Dear American Airlines,
I am writing to inform you of a series of events that displayed how poorly prepared your staff actually are when they have react to change. On June 20th my girlfriend and I were returning to San Angelo, TX from Kansas City, MO. We would fly from Kansas City to Dallas on flight 1507, originally scheduled for departure at 4:50 pm. We arrived at the airport to find our flight had been delayed until 5:25 pm. This change was a minor inconvenience for us because our next flight didn’t depart from Dallas until 8:35 pm. However, we were unaware that this would be just the beginning of inconveniences to come.
We boarded the plane and sat…and waited, about a half hour went by before our pilot announced there had been a loud noise that came from one of the engines. I’m not the best passenger of a plane in the first place. I’m afraid of heights and flying so the pilot telling me a loud noise came from a valve on the plane doesn’t exactly distill confidence in my choice of travel. The entire plane was told we would need to get off and wait for another plane to be transported from the hangar. The conservative estimated wait time was approximately one hour. An hour went by and not only were we still waiting for a plane but we hadn’t received an update from the staff. Finally, we heard an announcement that our flight would be leaving out of gate 76 (I think).
Everyone moved to gate 76 and sat down waiting.
By this time we had missed our flight from Dallas to San Angelo.
Our flight moved back to gate 78.
There at gate 78 we waited again wondering what was going on. Not once was your staff able to provide us with a definitive answer as to how this problem would be fixed.
Our flight was moved back to gate 76.
As we went back to gate 76, wondering if we should just stay at gate 78, an American Airlines staff member attempted to lighten the mood by pointing out how much we had moved. Normally I would have been completely fine with this but he followed up his lighthearted comment with proof of exactly how unprepared the staff was. He began providing a flight to Chicago with similar issues, an update. The update went something like this “For those of you waiting for information on flight #### originally departing at 7:15, I’m sorry 7:30, wait no, 7:25… I mean the flight departing at 730ish…”, immediately I realized the staff was completely unprepared to deal with the task at hand.
Our flight was moved back to gate 78.
At approximately 9:30, we were finally able to leave the Kansas City airport on flight 1507, originally departing at 4:45 pm. We arrived at the Dallas airport where we would be informed we would be staying at a hotel for the night. We were not provided vouchers for food and were over budget for our trip because we had to spend our own money on food that night and the next morning.
Our flight boarded at 12:20 pm. We arrived home a little after 2:00 pm on Monday, June 21st. We were supposed to get home at 9:50 the night before. Your staff’s inability to react effectively to the nights events wasn't the worst part either. The worst part was the consequences of the late flight. We were unable to make it to work until 3:00 pm the next day. Our jobs are not the type of jobs that allow us to take days off whenever we would like.
Since Christmas we have booked 7 roundtrip tickets with your company, spending approximately $2,300.00. If you are unable to make us feel like we are appreciated customers, we will travel to another city to fly with Southwest Airlines like so many other people from San Angelo. I hope we are able to work this matter out, because until flight 1507, we had never intended on flying with another airline.
Sincerely,
Jared Heidemann and Jamie Gee
(I thought it would be only appropriate that we attempt to gain something out of the whole scenario. If you read the entire letter, then I apologize for wasting 7-10 minutes of your life. Depending on how fast you read.)
When I walked into Sportclips, I sensed something was different but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I looked around and spotted it or should I say….him. There, cutting hair just like the ladies, was a man. Not just any man, a man named Jose who looked like he should be a bartender at a local hole-in-the-wall bar. He looked like a Mexican Chuck Norris, minus the beard of course. No offense, but I was instantly tense. I would not, could not, share a chair with that haircut man over there!
(Sorry got sidetracked, back to the story)
I was next. All three (fine I’ll be politically correct about it) of the “haircut people” had clients in their chairs. Whoever finished first would cut my hair. I began rooting for the tall girl because the other girl just started cutting someone’s hair, so it was already too late for her. Luckily she finished first. Un-luckily, a little boy jumped out of his chair to go show his dad his haircut. The dad asked her to fix something in the back. Next, you can probably guess what happened. Both she and Jose finished at the same time almost racing for a chance to cut my hair. Tall girl was in front, then Jose pulled in the lead, tall girl cut him off turning towards the register, but Jose weaseled his way into the front. He would get to cut my hair and I would get stuck with him cutting my hair.
As Jose began cutting my hair, I was pretty tense. I didn’t enjoy my haircut. “I can’t wait for football to start” he said. I muttered “uh yea”. All I could think was great and “he can’t even avoid the small talk.”
Jose asked me if I wanted my hair washed. I zigged when I should have zagged. My reflex made me say yes, I meant no. The walk to the washing station felt like my last mile. Suddenly, what Sportclips called the “locker room” was much darker than I remembered it being, scary even. “Is this the chair?” I asked. Sadly, it was “the chair”. I sat down waiting for the hair washing to begin. This entire time I am about as uncomfortable as I could be. I was not going to get a hot towel from this guy. There was no way that was happening. Then I felt the hot towel being put on my face. And I knew what was coming next… a face massage from a guy… and not even a feminine guy (not that, that would be much better), but a Jose. I can’t explain how uncomfortable I was feeling; some guy’s man hands massaged my steam towel covered face, and it was bad. The kind of bad you don’t talk about because you are sure you’ll never live it down. Lucky for me, I’m not surrounded by people who give me a hard time...
After the face massage from a guy, Jose began washing my hair. The water was freezing and I didn’t even get conditioner! At this point I was actually happy about getting to skip the conditioner stage. I rose from the chair feeling stressed and tense. I had survived the experience. I missed my old barber. I missed my beer at Hair Mechanix. Jose handed me his card and said “Thanks, my name is Jose. Ask for me next time.”
“No way, Jose.” I replied (not really).
As I walked out to my car, somewhat disappointed that I was charged full price, I looked at my reflection. Jose gave me the best hair cut Sportclips has yet.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still not going to be asking for him next time. The next time Jose can cut my hair there will need to be a sign outside that says "Jose’s Barbershop."
