Take that AA

A couple of months ago, I posted about an unpleasant experience with American Airlines and my trip to Boston. Luckily for me, they actually responded to my service complaint and offered a $100 travel voucher to go towards my next AA flight.

I only paid for my $50 portion of the seat confirmations but included that I wanted both my travel companion (J) and I to be reimbursed for our “unfortunate experience” with the airline. J also sent in a complaint but to no avail. I forwarded him what I submitted to the complaint department, and within a few days he received a $100 travel voucher as well! In other words, in the end we were both reimbursed for our seat confirmation payments plus we got an extra $50. Suckers.

Gloating purposes of this post aside, I learned a few things after researching online about submitting complaints when I was preparing mine to AA. Originally, I was planning to write an angry, complaint-ridden rant to the airline announcing that I would never fly through them again. However, I learned that if you ever want anything in return or, at the very least, their condolences that is one route you should never take.

If the organization reads that you plan to never do business with them again, they see no point in trying to win you back; they’ve already lost you. What you need to do is communicate that you feel you were treated poorly, unfairly, etc., praise them for their winning service or product, and acknowledge that what you experienced is something you know they do not usually do or tolerate.

In my case, I included all the details of my experience such as flight number, gates, dates, etc. (you should include as much detail and be as specific as you can) and voiced my complaint. I stated what I wanted (to be reimbursed for our seat confirmation payments) and wrote that if I did not receive it then I would never fly AA again. Apparently it is also helpful to include a deadline; I think I gave them a week to get back to me and heard back from someone within a few days.

There were a couple other helpful tips I picked up when I was looking at sample complaint letters but those were the ones I felt made the biggest impact.