I have flown 1,263,780 miles on American Airlines. For the most part, I’ve been happy to be loyal to our “home town” airline. Given the number of times I’ve flown, I’ve had very few rotten experiences. Sure there was the time a kid sitting next to me puked in my lap and the flight attendant refused to answer the call button and then there was the two-hour wait for a pilot who overslept, but, until yesterday, nothing really horrid to complain about. Long story short: three of us boarded a two-hour American Eagle flight from Leon, Mexico to DFW. We arrived at baggage claim in terminal D. There was not another person in sight. The luggage buzzer went off and bags started rolling around the belt. Then it stopped.
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About 15 people stood there waiting for it to restart. Nothing. Thirty minutes later, nothing. We started looking for help. “Not my problem,” said a porter. “Not my job,” said a guy behind the “Luggage Services” counter. Finally, after several people who were connecting to other flights started nagging, one guy got on the phone and called the American Eagle luggage handlers below. No answer. An hour later, still no answer. One couple from Leon was connecting in Dallas to a flight to London and on to Paris. They spoke very little English. The less-emotional and more responsible person in our party calmly (at this point, impossible for me), but firmly asked the this-is-not-my-job guy to call American. Thirty minutes later a guy arrived. He told the couple from Leon to get on their flight and file a missing luggage report in London. Nice. He told us to file a missing baggage report, which we did. Then he slipped and told us that the luggage wasn’t put on the plane in Leon. WTF? Two flights from Leon have landed at DFW today. Still no luggage. So, American Eagle Airlines, I have some questions.Â
- Why do you bother to put a luggage tag on a bag with a bar code and then not scan the bag so that it can be tracked?
- If the luggage did not fit in the plane and was not loaded, why didn’t someone in Leon communicate that to officials, or at least a computer, in Dallas.
- Why was there not an American Airlines “point person” in the baggage claim area to assist passengers–other American flights were unloaded while we waited.
- Why, when an official does show up to remedy the situation, do they act like WE are the ones that screwed up.
- Why are the people who take the lost baggage reports so unfriendly and unhelpful? If they don’t want to spend their work days listening to passenger’s sob stories, then they should get another job.
- Why doesn’t anyone say they are sorry for the inconvenience?
- Oh, and one more thing that has nothing to do with luggage: when did you start charging $5.00 for a blanket?
