American Airlines

A note I sent to American Airlines today:

“Today, I purchased two tickets from AA - one for me and one for my wife to travel from NC to CA and to France and back to NC. Because I was concerned about the connection time for the itinerary that I found - only 35 mins in ORD - I called AA. An international agent said, "don't worry, it's a thru flight and you don't change planes". Relieved, I made the booking. When I called back to check on seat assignments, I was told that this was wrong. 35 mins in December, the day before Christmas, is simply not a reasonable amount of time to make a connection in a very busy airport. We have been switched now to an earlier departure that will be most inconvenient. Despite the misrepresentation upon which I relied, the agent - including a supervisor - neither apologized (until asked) nor offered to rebook us on a flight through Dallas that would have been much closer to our original schedule. It was only when I asked about an earlier ORD flight that one was offered. American should recognize when it makes a mistake, as here, and make the customer "whole" which you have not done, other than waiving the change fee. I believe you should rebook us on the Dallas connection, arriving in San Jose at about 4:30 instead of the flights on which we are now booked. You misrepresented critical information, you should accept your error and make it right. Will you? I was also told by the supervisor that if I appealed his decision on the phone, I might very well have to pay the change fee anyway! End”