I know I said it already, but last night felt good. It was just such a joy to be killing with the crew again. As Bill has pointed out, pickup groups can really suck.
As to my AA problem, they tell me it's been rectified. According to Lorrie, the refund has finally gone through as of Friday night. I will not, however, count on that until the cash is actually IN my account. I would call Lorrie a great help in this fiasco, if not for the fact that it is her division of AA (American Airlines Vacations to be exact) that started this clusterfuck to begin with.
Monday, August 30, 2004
Friday, August 27, 2004
Update
I decided to recheck the issue with American Airlines to confirm that they had fixed the "glitch". Seems that they had the same "glitch" again. The computer rejected the refund. What the frag that means is beyond me.
Thankfully (extreme sarcasm here) I spoke to the same helpful gentleman from AA refunds as I did yesterday. His name is Brian. As in alcolohic dog (see Family Guy). After informing me that the same "glitch" has shown up, he tells me that he will take care of it by the end of the day.
This coming from the same guy who insisted that he couldn't help me yesterday because it was an issue to take up with American Airlines Vacations.
I asked him to take care of it while I waited on the line, but he pretty much gave me the brush off, saying he would take care of it and that was all he could do for me.
Mind you, this is the THIRD time that someone has told me that it would be taken care of.
Brian sucks. American Airlines sucks. American Airlines Vacations sucks.
Krypton sucks.
(again, see Family Guy)
This weekend is definitely going to suck, as I have absolutely NO money (700 bucks not being in my account has a little something to do with that), and don't get paid 'til Tuesday. I just love the fact that my company decided to change from weekly payroll to twice monthly.
I have also spoken to Lorrie at American Airlines Vacations. Slightly more helpful than Brian, but at least seemed to be wanting to help. The only added information she was able to give me was that the refund system they have updates overnight, so we won't be able to find out if there is another "glitch" until Monday. She did say that she personally would check on it Monday morning to make sure everything is okay (why someone didn't take that initiative before now is also beyond my comprehension. Great customer "service" AA), and would make sure that if it wasn't that someone would try again to rectify it.
American Airlines is a joke. You'd think that for a business, and especially for one of the main companies, that was just getting back on their feet after what happened in 2001, they'd be a little more proactive in taking care of their customers. That they would try to KEEP customers instead of driving them away.
You'd think that, wouldn't you?
Thankfully (extreme sarcasm here) I spoke to the same helpful gentleman from AA refunds as I did yesterday. His name is Brian. As in alcolohic dog (see Family Guy). After informing me that the same "glitch" has shown up, he tells me that he will take care of it by the end of the day.
This coming from the same guy who insisted that he couldn't help me yesterday because it was an issue to take up with American Airlines Vacations.
I asked him to take care of it while I waited on the line, but he pretty much gave me the brush off, saying he would take care of it and that was all he could do for me.
Mind you, this is the THIRD time that someone has told me that it would be taken care of.
Brian sucks. American Airlines sucks. American Airlines Vacations sucks.
Krypton sucks.
(again, see Family Guy)
This weekend is definitely going to suck, as I have absolutely NO money (700 bucks not being in my account has a little something to do with that), and don't get paid 'til Tuesday. I just love the fact that my company decided to change from weekly payroll to twice monthly.
I have also spoken to Lorrie at American Airlines Vacations. Slightly more helpful than Brian, but at least seemed to be wanting to help. The only added information she was able to give me was that the refund system they have updates overnight, so we won't be able to find out if there is another "glitch" until Monday. She did say that she personally would check on it Monday morning to make sure everything is okay (why someone didn't take that initiative before now is also beyond my comprehension. Great customer "service" AA), and would make sure that if it wasn't that someone would try again to rectify it.
American Airlines is a joke. You'd think that for a business, and especially for one of the main companies, that was just getting back on their feet after what happened in 2001, they'd be a little more proactive in taking care of their customers. That they would try to KEEP customers instead of driving them away.
You'd think that, wouldn't you?
I'd rather fly on the giant pterodactyl from The Flinstones.
So, I went to Barbados about a couple of weeks ago for a family wedding. It was a great time, but...
When I got to LAX to catch the 11:55 p.m. flight with a stopover in San Juan, I was informed that they didn't have a record of my tickets being paid for. They had the reservation okay, but NO payment. The lady (she did try to help) attempted to get someone on the phone to work the situation out, but as this was Thursday, August 12th, the day before Hurricane Charlie was to hit Florida with such a vengeance, we were put on hold for a while. Eventually, I just said, "Let me just pay for the tickets again, and I'll work this out tomorrow." I kinda wanted to get my vacation up and running. Well, after paying the 7 hundred+ and checking my bag, I up and ran to the gate only to find out that in the interim between me finding out about the problem and trying to circumvent said problem, they had given my seat away.
I was 7 hours sitting in LAX waiting for the next plane out.
I called my travel agent (never used one before this trip, never will use one again), explained my situation to him, and (firmly) instructed him to correct the situation by the time I got to my stopover...
...which was now to be in Miami...
...with the hurricane coming.
When I got to Miami, I called my TA again. He let me know that he had contacted the hotel and car service in Barbados to let them know that I would be getting in later, and the wedding party so they would know that I wouldn't be able to make the rehearsal dinner that night. He also let me know that American Airlines Vacations admitted their COLLOSAL FRAG-UP, and were bumping me up to first class for the remainder of my trip, sending me a voucher for my troubles, and (of course) refunding the SECOND payment I had made for the flight. Luckily (for me at least, though I'm sure those who got hit couldn't care less about my trivial problems), Miami is on the East coast of Florida, and Charlie decided to hit the West coast. So, the second leg of my flight went off fine, albeit 8 hours later than it should have been (a longer layover in Miami added to the 7 hours delay from my first reserved flight).
That should be the end of the story, shouldn't it?
My 700+ bones was supposed to be refunded to me the next day.
I got back to L.A. on the 18th.
The second payment for the flight had been swiftly taken out of my account, but no refund was posted.
I called my TA again to find out what was going on. He told me that he had the refund receipt in front of him, and he faxed it to me, so the refund was official and was on the way. Right?
A week later and I still haven't gotten the refund. So, I called American Airlines refund department yesterday to find out what the bloody hell was going on. They inform me that the computer rejected the refund.
Yeah. It was the computer's fault.
The "helpful" fellow at the AA refund department tells me that because the original error was due to American Airlines Vacations, that I had to call them to rectify this FURTHER COLLOSAL FRAG-UP. I didn't call AA vacations. I called my TA, and instructed him (how I continue to talk to this guy without a torrent of expletives eludes me) to take care of this mound of turtle crap.
He called me back about 20 minutes later to tell me that AA has corrected the "computer glitch" (that's exactly what he said they called it. A "glitch"), and that I should have my refund in the next couple of days.
I'm still waiting for my refund.
Next time I go to Barbados, I'm walking.
When I got to LAX to catch the 11:55 p.m. flight with a stopover in San Juan, I was informed that they didn't have a record of my tickets being paid for. They had the reservation okay, but NO payment. The lady (she did try to help) attempted to get someone on the phone to work the situation out, but as this was Thursday, August 12th, the day before Hurricane Charlie was to hit Florida with such a vengeance, we were put on hold for a while. Eventually, I just said, "Let me just pay for the tickets again, and I'll work this out tomorrow." I kinda wanted to get my vacation up and running. Well, after paying the 7 hundred+ and checking my bag, I up and ran to the gate only to find out that in the interim between me finding out about the problem and trying to circumvent said problem, they had given my seat away.
I was 7 hours sitting in LAX waiting for the next plane out.
I called my travel agent (never used one before this trip, never will use one again), explained my situation to him, and (firmly) instructed him to correct the situation by the time I got to my stopover...
...which was now to be in Miami...
...with the hurricane coming.
When I got to Miami, I called my TA again. He let me know that he had contacted the hotel and car service in Barbados to let them know that I would be getting in later, and the wedding party so they would know that I wouldn't be able to make the rehearsal dinner that night. He also let me know that American Airlines Vacations admitted their COLLOSAL FRAG-UP, and were bumping me up to first class for the remainder of my trip, sending me a voucher for my troubles, and (of course) refunding the SECOND payment I had made for the flight. Luckily (for me at least, though I'm sure those who got hit couldn't care less about my trivial problems), Miami is on the East coast of Florida, and Charlie decided to hit the West coast. So, the second leg of my flight went off fine, albeit 8 hours later than it should have been (a longer layover in Miami added to the 7 hours delay from my first reserved flight).
That should be the end of the story, shouldn't it?
My 700+ bones was supposed to be refunded to me the next day.
I got back to L.A. on the 18th.
The second payment for the flight had been swiftly taken out of my account, but no refund was posted.
I called my TA again to find out what was going on. He told me that he had the refund receipt in front of him, and he faxed it to me, so the refund was official and was on the way. Right?
A week later and I still haven't gotten the refund. So, I called American Airlines refund department yesterday to find out what the bloody hell was going on. They inform me that the computer rejected the refund.
Yeah. It was the computer's fault.
The "helpful" fellow at the AA refund department tells me that because the original error was due to American Airlines Vacations, that I had to call them to rectify this FURTHER COLLOSAL FRAG-UP. I didn't call AA vacations. I called my TA, and instructed him (how I continue to talk to this guy without a torrent of expletives eludes me) to take care of this mound of turtle crap.
He called me back about 20 minutes later to tell me that AA has corrected the "computer glitch" (that's exactly what he said they called it. A "glitch"), and that I should have my refund in the next couple of days.
I'm still waiting for my refund.
Next time I go to Barbados, I'm walking.
Thursday, August 26, 2004
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)