Richard’s Ramblings

Dear American Airlines:

This letter is a complaint concerning one of your most recent policies.

Apparently your policymakers have not experienced the difficulties of traveling with small children, as the airline personnel assisting with ticketing and boarding no longer allow those passengers needing extra time to preboard or even those with handicaps and wheelchairs early access to the plane to facilitate the boarding process. They obviously have not lugged a carseat through three separate airports, installed it in numerous taxis and rental cars, all in the name of child safety.

While our flight from San Jose to Chicago went smoothly, as we were able to situate ourselves on the plane early by boarding immediately after the first-class passengers, the flight from Chicago to Orlando was less than desirable. The gate in Chicago employed your new group numbering system, and we were randomly placed in Group 5, the last group to board. As we were burdened with three children and all the related accoutrements (including five carry-on bags full of essentials including diapers, change of clothes, snacks, and personal items such as books, activities, purses and wallets) and the aforementioned carseat for the youngest, a boisterous two-year-old, it should have been obvious to anyone that we could have benefited from early boarding.

We walked up to the gate after the first-class passengers had boarded and handed our tickets to the attendant. She turned us back from the gate stating that we would have to wait until the last group. I asked to be allowed to preboard, and she bruskly denied us, reiterating the new group numbering policy. Another passenger, this one wheelchair-bound and not part of our “herd”, was also denied access to preboarding and told to wait until her group, number 4, was called. I voiced my specific complaint to Mija Matich, the apparent supervisor at the counter, and he made the situation worse by unbelievably stating that “all the passengers on this flight have small children which is why we are using the group numbering system.”

Now I can almost understand people in your executive offices making policies purely for the sake of keeping themselves busy and gainfully employed, but I don’t appreciate being lied to. I don’t allow my twelve-year-old daughter to lie to me, and I frankly expect more from American Airlines, my exclusive carrier for more than a decade. Mija’s statement that “all the passengers on this flight have small children” was so blatantly apocryphal that we and several surrounding passengers looked around and commented amongst ourselves that there wasn’t a single small child at the gate. As we had the apparent luxury of waiting until the last group, ours, was called, we were indeed able to verify that no other small children were waiting to board at the traditional time of preboarding.

If I wanted to be treated like cattle, like a number, like a meaningless entry on a balance sheet, I’d fly Southwest Airlines. I expect a lot more from American.

Sincerely,
Richard D. LeCour

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