American Airlines Responds

Remember the last catastrophe? The one with American Airlines? I requested that they reimburse me for my car rental and complained about their service. Wonder of wonders, they actually replied, and in a surprisingly cordial manner:

AmericanAirlines.wecaare001@aa.com

July 17, 2008
Dear Mr. Bluestocking:

We have received a copy of your email and have been asked to respond.
I'm sorry to learn of the problems when you recently traveled with us. I
can understand your disappointment and frustration. Our schedules can't be
guaranteed as we must often make changes in order to resolveproblems caused by
weather, flight conditions, mechanical difficulties, or other operational
challenges. The reality is no airline can provide this guarantee. For this
reason, we cannot assume financial responsibility for our customers' personal
time lost, out-of-pocket expenses, or missed third party commitments incurred as
a result of operational difficulties.

At the risk of disappointing you further, we cannot consider your rental car reimbursement request. Still, we will do our best to maintain on-time schedules, and if it's not possible to operate as scheduled, we will try to minimize your inconvenience. If we are unable to reaccommodate you on an accepted modified itinerary, we will make an adjustment on the unused portion of your ticket. I can understand, though, your decision to rent a car instead of accepting the offered
reaccommodated itinerary. Unfortunately, sometimes we don't have too many
options to help make such situations less trying.

Also, to clarify, the responsibility to determine the provision of
overnight accommodations and related allowances is that of our personnel at our
local station.However, our stations will generally not consider the provision
when travel is disrupted by reasons beyond our control. I, discovered your
flight 1359 for June 15 was delayed because of Air Traffic Control (ATC) and
prompted by Chicago weather. When we receive instructions by ATC, we don't have
any options but to follow their mandated directives. I regret that our
station staff did not clarify our position.

The responsibility to handle adjustments to unused tickets is that of our
accounting office in Tulsa. If you have yet followed up on your request,
in order to proceed, they will need the actual unused ticket or your electronic
ticket information. Please send these documents and/or information along
with a brief explanation regarding your request to the following address via
certified mail, keeping a copy for your records:
American Airlines
Refund Customer Service
PO Box 582880 MD 755
Tulsa, OK 74158-2880
(918) 254-3777
(918) 254-3967 (FAX)

Please allow four to six weeks for the consideration of this matter.
Also, please understand that our accounting office will ONLY address such
requests for UNUSED tickets.

Mr. Bluestocking, we do appreciate your business and look forward to
serving you again soon on American.

Sincerely,
XXXXX
Customer Relations
American Airlines

This is an "outgoing only" email address. If you 'reply' to this
message by simply selecting the reply button, we will not receive your
additional comments. Please assist us in providing you with a timely response to
any feedback you havef or us by always sending us your email messages via AA.com
a thttp://www.aa.com/customerrelations.

I responded, thanking them for their information, but assuring them that I will never ever fly American Airlines again.

I'm sure they will understand.