Is It the Same Airline?

I read your July 31 article on American Airlines, “Winning Friends in High Places: American’s Emphasis on Service Earns It Uncommon Praise,” with a great deal of astonishment. It is clear that there are two American Airlines. The one written about in your article, and the one that I and two other attorneys at my corporation found ourselves traveling on last month.

On “our” American Airlines, flights have been either late or canceled, luggage has been lost, special meals have been missed, two boarding passes have been issued to the same seat, and employees have been unhelpful and unfriendly. We have been treated as human baggage with no choice but to accept what the airline chooses to dole out to us.

Naturally, not every airline can make every flight run smoothly. Maybe, as frequent travelers, we are too fussy. It is asking a lot to expect one’s luggage within six days of arrival, meal vouchers for a lunch flight three hours late without having to beg for them, or a trip of less than 14 hours to Richmond, Va.

As frequent travelers, we will continue to hope for relatively trouble-free flights. However, I doubt that very much of it will be on the American Airlines that we have come to know. Maybe we should try the airline discussed in your article.

RUSSELL D. JURA

Cypress