Now that the memorial services for Alyx Shea is over, it is time to share some appalling stories from travel businesses that occurred over the last few weeks. First - US Airways (part of American Airlines. You are the worst company. ever. Alyxs sister, Hailee Shea, was attempting to bring on the plane her carry on and a framed picture of her recently deceased brother upon her return from the hospital ICU. The gate attended told her she cant bring both on the plane, she would have to check one. She explained that the framed pictured was of her now dead brother and did not want to check it. The gate attendants reaction? Boo Hoo. That is his actual words. Boo Hoo. This is the single most appalling act of customer service I have ever seen. Someone wants to bring a relatively small framed picture of their recently deceased brother on the plane and you respond Boo Hoo. Second - US Airways/American Airlines again. When Aylxs grandmother was attempting to return home after her grandsons passing, she was running a bit late. When she arrived at the gate, the gate attendant was still there with the door open. He asked Are you the Riggs party to which she answered yes. He then closed the door and said too late making them miss their flight. She began crying, after all, her grandson just died and now the gate attendant was being a dick. She asked the gate attendant for a tissue, which he had on the ticket counter. HE WOULDNT LET HER HAVE ONE! This jerk wouldnt let this grieving grandmother have a tissue after he refused to let her board a plane where the gate was still open. Wow. Just Wow But the fun doesnt stop there. Now we go to United, who cancelled the flight of Alyxs aunt to the memorial service. Why did they cancel the flight? They had no flight crew. So, they offered to get the Aunt on a different flight 4 hours from that time - at an airport that was a 6 hour drive away. Obviously that wouldnt work. They gave her no other options to getting to the memorial service on time. Instead she had to drive overnight to get to a different airport, get just a couple of hours of sleep, and take a different flight to arrive at the memorial without being too late. Thanks United for being so incredibly helpful to a grieving aunt trying to make her nephews memorial. Think we are done? Nope, not yet. The final award goes to Hampton Inn where I booked four rooms for people coming to Tucson for the memorial. One of the four people had a very late flight and alerted the hotel (which BTW, had the group rate under the name Alyx Shea Memorial) that she would be arriving late. Upon arrival, she discovered they gave her room away! Now, if you are working at a front desk, see there is a room listed under a group rate that has the word memorial in it, and see that person called saying they have a late flight - WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU GIVE THAT ROOM AWAY? Wow. So far, none of these companies have made any attempts to right these horrific wrongs. Hampton, to their credit, has been working on the issue and responding to posts on their Facebook page about the program. American Airlines, however, just keeps deleting the posts on their page about what happened. Thank you American Airlines, United, and Hampton. You made a horrific situation even worse.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 04:15:16 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015