was on some kind of drug. Anyway, I walked on without looking back and his voice faded away.

I've been flying close to thirty years and this was the worst airport experience ever. I wish I knew what his last name was so I can file a formal complaint. Seriously someone like that should never work in any service industry and US Airways should locate this employee of theirs and impose some kind of disciplinary action upon him. I will never fly with US Airways.

Although they gave her a bag from an office up in Seattle and took the Swissgear bag, as to the other items they told her we gave you a bag didn't we. My wife is already emotionally drained considering what her daughter faces and to be treated like crap by a "Customer Service Rep" who's company had just destroyed her never before used Christmas gifts, is anything but customer service. How can a company that treats people like that still be in business?

They were extremely unapologetic and actually acted annoyed by me. I found that they had known the flight would be cancelled well before the earlier 6:30 am flight, but they decided not to put me on that flight. They told me that they could only put me on standby for a 12:15 flight which had been "oversold" and then confirm me for a much later 4:15 pm flight. When 12:15 came around, there had been too many people booked for that flight, and those who did not "choose a seat" at check out when booking were simply kicked off the flight.

The supervisor at the gate (Christine) was extremely unapologetic and laughed at us. When my plane finally arrived, I asked to speak with Christine's supervisor before I got on the flight. She refused to call whoever that was saying that I could talk to her. I asked to be compensated in some way for being made to wait all day for a flight when they could have put me on an earlier flight. She proceeded to laugh at me and told me that nothing would be done and I should just go get on the plane and "stop being rude", unless I wanted to be held off of that flight as well. After 18 hours at the airport, I finally arrived home exhausted and traumatized. I refuse to ever fly with US Airways ever again.

When I came off the flight at the next gate, there was a flight going to Vegas before my scheduled one. I went up to the attendant and asked if there were seats on the flight. She advised there were, I showed her my boarding pass and asked if I could catch this one so I could make sure I was there on time for the Vancouver flight. She told me that they were never late so if I wanted to move my flight up it would be a $50 charge. Having paid a premium for the ticket already, I decided to pass. Well they are late as my flight to Vegas was over two and half hours late and I missed my connection. They put me on the next morning flight, gave me a hotel room (it turned out to be a 2 star place) a $10 meal voucher and $100 certificate for my next flight. Unfortunately as a Contractor I am paid for my hours and I lost six hours of billable time which was considerable more than even the flight cost so it was only a morsel to me.

US Airways likes to add insult to injury though because I did try to use the $100 voucher and you can't use it on the internet to book a flight. You have to call them which I found out when I tried to use it on the internet. When I called to use it, they were very accommodating and booked the flight I was looking at and then asked for my credit card. I asked how much are you charging me (why should I need to ask). I was given an amount which was $40 more than the screen I was looking at. I questioned if that was before or after my voucher and it was after price.

When questioned, the response was that the Internet price was different than a live booking and told if I wanted that price I should have booked on line. I explained that I couldn't book on line with the voucher and so I expected that they would be matching it. I was basically told no way and then told again they needed my credit number. I told them to cancel it because I wasn't going to pay more to use their voucher. At this point "Antilla", my name for her now, got a little huffy with me. I assume she felt I had wasted her time and it seemed like to cancel it was a major problem but without my card she was doomed.

Brad was offered another flight tomorrow, but that hardly compensates him for the dishonest behavior of American Airlines. There was no "Act of God" or anything similar in this event.

I called AA to ask why I wasn't credited the $100, and they said they were putting me through to the right department. Myra, who answered the phone there, told me that the $100 was a discount on a future ticket I'd have to buy with the credit card once it arrived. I protested that the AA website gave the impression that the $100 would be subtracted from this ticket price. "Did you read the fine print when you said you agreed to all the conditions?" she asked. In other words, they are doing a bait and switch, but their lawyers have buried language deep in the fine print to give them legal cover. But I wonder if the AA website is still illegally deceptive, since it says the ticket price will be $1249 - $100= $1149. It ought to say that I would be able to get $100 off a future ticket.

I asked Myra if she worked for AA or Citibank. "I work for a national teleservicer contracted by Citibank," she said. When I asked the name of her employer, she said she was not allowed to tell me. Is that legal? It's certainly sleazy. Why would a company with nothing to hide refuse to identify itself when you do business with it? Myra did tell me that she's in the Philippines.

I then called a number Myra gave me at Citibank to cancel my card application. She had given me the number for card applications. I spoke to Peter, who confirmed that my application was in the system and told me my card would arrive in 7-10 days. He said he could see my application but was not authorized to cancel it. He put me through to another department where the person I spoke to said he could cancel my card but could not access the application. He could only cancel cards that had been issued! He suggested I call Applications again, but they were now closed.

She began to literally yell at me and wag her finger in my face. She threatened to "kick me off the plane". Because I was completely in shock and unsure of what to do, I just apologized to her and asked to sit in my seat. I was finally allowed to sit down. She came back to my seat about 3 minutes later and continued to berate me and threaten to remove me from the plane. I had not said one thing to her other than "I'm sorry" since she assaulted me and I had asked her not to touch me. She finally got up and once we were in the air as she was performing her beverage duties, she continued to harass and berate me in front of all of the other passengers.

When I finally got off the plane in Nashville, I thought I was done with that situation. However, after I had grabbed my bag from the baggage claim, I was on the phone with my fiance telling him what had happened and felt someone run their bag into me. When I looked up, the flight attendant (Cathy) from my flight (American Eagle 4220) was in front of me and said, "You're talking about me. Go on." I was completely in shock and stopped moving until she was out of the door and into her vehicle.

I have never in my life experienced something like this. It was not only humiliating and belittling, it was physical abuse and continued harassment. I have called American Airlines five times about this issue. I waited on hold 45 minutes, 50 minutes, 35 minutes, 47 minutes, and 60 minutes, respectively. When I finally was able to speak to someone on my third try, she said to me, "This is now an internal issue and we will address it." She barely offered an apology and did nothing to retain my business. I also wrote in a complaint on the website. I have never received a response. I have had anxiety about returning to American Airlines and have booked flights with United. For my returning trip on December 15, I cancelled my flight and drove 8 hours home rather than risk having another situation with Cathy, the flight attendant. I am furious with this airline for doing nothing. Shame on them!

I then went to Delta, which was more than happy to run my ID check to issue me a gate pass and when the same AA from the front desk seen me in the back gate waiting with my fiance, she went out of her way to make us problems demanding to see my gate pass and screaming for security. Her name was Deborah and she was with another girl named Daniel at the Indianapolis Airport.

I was told Deborah may be the supervisor, but whoever she is she has no place to be in any customer service field. I have flown with American Airlines 3 times in 2011 but I will not pay these people to treat me this way. I mean she went out of her way to make us a problem just out of pure spite that I got a gate pass. I would pay another airline twice as much before I support people like her. She is doing nothing but making American Airlines a bad reputation and losing your customers. I plan on flying a lot more in 2012, so she has already cost you guys at least $5000 from me in 2012. Deborah caused AA damage. So far American Airlines has not responded. I will keep this updated with the outcome and if an attorney would like to contact me of this. She demanded I be escorted out of the airport even though I had a gate pass issued from an airline, just it wasn't issued by American Airlines.

I will comment, that the boarding pass clearly showed first class and it clearly showed I was a platinum member of US Airways. To this agent I wasn't even pond scum for him to acknowledge. I stepped away and waited. As I stood there and watched his horrible customer service continue with each and every person that approached him, all I could think to myself was that there are millions of people unemployed and how many people would be so grateful to have this person's job and deliver customer service and treat people with respect and display to the customers that they are grateful for their job and that they want to provide service. It was sad to watch.

Eventually a woman agent (who I think was in a supervisory role) paged me and handed me a boarding pass. The seat was in coach. I inquired about any compensation for the downgrade to coach. She barked "you are on a complimentary upgrade due to your status and you are not entitled to a compensation due to it being a free upgrade". I just stood there looking at her and didn't have the time to explain to her that in order to be Platinum, I need to fly and spend a lot of money on their airline. I earned the upgrade, it wasn't a lottery. They are the ones who promoted their program and tell you the many benefits that you will receive if you are loyal to them. I received a confirmed upgrade that I had earned.

I then realized as I looked at the nasty male agent who was there and then looked at her how truly sad it was that they were employed by US Airways and treated people this way. I flew home and spent the rest of the day being traumatized by the total dismissal of the agents of acknowledging that I was a human and that they should have said two simple words "I'm sorry" or "I apologize for the inconvenience." If either of them had simply said those words and if the male agent had simply stopped typing and looked me in the eye at any point and acknowledged that there was a human being in front of him, i would have been fine with just getting a seat home. What am I looking for? I am not looking for any financial compensation. I just want someone from US Airways to say the following,"We are sorry and we appreciate your business."

This is what I wrote, the second time, to US Air's customer relations:

Thank you for your reply, but it had nothing to do with my complaint.

My complaint is about the actions of your IAD gate agent (Omaira, I think is her name; I never found out since she covered up her name badge), who not only was extremely rude, but had me, a 56-year old handicapped woman, falsely arrested! That is serious! She obviously exaggerated her story in order to get the airport police to chase me down, handcuff me, search me, and arrest me. Within an hour she had recanted her story, which wasted the time of the police officers as well as caused me to miss my nephew's university graduation. In addition, and very importantly, I am still suffering horrible pain from where the handcuffs cut into my wrists.

If that gate agent had not had me falsely arrested, I could have gotten on another flight and gotten to my nephew's graduation. Therefore, I am again demanding a refund of my ticket price of $357.10. I did finally receive my suitcase back and it arrived with three broken zippers, but I am sure you will ignore and/or talk your way out of that, so I won't even bother trying to put in a claim for that. If you are seriously interested in improving your service, as you say in your letter, I suggest you give that gate agent a desk job, away from the public.

Thank you for contacting Customer Relations. We appreciate it when customers take the time to share their concerns.

If you are not checked in and present in the boarding area at least 15 minutes before the scheduled departure time, your reservation may be canceled. Your seat is released to another passenger, and you will not be eligible for denied boarding compensation. Please note that our pilots do have the discretion to depart 10 minutes prior to the scheduled departure time.

When a flight is deemed closed by our Operations Department, the computer system automatically restricts the ability to check-in passengers from the ticket counter for that particular flight.

Ms. Weaver, feedback such as yours affords us the opportunity to learn where and how we can improve our service not only to meet our customer’s expectations, but to exceed those expectations. Given the privilege of serving you again on US Airways, we look forward to providing you with a more satisfying travel experience.

Finally spoke with a supervisor at America Airlines who said I would have to wait until arriving at the airport for check in before I would get seat assignment. At which time, of course, only least desirable seats will be available since everyone else will have already received their seat assignment. Even those booking through a travel site (Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity) are allowed to obtain advance seat assignment. It should not be legal for an airline to deceptively hide this information from passenger until flight is confirmed and it is too late. Passengers cannot make an informed decision if the seat assignment policy is not made clear. Ironically, I booked thru AA thinking that I would receive better, easier to access customer service!

Nowhere on their website does it say that the transactions do not take 24 hours, nor did any representative tell me this until after I made the purchase. In addition, once I had all the miles transferred, I was told that I could not purchase the tickets unless I paid the $90 transaction fee on my US Airways MasterCard. My card was at its limit and because it’s a weekend no payments get credited until Tuesday. Again, waiting until Tuesday causes me to incur the additional $75 per ticket. Nowhere on their website does it say that the 5,000 bonus for redemption of miles is contingent upon purchase with a US Airways MasterCard. Logically, it doesn't make any sense that they'll let me buy/transfer miles and charge my Chase card $1146.53 but insist on the $90 coming from a US Airways MasterCard. I've had it with them.

I land in JFK that Tuesday morning and everything was okay until I try to leave Sunday, back for college. I try to do an online check in (thank goodness I didn't wait until I got to the airport), but the online check-in system denied me and said that there is a problem with my reservation. Thinking it was just a glitch, I called up US Airways and talked to a random agent who said my ticket was canceled. He connected me to a supervisor (Tim at Phoenix), who kindly explained to me that the ticket was canceled because I was a no show on the first flight. First of all, what I did on the first flight should have no connection on what I do on the return because ideally, the planes are completely separate. However, that is a company mistake and a whole different complaint.

Basically, I talked to Tim and told him that as a college student, I cannot afford to pay $1000 for a ticket that I already paid $570 for. It's unfair. He told me that there is no way he can change the ticket because I was a no-show on the flight to NY and therefore they canceled my ticket, which still made absolutely no sense, unless you're a corporation that's trying to fool your customers and getting more money. Furthermore, I had talked to Karen earlier about changing my flight and she didn't mention anything about my return flight being canceled. I know, I know, the company will say that it was in the fine print, but literally, they could write, "If you get on this flight, we will throw your bags off the plane" on the terms and agreements and maybe one customer would cancel his ticket: my case being, nobody reads the terms and they know that.

So how come she didn't tell me my ticket would be canceled and why was it not in her notes that she referred me to a new ticket? I asked Tim to connect to a higher person on the chain, and he apologized for the inconvenience and connected me to the higher supervisor; Tony from Phoenix. Now this woman pretty much gave me the worst experience ever, not to mention this was my first time flying alone. She said the same thing Tim did, but with the nastiest and most arrogant voice I have ever heard. Talking to this woman could have been a lot easier if she had been kinder. I told her repeatedly that I knew it was not her fault that my ticket got canceled, but it was Karen's responsibility to tell me it would. I advised her I wanted to sue and she gave me the information, but with a very nasty voice. She kept responding to me with contradictory statements such as "You did not tell Karen that you wanted to change flights" and then read Karen's notes which explicitly said “Asked for a change in flight”.

Clearly something was wrong with this picture. After everything, Tony started yelling at me! I was enraged at this point, besides the fact that US Airways didn't inform me my own $570 flight was being canceled, but then on top of it, Tony the Supervisor was yelling at me?! Literally, these people made me cry. I asked her what the logic was behind canceling my roundtrip ticket, when basically buying a roundtrip is like buying 2 one-way tickets in one payment. She said the airport canceled my ticket. I asked her who "the airport" was and how I could contact them, and she gave me the worst answer possible. I didn't even understand what she was trying to say.

I am definitely going to try to sue as this is the worst airline experience I have ever encountered, and I have flown with my family many times. I am sorry as I know this is not the entire airline's fault, but simply a few people in the corporation, however, there is absolutely no way that a college student in hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt can afford to pay $2000 (in total) for a flight to and from home.

We contacted both Cheap tickets and American Airlines to let them know that we wanted to cancel the trip due to political unrest and wanted a refund, which they declined. My understanding is that under special circumstance, whereas a US Citizen, I am following instructions from the government, we shouldn't be penalized and suffer adverse consequences by canceling our flights. We would like to have our tickets refunded. Thank you very much for your time.

I and my counterpart will now be seated apart. There is 1 open seat next to each of us. However, American Airlines wants us to pay to sit together. When speaking with customer service both times for each incident, the tonality is that they don't care and can't do anything about it. Policies change, oh well. Agreed, I'll be taking my business elsewhere from now on and will pay extra if need be to AirTran, Delta, SW, United, etc., just to have peace of mind. I am very unpleased.

I could get no one at MSP Baggage Service. I waited 10 minutes or so, no one appeared, and I had to get to a meeting. I later called customer service. They directed me back to MSP Baggage Service. I, instead, waited until I returned to my airport of origin, Evansville. There I was told that indeed, American would do nothing to compensate me for ruining my bag.

My choices for flights originating from Evansville, IN, are limited. I suppose I will continue to use American, although I am very disappointed by their response to my complaint. Travelpro luggage is very expensive, but I will have to replace my suiter, with no help from American.

First issue- I've done some research on the US Airways website, and see the policy states travelers must check in at least 30 minutes before a flight except for certain airports where you must check in 45 minutes before, which of course Seattle is included. While this is US Airways policy, what I don't understand is why you would not allow a customer to check in, when 40 minutes is plenty of time for a person to get through security for a domestic flight and get to the gate.

If a person can get to the gate before the door closes, who are the agents to stop a paying customer from checking in? Yes, the agents are following US Airways policy, but the policy is flawed and completely unacceptable. I called US Airways and the agent, Sushma (Sign: JL), she said the cutoff time was so customers don't complain when they are allowed to check in but miss the flight. If a customer checks in but misses the flight, they don't complain to US Airways! They know it's their own fault for being late. But when you have plenty of time to board and the agent won't let you check in, then you complain to the airliner, because the policy is ridiculous. The real reason I believe this policy is put in place is, so the airline can overbook flights, then close the doors on people who are unaware of this policy, and show up "late". By late, I mean 40 minutes early.

Second issue - There is no mention of this policy on the e-ticket. If you are still on the stand point that this policy is "required" (and please explain to me why it is, because I would like to know), then at least have the decency to include this information on the e-ticket when it is emailed to the customer. Nowhere on the ticket does it state, "You must check in 45 minutes prior to departure or you will not be allowed to check in". It doesn't matter which vendor a customer purchases through, if you are going to have a policy like this put into place, at least have the decency to mandate that with every US Airways ticket. A disclaimer must go with it. Are you expecting the customers to dig through your website to look up the policies?

Third issue - My biggest issue with this whole ordeal is the representative I talked to over the phone. I called the 1-800-428-4322 number, and talked with Sushma (Sign: JL). Since you record calls for quality assurance, please go back and play this call and tell me if you think that US Airways is providing quality service. I explained the situation in a very courteous manner to Sushma. She went on to tell me the policy is put into place because they don't want customers getting angry, that the agents allowed them to check in, but they were not able to make it to the gate on time.

Are you kidding me? How could a customer blame US Airways for them not getting to the gate on time? When I went on to tell Sushma that I have been able to get from check in to the gates in much shorter than 40 minutes, and how I have never encountered this with other airlines, she went on to tell me with her attitude, "Well this is how US Airways does it. You know its your fault for missing the flight". Sorry Captain Obvious, but I acknowledged the fact that this was your policy, and that its a flawed policy, but to say its my fault for missing the flight? No, if you allowed her to check in when she got to the desk, she would have not missed the flight.

The only reason she missed the flight was, because US Airways has a ridiculous policy, so they can have an out to over book flights, and not reimburse customers. The audacity of Sushma to say its my fault for missing the flight, is appalling. She needs to go and call American Express to learn what real customer service is like. This is absolutely pathetic service, and a disgrace to what is otherwise a good company.

My girlfriend incurred a change fee in the amount of $150, plus the cost of food and accommodations, not to mention, she had to miss work.

I have contacted American Airlines via email and they have given me a $200.00 voucher. What about 7 1/2 hours with very little food, water, and all my belongings stolen? This was humiliating to say the least. I have yet to be able to speak with a human being at AA to discuss what happened. It was nothing like taking care of the customer.

Baby or no baby, the couple should have sat in their assigned seats. There was another person with an infant on board the flight also, but it seemed they sat in their assigned seats. The flight attendant was out of line for making this call.

The bag was full of work clothes like expensive ties and expensive slacks. American has again denied help with this, leaving it to the final airline to search for the bag again. Seeing how we knew both bags were still in USA, you would think they would help even if duplication. I have sent emails to complaints department with AA and all they ever said was the other airline was responsible. They didn't lose the bag and should locate it. It is unbelievable, after reading other comments, that AA obviously has thugs working in the baggage department and are stealing items and bags from customers. Two times in a row that they have lost two bags. I will never fly American again after all these years. You will not get any pity from me when you go under. At this point, who cares if they lose jobs? The employees are the ones stealing from me.

It is unreasonable of the company to do that. Their salesperson agreed with me that it's unfair, however, customer relations was more defensive and didn't admit their fault.

My complaint is that US Air does not allow enough time between flights. US Air would not lose any money if they moved the flight time back 15 minutes or so. Since all incoming flights from Jamaica must go through customs, it is impossible to get through the customs line and to the gate for the connecting flight in one hour.

There were 9 passengers coming from Montego Bay and going to Philadelphia, all of whom missed the flight. Not only did we miss the flight, but after running through the airport and arriving at Gate 19 by 5:50 PM, we learned that the flight had already left the gate. US Air had called our names approximately 15 minutes prior to flight time and when we did not answer, they removed our baggage and put standby passengers in our seats.

US Air made no arrangements to accommodate the 9 stranded passengers. They said they would try to get us on the 8:00 PM standby, but there were no flights to Newburgh until the next morning and if we made the standby flight, we would have to stay over in Philly. The US Air clerk gave me a coupon for 10% discount at a hotel, but otherwise no help from the airline. She said that 9 people had missed the flight this time and that this happens all the time. She also said that since we got held up in customs, it is a customs problem and not US Air's problem.

I was forced to get a hotel room in Charlotte because I could not get a confirmed flight until 6:30 AM on the 10th. Both my wife and I were scheduled to work on the 10th, and we were both docked a day's pay for not coming into work. Our financial loss for US Air's poor scheduling cost us approximately $600 between the loss of pay for myself and my wife, and the cost of a hotel room and meals.

If US Air moved the departure time back at least 10 minutes, they would not have any financial loss, passengers would not miss their connection, and we might consider using US Air again. US Air also needs to review their door-closing policy and not close the door and allow the plane to leave prior to the scheduled departure time.

I feel that US Air should compensate me for my financial loss as well as my lost work time and the inconvenience.

Later on I found that three things were missing from my luggage. They were all together in one pocket that had a few other things still in it. The missing items were: a laptop dongle cable to connect my laptop to an LCD projector, a longish USB cable for my camera, a battery charger for my camera, documents, paperwork, and receipts, and a Playstation 3 Precision Shooter. The items are valued at around $300. I want American Airlines to reimburse me immediately for the missing items from my luggage piece or I will most definitely make a small claims filing.

Before I finish, it is worth mentioning that I will avoid using American again for my business and personal travel plans.

Today is October 10th, 2011. They deny the claim because they say they did not receive the claim. I faxed many times and I have a fax transmission evidence.

They are scam and not responsible for our property even our lives! What a scam!

I was deeply concerned about my safety and the safety and well-being of the people on that flight. The situation made national news on ABC News and their affiliates. I'm in the process of filing a complaint with U.S.Airways, the FAA and TSA.

So, here I am taking off from work (without getting paid), at home. It is because there is no sense for me to go there anymore, as the launching only happens today. I'm angry as never. How they can carry a name like American Airlines? I really don't know. They should be embarrassed to represent our country. Shame on you American Airlines! I would never fly with you again. I swear.

I was told time after time that I was not going to get another non-stop flight out the next day. But someone finally found me a flight! As much as I appreciate that, I am not happy with all the expense I had to go through! Please get back to me at **. Thank you. I might as well mention that I had to pay $100.00 for my son's bag to get checked in, while he was serving in the military. He has since re-enlisted. I'm very glad that someone finally realizes that any military personnel should never have to pay extra for serving our country!

However, our flight AA 277 out of Miami was delayed due to a mechanical problem and so when we arrived in Los Angeles at 8:30 PM, we missed our connecting flight to Seattle. We went to an American Airline agent and told her our predicament. She gave us a hotel to stay in Los Angeles for the night and told us that she will book us on the next Alaska Airline flight to Seattle for the next morning.

The next morning when we went to check in to Alaska Airline for our Seattle flight, the agent there told us we had no booking but there were seats available and so she put us on that flight. Alaska Airline charged us $80 for the bags. But we were able to make it on the ship for our cruise.

On the 21st of August when we disembarked from our ship, we went straight to the airport as we were booked to leave for San Francisco to Los Angeles and then drive to Monterrey. However when we reached the airport, the agent at Alaska Airline told us that we had no reservations on that flight. Apparently the agent in Los Angeles had not done her job by protecting our bookings. Anyhow, we had to stay a night in Seattle as all the flight to San Francisco were full. We lost our hotel reservation for one night in Monterrey, which was in a very expensive resort there, Portola Hotel and Spa.

We would like you to look into this matter as we all feel that what would have otherwise been a wonderful vacation was instead messed up by an American Airlines agent who did not do her job of protecting our bookings. The perfect vacation had to be ruined, just because American Staff failed to do their Job.

Me and my husband were coming from Denver after having a great day at my daughter's wedding. The people who scan stopped us and said that some articles had to stay because they were over the amount of ounce/pounds or whatever she said. My arthritis tube ointment, my husband's sensitive toothpaste, shampoo, A and D ointment, conditioner, they kept it all.

I went from JFK with no problems and when I came back, all gone. These are expensive things. They kept my arthritis cream. Do you know how I suffered without that cream on that trip? AA has no food like it used to. You have to buy everything. At least JetBlue gives you free chips or cookies.

I refuse to travel on AA ever again. They totally destroyed our lives. Thank you, AA, for making our trip miserable. I hope you enjoy the extra $25 we had to pay for an extra luggage we had to check in. Continue to destroy people's lives by charging them an exuberant amount of money. At least have the decency to give us some food!

We did not delay one moment, literally running from place to place and arrived at Heathrow to see a very long line for check-in. After a 20-minute wait to check our bags, American finally put another agent at the counter and we made it to the counter, only to be told we missed our flight. It had not left be we missed the one hour prior to take off baggage check requirement. If we had been aware of that fact, we would have went straight to the gate because we already had boarding passes for the flight, which the agent took from us and tore up. Then he sent us to another agent who called us liars when we explained that there had not been enough time to connect and that said, we would have to pay $250 each to reschedule our flights.

We waited on the standby list for the next flight to the US but it was oversold by 40 people, so we had to stay overnight in London at our own expense. We made a flight the next morning, again on standby, but just barely. So to sum it up, American scheduled this connection too tight to make the transfer and made extra money from us because we had no other choice if we wanted to get home.

First, US Airways did not book me on the next available flight from PHX to AUS. I confirmed this with your representatives on the phone when I called to re-book my flight. My flight was re-booked for Monday 7/25 at 6:50pm (conf # E2ZTXR). This is 2 days later than my scheduled return flight, and they only gave me a one-night hotel voucher. There was no inclement weather, and so there should have been absolutely no reason to delay a passenger for 2 entire days. However, your representative confirmed that there was an earlier flight leaving on 7/25. So US Airways failed to put me on the next available flight, and as stated in my previous email, US Airways website clearly states that US Airlines will re-book passengers on other airlines. This is completely contradictory to your email. I am not understanding why your company would post a policy stating that you will re-book passengers on other airlines and then, is completely contradictory when the situation arises. Here again is the information directly from US Airlines website:

For domestic flights:

If the passenger's arrival at their final destination is two hours or more past their original scheduled arrival, involuntary compensation is 200 percent of the sum of the values of the remaining flight coupons of the ticket to the next stopover but not to exceed $800. In the event of a flight cancellation, US Airways will do everything possible to re-accommodate customers on the next US Airways flight, providing space is available. Depending on the type of ticket purchased and the reason for the flight irregularity and availability, in most instances, US Airways will also re-book customers on other airlines. US Airways will communicate to customers via the public address system the reason for the cancellation and alternatives available.

I have highlighted and underlined it again, so that there cannot be any contradiction in your response. Clearly, US Airlines did not re-book me on the next available flight and they certainly did not re-book me on another airline as US Airways website indicates that it would. I am still looking for a full refund of my ticket with Southwest Airlines in the amount of $350. At this point, I am willing to write a full complaint on US Airways website or any other website that will include your responses to show how contradictory US Airways customer relations is compared to what is posted as company policy on US Airways website.

This is a total lack of respect for customer service. If this is how you continue to treat customers, then all potential customers have a right to know.

In any case, here is the US Airways scam. Thinking you booked the lap-infant, at check in, when your only other choice is to skip the flight or leave your child, they charge you 10% the much inflated current rate (of course not the rate your seat was charged at). This truly looks like a scam to charge families with infants 3 to 5 times the rate they claim to charge and I cannot get US Airways to fix the problem. US Airways official response is that this is the responsibility of the passenger to know the process and rules prior to travel.

The funny thing is that prior to the flight, we called US Airways twice asking because we did not see a ticket for our infant. Both times they said to get the ticket when we check in. This is really an unacceptable practice and that US Airways has not been willing to listen to my four complaints.

When I got home on 31 Aug 11, I called American Airlines Vacation and asked why I had not received my refund yet and was told that it would take a week. After waiting the week, I called again and was told that it would take another week. On 10 Sept 11, I called again and was told at this time that my vacation went through a fourth party, Tourico Holidays, whom I never heard of prior to this call. Then, I was told that I would have to email American Airlines Vacation asking for my refund and they would open a file. Again, I was told that it will take about a week.

On 15 Sept 11, I called again and asked to speak to a supervisor. I was passed on to Brian who told me that if this was not resolved by Monday, 19 Sept 11, I should call him (he gave me his extension number. Monday prior to calling Brian, I placed a third call to the hotel which was very helpful to me and was told that the refund was processed through Tourico Holidays ten days ago.

When I called American Airlines Vacation, I was told that it can take up to 12 weeks to get my refund even though Tourico Holidays has my money. Everything goes through the refund department but there was nobody to talk to in that department. I could not get a hold of them to ask why it will take so much time when they already have my money. There was no answer to this question.

I asked to speak to Brian at his extension and was told that it would be impossible. Then, I spoke to another supervisor named Quetha, who told me to wait for 30 days. Again, when I asked why I would have to wait when they already have the money, I was told that this was the process and there was nothing I or they can do about it.

It was like they rehearsed this line over and over again and to hell with the customers' needs. I am a disabled Vet and this is making me sick. I have never had this kind of utter nonsense response from a company before in my 65 years. I am writing this just for all to know what kind of company you are dealing with if you choose to do business with American Airlines Vacations.

On August 29, 2011 we tried to check-in in preparation of returning to our original destination, EWR. As I've referenced above with the problem, we waited in line to speak with an agent to address and attempt to correct the problem as this is clearly a technical glitch on behalf of your website and not by way of human error. The agent looked at Michelle's confirmation, stated that the September 29, 2011 date had been selected and slid the confirmation back across the counter and stared at us. They said there was nothing they could do. The customer service experience was not a pleasant once since it was accompanied by negative body language which included sidebar conversations amongst other agents, eye rolling and side glances.

The agents said that the only seat available on the plane was in First Class totaling a cost of $1500! I then asked them if there was any way that I could possibly upgrade my ticket to First Class since I was already a ticketed passenger and the airline then sell/transfer my coach/economy seat to Michelle. Apparently, US Airways do not fall within the realm of such customer service. In response, I was advised with a no that this could not be done. When I inquired as to why, I was told that the seats were blocked on their system, however they were not blocked for purchase.

On the morning of August 24th, 2011 I attempted to begin the online check-in process but was not able to. Each time I put all the information in, went on to continue but my screen cleared, and I had to start over. Finally I closed the page and tried again while I was calling U.S. Airways for assistance. I got a rep on the phone again with no success following her instructions which were no different than what I previously tried. After the third attempt with the rep on the phone it went to the next step of asking if I wanted to pay for a checked bag. I also had a problem there because I did not want to print my boarding pass and it only would let me select the option of pay for bag and print boarding pass. Needless to say I was quite frustrated but finally achieved my goal. I then spoke with my friend, whom I was traveling with, she stated that she had made several attempts to check-in online with no success. She gave up and decided to check-in at the airport.

On the morning of August 25th, 2011 we flew out of Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR). On August 29th, 2011 we reported to MBJ for our return flights back to the United States. I attempted several times to check-in at the self service kiosks but was unsuccessful. As we waited in line to speak with a US Airways rep I compared our confirmations line by line and then realized what the problem was, my return date stated September 29th, 2011. I am the single working mother of two small children and would never have intentionally purchased an airline ticket for August 25th-September 29th. We reached the counter to speak with a rep that wasn't very pleasant from the start and kind of gave us an empty smile with her half greeting. I gave her my confirmation form, explained my issue, and asked what we needed to do rectify my ticket.

She rolled her eyes and kind of huffed and sighed, then slid my confirmation back across the counter to us; stating that nothing would be done because those were the dates I selected. I was in total disbelief in her response let alone her behavior. After being stared at for a few moments I asked to speak with a supervisor, she motioned a gentlemen to come over Jelani **, he came over, looked at the confirmation and made the same statement that nothing could be done. He advised me that there was an available seat in First Class on the very flight that I thought I was on that I could purchase for $1500. I was distraught here I am asking for assistance with a ticket I purchased and there was an available seat that this man was trying to force me to purchase for $1500. My friend Michelle requested to upgrade her seat so that I could purchase her Coach/Economy seat. I have seen this done in an airport before. I was even more shocked when we were told no in this instance as well. Michelle asked why this was not possible and we were told that the seats were blocked in the system. However she would not be allowed to upgrade her seat but I could purchase the seat.

I missed the first flight from ATL to PHL because the airplane door was closed 20 minutes early. I was delayed a day. The next day, I missed a connection in PHL to ZRH by 5 minutes because the plane from ATL to PHL was late. Because the "plane was late" (the flight to ZRH or US Airways Operations would not wait for us). We rerouted to FRA and then to ZRH but missed the connection to ZRH in FRA because the plane was late leaving PHL waiting for other passengers making connections (even though the plane to ZRH would not wait for us). We ended up in the wrong country/city in Europe and lost two days of our vacation. We missed our connection with our daughter in Europe, our bags went to ZRH and this ruined our vacation.

We paid $1950 for the tickets. We were offered two $125 vouchers. US Airways was extremely unresponsive and only responded when put under duress. They believe that everything is God's, Mechanical or the Customer's fault. Their employees lie/falsify records as easy as taking a breath. I am filing a claim in small claims court next week.

In addition, the seats on the plane are almost incomprehensibly tiny because they take the first 8-10 seats of a normal 737-sized plane, and make them into first class. Then, they reduce the remaining seats into the cabin so that no person of average size could be comfortable. Their policy is also very lenient on the severely obese. The man who sat next to me was so large he hung into the aisle and requested a seat belt extender. He refused to exchange his seat for a window seat because he could not physically fit behind a normal airplane seat.

He took approximately 1/3 of my seat space and the arm rest could not even be lowered. How is this acceptable to US Airways? He was a safety risk (blocking the aisle) and he caused another paying passenger to have to be physically touched/squeezed into their seat because of his massive size. This is totally inexcusable and I will never fly this airline again.

The young male ticket agent said, "You can take stuff out." and I replied, "And do what with it?" to which he only shrugged and never helped, just kept getting us to hurry along and to pay the amount. How can an airline charge such outrageous amounts!? I had just flown from Arkansas to Virginia a month ago, my bag was 2lbs over the limit, and there was no problem and no extra money was asked! So can each agent just charge whatever they want? Something needs to be done about American Airlines doing this to people. I don't see how they can charge these amounts as well as the $25 per bag!

When I arrived at my gate, I told the lady driving the cart that I needed to go to the bathroom. She stated to me again that she could not help me to the bathroom or wait on me. I was so upset by this because I could hardly walk. When I made my way to my gate, I went up to the male attendant to say that I needed a wheelchair and he said, "Yeah, yeah." I went and sat down.

When they started boarding, he boarded all passengers first. I went up to the counter again and said, "Sir, I need assistance in getting on the plane." He acted so rudely to me in front of the passengers who were boarding the flight. He said to me, "I did not think that you needed assistance since I saw you walk all over the airport." I walked to the bathroom because I needed to. Anyway, that was none of his business.

The flight was full and I had to wait in line to get to my seat without assistance. This has never happened to me in all my years flying. I fly a lot during the year and you can bet that I will never fly with your airline again. This should have never happened and I feel as a professional educator that I should be compensated for my agony and embarrassment. I look forward to hearing from you.

Finally, after making so many requests to customer care, we have been allocated to a flight for the next day, 02 Sept 11, on 7:00 a.m. and put on standby for 6:00 a.m. flight. The stand by list was cleared and we got two seats in the 6:00 a.m. flight.

There was no arrangement done by AA for accommodation, dinner and breakfast apart from some discount on hotel accommodation at Chicago. We have to make our own breakfast and dinner arrangement as well. We have paid $66 as accommodation charges at Chicago. Also, our 3-day booking done by "Take tour trip," which was scheduled for 02 Sept 11 at 7:00 a.m. from New York that cost around $264, got cancelled since we reached New York next day late.

Our whole program got disrupted because of the delay in the first flight of AA (460) and we have not been confirmed for the same day flights. We want to be compensated for the money loss, confusion and inconvenience this has caused. I have submitted two complaints and so far, no one from AA contacted us. Please look into this matter and act accordingly. We highly appreciate your consideration in this regards.

The first time I tried using the Dividend Mile Program was back in May of 2011, and I could not use my miles because the dates I wanted to fly were all blacked out (in our words I could not use my dividend miles points), so I decided to purchase a ticket with another airline. Now, I'm trying to use my mileage points for a round-trip ticket from January 14- January 21, 2012! The round-trip ticket is from Portland, Oregon to Phoenix, Arizona. I can only fly first class flying to Phoenix because coach seats are blacked out, and I can only fly first class flying out of Portland, Oregon.

The representative told me that I would have to purchase additional 4000 miles at a cost of $118 in order for me to purchase my round-trip ticket. What I don’t understand is why do I to pay more dollars out of my pocket to accommodate US Airways, when I've already met responsibilities on my end in getting their credit account? I'm giving them over four months in advance so that I can use my dividend mile program benefits!

We were forced, with many others, to wait 4 hours for our baggage to be returned, several of which happened to be damaged. Then we were caused to take several trains back to New Jersey, at our expense. To top things off, US Airways made it extremely difficult to just even request a refund.

Then after 3 weeks, they issued a $20 back, as refund for the last leg of a $1,000 round-trip flight! What an insult and disservice! An outrage. A disgrace!

In addition, I was flying on a First Class ticket to BOS from DCA. Agent Y1 did not put a "priority" flyer on the tag and there was no separate line for First Class passengers at DCA, although I had paid approximately $1,018.00 for the round trip ticket. Cape Air, by telephone and in person, at Barnstable Airport (HY) and US Airways personnel told me that Cape Air does in fact have an agreement with US Airways to the effect that the latter agrees to check a bag on to the destination covered by the former. This agent's belligerent behavior and misrepresentation of the facts are to be corrected either with remedial training or loss of her job. I am willing to pay an attorney to receive a written document describing the corrective action with respect to Agent Y1. I am not seeking any financial compensation, except legal fees perhaps that USAIR might pay if that is possible; otherwise, I'll pay the legal fee myself. I want that document and a letter of apology.

For that same flight on US Airways, I purchased a "Day Pass" for the US Airways "Club" at DCA. None of the agents at the gate at DCA could tell me where the US Airways "Club" was located. This is not the first time I have received poor service from US Airways at DCA, but poor service has now escalated to belligerent treatment and lying to the customer in order to get out of work.

I tried, on two different occasions, to redeem the miles. Both times, there were no available seats so I could not redeem the miles. The first time I was told that seats on one leg were available but I had to purchase a one way on the return at almost the same expense as a full round trip. The second time, I was told there were no seats available for the Advantage program and that I had to give 6 months notice to redeem miles.

What is the point of the program if you can not redeem miles? Besides, the miles will expire still. To redeem the miles I would have to search available routes that offer Advantage miles. Again what is the point. My conclusion is that the whole hype is a waste of time.

Will you please inform:

b) if there are 2 (two) seats available in your program starting October 2011.

Will you excuse my saying so but AA have launched a program to buy miles, for what purpose? Why buy miles if we cannot get seats to travel? Some friends with the same problem advised me to give up, but I didn't. I hope to hear from you. Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Incidentally, a local broadcast (cbn-news) called American Airlines down last week due to miles programs that are not being honored. In accordance with the local laws, this may be considered as a deceitful propaganda. This is an opportunity to talk it over with your directors.

My daughter and I departed Anchorage for Little Rock on August 18th, 2011. When I arrived at the airport, we had three bags to check. She had a small one. I had a small one, as well as one heavy bag loaded with expensive scuba gear. The lake we houseboated on is extremely clear. We planned on doing a lot of diving. In addition, my son, a soldier recently back from Afghanistan and based in KY, was meeting us there. And I had his gear as well. The dive gear was in a hockey bag. This is an extremely common sized bag that is used by hockey players throughout the world when they travel on airlines. I am a hockey player myself. I have used this bag and bags like it many times when traveling by air. The bag was heavy and I expected a small additional charge to check it. When we arrived, we checked our bags. The hockey bag with the dive gear weighed approximately 71 pounds. We were charged the "normal" rate for 3 bags, which was $85. This was outrageous on its own, but I realize there is nothing I can do, as most airlines have adopted this practice. I was not charged any extra for the extra weight.

We arrived in Little Rock without incident. And the reunion went off flawlessly. On 8-27-11, we arrived at the Little Rock airport. This is when the problems began. The fun of the reunion and the vacation was quickly squashed. I was checked in by Andrew **. He is not a friendly fellow, but maybe he was having a bad day. He charged me the standard $85 for bags (this is a $170 charge round trip for baggage!) as I expected. He then weighed the bag with the dive gear. It was approximately 65 pounds (It lost some weight because we had food items in it as well, on the trip down). He very curtly informed me the bag was 15 pounds overweight, and it would cost an additional $100 to check it. I asked him why it was $100 for only 15 pounds. Again, he curtly told me even 1 pound overweight was $100. It was obvious I was not going to get anywhere with this guy so I paid him. I was not happy, but that was the end of it so I thought.

My daughter and I dropped all three bags at TSA. And we went into the gate area. Shortly thereafter, I was paged back to the AA counter by name. Andrew was there. He informed me that the bag was oversized. And now it would be an additional $200! I find it strange that we had already given the bag to TSA and Andrew somehow managed to recheck the bag. How does that work? I asked Andrew how my bag made it all the way from Anchorage to Little Rock with no additional charges. And now I was being charged $300 for it. His reply was that he couldn't vouch for what Anchorage did. He added somebody there "wasn't doing their job". I tried to argue common sense with Andrew and it became apparent it was going nowhere. I asked for his supervisor. He went around a corner and very quickly returned. It was apparent she was right there. He said she would be there in a moment.

After at least 10 minutes of waiting, Verdia ** showed up and said she was the supervisor. I greeted her and asked for help with some kind of alternatives in getting my bag home. She asked what I meant, acting as if she didn't know what I was talking about. She had a bad attitude already. I asked if she knew what my issue was. She said she did. She said the bag was oversized and the charge was an additional $200. I told her that I was having a problem understanding the logic and common sense issues involved. I also told her the bag was a standard sized hockey bag in use daily in the US when hockey players check their gear for a road trip. Her response was to offer a copy of the AA policy for me to read. Me looking at a policy was not going to solve anything.

I continued to try and reason with Verdia. Her response each time was to offer me a copy of the AA policy. Not even once did she try and work with me or offer any advice. Her people skills are horrific. Once again, I realized I was getting nowhere and was talking to a brick wall. I asked for her full name. She pointed to her name tag and said "Do you want me to spell it for you?" I could not believe what I heard! Now she was apparently going to insult me. I asked for the name of the Station Manager, so I could contact him/her upon my return home. Verdia refused to provide it to me! I told her I felt her actions were incompetent. I demanded to know the name of her supervisor. She again refused. She said this whole issue was stopping at her level because she is the supervisor. I am still shocked even now, two days later.

I asked several more times and she refused. At this point, I paid Andrew the additional $200 because I had no choice! I had $2000 worth of scuba gear in that bag. I couldn't very well leave it behind. I have never been treated like this by an airline employee, especially one at a supervisory level. Verdia has no business working in customer service, let alone acting as a supervisor in such a position. She may do a great job in a ramp position or something behind the scenes, but she has no business representing AA to the traveling public.

Here is my biggest problem regarding this whole incident. As far as I'm concerned, the actions of AA are bordering on the extortion of $300 from me. The airline took my 3 bags, all the way to Arkansas for $85. Then, when I'm on my return home and have no other choice, I'm charged $385 for those same 3 bags. This is unbelievable to me. I had no other choice but to pay the outrageous fees! I was in Arkansas a long way from home. I couldn't very well leave the bag and it's an expensive cargo!

So, for 3 bags to go round trip to Arkansas, the total cost was $470. Beautiful. My ticket was only around $500! In addition, my bag had already been given to TSA by me, before Andrew decided it was oversized. Why did he return to my bag and declare it was oversized? I think I know why. I think Andrew didn't like the fact that I was not happy with paying him $100 for a bag that previously had no additional charges. So, he went to the bag and decided it was oversized. This bag is a standard sized hockey gear bag. I have played hockey for years and flown with gear many times. Never has a gear bag been an issue. Even goalie bags (which are larger) go flawlessly.

I had a credit of $286 from one of my past tickets. Last week, I booked a new ticket for myself. I asked the agent to apply the credit to the final price. The ticket price was quoted as $550. With credit applied, the final price was $264. The tickets were booked. When I got the email, the final price was shown as $987. I called up 3 times. The agent mentioned that I am still charged $264 as final price. But he won't be able to give me a receipt with the breakdown because of system issues. Since I had to claim the original value of the ticket ($550) from my company, I asked for an itemized breakdown. Since he couldn't help, I asked the call to be sent to a supervisor. The supervisor was a lady with a big attitude who cursed me for my accent. She asked me to slow down. She gave me etiquette lecture. And she explained me how the calculations worked. I told her that my issue is not the calculations, but a receipt which showed the calculations. When I got upset, she told me not to raise my voice and offered me to talk to her manager.

The manager was the worst of the three. She started the conversation with a negative attitude. Rather than trying to understand my issue, she started telling me what she could not do. The funny thing was that even she was not clear with the calculations. She repeated the same story that the supervisor told. She again cursed me for my accent. She scolded me for interrupting her even though she interrupted me like 10 times. When I asked her how am I going to believe that the ticket price is $550 when the credit is $264, she said, "You would have to believe us. There is no other way. You should be happy with the final price. And we can't give you a breakdown." When I told her how Delta helped me out with a similar issue 2 years back, she said, "This is AA helpline, not Delta Airlines."

She is absolutely right. AA is not Delta. It took me 8 years to realize this, but alas I got my facts. I told her that I am going to end all my relationship with American Airlines. She happily mentioned that if this is what you want to do, please go ahead. So, I guess I am done with AA. I wish I could have said it was a pleasure flying AA. Thanks for treating your platinums the way you just treated me. I will wait to hear from you. Based on my recent interactions and the image that just got formed about AA, I am pretty sure I would not get any response to this email. Thanks.

Once I made it to St. Louis and I went to get my luggage, the handle on my suitcase was broken. I got to my hotel and opened my suitcase and I was surprised to discover that my whole suitcase was broken. There were bits and pieces all over inside my suitcase. I didn't have time to go and report the problem since I was in training.

On my way back home, the employees that help with the registration process were rude and not helpful at all. My flights were delayed in St. Louis and in Phoenix. As soon as I got back, I sent an email to US Airways, but was told that, "because we did not hear from you immediately, we assumed that your baggage was delivered as scheduled and in good condition."

Therefore, they couldn't do anything. I will never fly with this company again.

Now, my group used United Airlines and they were happy to change everyone to Chicago with no change fees. I will never fly US Airways ever again--and I fly a lot. The operator I spoke with could not have cared less. This is very disturbing to me as there are a lot of people out of work that would love to have this lady's job and probably treat someone with respect.

Fast forward, I landed in Detroit from Boston and lo and behold, they don't have my bag. Keep in mind, I am on a business trip and I need clothes to see clients. I had a meeting 2 hours from when I landed. First, they told me to file a claim and they will get the bag for me. So I have to go shopping to pick up some clothes for the client meeting. I called to check in to see if they have my bag and now they can't find it. AND they said they will only reimburse me for the clothes purchased if they find my bag. If they LOSE my bag, they won't reimburse me and will only pay me the amount of the contents in the bag. ONLY with receipts. Wait, how does this make sense? If I bought my sunglasses, clothes and shoes about a year ago, how will I still have these receipts? So not only will US air lose my bag, but they won't pay for it either? How the heck do you guys stay in business?

1. Nobody cares and didn't let us go through security with the stroller. Had I known it before I bought tickets, I would have flown Aeromexico or Continental via Houston.

2. Nobody cares. I had to check the stroller but I couldn't find the person who check my bags so nobody was able to do it, requested a manager and they said it wouldn't help.

3. My seat assignments were taken away but I am not going to complain because it was not the first time and nobody cares even when I had the paper with the seats, they sent us to the last row.

4. Please go to Mexico with kids, gate 36 without strollers or just ask. It's about 3/4 of a mile and nobody cares.

5. We got there finally dead tired and guess what, how the hell did they leave the car seat and not have one to replace. Leave the bags, not the car seat.

6. Two days to get it, and of course we miss our flight next day.

7. Cancelled flight on out way back.

Just ridiculous. Just wanted to let somebody know because I fly way too much and with this experience, I am going to report to the BBB and try something without wasting so much time because nobody cares.

I felt forced to fly and as a result, experienced uncontrollable crying, shaking and chest pains the entire flight home. It was very embarrassing and emotionally disturbing. The woman who assisted the previous evening with transportation was rude and unsympathetic. I love to travel and this experience has caused me to never want to fly again. I was afraid for my life. Regardless of what the news said, I was on the flight and witnessed scared, injured flight attendants (the very people who were there to make us feel safe) and heard the voice of an uncertain pilot. I feel like I should be compensated for my experience or at the least, receive a refund for my returning flight because of the trauma associated with the ordeal. I would have rather taken a car or train home and the attendant was unwilling to accommodate me.

I feel like a better job should have been done to accommodate our emotional distress. Instead, we were treated as if we were the cause of the problem. We were given a hotel to stay for the night with no luggage or toiletries. I had to go out visibly upset and still crying and disturbed from the ordeal and walked from the hotel to a nearby Walmart to purchase clean clothing, undergarments and toiletries at midnight, yet we received no compensation. This is unacceptable.

We were told to go back to the ticket counter and have our flight rescheduled. After waiting in line for several more hours, we were told that we had to fly to Philadelphia US FLIGHT 1586 and then fly out to Jamaica the next day. While waiting for this flight to Philadelphia, we were told it was also delayed. At about 12:30 AM, Saturday August 6th, we were boarded on the plane to go to Philadelphia only to have the plane pull out from the airport about ten feet and stop.

We were then told that the fuel pump on the plane was bad and we had to wait for the maintenance crew to fix the problem. By the time we got to Philadelphia, 3:30 AM, we had only a couple of hours before our next flight, US FLIGHT 857, was scheduled to fly us to Jamaica at 7:55 AM. Then this flight was delayed because we had to wait for a flight crew fly to be flown in from Washington DC to fly the plane. After losing a day and a half from our vacation, we landed in Jamaica totally exhausted and that pretty much ended that day. Therefore, we lost two days of our vacation. So instead of having 5 days in Jamaica, we had 3 days. Then on our return flight, US FLIGHT 1047 from Charlotte to Kansas City, our luggage was lost and we came home without anything.

I called on February 24 in the afternoon and asked for Mary **. She told me that she would work on it and would give me a call. This went on for 2 weeks until I got a little upset about the situation and asked to speak to a manager. I spoke to Robert at Boston Logan Airport on the phone and he told me that he would get on top of it right away and call me. I got a call from Mary ** 2 days later telling me that my bag was nowhere to be found and that she was going to give a claim number ** and to call ** to file the claim; but I had to wait 48 hours to set the claim.

I did as instructed and it is now March 23, one month. I called and they told me that they were going to fax me a sheet and to list what was on my bag. I faxed it the very next day. I kept calling every week, all you guys said was that it would take 8 to 10 weeks for the process. I then got a letter in the mail telling me that you people weren't going to pay for my bag because the claim wasn't in the computer on the day it was lost. It is not my fault that the girl in Boston didn't do her job correctly and now, I'm paying the consequences. I had all my personal stuff in my bag and I gave it to your employees. You guys lost it and then you are telling me that you're not going to be responsible for my bag.

I have sent letters to your baggage department and they didn't respond. I called on August 9 and spoke to a manager and her answer was that you guys will not be paying for my lost bag. I think this is extremely irresponsible and unprofessional. I have called every department and no one wants to help me out. It has been 6 months and I haven't been able to replace my items because I don't have the money. Please help me and tell me what I'm supposed to do. I would love if someone can call me personally and tell me who is going to be responsible for my bag.

Alba **

We couldn’t reschedule because we had to check the hotel, husband, dog sitter and et cetera to change our itinerary. However, when we tried to re-book a few days later, the price had gone up. They refused to honor our original fare. To add insult to injury, they also tacked on an additional charge. It is for having to book via agent, instead of online because the online site couldn’t enter seat assignment!

Then it was delayed again to 3 15p and then again at 3 41p, causing us to miss our flight in Phoenix. The only offer we could get was to take a red eye flight tonight in Phoenix at 11 39pm. This was a great inconvenience, especially after paying 1117.00 for airline tickets. I would like to be compensated in some way for having to pay for a shuttle to the airport only to spend countless hours in a place with very limited things to do.

Another man asked if we needed help, we said "No, we were being helped," but the first guy never came back so we stopped the second guy again and said Can you please help us?" He said, "I asked if you needed help and you said you were being helped. Would you want to stay out here all day!?" He then pointed for us to go inside. We then headed inside to the baggage check in where the lady said, "You are 5 minutes late to check this bag in for your flight. You cannot get on this flight now, I will put you on standby for a later flight."

Our flight wasn't scheduled to leave for another hour. We waited at the terminal for the second flight which was 7 hours later only to be told that there were not enough seats and there were no more flights to Indianapolis. We had to stay the night at the airport hotel and wait again for a flight at 8am as a standby. I asked the lady if we can be guaranteed a seat. I offered to pay extra; she said "No more I can do".

I didn't think we were ever going to make it home. My mother and I both had to miss work, we are both nurses and it's not easy to fill our places at our jobs. I work in a respiratory rehab unit as the only Registered nurse on my shift. They also sent our luggage on the first flight we had been made as a stand by. So we were left in Miami without any clothes. My medicine was in that suitcase and my mom's CPAP machine to help her breath at night due to apnea.

We boarded the plane as scheduled and taxied to where we would take off. After a long delay, the pilot announced that the flight will no longer go to New York that night until the following day. The pilot told us that the New York airport had no space to accommodate his plane. We also heard other ground sources that the aviation staff were on strike. Not sure of what was the actual cause of the aborted flight.

We all returned to the Raleigh/Durham Airport checking desk and rebooked for the following day.

The problem: We explained to the manager on duty that we are from Jamaica and would need hotel accommodation and dinner. The manager said he had checked from all their hotel partners and there was no vacancy. So I will need to sleep at the airport with my wife. It was unbelievable and embarrassing that I should be thinking of sleeping at the airport with my family.

Unfortunately, we have never been to Durham and we do not know anybody in town to come for us. At this time, it was about 11.30PM. We went to the information desk downstairs and were told of a hotel in town that sent their shuttle to pick us at the airport. We finally passed the night at the hotel at our own expense.

It was flight #1921 that departed Charlotte, NC to Jacksonville, Florida on Friday, August 5, 2011 at 9:45PM. Upon exiting the airplane, the mother questioned the flight attendant's outburst. She, too, was verbally abused and yelled at to get off of the airplane.

We were fortunate to be on this flight after long delays and cancellations, but what's unfortunate is that the flight attendant took out his frustrations from his day on my nine year old son.

The last shuttle to the hotel left by the time the flight arrived. We had to take a cab and pay without any pocket money (had to convert dollars to pounds). We also had to buy dinner (kids were hungry).

When we arrived at the hotel, there was a huge line of AA passengers (apparently AA sent several of them to the same hotel without realizing that they didn’t have rooms). After standing in line for 1 hour while the hotel tried to contact AA (no one at AA was available to resolve this), we were told that no rooms were available so we stayed in the lobby the whole night. There were elderly passengers and kids, too. We want to be compensated for the utter chaos and confusion and inconvenience. I submitted two complaints and so far no one from AA contacted us.

I got into an assisted wheelchair at London Gatwick International Airport, however I was dumped in these seats in the departure lounge where I could not get to the toilet or even get a drink. I was given this bleeper and told to put it round my neck. Nothing like showing the world who is disabled. Anyway, I nearly missed my flight; this was because I could not move from where I was dumped without a wheelchair. If it was not for a member of the public, I would have been still sitting there after my plane had taken off. Anyway, as stated, a member of the public went and found someone working for US Airways. Then after about 10 minutes, a member of staff for US Airways came along with an electric cart. She just told me to climb on board, completely ignoring my disability. She asked me why did I not go and ask a member of US Airways in getting me to the departure gate. I told the lady that I have severe problems with my mobility. She then just dumped me at the departure gate. She claimed that she would be back with a wheelchair, however she did not!

I was then told that I needed to get on the plane. I told the US Airways staff that I have mobility problems. I was then told that if I did not get on now, the flight would leave without me. I had to go through the pain barrier and stop every 2-3 meters; I was getting some really nasty looks from the staff. I thought to myself, would they be like this if they or a member of their family were disabled? I thought that this would be a one off event. Well can you believe that this also happened at Charlotte Airport and at Sky Harbour, AZ? Can you believe it that this happened on my return to the UK? This time, I flew from Sky Harbour Phoenix, Philadelphia Airport and at London Heathrow Airport. Now you may think that was bad enough service, however things get worse. I was treated like a third class citizen. Correction, the staff made me feel like disabled persons should not fly or indeed, disabled persons should not be seen at all!

While I was traveling from London Gatwick to Charlotte, NC, USA, I had to take on board my medication. Now on the whole, the medication I was taking with me was medication you could probably get over the counter. However, I take a drug that is in the same class as Heroin and Cocaine. The medication was Morphine. Now the only persons who can carry these or deal in these are fully qualified Doctors, Head Licensed Pharmacists and obviously the patient. When I got on the plane I was given a bulk head seat as this gives you more legroom. Now I had on me my personal bag which included my medication. This is when things started to go wrong. One of the cabin crew came to me and said that I had to put my bag with my medication in it above in one of the overhead lockers. I said to the person that I had a letter from a Doctor stating that I had to retain the bag with me due to the contents. Anyway at that point, other people were now boarding the plane. Numerous people over heard the conversation between the cabin crew member and myself. All these people heard that I had Morphine tablets in my personal bag. Well moving on, the cabin crew took away my personal bag with all my medication against my wishes. Now you would think that they would put the bag where I could keep an eye on it but that was not the case. The cabin crew must have thought it was funny that they put my personal bag half way down the plane. I could not see my bag at all. Now this is the only time that the bag was out of my sight.

When I eventually arrived at my final destination, I noticed that the bag with my medication had been turned over. Now at that point, I thought that things may have moved due to traveling. I was not thinking any more about it until I came to opening a new box of my Morphine medication. That was just about three weeks later. I looked through my bag thoroughly, however, over three weeks supply of my Morphine medication had disappeared. My other medication was all there, it is just that there were no Morphine tablets. Now, the only time that the bag was not with me or out of my sight was on the flight with US Airways travelling from London Gatwick, UK to Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. Because I require this medication and the fact that I could not get any more from either the UK or the USA, the only thing I could do was to cut short my six week stay. I take the Morphine to ease the pain I get from having Degeneration of my L3, L4, L5 of my Vertebrae. Without my medication the pain becomes unbearable, however, the medication is not classed as life saving medication!

Now, I have had to pay for extra travel costs getting to and back to the airports. I had to pay for the change of flight time. In total I have lost around 300 ($450.00) in hotel charges etc. I have also had to pay 225+ ($300-$350) for the change of flight to get back to the UK. The reservation staff told me that I would get back the cost of the flight and other money I had lost when I put in a compensation claim. Well, I have sent two emails to the customer services team in which I received no response. I then found the Chief Executives contact information. I sent the full complaint with all the information to the Chief Executive's Office. I was then contacted at 11:30PM, a time that I am normally asleep. I was again contacted by a representative of US Airways. I tried to discuss with her what had happened. She said to me that US Airways staff was allowed to carry any medication. I enquired and said that according to UK and USA law, you need to be qualified to carry certain medication. This includes the likes of Heroin, Cocaine and Morphine. The lady I spoke to said that all US Airways cabin crew were qualified to carry such substances. I asked for her to send to me the qualifications that the staff had passed. She then said that it was US Airlines policy to be able to carry any medication or even class 1 Narcotics. I again asked for this to be sent to me. I also asked for this qualification that all cabin crew had to pass. Again she said that she was not allowed to send me anything, not even their own policies in regard to staff carrying such drugs as Heroin, Cocaine or in my case Morphine. Then she began to become very rude and obnoxious with me on the phone. I asked to speak to her manager but I was told that I was not allowed to speak with one. I asked to speak to another person as I wanted to escalate the complaint. I was told that US Airways do not escalate complaints. I then told her that I would be sending another email to the Chief Executive, she replied to this by saying "It's ok, if you make a further complaint, I would deal with that anyway.” So apparently even if you make a complaint against the person you are talking to, that complaint would be dealt with by them anyway. So much for having good customer service.

Anyway, I still sent another email to the Chief Executive. I was then sent an email from US Airways, this time offering $100.00 dollars. Now this was in a way of a voucher. This meant that you had to buy a full price ticket to get $100.00 dollars discount. Now this only works out to be around 60.00. I think that this is a joke – a complete and utter derisory offer. For the money I have lost and the extra charges I have been charged, I think it is a disgrace. To add to this all the stress and anxiety that this has caused, I feel fully aggrieved!

Now I was just about to send back an email when I received another call from US Airways. This time, we went through what had fully happened. Then they tried to say that they had lost all my previous emails. Then after me saying that I can re-send all of them, my emails re-appeared. Now for some reason, they could not find any fault with their service. Then I said that the disappearance of over three weeks of Morphine with a street value in the USA of around $3000 was according to them no big deal. I am sure the Federal Government in the USA would not take this stance.

I find that US Airways had changed their tack. They asked me to go to the tools management of US Airways baggage and luggage liabilities. They now claim that even though my medication was stolen while on board a US Airways flight, they were not liable. I asked them why, they said if you look at the exemptions, there is a part that US Airways will not pay for lost or stolen life saving medication. I told them that my medication was not taken for a life saving condition. The US Airways representative then tried to claim that all medication was regarded as life saving. So, if we take a headache tablet, that apparently is classed as life saving medication. I am sure that a court of law either in the USA or in the UK would disagree with US Airways definition of the words life saving medication. I use Morphine as a medication to ease the severe pains I have due to my disability.

All I want is to be treated fairly and to be reimbursed for the loss of three weeks of my vacation, the extra charges I incurred for changing my tickets and my additional travel costs. Also to be given as a gesture of goodwill some form of compensation for all the stress and anxiety that I have had. I believe that I have a case against US Airways as they have not followed the regulations set down in the Montreal Convention.

I think, or correction, US Airways thinks that they can do whatever they want. They seem to be able to make up rules and regulations as they go along. They are the only people or indeed organization that thinks that all medication is used for as life saving medication. I have five hospital consultants and I see my own doctors and all would state that Morphine is not used as a life saving medication. Morphine is used as powerful pain reliever. I really need someone who will look into the problems that I have had with US Airways. They seem to think that because they are a very big organization, they can just walk all over customers. I just want to get this situation sorted in an amicable way. I had to pay the change of flight charges, all other travel and all out of pocket expenses with my Visa card. I am now getting charged interest on what I had to spend to get me back to the UK. I am not supposed to get stressed out as I do suffer from Tachycardia. Unfortunately, all I have had is the stress and anxiety with this situation.

Just to keep you updated, I have received another email from US Airways, now claiming that I have not complained before and that I had not told them about the stolen medication. I think that they are going to do everything they can to stop me from making a claim against them. I also think that when a company or an organization calls their customers liars and then start to lose the customers paperwork, they stop being professional and that they manipulate the situation so that you become disheartened with carrying on your complaint. I may be disabled but I am very much focused and I know that eventually the truth will prevail. I do think it's amazing why companies go out of their way to stop customers from getting what they deserve. Unfortunately, this is the case with my complaint. The company also thinks that there are no regulators, so they seem to think that they are invincible and when it comes to rules and regulations, untouchable.

This is why I am now coming to yourselves and hopefully US Airways will listen to you more than they ever did for me. All I wanted was to be treated with respect and that the company looked after disabled customers. That I and my personal bag containing my medication were safe and secure and to have a hassle free vacation.

All of the above could have been done. However, US Airways failed on everyone.

I am so disappointed and so outraged.

I am currently on RR from deployment and now wil have to spend the an unknown number of days at the USO because no one is customer service cared that I was at the airport checked in but arrived at the gate at 0815 when the flight was suppose to depart at 0824, instead of any consoling words this experience started out with the staff making jokes saying, "well we dont like leaving anyone and 120 something people made it just not you." Real professional and not to mention the fact I have a limited time for my vacation they were not willing to help me more than send me to Charlotte to sit and wait for who knows when to leave. Well I know on some part this is my fault but the cold hearted non-nonchalant service which was given in this situation, with non stop regulations being stated instead of at least giving a re-assuring word just made me upset.

After a week of not hearing anything, I called back and they had no record of anything! I had to refile a claim and submit a form which I did on May 1st; the items in the bag are irreplaceable!

Now it is July 27 and we still heard NOTHING from this horrible airline. I called back; just for them to inform me they never received the paper claim! What kind of place is this? Seriously!

What a horrible experience for my daughter! Now I had to resend the claim, and wait another eight weeks! They could care less! This is the WORST airline ever!

I have never heard of such a rule and didn't see it on your website, I figured since I had already checked in online 24 hours prior, I would just need to drop my bag. I asked the attendant how late was I in getting my bag physically tagged and she told me I missed the 45-minute cut off by four minutes, and that it took 45 minutes for my bag to go from the counter to the plane.

I couldn't understand any of this at all especially since there were passengers standing at unattended kiosk waiting for their luggage tags as well. What is the point of self check-in if someone still has to tag my bag but the kiosk is unattended? So, standing in line for a second time made me miss that flight. I was put on the 6:55 a.m. to Charlotte, NC with stand-by on the 11:30 a.m. to Jamaica, which was the last flight from Charlotte for the day. Luckily, I was able to get on it. If I hadn't gotten on, I would have been stuck in Charlotte for another day and been a day late to Jamaica. Where is the logic in that? Well, I figured it was all over and I could enjoy my trip until the chaos I experienced on the way back.

Leaving Montego Bay, I couldn't find my flight reservation at the kiosk. I had to wait in line an hour to see an agent. When I got to the agent, I discovered that my reservation showed my trip to and from Jamaica for the same day. I feel confident that I didn't book it like that and maybe there was a glitch in the system. I had to purchase a one-way ticket back to Dallas with a connection in Charlotte. I could not get on the last two flights out of Charlotte because they had been overbooked so I couldn't even fly standby. Overbooked? Still doesn't make any sense.

This resulted in my having to stay overnight and leave at 7:45 a.m. on July 25. When I got to the Charlotte airport the next morning, I was observing the same thing--unattended kiosk and people waiting to get their luggage tagged. I am wondering are they missing the 45-minute baggage drop, too? I decide to stand in the Resolution Line hoping to get on an earlier flight only to have the unfortunate encounter with the worse airline agent ever.

I believe her name is Jennifer **. She is **, very short hair that is reddish in color, and she wears glasses. Her attitude and behavior was inexcusable. She was rude, short-tempered, unaccommodating. You name it, she was it. When it was my turn to approach the counter, she switched her attention to another line saying she couldn't keep track of who was on queue. The issue with that was the people she decided to assist weren't in the Resolution Line with the rest of us; they were off to the side. She also came from behind the counter and turned off some of the kiosk without announcing to those others standing in line what she was doing and why she was doing it. They were just left standing there. One poor lady had been trying to get to Cambodia since Saturday. I must say out of all airlines, there is a very strong possibility that I will not be flying US Airways in the future.

I saved a lot of money to afford it. I tried to call many times and when I checked in the computer, I didn't have any answers. PLEASE return my baggage now or at least answer me!

The attendant at the U.S. Airways counter, who wasn't exactly friendly or helpful, searched for new flights, which was a six-hour process. It ended up that the only way to get another flight was for some of us to go London for a two-day lay-over while I would spend two nights in the Brussels airport, then have another lay-over in Zurich. First, we were traveling as a group, and this completely split us up. Also, this would cut into our trip which was only 17 days long to begin with. We then tried to search for any flight where we could stay together, but the only U.S. Airways attendant decided to go home, with the new tickets already printed.

Fortunately, after another 3 hours, I worked it out with another airline and got on the same London flight as my group at the price of over $200. In London, we had to dish out money we had saved for Kenya, and use it for hotels, taxis, etc. I am really hoping that travel insurance will help with that. We eventually made it to Kenya, thanks to other helpful airlines. To top it all off, on the return home, me and another student had to spend an hour and a half in line trying to fix a ticket issue U.S. Airways had caused. The attendant had booked one of the students twice and cancelled my flight for some reason, which was eventually fixed.

Even though I had an overall great trip in Kenya, I promised myself that I will never fly U.S. Airways again, nor will I recommend it to anyone. I'm sure these issues happen often on other airlines, but I guarantee that they are more helpful and are generally faster at fixing their mistakes. I'm sorry I wasted my money and that our trip was shortened by three and a half days, but at least now I know which airline to avoid.

We waited until 6:10 before we found out it had been cancelled. I ask there so called customer service what flight we can get now, and she stated, “Nothing is available; you’re stuck here, and deal with it.” I asked if she had a list of hotels we could call, and she ask if she looked like a hotel clerk. I then asked for a supervisor and she said, “Fine, you can argue with them.” The supervisor said she would send us to Charlotte; and we have to stand-by, and told us to have a good trip.

US Airways is horrible; they are stranding people to save money on under-booked flights, and then they think it’s your problem. I have posted this on our state association of furniture travelers and buying group. I want the thousands of frequent travelers in my industry to beware of US Airways.

She refused any assistance in the cost nor did she offer any apology. She wouldn't discuss the issue further as there was a long line, only citing she had to put agents at security because of the hefty fines. These bags are carry on size bags. I have never had a problem carrying them on anywhere else, including Tulsa, where my children carried them on. What was more frustrating was to go through Boston airport & see so many other people, with IDENTICAL luggage, not checked in. Then to get to the gate and for the attendent to offer to check in bags for FREE! I had to pay an additional $50 to check 2 bags after already having checked 1.

The bags were not overstuffed or even expanded as others I saw. I plan to fly again, however, after paying higher airfare than Southwest & to check bags, maybe I should avoid American Airlines. I spent $1800 on 3 coach tickets only to have to spend $100 more for luggage.

Here's what happened: no one at DFW could help me, I left two voicemails on the Las Vegas US Airways voicemail (I have an app that I could track my iPad. It was on the plane GOING BACK TO LAS VEGAS when I was desperately trying to reach someone.) I knew where my iPad was, I could see it going back to Vegas, yet I couldn't get ahold of a SINGLE PERSON to get it or at least hold it until I could get it back.

My iPad is password protected. It was in a gray case, with a pink top. I have sent it messages so when someone sees it, it has my name and phone number to contact me.

I wasn't allowed back on the plane to get my iPad and now I can't get ahold of a SINGLE SOUL who can tell me what to do. If I was allowed to go back and retrieve it, I would have.

I was flying US Airways for a work trip (conference) and I usually fly American. I'm a Texas girl and had a loyalty to AA since they are in Fort Worth but someone I trust flew with you to Vegas recently and said y'all were great, on time, friendly. So far, I haven't seen any of that. And yes, I can still track my iPad.

I need some sort of call, response, help. Your policies stopped me from getting my iPad back right after I exited the plane, when it was still on the tarmac. Now I can't get anyone to call me back. If I can't get a call back, I will let my friends on Twitter, Facebook, my company, and my entire network know how little US Airways cares about their customers once they are off the plane and not spending any money.

HELP.

The American Airlines agent asked me to go to the DTW airport and collect the refund. At the airport, an American Airlines staff gave me a "lost ticket application" and asked me to send it to the refunds office at El Paso, Texas. I did that. On April 17th, the online status of my refund application changed to "processed refunds". Upon inquiry with customer care, they told me that it will get credited to my account, which didn't happen until now. On 05/10/2011, I sent a complaint to the customer care office of American Airlines. On 05/19/2011, they asked me to send another request to the American Airlines office at Fort Worth, Texas (which is under process now). On 05/31/2011, customer care told me that they will process the refund in 6-8 weeks. It’s been 4 weeks now. I have no idea what's happening. It’s been more than 6 months the money has been stuck with them and $1450 is a lot for me.

I inquired about rescheduling for another flight and was immediately told there was nothing available. I inquired about partner airlines, again nothing. After asking for a supervisor, I was finally transferred and again nothing was available and neither representative took any time to try to look for any accommodations for me. I then called the various airlines myself and found flights from Southwest Airlines.

This last minute flight cost $1753.60 a considerably large difference from the $881.60 that I paid AA. However, I was not given any real choice since my other reservations for a hotel and Disney park fees and dining plan were all booked and based on my arrival on Friday, May 27th. In addition to this increase in flight costs, we forfeited one day of Disney park fees and prepaid dining plan for the 4 of us and were also forced to rent a car since the free Disney shuttle is not available for flights arriving after 10 pm.

Even when passengers are asked to volunteer to give up seats on an overbooked flight, they are offered $300 travel vouchers and given a seat on the next available flight. We, however, were not given any consideration whatsoever. I do not believe that a refund of my purchase price that I paid almost 2 months ago is fair compensation, especially considering all the additional costs that I incurred due to American canceling my flight and refusing to put my family on any other.

I ring the bell for 20 minutes a young man came out of a back door to assist me and I ask for boarding pass to get on the plane, he went and got the supervisor Ms. Diane **. She yelled and said you are late and when back into the office and continued boarding the passengers on the plane while my family watch my plane go up in the air and I stand in the terminal. The plane didn't leave until 9:40am I became very upset. I look on the board and so that it was a flight going out to Philadelphia at 3:18pm. Customer service didn't even offer me to catch that flight. I was told there was no flight.

I went home and looked on the web and there as was a booking for flight leave out of Tweed at 3:18pm. I contact US Airways customer service, the young women over the phone told me Tweed airlines mark me as a no show in, I would have to pay $150 plus 25.00. I wasn't happy at all. I told them I was standing in the terminal. I called customer service again because the importance of getting to my destination today. They provided me a credit with the additional $175 in order to get on another flight in which I don't think I should be held accountable for the poor service Tweed Airlines provided for me. I hope Airsafe.com can help me. US Airways requesting to pay $175 and it cause me emotional distress. The ability to travel that one day June 25, 2011.

I asked Nasrin (US Airway employee) for help and I was told that she could not help me because she had to deploy the airplane. A ** female traveling with her son walked up and asked for help. Nasrin got her information to help her. I watched her get the information and then she decided to get my information. Another ** male walked up for help and I realized that Nasrin had already helped him because she had his paperwork. He was waiting for her and she did not want me to know she was helping him. I asked for her supervisor, Joy from Customer Service. Joy was also unconcerned with getting help for me but in a rush to help others.

I should at least have been able to stay in the secure part of the airport. I had no place to stay and no food to eat. Even the other male customer was concerned with his safety of staying in the unsecured part of the airport and no help from US Airways. Safety was not an issue or concern at US Airways. I will be putting this on Facebook to let other customers be aware that safety is not an issue at US Airways. After getting my boarding pass, I was told to go to international part which I was not aware of that it would not open until 5:30 a.m.

I saw the same customer and her son walking out of the secure area and she asked me why I was waiting in that area- she was told to go through on the other side that was already open hours ago. She told me I was getting the runaround all the way. I was discriminated against in every aspect and this is 2011 and your employees should not be discriminating against ** and disabled customer. My appointments were missed due to late arrival from US Airways. I missed my flight and was treated unfairly due to my skin color. I should have been given the same information as **.

As it stands, I paid over $210 for 3 bags on March 18, 20011 at the Detroit Airport. AA has offered little in the way of corresponding and is not efficient. Douglas credited me for one of the $25 baggage charges not the $135 I wanted reversed when I realized the punitive charges. It's quite interesting that AA wants paid at the moment of a reservation but simply cannot issue a refund without sending the customer on a very long goose chase. See below. I have made many attempts.

So I was shocked to see American, at the security gate, turn me and at least 5 others away because of bags that were "too large" for carry on. It's called fraud and anyone who has had this happen needs to file a compliant with the Consumer Protection. Many do not know that if you have a legally compliant sized bag, you do not have to pay to have it checked. They need to allow you one carry on, or check it without a fee. I have reported this and it needs to stop at SFO. They are obviously earning a lot of extra money and are not following the same rules as other airlines. They aren't following the law.

I called the 800 number and spoke with someone in another country. He said that he could book the travel for some amount over $700. I asked to speak to someone who could book the travel for the quoted $488.80. After some hedging, he transferred me to a native English speaking person. I explained the problem to her and asked that my reservation be completed at the quoted rate. She said that if I changed the time of the return flight, I could get the $488.80 fare. I said "fine." A minute later, she was sorry but the fare would actually be over $600. I pressed for the quoted fare but received no satisfaction. I told her that I felt that this was a case of bait and switch. I sent a complaint to USAirways through their online process. The complaint was treated as an opinion and there was no offer of restitution.

I called the reservations person and was told to save the car rental receipt to finish the trip and contact the consumer care department of US Airways, but there isn't one. I can only send an email over the Internet and they will allegedly get back with you in 4-6 business days. I called the HQ in Tempe and the rude receptionist refused to give out information, saying that they did not have a phone number for customer care and just kept trying to give me the Web site. I called back and asked for the legal department and got a voice recorder for a "Cathy." My question is, is this a sham corporation or a real airlines?

I did not stop to obtain the name of the person at subject of this communication, so I apologize in advance for my inability to provide the full details of the issue. I'm sure this is not the first complaint about this employee; however, I have no doubt that you will in short order identify her. I have never been so aghast or repulsed by a flight attendant's performance and do fully expect that this complaint will be taken seriously. The flight attendant was working flight 1480 from Charlotte to Detroit that was scheduled to depart at 4:27 PM and is thin with short blonde hair, approximately 45-50 years old.

I was seated in 11C, just behind the emergency exit rows as the safety speeches were underway. The flight attendant going through the explanation of the duties required for seating in these rows was standing in the aisle two rows in front of me, asking all to affirm that they understood and agreed, asking that they respond with the statement "I understand". The gentleman in 10D said "yes" rather than the required statement and the flight attendant's behavior became shockingly demeaning. She told him that she needed him to say that he understood and he responded that he understood, at which point she leaned down in front of him as one does with a naughty toddler and said to him loudly, "Then what did I just say?" Looking at her in disbelief as she launched into a loud and indiscreet lecture over the necessities of his seating, the gentleman was quite visibly embarrassed. She then asked if he would like to be moved to another seat, to which he responded no, that he liked the leg room (in what appeared to be an attempt to diffuse the situation with humor) and she responded with more public lecture.

She then came down the aisle to me and said "Push your bag completely under the seat in front of you". I pushed the bag the required inches from its original location and quipped to the man seated next to me (who had been equally appalled at her behavior) that three inches will make all the difference and reopened my book. The flight attendant bent down, placing her head between my face and the seat in front of me and said "What did you just say to me?" Shocked at her confrontational behavior and invasion of my personal space, I repeated what I'd said to the man next to me. At this she began a lecture about the space and an accident, to which I said "Yes, yes, I understand".

I was trying avoid the same extended public shaming delivered to the man in front of me. She then stood up and pressed the call button, interrupting the other flight attendant in his safety speech, making her threat to remove me from the plane very clear. In my utter horror and surprise, I said "really"? The idea that I was about to be removed from the plane and probably arrested for making a joke about the effectiveness of three inches in saving my life during a plane wreck left me astounded. Was this really happening? She looked back down at me and said, again loudly and as if I was a school child being reprimanded on a playground by a nun, "Are we going to have a problem?" I responded that I just wanted to read my book. I know by this point my face was burning red with mortification and my only goal was to end the harassment. The people seated around me, to my left, behind and across the aisle, all expressed the same incredulity as soon as she was safely out of ear shot. No one wanted to place themselves in her sight.

I fly on a regular basis and I have never been chastised or threatened with removal from a plane. More, I am a paying customer who did not deserve the treatment I received on your flight. If any of my employees ever treated a customer in such a way, he or she would be terminated with prejudice on the spot. I am still quite beside myself and frankly furious. I tell you now that if I ever see that woman working a flight on which I am scheduled to fly again, I will immediately disembark and find another carrier, knowing that US Airways allows their employees to indulge in pointless power trips, to disrespect and publicly demean its customers. Today was completely uncalled for, utterly unacceptable and I would rather pay much higher prices at Delta than ever subject myself to that again.

I would recommend that you reach out to the man seated in 10D and apologize. He was also humiliated and did not even crack a joke to bring this degradation down on himself. I am quite sure that he also is furious.

The flight was to depart from Ontario at 6:30 a.m. on 5-29 with connections to Phoenix and Chicago (ORD), however, when he and his mother arrived, they were told there would be a 3 hour delay as the crew needed to take a mandatory rest period.

The agent rebooked their flights, however, made the mistake of separating them onto different flights, something they didn't discover until I was talking with him about other flight options. Besides that, the agent rebooked my husband to fly into Grand Rapids, MI, which he didn't realize until I began to look online for other flights that would put them into SBN at a reasonable time.

I contacted US Airways to see what other flights (US Airways or other airlines) and was told there were none available until the next day. I then searched for flights online myself and immediately found a flight through United (though it was listed as through US Airways) that was a much earlier flight and would get them into SBN close to the original time.

I contacted US Airways to verify there was room for at least 2 on the flights (each connecting one) and was told there was, that my husband just needed to call the airlines and it would be rebooked for him. Since he was at the US Airways main counter in ONT (because of his and his mother's flights having been separated), he asked for the agent to book them on the flights I had just verified. There was plenty of time, almost 45 min. before departure, but the agent refused to rebook because they 'needed' to be there at least 45 min. before the flight and it was in the United terminal in the other building. This is ridiculous. The airport is small, it was early in the morning and there is no reason she could not have contacted the gate to notify them of the passengers and have a shuttle take them (they had no bags checked). She simply refused.

They were finally rebooked so that they would be leaving Chicago on flight 7240 at 10:37 p.m. and arriving in SBN at 12:15 a.m. the next day, instead of the original flt. 7236 arriving at 5:01 p.m. in SBN on the 29th. Then on top of having their flight booked for so late, it ended up being canceled from Chicago to SBN for no reason. We were very close to the SBN area and then ended up driving into Chicago anyway because of their late arrival time and there was no weather to speak of.

If nothing else, I am asking that their last leg that was canceled would be refunded. My daughter and I had a flight booked for the prior Friday from Chicago to SBN and it was canceled as well for no reason. We are receiving a refund from US Airways. We expect the same on these tickets. This is totally unacceptable for US Airways to operate like this--in speaking with a number of people who have flown that same leg, apparently the airlines frequently cancels flights from Chicago to SBN for no reason. It seems the airline figures it will make money in the long run because the few refunds you would need to give from those who ask is outweighed by the money you make from those who don't know they should ask for a refund.

The last portion of the trip needs to be refunded, and if the airlines is one interested in caring for customers, there ought to be compensation for the repeated incompetence my husband and mother-in-law experienced with the rebooking and refusal to book the other flights, the errors made and the failure to book onto earlier available flights to begin with.

As a loyal customer to AA, I was disappointed by the two varied reports on the policy by the disrespectful, curt response I received from the Platinum reservation desk, and by the thought that I will loss over the $1500 credit due to an employee’s incorrect interpretation of the policy. I requested an exception to extend the credit if purchased by July 5th as planned as was promptly denied via form email from customer relations. No discussion or consideration. In 2010 I spent over 20k in air travel and flew with AA nearly exclusively. Had I known to use the credit early, I wouldn't have saved it to recreate the family vacation missed in 2010.

The simple extension of credit and being treated respectfully is all it would have taken to retain my business--a mutually beneficial action for both AA and me. Now it's time to select a new air partner - which isn't ideal for either of us. AA had an opportunity to do what's right for a loyal consumer and completely missed it. So sad. I lost $1500 due to variance in AA employees' view of ticket credit policy. Lost notable hours and endured stress from disrespectful telephone and online support.

That plane was prepared and we boarded. However, after what I think was a flight attendant complaint, we were told that a fresh flight attendant crew would have to be retrieved. So we had to wait one hour so the new crew could get here at the PHX airport. So we sat in the plane. It did look like the Captain was pissed but he did look like there was nothing he could do about it. After the crew arrived, we took off three and half hours later. The engine trouble I get; the flight crew balcony is unacceptable. If I did that in my job, I would be fired.

Not only was she rude, and rushed us, she totally forgot to confirm the new flight and to send the confirmation.

Secondly, she wouldn't budge in accommodating him to make his specified time in Texas, nor would she budge in providing him an incentive for AA's and her own lack of providing true customer service and their "not a care in the world" attitude.

The next morning I drove him to the airport to find out that his flight was delayed! He once again asked him how they could accommodate his flight partner and others, while they can't move even one of their lazy fingers to accommodate him. Once again, they're so useless, they couldn't do anything else. They finally got him transferred to a flight by Air Canada, which caused him to take a 1 hour and 45 min taxi ride from the airport to his destination. At least, they could have compensated him for the taxi ride!

American Airlines better get their act together, or else they're just waiting for a bad press release to happen and for them to start losing customers.

Firefighters are here to save lives and this is how they are treated. American Airlines sales reps and service is of poor quality. The Sales rep lady was disrespectful, rude, and lazy! American Airlines are money grabbers and are too lazy to compensate their passengers for their mistakes and problems.

We are very disappointed, frustrated, and angry with this airline. Never again will any of my family or friends be traveling via American Airlines. Word has already spread!

I have a friend named Sheralee and her son named Derrick, who have no other family and have considered my mother their mother/grandmother figure for about 15 years, that live in Phoenix. She does not have a car, so she didn't have a way to get down to Tucson for my mother's memorial service. So I thought about it and since my flight went through Phoenix, I figured I could just not catch my flight from Phoenix to Tucson and rent a car from Phoenix instead. That way I could pick her and her son up to go to the memorial service in Tucson. That worked on the way there, but on the way back is where the emotional hell began.

On the morning of Monday, May 16, I called US Airways to see if I needed to do anything special since I would not be on my flight from Tucson to Phoenix, instead, just catching my flight from Phoenix to Charlotte, since I was returning the rent-a-car in Phoenix. When I called, the operator told me that my flight would be canceled if I didn't catch the Tucson to Phoenix flight and I could maybe call Orbitz. I was getting really stressed out because this would mean I didn't have a flight home! So I called Orbitz and spoke with a lady named Sarah. She was nice enough to listen to me and try to call US Airways on my behalf.

Ultimately, US Airways, was not willing to work with her, but told her I could reissue my ticket for a $150 change fee and the $1300 on the fare. On a round trip ticket that I had already paid $400-plus for. So at this point I'm hysterical. It's beginning to sink in that I may be stuck in Phoenix. I had about $350 between my credit cards and cash, but certainly not $1300. And the one person I could always call in emergencies, my mother, was dead!

At this point, the thought of being stuck in Phoenix (at the airport with no car and one car-less friend) was making me cry so hard I couldn't even breathe! I had no other choice but to keep trying. No one at US Airways was willing to help me. I pleaded with them through the tears, wasn't there anything they could do to just allow me to catch the portion of my flight that I paid for, from Phoenix to Charlotte. I wasn't asking for an upgrade, I wasn't asking for a different flight, I didn't want anything more than to get on the Phoenix to Charlotte flight that I was already booked to be on. Again, no one would help me. They just kept saying there's no way to make it happen.

My question/concern, is that computers are running huge corporations, that have used public tax money to bail themselves out of their mistakes, for many, many years. Why was there not a person that could judge my story with compassion? No one at US Airways cared. No one gave a damn that I was stranded in Phoenix with only $350 to my name and no car, even though I did have a flight from Phoenix to Charlotte. No one to say that hey, while I did make some mistakes, US Airways was not so heartless as to stress out someone who had just lost their mother. What if this was your sister, your mother, your daughter, caught in a bad situation, just wanted to catch a leg of a flight they had already paid for? What if this was you? If US Airways would treat me this way, they will treat all of their customers this way, even though they've used public money for years to correct their mistakes.

I finally calmed down, accepted the reality and started looking online. Delta had a one-way ticket out of Charlotte that I could afford, which I bought (from Phoenix to Charlotte, with a layover in Atlanta). When I printed my Delta boarding passes, the computer told me that my flight from Phoenix to Atlanta would be delayed, getting me to Atlanta only 5 minutes before my connection flight to Charlotte left, which would force me to spend the night at the airport to catch another connecting flight.

Realizing this, I spoke with a nice gentleman at one of the counters and explained the situation to him. Delta had no room on any earlier flights to accommodate me, so he apparently called US Airways to ask if they had a seat open on a direct flight from Phoenix to Charlotte. Oh the irony! They did. The gentleman at Delta, was then able to change my flight to that US Airways flight that left at 1:45pm and got to Charlotte at 8:44 pm (Direct).

I realized then, for sure, that US Airways was heartless! Computers have overruled any human compassion at US Airways. You or any of your viewers could have a similar experience at US Airways. Already in high-stress mode because of my mother's death, my experience in dealing with US Airways took it to the top! I want to know why they wouldn't allow me on my connecting flight. I made a mistake and in my grief, did not read the terms and conditions, which stated my flight would be canceled, I was worried about finishing my mom's memorial service program which I was designing, and the fact that I would never be able to talk to her again! Was my mistake so bad?

But US Airways, who has used the American people to finance correcting their mistakes, would not allow me a pass for something that was an honest mistake but couldn't be fixed on my part. Had I realized the consequences, I certainly would have just used my ticket as issued so I wouldn't have had that stress, but I couldn't go back in time to change it, I just needed someone to care and help me fix the issue without having to pay $1300, which I didn't have and couldn't get. I just needed a compassionate person at US Airways to forgive my mistake and let me catch my flight out of Phoenix, but that didn't happen! No one offered me a chance to fly standby, to work over-ride the computer or even to talk to someone that could allow me to use my seat on the flight I was already scheduled on from Phoenix to Charlotte. They offered no solution other than to pay $1300 plus change fees or find a way back to Tucson and buy a new one-way ticket to fly out the next day!

Not only has US Airways used the American people's money to fund the corrections of its mistakes, it has a hub right here in our community, but has proven, from my personal experience, that it doesn't give a damn about its consumers. This experience has been one of the most stressful and emotionally/mentally draining that I have ever had, compounded by the death of my mother.

When I returned home to unpack, an extremely expensive hair product I had purchased was crushed despite the rolls of bubble wrap I used to secure it. The employees at American Airlines must have been extraordinarily rough in handling the bags because I have traveled with this product before and never had this happen. I understand that airlines are not liable for damaged items inside the suitcase, but this is just an overly gross and careless handling of people's things.

We had the very unfortunate luck of being on the plane, waiting to back away from the C8 gate, when the tornado struck our plane, in addition to bags, debris, a large metal bag carrier, and anything else that the wind picked up at the time. After a few terrifying moments, we were emergency evacuated from the plane and told to leave our bags behind. Upon re-entering the airport, we couldn't believe the devastation in the terminal: the water, the broken glass, the stunned adults roaming around. It's amazing that nobody was hurt and I thank God that it wasn't worse.

After being released from the airport, we firmly believed, and were told by several AA officials, that all of our bags would meet us at our final destination, so we redirected our flight, packed a small backpack for a change of clothes, rented a car and drove through the night to Memphis for a new route. Once we were in Jamaica, we were told yet again by AA officials that our bags would come shortly and called twice a day to confirm. Every time we called, they told us our three bags were arriving on the next flight. Our check-in bag finally did arrive. The night before we left at 9 PM we had enough time to have to pay to check it again and we eventually found out that our carry-on bags never left St. Louis so we ended up picking them up on our way back through. Since we were told that our bags would show up, we never bought new clothes, and ended up missing out on quite a bit of our trip: all of the restaurants we hoped to attend had dress codes; we eventually ended up purchasing swim suits on the third day, no tennis shoes; my husband ended up getting burnt because his medicated suntan lotion was in our suitcase; no bath product, no hair product, no makeup. Needless to say, we were ready to come home by the end of it.

In addition to all of this, we paid an additional $250 for a rental car to Memphis and we were unable to receive a refund for the $120 hotel room for our pre-booked overnight stay in Dallas. I know this is a sob story, and I don't expect a full refund for any of the items above. The reason I'm writing you this letter is because the one vacation that we will remember the rest of our lives turned out to be the worst experience in my life. We'd love to plan a honeymoon redo, but, like most newlyweds, spent a significant amount of money on this trip, in hopes of the "trip of a lifetime".

Both my husband and I are AAdvantage Members. I've been a member since 2006, and he's been a member for quite a bit longer than I; we both travel a lot for work. American has always been my preferred airline for travel, but the way that this natural disaster was handled has left me questioning my choices. Is there anything you can do to help restore our faith in American Airlines?

You can cancel your whole reservation if you like, or take this. Needless to say this didn't make me happy, especially since to fly another airline would cost me a lot more money at this late date and they know it. To make matters worse, my boyfriend is arriving a week later than I will, and they also changed his ticket. But they put him on a Vueling flight that leaves Madrid at 11:40am! So I called back and asked to be put on that flight as well, only a week earlier and they said, "No, you've confirmed the new itinerary so if we could change you, we'd have to charge you penalties, and fees!"

I need to charge them! Is there a rule anywhere that protects the consumer against airlines that can change your schedule when you've already paid, and that put you at a huge disadvantage? I need any kind of help I can get on this one. I'm so angry about it! Thanks.

This specially applies when that person is supposed to report for work the next day. If my wife had been told the truth about the flight status, she would, at least have the opportunity to get another flight, from another airline. Why should she lose income from her employment, and also have to spend more money to get a place to sleep for another night, when it was completely out of her control?

But in reality, it wasn't out of your control to let them know they wouldn't be getting on their connecting flights. I realize this is probably falling on deaf ears, because I have come to understand that when it comes to business it's more about the money, and less about the people nowadays. I would appreciate a response by mail in this matter. Thanks

At that time, the flight attendant, Ms. Sheila **, approached from behind and barked, "That needs to be off now!" (I note as a point of emphasis that a rather more professional and courteous reminder like, "Excuse me sir, but all electronic devices must be shut down prior to departure" might have sufficed). Stunned by her unprofessional and accusatory tone, I attempted to inform her that I had already initiated the procedure and was waiting for the device to power down. However, I was unable to complete the sentence before she snapped, "I don't want to hear it! Turn it off now! I made an announcement. You should have been paying attention!"

Recognizing that verbal communication was apparently futile, I turned the device around to show her the spinning clock (indicating that the program was shutting down). Unfortunately, her aggressive and erratic behavior continued unabated. She responded, "It should have been off already! I made an announcement. Turn it off now!" Frustrated by her irrational behavior and unprovoked aggression, and conceding the evident futility of all attempts at rational discourse, I shrugged my shoulders and responded, "Aye aye, captain."

I must confess that I was theretofore unaware of the fact that the word "captain" is a pejorative and threatening term. Apparently, however, it was deemed to be so to Ms. **, who immediately declared, "That's it; you're off." She then marched to the front of the cabin and informed the captain that he needed to taxi back to the gate to remove a passenger (I trust that you wont fail to recognize the irony in the fact that I could have simply ignored the regulation and left the device on in my briefcase and avoided the condescending grammar school admonishment for, "of all things," attempting to actually comply with the regulation)!

Lest you're tempted to conclude that I am either a non-compliant passenger who was refusing to discontinue use of an electronic device or perhaps simply a humiliated passenger who is trying to mitigate any culpability in the incident, I implore you to consider the following:

1) Both cellphone records and the device history will indicate that there were no incoming nor outgoing calls on the device within the preceding 24 hours and no attempts to access the Internet or email within three hours prior to the incident. Additionally, no other program, including music, calendar, camera, or voicemail had been accessed within days of the incident. It is therefore clear and irrefutably demonstrable that contrary to Ms. **'s accusation, I was emphatically not using the device at the time of departure.

2) Upon returning to the gate, my fiancee and I were greeted by three local law enforcement officers who, upon hearing the details of the incident informed us that there was clearly no violation on our part and that the flight attendant's actions were both inappropriate and unnecessary. Indeed, when providing a status report to her supervisor, one officer stated that both passengers were fully compliant, cooperative, reasonable, and polite. Moreover, she indicated that there was no evidence to suggest that we were acting in a manner that warranted removal from the flight.

3) Upon learning the details of the incident, all three American Eagle gate employees were profoundly and profusely apologetic to us and offered every means of accommodation in order to assist us with making alternative arrangements. Moreover, the compliance officer, Mr. Tyler **, confirmed that Ms. **'s actions were inexplicable, unwarranted and, in his experience, unprecedented.

Importantly, in a statement that sheds considerable light on Ms. **'s state of mind at the time of the incident, the baggage handler informed the gate personnel and the police officer who was still present at the time that Ms. ** was on the war path from the moment she arrived that morning and was going off on everyone before the passengers began boarding (we were unable to record this employee's name before he departed, though I trust his identity can be obtained through the duty log and service records).

4) As the incident unfolded, several passengers expressed incredulity at Ms. **'s irrational and erratic behavior (indeed, one passenger in front of us turned around and asked us if she was drunk). The speed with which the incident took place precluded us from collecting contact information from surrounding passengers.

However, I encourage you to refer to the manifest and contact the passengers in the surrounding seats (we were seated in 12B and 12C) for further statements and testimony. I hasten to add that the surrounding passengers will confirm that we remained calm and that at no point during the exchange did we raise our voices, use profanity, or refuse to comply (indeed, my fiancee even attempted to diffuse Ms. **'s aggression by politely apologizing to her for any apparent miscommunication and explaining that the device takes several seconds to power down).

5) Both local law enforcement officers and American Eagle personnel provided contact information and invited us to direct any investigating authority to contact them for confirmation of the details surrounding the incident. Accordingly, I have listed below the relevant contact information for both the American Eagle compliance coordinator and the officer in charge of the investigation.

As a 20-year member of the American Advantage program who has logged several hundred thousand miles on American Airlines flights, I am shocked and profoundly offended by the manner in which I was treated by Ms. **. Her erratic and irrational behavior was highly unprofessional, discourteous, and disrespectful. Moreover, her aggression was unprovoked and her actions were entirely without justification.

Finally, as a pilot myself, I am quite well aware of the circumstances that would justify returning an aircraft to the gate following a clearance to taxi--since nothing that took place during the above referenced exchange would be regarded by any reasonable and responsible pilot as sufficient justification for aborting a departure. It is clear that Ms. ** issued a false statement to the pilot in command of a commercial aircraft and falsely accused me of violating a federal aviation regulation when she contacted the pilot and requested that he return to the gate.

In so doing, she violated both federal law and my legal rights (this is a matter that will be adjudicated in due course in the appropriate legal jurisdiction). Her decision to remove a passenger without any reasonable justification and based on nothing more than the fact that she was apparently having a bad day is an egregious abuse of her very limited and narrowly-defined authority. Importantly, her behavior provides substantial evidence to suspect that Ms. ** is either psychologically unstable, poorly trained (recall that her job is to diffuse potential conflicts, not provoke them!), or, "even worse," working while under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol. Based on these facts, her actions warrant immediate termination.

In light of the foregoing, I herewith demand that you take the following actions: 1) Initiate a full and complete investigation of the above referenced incident and provide full and complete documentation of the findings and conclusions, as well as the subsequent punitive actions taken in order to achieve a satisfactory resolution of the grievance. 2) Cancel my American Advantage account (account number **), donate any remaining miles to a qualified charity, and cease and desist from any subsequent correspondence, except for that which is specifically related to this grievance and the resolution thereof.

3) Issue a full refund for all charges related to the original itinerary as well as those related to the alternative flights necessitated by Ms. **'s unjustified actions (as documented in the forms and receipts attached hereto). 4) Finally, I request that you submit a copy of the original incident report no later than seven days from receipt of this letter. In conclusion, please know that I am under no illusions about the cavalier and disinterested manner with which you will receive this letter nor the speed with which you will inevitably delegate responsibility for issuing a reply (if my experience with American/American Eagle over the last several months is any barometer, I suspect you've become rather well accustomed to and efficient at handling complaints from aggrieved customers). Nonetheless, please be advised that I will employ the full spectrum of considerable resources at my disposal to compel you to comply with the demands enumerated above and ensure an expeditious and satisfactory resolution of this grievance.

Follow Up: I received a letter from American Airlines Customer Service two weeks after submitting the complaint. They responded to my accusation that the flight attended issued a false statement to the pilot in command of a commercial aircraft and falsely accused me of violating FAA regulations by reviewing the flight attendant's statement and concluding that I had violated policy (Huh?).

They refused to review the police report, consider witness statements, and dismissed the statements of their own American Eagle employees who indicated that the flight attendant's actions were unwarranted, inappropriate, and in their collective experience, unprecedented (the airline claims that these statements were without merit because these employees didn't necessarily see everything that happened).

To add insult to injury, the airline declined to issue a refund for the flight, despite the fact that the American Eagle Compliance Officer on site informed us that our money would be refunded, provided the appropriate forms and receipts, and walked us through the process of obtaining the refund.

Is that even legal? if it is then, there's nothing I can do if it's not then, I want to fight it. Thank you. The interest was almost 28% and I wanted to pay it off. I finally did but wanted to have it there in case of an emergency. As a single mom I felt like it was stolen from me.

My grandson was born to our daughter Catherine, seriously premature, in the San Diego area on December 15, 2010. He hovered on the edge of death for six weeks before dying on January 26. At the time, when he was near death, my other daughter, Dr. Susan **, Virginia Beach, VA, booked flights for her and I to go to San Diego to be there on the 27th. However, we were not in time as the baby died just as we started our trip. The trip was booked through Travelocity as a round trip for both of us.

Dr. Susan ** followed her original return itinerary, but as mother to the dead baby's grieving mom, I was asked to stay and prepare for the cremation and funeral on Friday, February 4. My flight back to Norfolk was to be on the 5th. Susan had to pay you $175 to change my flight reservation. I was again charged an additional $150 at check-in, so as to be allowed to board the flight home.

Your preoccupation with squeezing as much money as possible from other people's tragedy does not engender warm, fuzzy feelings, and I suggest you send me a check for $150, and one to Dr. Susan ** for the unconscionable $175 fee she paid for me as well. Your reputation is at stake!

Once we finally arrived at Rome, a day and half late of what was supposed to be 3 days in Rome before going to our cruise, we had to still pay for the hotel night missed and for the tours that we missed. Additionally, some of our baggage never made it to Rome. It was stuck in London. It took 6 days for it to finally arrive. My mother’s baggage was damaged when it arrived but at least it was there. The cruise ship delivered to us the missing luggage in Barcelona.

American Airlines knew ahead of time that there were problems when we checked in at Las Vegas. They could have rerouted us through Miami to Rome or at very least gave us a heads up so we could make alternate arrangements and made cancellations. We didn’t get to see half of what we wanted to. What we did see was very rushed due to the time limitations as we had to meet up with the cruise ship. All I’ve asked for in return from AA is just a refund of air miles used to take this trip so we can go back and see all the sites that we missed.

The shuttle arrived and the driver was less than quick. In fact, I think we were all a hindrance in his ability to flirt with the female US Airways staff member on the shuttle. He was driving slowly and chatting away with this female staff member while those of us on the shuttle were trying to connect to a flight. But, I wasn't worried; I still had 25 minutes before takeoff. I got to the gate approximately 20 - 22 minutes before the flight was supposed to take off. This was a connecting flight, so I was already checked in. Meaning, I should have until 15 prior to take off before the gate closes. (As a side note, I have an email from US Airways that states: "The closing of our flights at the gate begins 10 minutes prior to departure with the door to close on the aircraft at 5 minutes prior to the scheduled departure time. ")

Yet, as I ran up to the gate (I was the first person from my flight to make it to the gate), the US Airways attendant was walking out of the door and to the plane. I watched him close the plane's door from the window of the airport. I tried speaking to several US Airways uniformed employees who all looked at me as though I had an extra eye in the middle of my forehead. No one would stop the man. No one would even attempted to open the door to tell him there were other passengers there to board. Mind you, still prior to the 15 minute cut off. When the man finally came back inside, I was considerably upset. His response, "We close the gate at 15 prior to departure time.” I looked at my cell phone. It was just at that moment 15 minutes prior to departure. I had been standing there for at least 5 minutes. I was on time. After 10 more minutes of arguing and other passengers showing up, the US Airways agent told me he would no longer speak to me. He stated, "I am not a manager. I don't have to deal with this. “I told him he should probably find a manager fast. 10 more minutes later a manager, young man in a pink sweater, strolled up to the gate. He was met by the same questions we had asked the first rep. "We were told the flight was waiting.” "Why did you close the gate early?” "Why wasn't I let on the flight? I was here on time. "

Now, it is my assumption that they had customers on standby and assumed that our flight wasn't going to make it to PHL in time to connect. They then gave our seats to standby customers, instead of waiting an adequate amount of time for us to board. When I asked the manager about this, he said that this was absolutely not the case. Flights must close their doors 15 prior to departure. It is not a negotiable issue. And that US Airways would "never," and I quote, "never" allow standby passengers to board if there is still a chance that ticketed passengers will be arriving on time. Also, the manager informed me that it is not regulation to hold a flight for passengers. Remember these quotes.

The manager finally re-booked those of us waiting on different flights. Two of us accepted flights to a nearby airport 2 hours later. Not a huge time difference. I was still furious as I was not allowed on my original flight, but 2 hours wouldn't kill me. I asked where my luggage was. The manager said he assumed it was on the plane going to White Plains, my original destination. I asked him kindly if he could check into that. He came back 5 minutes later and said my bag had never made it onto the plane. It would be re-ticketed and placed on my next flight. He also explained to us that we were holding standby tickets. He said, "You will be on this next flight. As I look over the flight information for connecting passengers, I can see that there are 7 passengers that are on flights that will not make it to PHL in time to make this connecting flight. Really.” He was promising standby people seats on a flight under the assumption that ticketed passengers would not make it in time? Isn't this what he just promised me didn't happen to my seat on the original flight?

So we waited for the next flight. When it came time to board, it was mass chaos. I came to find out that the manager and US Airways had given out roughly 20 standby tickets for this flight. The gate agent was allowing standby people on the plane before ticketed passengers. There were ticketed passengers showing up that had no seat because the agent was stressed to the max and basically allowing people to board that weren't supposed to be boarding yet. Ticketed passengers were not allowed to board this flight and no one seemed concerned. I quickly knew that I would not be boarding this flight that I was promised I would be on. And when I looked at my phone again, the time was 10 minutes prior to take off. The gate was not closed. There was chaos as to who should board. The manager was called over again. Those 7 passengers that would "Never make it in time," well they were there at this point. Furious as well. We were asking the manager why the gate hadn't been closed. It should have been closed 15 minutes prior to boarding and there should not have been standby people on that flight if they were going to continue with the same procedures that had kept some of us off of our original flight.

The manager started freaking out. He had a group of 20 or so people around him, all angry, and I know that his job is not easy. Unfortunately, he had laid to us about the status of the flights passengers, and that we would make this flight. They handed out too many standby tickets. They were unorganized. He then sent 7 of us to another flight that was leaving in 15 minutes. He said they were "holding the flight" for us. (Remember, earlier he said that US Airways couldn't hold flights for customers.) We ran to the next flight, boarded, sat down and finally, I felt like we were on our way. Except we weren't.

The flight attendant stated that the last 3 people on the plane, my name included, had to exit the plane due to weight restrictions. You have to be kidding me. At this point I went crazy. I could not wrap my mind around everything that had happened that morning. I walked off the plane into the tunnel and asked to talk to a manager. A manager was there and said there was nothing he could do. I informed him that he needed to take someone else off that flight. There were people on that flight that had just landed in PHL and I had been there for hours. I had the right to leave first. I was practically in tears at this point just wondering when I would be going home. Luckily for me, one of the people they had asked to leave the plane was flying with his girlfriend who didn't want to leave without him. So she left the flight as well and I was then allowed to re-board. I was the only one allowed to re-board. Finally, I was leaving PHL.

I arrived at the next airport, an hour out of the way for my ride, and there were two US Airways employees working out on the runway. That is two people helping with arrivals, helping with departures, helping with luggage. Two people. We sat on the plane for quite a while on the runway. And low and behold, it took another 30 minutes of waiting inside for the luggage. And of course, my luggage was not there. Go figure. I filed a claim and it was supposed to go to my original destination and then it would be delivered to me. Except 45 minutes later when I called US Airways to check on the status (the young man at the gate did not seem confident in knowing where my bag actually was), I was informed that my bag had just landed. At the airport I had just left. Again. Furious. Had I been told the correct destination of my luggage I would have stayed at the airport to pick it up. Instead I had to wait 7 more hours to get my bag.

Now the airline has heard this story. And of course, they are completely unwilling to do any form of compensation. They say that my experience is unusual for their airline and that it was all "weather related". Nonsense! Complete and insulting nonsense. US Airways has the worst customer service of any airline that I have ever flown. No one on the customer service lines would help, in fact at one point I was informed that they no longer communicate with customers via telephone. You have to email your complaints. I did finally speak to someone live this morning who called me after I requested so in my 2nd or 3rd email, who did listen, and then told me that there was nothing they could do. A line from one of the emails states, "The travel incident you describe is regrettable, and we apologize for the difficulties you encountered. Our intention is to offer the best travel experience possible. The details you have provided indicate that we have failed to meet our intentions. " They are aware that they did not meet their expectations, and yet I am still denied even a small amount of compensation for the baggage that they lost/delayed/didn't know where it was/sent to the wrong airport, or for being treated like dirt and yelled at by US Airways employees at the airport. When Delta sent my bag to the wrong airport only a week before, they compensated me $75 immediately. US Airways is a joke as far as customer service. Everyone should do themselves a favor and never fly with US Airways.

While I doubt that you will ever read this letter, let me tell you what happened to my wife and I and our two best friends.

In August of 2010, I contacted Expedia to book an all-inclusive 8-day vacation to Aruba for the four of us. We paid upfront for our tickets and were confirmed on US Airways to fly from Portland to Phoenix to Philadelphia to Charlotte to Aruba. Several days after receiving confirmation of our flights, I was notified by email that US Airways had changed my flight. I contacted our friends to see if they had received the same notification and they hadn't. They contacted US Airways and were told that there was no cancellation of their flight, which was the same flight we were being told, had been cancelled.

I called Expedia and they confirmed that US Airways had changed the flight and that my wife and I would be flying to Phoenix, then to Charlotte, then on to Aruba. Our friends would remain flying to Philadelphia, then hope to catch up with us in Charlotte. I again called Expedia and told them that this was not an acceptable travel arrangement because we were traveling together, the original flight that we were booked on was still going, and that if the original flight wasn't going, then our friends should be moved onto the changed flight with us.

Expedia promised to call US Airways for an explanation. Eventually, I was contacted by Expedia and was told that my wife and I would be moved back to our original flight, but that US Airways was deciding on whether or not to charge a cancellation and change of flight fee. Supposedly, Expedia negotiated a waiver of these fees that US Airways was planning to fraudulently impose.

On 10 Jan 11, we arose early to check the status of our flight for later that day. There was a Severe Weather Advisory posted for the very area we would be flying into. Noted in the advisory was the warning that flights could be cancelled or delayed due to the worsening conditions. By 10:00 AM, we were convinced that the likelihood of us reaching our destination without delays was not reasonable, especially since we had to make a connecting flight from Philadelphia to Charlotte.

Charlotte was experiencing the worst snow since 1962. Snow and ice were expected for at least the next 24-48 hours. Additionally, we had made inquiries regarding delays in reaching Charlotte and were told that there was only the single flight to Aruba that we were booked on. If we somehow missed that connection, we would not be able to get out of Charlotte until Thursday or possibly Friday. (In point of fact, US Airways flight 1593 from Philadelphia to Charlotte was cancelled). Obviously, we ran the risk of a complete fiasco where we either didn't reach our destination, or if we did, we would be three or four days late. We had already paid for our resort and doubted that they would refund unused days that were already paid. So, being reasonable, and very disappointed people, we decided to cancel our flight and our vacation.

I contacted Expedia and informed them of our decision, based upon the weather. They cancelled our flight, or should I say, attempted to cancel the flight through US Airways. I was given a confirmation of cancellation number: **. Our friends also called and cancelled and were told that US Airways would not refund any money except to extend a credit, which could be redeemed for $300. Should they decide to fly US Air within one year. I assumed that reasonable people would waive this fee, since this was a weather-related event.

When I checked my email the following morning, I found a notice that our flight is still confirmed, although having left the day before. I tried for four hours to reach someone at US Airways. I couldn't get beyond a queue where I would wait on the phone for an hour or more before trying another means of contact. I emailed customer support and, of course, nothing by way of reply.

Finally, I went to Expedia where they attempted to contact US Airways and I had to hold on the phone for 1 hour and 45 minutes before the Expedia agent could get anyone from US Airways on the phone. The agent relayed to me that US Airways felt that we had forfeited the entire cost of the trip because we had not cancelled. When Expedia provided documentation that we had in fact cancelled, the agent replied that we couldn't receive any refund because we would have had to actually fly to Philadelphia where (our) flight 1593 was cancelled!

I asked what kind of logic this person was following, since our flight would have been cancelled in Philadelphia? I was told that we wouldn't have received any refund; rather, US Airways would have rerouted us to some other state from which we would eventually reach Aruba. The flaw in this argument is that we had a contract to fly on a certain date and time to a certain place and time. We didn't and wouldn't agree that whenever US Airways gets us there is fine. Who would? We had paid reservations and accommodations, yet we were supposed to rely on US Airways to get us there at their convenience?

At the end of the day, after much upset and protestations, I was told that the US Airways customer service agent would allow us to get the value of our tickets back, for a fee of $300, and the promise to fly within one year on US Airways, paying any additional fees as required. I stated that I wanted to know who the CEO of US Airways was, and was told that the agent didn't know. She only answered phones and finally, we could either take it or leave it, meaning, forfeit all our airfare. If we wanted to know who the identity of the US Airways CEO, we could look it up online.

Mr. **, I want a full refund of my ticket purchase. We didn't casually cancel our trip, which we had planned for over a year. We did what the airlines do; we relied upon the weather forecast that advised us to expect delays and cancellations. Why, under the circumstances, does your company feel entitled to an unearned $300 (extortion) fee? Why, under the circumstances, does your company think that we would want to ever darken the doorway of one of your aircraft?

Responsible companies that truly care about the consumer do exceptions and waivers all the time. Apparently, your company ethics are just to ** the consumer--use every loophole and asinine argument, refuse to listen, refuse to be reasonable, obfuscate, obstruct, and delay. No matter what, never give the customer his/her money back. Is that really how you want to run your company? I sincerely hope that writing to you wasn't an exercise in futility. It's never too late to do the right thing. I await your reply.

Because I had to return to work, I had to repurchase a ticket from Delta for nearly $500. US Airways refused to give refunds and blamed it on the agent. The agent said they could only issue a credit. But based on such bad experience, would I ever want to take US Airways again? Apparently not. In other words, they were trying to retain my money without providing the service promised. Please do have an attorney contact me.

On January 9, 2011 at approximately 11:15 am, I called AA to arrange for email pre-boarding passes whereupon the agent informed me that Mexicana was out of business I was flabbergasted and told him that I couldn't believe it and he said to me, "It was all over the papers and the news. Didn't you read it?" Well, no, I hadn't nor had AA notified me as Mexicana was a partner airline! This was a totally inappropriate response whereupon I asked to speak to a supervisor.

It is now 1:04 pm, nearly 2 hours later, and we finally resolved our travel plans going through many cities, trying to work out our 2-week trip which had been pre-paid and hotels prepaid for on each end of our flights through Miami. Needless to say, this was 2 hours that I did not need to waste on the day before out trip due to AA's negligence in having my "wrong" email address and not addressing the issue in December when I spoke to an AA representative twice. In addition to the 2 hours lost today on the phone restructuring our flights, we have to pay out-of-pocket to get from Puerto Vallart to Manzanillo upon our arrival in Mexico. We originally had direct flights into Manzanillo. Supervisor Lanis ** said she could not do anything about getting us into Manzanillo. All we heard was "I'm sorry" many times.

For our trouble and for added expense, we asked to be placed in first class and were met with incredulence as to even have requested it, like it was the crown jewels. It seems that American Airlines really does not understand the concept of customer service and responsibility for their commitments. That's all we were asking for is to get to our original destination and return. I have heard many complaints about American Airlines and we are now understanding why this is so. We are totally frustrated and disgusted with the way things are handled lately.

Even though I was shocked about it, I ended up paying over the phone because I had no other choice. I asked for a receipt or payment confirmation and I was told by the agent in a very rude way that they couldn't send a receipt because my baby was not getting a ticket or using a seat. She promised that it already showed in their system that the payment was complete, so I shouldn't worry.

I got to the airport to check in for my flight and the lady at the AA counter told me that I had to pay for my baby to travel. I told her that I already paid, and the rest of the story. In a very rude way, she told me, "The system doesn't show you've payed for him. If you don't pay now, you won't be able to fly, it's that simple!" I was really frustrated and as I tried to check my email from my phone to show her that my son's information was already in the system, she said, "I can't wait for that. There are other passengers that I need to take care of. I can't help you anymore. Your choices are either you pay, or he doesn't fly!"

Frustrated enough, but worried about missing my flight, I ended up paying again because I was not going to put up with her attitude. Also, I was not willing to lose my flight just because of her stupidity. I'm away from home and I can't contact the bank from here, but as soon as I go back, I'll check my statements hoping to prove that I paid twice for my baby to travel on my lap and start the nightmare of trying to get a refund.

I tried to tell this agent at the counter that the only way they had all my baby's information in the system is because I paid. Otherwise, they wouldn't even know I was traveling with a baby until the day of my flight. Mistakes can happen, but the way they treated me is totally unacceptable. I'm a frequent flier with them, but I'm not traveling with American Airlines anymore. Even though their price ticket was better at first, I ended up paying a lot more because they double charged me for an infant traveling on my lap!

At the time of the reservation, I mentioned to the ticket agent that I preferred to deplane in Charlotte. Since it is an hour drive, either from Charlotte or Greensboro, it didn't make sense to fly another hour. He told me to let them know at the gate. I assumed it was either for security reasons, or so that another passenger would be able to board.

We arrived, went through security, of course one bag had to be searched due to my carrying my son's Wii console and my nebulizer inhaler for my asthma, completely understandable.

At boarding time, I informed the man at Gate E-8 of my deplaning in Charlotte. He angrily responded that what I was doing was illegal. He then went on a tirade saying, "Oh, I know why you did it, it's cheaper to fly to Greensboro, you're stealing!". This in front of everyone boarding a full flight, but more insultingly, in front of my little boy. I assured him that that was not the case. If so, why would I have said anything?

I maintained my composure. I have taught my son the difference between right and wrong, and stealing, of course, is completely unacceptable. I thanked him, mostly to diffuse the situation and said goodbye. My son, innocently, wished him a Merry Christmas, and we proceeded to board, or so I thought. Halfway down the aisle, he hollered from the entrance, "The lady going to Charlotte with the boy, come back!"

He did this a few times as I was approaching him. I worked my way back through the crowd, all eyes on us, of course, and he proceeded to tell me that I could not deplane in Charlotte and leave my son to fly alone to Greensboro. In a loud voice, repeating that it was illegal for me to leave a minor on the plane alone.

Firstly, I would never abandon my son on a plane or anywhere, it was a ludicrous assumption. It was another opportunity for him to call attention and further embarrass us. I am not sure if my son understood the gamut of what was happening, he is autistic. I chose to ignore his complete and utter rudeness and add fuel to his fire. We were headed for a much needed family vacation during a lovely time of year. Giving into an obviously inept, unhappy human being is a choice I made to maintain my son's happiness as well as my own.

I fly often, nationally and internationally and have never been treated with such cruelty and nastiness as I had on the morning of December 19, 2010. Rest assured, I will be informing many of my treatment. Shame on the man at the gate. He berated my son and myself, if you could have only seen my little boy's eyes. Loud voices and yelling rattle him. That poor excuse for a human being wanted to upset someone, he did, a child. I didn't attempt to get his name; I could only imagine what further humiliation he would have unleashed. Although you can easily get his name. It was flight 1645, from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to Greensboro, NC, stopping in Charlotte, December 19, 2010, departing at 8:25 am.

There were two at the counter, a younger man and the older black man who is the one in question. I only mentioned his race for description purposes, no other reason.

I expect to have some response from US Airways and will hold off, temporarily until you respond, forwarding this letter to the many travel sites as well as the National Autism Society and the many other Children with Disabilities sites.

I will definitely search for flights on any other airline before even remotely considering yours.

I see, of course, that US Airways has many, many complaints here-so I am less assured that they even care about customers at all. As I have said before in my emails to them, this is absolutely unacceptable and I will never fly with their airline again and will advise any and everyone I know against flying with this airline. My original complaint follows:

I intend to lodge a number of complaints with this airline, beginning with a baggage delay at Tweed-New Haven airport. Flying in from Los Angeles, with a connection in Philadelphia, the luggage I paid $25 to have delivered was not only at New Haven when I arrived, it wasn't even trackable by US Airways staff. Indeed, they admitted that the location of my luggage was, at that time, unknown. After a rough exchange with TSA staff--who seem to have no oversight, whatsoever--I came home with the promise from US Airways staff that my bag would be brought on the next flight from Philadelphia (despite the fact that they had already told me they were unsure that my bag was even in Philadelphia).

In any case, I let that time pass, plus gave it a few more hours, before calling to inquire where my bag might be. I spoke first to a woman who informed me that my bag would certainly positively be delivered that night, December 29, by 11pm. When that time passed, I called US Airways baggage services to find out what was going on--when, much to my chagrin, I was again told that actually the fact of the matter was that nobody knew where my bag was.

After a heated exchange with a completely unhelpful representative by the name of Mitra, I asked to speak to her supervisor. She told me that she had none. I then asked to have the number of the baggage delivery company, or at least their name, so that (being that she was doing nothing for me) I might contact them myself to see if I could find my bag. She refused to give me any information, claiming that this is company policy (which, if it is, I must say is one of the most offensive policies I have ever heard of--not only do company representatives refuse to help, they are refused to allow the customers to help themselves!).

I then spoke to another woman by the name of Ali, who told me that my bags had never been given to a baggage delivery company but that US Airways had had them the entire time. Therefore, either US Airways representatives willfully lie to their customers, or they're grossly misinformed about the facts of their operation. Either way, the situation was totally unacceptable. I demanded to know where my bag was or at least get some straight facts, and I insisted that Ms. Ali tell me if indeed US Airways had no idea where my bag was. She finally admitted that US Airways had no idea where my bag was! One can imagine how furious this would make a customer after hours of being given a runaround. I was told I would have my bag delivered, with total certainty, by the next morning (Dec. 30) despite the fact that again they didn't know where it was.

At that time I asked to lodge a complaint and was told that a form for that would be delivered with my bag in the morning. My bag did not arrive until later that day, when it was carelessly dumped in front of my door with no warning and no complaint form of any kind! Indeed I didn't even sign a release for my bag. Nothing. It was just dumped there, in front of my door, after a blizzard!

All that being said, my complaint should be obvious: if US Airways is going to charge to deliver bags, they should do what they're charging their customer for. In other words, I would not only like my money back, I think that it is only fair that US Airways properly apologize for this unbelievable inconvenience and recompense what should have been a satisfied customer. Following upon my total dissatisfaction with this airline, I must also say that I have experienced deception, incompetence, and runaround.

That I couldn't even contact customer service directly to lodge this complaint stands as proof to this airline's seeming lack of commitment to their customers. I called to complain, indeed called the number that was given to me as a complaint line by TSA staff and US Airways staff (800 428 4322), only to discover, to my continuous chagrin, that that number is for reservations and that US Airways has no complaint hotline!

Furthermore, the woman that I spoke to on that line who seemed to be the same Ali as before (I cannot be sure but they sure sounded alike) stated flat-out: US Airways has no customer service representatives. You must lodge any complaints online. I asked her to repeat that, to affirm something that I simply could not believe, only to have to hear that unbelievable fact yet again: US Airways not only has no customer service, it charges for baggage delivery it does not provide, has a staff of workers who are either willfully deceptive or plain uninformed vis-a-vis customers, and continues, in all of this, to presume that such service is any way to run a business. Run a business into the ground, perhaps. My experience was absolutely unacceptable.

And I do intend to have this matter resolved, even if I have to come all the way to Mumbai to talk to their outsourced, irresponsible, and unresponsive "customer care" staff. It's absolutely unacceptable.

I see, of course, that US Airways has many, many complaints here. So I am less assured that they even care about customers at all. As I have said before in my emails to them, this is absolutely unacceptable and I will never fly with their airline again and will advise any and everyone I know against flying with this airline. My original complaint follows:

I intend to lodge a number of complaints with this airline, beginning with a baggage delay at Tweed-New Haven airport. Flying in from Los Angeles, with a connection in Philadelphia, the luggage I paid $25 to have delivered was not only not at New Haven when I arrived, it wasn't even track-able by US Airways staff. Indeed, they admitted that the location of my luggage was, at that time, unknown. After a rough exchange with TSA staff, who seem to have no oversight whatsoever, I came home with the promise from US Airways staff that my bag would be brought on the next flight from Philadelphia (despite the fact that they had already told me they were unsure that my bag was even in Philadelphia).

In any case, I let that time pass, plus gave it a few more hours, before calling to inquire where my bag might be. I spoke first to a woman who informed me that my bag would certainly, positively be delivered that night, December 29, by 11:00 PM. When that time passed, I called US Airways baggage services to find out what was going on, when, much to my chagrin, I was again told that actually the fact of the matter was that nobody knew where my bag was.

After a heated exchange with a completely unhelpful representative by the name of Mitra, I asked to speak to her supervisor. She told me that she had none. I then asked to have the number of the baggage delivery company, or at least their name, so that (being that she was doing nothing for me) I might contact them myself to see if I could find my bag. She refused to give me any information, claiming that this is company policy (which, if it is, I must say is one of the most offensive policies I have ever heard of: not only do company representatives refuse to help; they refused to allow the customer to help themselves!).

I then spoke to another woman by the name of Ali, who told me that my bags had never been given to a baggage delivery company but that US Airways had had them the entire time. Therefore, either US Airways representatives willfully lie to their customers or they're grossly misinformed about the facts of their operation. Either way, the situation was totally unacceptable. I demanded to know where my bag was, or at least get some straight facts, and insisted that Ms. Ali tell me if indeed US Airways had no idea where my bag was. She finally admitted that US Airways had no idea where my bag was!

One can imagine how furious this would make a customer after hours of being given a runaround. I was told I would have my bag delivered, with total certainty, by the next morning (Dec. 30) despite the fact that again they didn't know where it was. At that time I asked to lodge a complaint and was told that a form for that would be delivered with my bag, in the morning. My bag did not arrive until later that day, when it was carelessly dumped in front of my door. With no warning and no complaint form of any kind! Indeed I didn't even sign a release for my bag. Nothing. It was just dumped there, in front of my door, after a blizzard!

All that being said, my complaint should be obvious: if US Airways is going to charge to deliver bags, they should do what they're charging their customer for. In other words, I would not only like my money back, I think that it is only fair that US Airways properly apologize for this unbelievable inconvenience and recompense what should have been a satisfied customer. Following upon my total dissatisfaction with this airline, I must also say that I have experienced deception, incompetence and runaround.

That I couldn't even contact customer service directly to lodge this complaint stands as proof to this airline's seeming lack of commitment to their customers. I called to complain, indeed called the number that was given to me as a complaint line by TSA staff and US Airways staff, only to discover, to my continuous chagrin, that that number is for reservations and that US Airways has no complaint hotline!

Furthermore, the woman that I spoke to on that line (Ali, the same Ali as before? I cannot be sure but they sure sounded alike) stated, flat-out, “US Airways has no customer service representatives. You must lodge any complaints online.” I asked her to repeat that, to affirm something that I simply could not believe, only to have to hear that unbelievable fact yet again: US Airways not only has no customer service, it charges for baggage delivery it does not provide, has a staff of workers who are either willfully deceptive or plain uninformed vis-a-vis customers, and continues, in all of this, to presume that such service is any way to run a business. Run a business into the ground, perhaps. My experience was absolutely unacceptable.

And I do intend to have this matter resolved, even if I have to come all the way to Mumbai to talk to their outsourced, irresponsible and unresponsive 'customer care' staff. Absolutely unacceptable.

When I got to Philadelphia, I was told that it was the weather conditions from Newburgh that caused the delay. I informed the customer service that this was not true. The weather was sunny, 50 degrees, no fog, no rain, no snow. US Air refused to provide accommodations for hotel and stated that I have to sleep at the airport for the night since the next flight out is at 9:35AM the next day. Because of the documentation, they did not have to provide accommodations.

I informed the US Air manager (Kendall **) that I have a medical condition and that it would be too much for me to stay at the airport. Since it was their fault that the flight was delayed, I should not have to pay for accommodations. She handed me her card and stated that I can call paramedics to go to the hospital. Since I have medical problems, I can stay at the hospital for the night. I told her, "No, thank you." I am not dying. I was just informing her of my situation and she left. No one should be treated this way by an airline just because they don't want to pay for accommodations.