Like most people Christina and I like to check into our flight and print out the boarding passes the day before our flight. This makes things so much easier with a 6:30am flight out of LAX. So this morning I log into the aa.com web site pull up our record locator and check in (and print) Christina’s boarding pass. When I attempt to do the same for myself their system tells me I cannot check in because I don’t have a seat assignment (odd) – better yet when I click on the seat assignment link there isn’t a seat available in the plane.
Now some people might think it’s strange when your seat assignment mysteriously disappears between making the reservation and printing out the boarding pass – I fall into this category. After waiting on hold for 15 minutes to talk to an agent I find out that “you never had a seat assignment” because that’s what the computer says (contrary to my email confirmation) and that the agent in the call center cannot help be because there are no open seats available. Our resolution – get to the Airport two (2) hours early so a counter agent can assign me a seat. Will Christina and I be able to sit next to each other? Maybe maybe not. But I feel better after being assured that I do have a reservation and that there will be a seat available for me on the plane.
The last three times that I’ve flown on American I feel like the entire company have gone out of their way to make the experience as miserable as possible. I’ve learned my lesson – I’ll never give American another dime of my business.
I remember wondering why anyone (Virgin American) would start a new airline in this country – about how saturated the market already is, and how airlines are struggling to stay in business. The simple answer is that the incumbent airlines have set the bar so low, that my expectation is if I can get on the plane I’ve come out ahead. All Virgin needs to do is smile at me and they’re ahead.