I digress, for a moment, to American Airlines
As I write this post, my elderly mother is having a bad travel experience. All I can do is sit here seething … and put on the Internet how I feel about American Airlines right now.
When I hugged her goodbye at DIA security check-in at 7am this morning, the flight was scheduled to depart on time. Then the airline delayed it in 20-minute pieces until a good four hours had passed. Had the original or any of the revised departure times been remotely accurate, I would have gone back and gotten her. American’s flight-status notification system is entirely broken.
(They did ultimately upgrade her to first class, without prompting, which quelled my anger for about an hour.)
She missed her first connection in Dallas. When she finally got to DFW, it seems her revised connection had been canceled.
As I write, she’s sitting and waiting on yet a different flight that’s now delayed for weather. That’s not American’s fault, other than if they’d gotten her to Dallas as scheduled, she’d be home already. But right now, she’s at a remote gate, sees no plane, and there’s no staff of which she can ask questions. This has me genuinely wrapped around the axle.
She’s not in the best of health, and she’s tired. She’s now been “traveling” for 10 hours today, which exceeds her limits. She hasn’t eaten because she’s nervous and afraid she’ll miss her opportunity to get home.
I fly a lot and can handle these turns of events, though I may not like them. But it affects me in an entirely different way when the elderly are involved.
My mom is neither whining nor complaining, the trooper that she is. I, by contrast, am about to blow a gasket. This rant is doing nothing to get her home faster, of course. But I feel slightly better.
Tags: American Airlines
December 1st, 2009 at 7:20 pm
I empathize and offer my support, although rather remotely. I just drove a 1,600 mile round trip 4 day Thanksgiving weekend to take my daughter and I to have dinner with my 90 year old mother. I did the drive for fear of granting her her wish to fly down and stay with us, for my fear of exactly what has happened to your Mother. Please tell your Mom I think she is a brave and wonderful traveler.
December 2nd, 2009 at 8:22 am
Thanks Max. The crown jewel was that when she finally got to Shreveport, LA last night, her bag had arrived on an earlier flight. How was the airline able to get her bag to its destination in a more timely manner than her person, which actually matters much more? I’d love to know.