September 21, 2004
American Airlines
I'm in New York because my grandfather passed away. When I learned about it, we started looking online at different airlines. Some were expensive (Korean Air, Asiana, Delta) and some were more reasonable (Continental, American Airlines, Japan Airlines, Singapre Airlines).
We usually fly JAL, but they usually make us stay overnight in Toky and there was no time for that. We called Continental and told them about the emergency. They weren't interested in helping us. We called American Airlines and they helped us. We got to New York the night before the wake.
The flight was pleasant enough too. Like JAL each seat had a persaonl movie screen and the food was good. There seemed to be fewer flight attendants and snacks, but that's not the end of the world. I'm not one of those people that makes a fuss on the airplane and needs lots of attention from flight attendants. And they were kind - finding us a new headphone since one of ours was missing the thing that goes around the plastic, bringing us the customs slip when we asked for it (we were sleeping when they were passed out), etc.
If I have a complaint it's that they messed up my wife's vegetarian meal (we expected them to be more efficient since the ticket said "vegetarian" on it). It has also been hard getting a straight answer about bereavement fares. We asked in Japan but they said there weren't any. I called the 800 number today and they said the only price break was that we got the rate for buying two weeks in adavnce even though we bgouht the day before. I should have asked in Korea, where they really really helped us and probably knew what they were doing better than any of the other AA people I've talked to.
Posted by James Trotta at September 21, 2004 6:53 AM