come fly the unfriendly skies

My journey to Savannah will go down in history at one of my worst plane experiences EVER! I woke up at 3:45am so I could catch a taxi to LAX at 4:40am. Taxi was on time, yay, life is good, or as good as it can be at 5am. Anyway, I check in for my 6:30am flight to Dallas, only to learn that it is now departing at 8am. While I was pissed I could have slept in for another hour, I figured I was okay because that would still allow me an hour before my connecting flight to Dallas. At 6am, the American gate agent made an announcement on the loud speaker letting us kmow that the flight before us was cancelled, and that ours was heading that way too so we would all be rebooked on later flights. He then also stated that if you head a connecting flight in Dallas to come see him so he could attempt to re-route us. About half of us got up from our seats because duh ... Dallas is a HUGE American hub.

Now, at this point, any rational human being would assume you would have as many gate agents as possible available to help. Nope ... not American. They had TWO!!! When I (finally) got to the front of the line, the oh-so-bitchy employee told me to sit back down because American only flies to Savannah through Dallas so she couldn't help me and most likely they would get me to Dallas when they could and that I would have to spend the night there.

Interestingly ... I do not work for American, but I do know from reserving my flight that they also fly to Savannah through Miamai. I was put-off by her attitude and instead decided to sit back down and wait 20 minutes for someone to help me on the AA 800-number. The reservations agent was very helpful and because Dallas being closed had backed up so many flights, was able to rebook me on an 8:10am United flight to DC, and then DC to Savannah.

Relieved, I took my new confirmation number to the ticket counter so that they could print out vouchers for me to take over to United ... except the line was still a good 20 minutes long and I needed to get over to United. The reservations agent on the phone told me I could do this at any gate so I walked over to the neighboring gate, only to be told they were "too busy to help me." Nice. I then tried another empty gate where I was told to "just go downstairs and wait in the ticket counter line."

At this point, I was amazed at the total lack of customer service on the part of American. I fly them frequently and have NEVER been treated like this. But wanting to get to Savannah I walked down to the ticket counter and was told the line was 1 1/2 hours long, which was a problem because I only had 1 hour before my flight left. I spoke to the customer service agent there, telling him my story in the hopes that he might be able to help me. Let me say that this gentleman was one of the rudest people I have ever encountered ... after questioning me for 10 minutes he decided I was lying and just wanted to cut in line. He continued to berate me as he took me to his supervisor so that his supervisor could also see that I was lying. Unfortunately, his supervisor was helping someone else so he had to leave me there ... not able to see that I WAS NOT LYING!

Fifteen minutes later, the nearly-as-rude-as-his-employee supervisor printed out my vouchers, with a totally condescending chip on his shoulder. Because I only had 40 minutes before my flight, I asked him how I would get my baggage and his response??? "I don't know - figure it out when you get to Savannah." Nice attitude, asshole.

I literally ran two terminals down to United ... where I was treated like a queen. They apologized to me for having to go through all of this and escorted me through security so I wouldn't be late ... although I was chosen for secondary screening and my screener was in NO hurry to get this over with. I finally made it onto my flight with five minutes to spare.

My flight to DC was uneventful, as was my flight to Savanah, although it was delayed two hours and we hit a lot of turbulence, which we definitely felt because our plane was so small. When I got to Savannah as expected, my luggage wasn't there. I first saw an American baggage agent who offered to help me look, but when we could not find it, informed me that I would actually have to file my claim with United as they were the last airline I flew with.

Finally at 9pm, I arrived at my hotel ... and the Hyatt staff was so kind, hooking me up with toiletries, a bathrobe, and slippers. I took a shower, ordered room service, and thanked god my shitty day was over. Except it wasn't ... at 3am ... my luggage arrived! I can't think of the last time I was this happy. The thought of wearing the same outfit for 9 days was not one I relished.

So in a nutshell, American can suck it.