American Airlines Seems To Be Doing Business In The Fax Era
You put your credit card in for your ticket, and instead of the charge saying it's gone through, there's a "ticket pending" notice. I bet they get a lot of calls about this.
Instead of how other airlines do things -- and how pretty much every other purchase I ever make on the Internet works -- they don't email you a confirmation.
Nopies.
Nothing.
Bought my flight maybe 45 minutes before writing this blog post and there's still not a hint that I've actually done so in my email box. Annoying.
Also, I called up the airline and a lady said, "Oh, it says ticket pending until they actually ticket you."
How long does this take?
"Depends on how backed up they are," she says.
Do they have howler monkeys stamping a pile of tickets coming down a conveyer belt?
And then there's the question of baggage. I travel like Liz Taylor but sans entourage and with crappier luggage. On every other airline, I pay for it in advance -- to save money and so I can just drop my bag off with the Skypcap.
Well, American also doesn't have online baggage payment. Hellooo, long line at airport!
Now, I'm just hoping the planes won't be powered by men peddling stationery bicycles.
Is a stationery [sic] bicycle an origami bike made from letterhead? (ducks)
jdgalt at April 20, 2015 9:34 PM
Why do you do business with them?
philinpueblo at April 20, 2015 9:52 PM
I haven't for years -- as in, for decades. However, they and their partner, US Air, are the only airlines that fly to Columbia, MO, where I have to be for a science conference.
Amy Alkon at April 20, 2015 10:25 PM
I'm a little surprised to find that they seem to be "partying like it's," oh, 1989.
Amy Alkon at April 20, 2015 10:25 PM
Maybe they are checking you against the no-fly list the same way merchants used to check for bad credit cards -- by looking at a paper list (and their list isn't alphabetized).
Dwatney at April 21, 2015 4:29 AM
DWatney, other airlines aren't doing this -- your purchase goes right through, same with every other thing you buy on the Internet. And though I bought upgraded (coach) seats because I get motion sick and need to work on the plane, believe me, my tickets are not exactly business class price.
So, at 1am Pacific Time (approximately five hours after I bought my tickets, I got an email saying I actually had them).
I'm particularly excited to take the 6:18 am flight home and get there and stand in a line to pay to check in my luggage.
Amy Alkon at April 21, 2015 5:14 AM
As I wrote elsewhere:
Amy Alkon at April 21, 2015 5:16 AM
I'm very glad American is ending. I luckily got in line at the baggage counter 3 hours before my flight out of CMH, because it took 2 hours to get through to the counter, even with me paying for my baggage on the kiosks near the line. United was right next to them, and running 8 times as fast.
spqr2008 at April 21, 2015 5:49 AM
Annoyingly, United operates the same way, first you get an email saying they are processing your reservation and once it's completed they will email you the eTicket. I think Alaska does it too, I'll have to go back and check my emails. I just booked a flight on United last week so that one is still fresh in my memory.
sara at April 21, 2015 6:15 AM
Oh, Amy, you could have flown into St. Louis (STL) and gotten a shuttle to Mizzou. Not sure how that would have worked out in terms of cost.
On the other hand, at the COU airport on the way out, you won't groped. Small airport, no nuddie scanner, no pats down, just a metal detector and an xray for carry items. So that might be worth the price of admission.
I R A Darth Aggie at April 21, 2015 7:17 AM
Make sure you have LOTS of time to get checked in. We flew a couple of weeks ago on American, and MORE THAN HALF of the kiosks where you pay for your checked luggage were broken... at BOTH the Austin and Miami airport. In AUS, the "working" machine printed only one of our tags, then "malfunctioned" after taking the payment... so we still had to go through the regular check-in line. This happened to several people. In Miami, employees were pretending like they were working on the machines... but I think they were just making a show for us. Anyway, people were missing flights- even people who had shown up with plenty of time to spare.
ahw at April 21, 2015 7:45 AM
I flew on American and u.s. air last fall and my ticket purchase went right through.
I do remember problems with the machines in Miami.
i also found it screwed up that my return trip started as U.s. air and I had to go to the kiosk but it would reject me because I bought it through a partner so then had to go to the counter - where they told me that and if I new the correct conversion I could use the Kiosk. I think I paid for luggage online or else I didn't pay.
The really screwed up one is delta - I recently flew them and they had the two prong headphone connection and unless you happen to be lucky enough to have an adapter with you, you have to buy theirs. The only had one audio channel and the movie (in a several languages). Glad I some stuff stored on my phone.
The Former Banker at April 21, 2015 6:56 PM
Good point about the kiosks... say what you want, but every Delta counter has plenty. At our local (definitely non-hub) airport, Delta has six machines; American has two. And Delta is usually quick about getting your bags checked after you print your tickets.
Cousin Dave at April 22, 2015 1:50 PM
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