Why Worry?

As Volcano Eyjafjallajökull continued to spew ash into the stratosphere, Abby and I ventured to Charles De-Gaulle to collect our rental car for a drive to points south of Paris. We stood at the rental counter as several businessmen from Cleveland pondered whether to spend 7,000 € on a one-way rental to Istanbul to possibly catch a flight home. "I've been in France now for a week and a half," he moaned. "I'm ready to go home."

I do recognize there are some situations for which not flying would present more than just inconvenience… sick relatives, missed family celebrations, etc. For the vast majority of these folks, being stuck in Paris for an additional three days is not a tragedy. Enjoy yourselves, already.

When Life Gives you Lemons...

Volcano got you down? Tired of waiting for Air France to rebook you? No seats on the Eurostar? Spending your days waiting for news of airport openings? Can't think of anything new to do in Paris?

Before spending a day waiting in vain at Gare du Nord or braving the 12 hour drive to Madrid to attempt catching a flight home, enjoy the amazing Spring weather we're having in Paris. Below are three suggestions for things to do if you're looking for something different.

• If the weekend crowds at Jardin du Luxembourg make you anxious, stroll down Boulevard Richard Lenoir, in the 11^th above Place de Bastille. A lovely park was built above the Canal St. Martin that houses playgrounds, pétanque courts, ping pong tables and countless benches. There's a nearby Monoprix on Avenue Ledru Rollin where you can pick up a table tennis set to get a game going.
  
• The weather is absolutely perfect for a nighttime coast down the banks of the Seine. No bike? No problem! You can rent a Velib, equipped with lights, anywhere in Paris and go for a ride this evening. Velib's website provides a map of stations detailing real-time availability of cycles and empty spaces. Getting a one-day rental pass is a little cumbersome, but worth the trouble. American M/C and Visa cards are unusable here because they lack "the chip" – use your American Express card.
  
• Think you've seen and done it all? City Walks: Paris Adventures on Foot… a deck of 50 cards detailing some wonderful and unusual walks around town are available at English-language bookstores. Each card has a map with a proposed route on one side, the other has a narrative guide. The cards are especially useful for the tourist who's moved beyond the Batobus and wants off the beaten path.

(photo courtesy of The New York Times)

Service Recovery at American Airlines

A few weeks ago, I was treated to a more than four-hour ground delay on the tarmac in Philadelphia on my American Airlines flight from San Francisco to New York.  High winds at JFK were to blame for countless delayed flights.  

After waiting for several uncomfortable hours, we were deplaned in Philadelphia at about 10:00PM.  Because the delay was weather-related, we were offered no compensation for rooms that night.  The crew of flight attendants did a wonderful job of handling a lousy situation out of their control.  The gentleman in the seat next to me and I rented a car and drove to NYC that evening (so I could catch another AA flight to Hong Kong the next morning.)  Many of the remaining passengers were stranded and had to re-board the same flight early the next morning, but only arrived at JFK at 12:30 PM, more than 24 hours after they departed San Francisco.

Naturally, I wasn't pleased with my experience and wanted to fire off a note of complaint, but the website offered no email address or phone number to call.  The auto-entry complaint form on American's website would not capture the information properly, so I ended up having to fax a letter to Dallas. 

To American's credit, they did actually respond with a thoughtful note and offered me something to ease the pain.  Had this response come the day after the incident, I probably would have been fairly satisfied.  However, it’s taken almost four weeks for American to respond.  Other airlines responded to passengers quickly by firing off notes from the CEO and offering travel vouchers.  If the Airline Passenger Bill of Rights were in effect at the time, American would have had to shell out $27,500 to each passenger on the flight - not a small sum considering I was in a nearly full 767.  In retrospect, this is a pretty lame response.

April 9, 2010
Dear Mr. Skelton:
I've received your letter and am very pleased to respond. I hope you don't mind, but I've
taken the liberty of doing so electronically.
As you are very well-aware, high winds in the New York City area resulted in unsafe
landing conditions. Thus, we diverted the flight to Philadelphia, planning to resume the
flight once conditions had improved.
Moreover, while on the tarmac, we recognize that parking sooner at a gate would have been
much more preferable than waiting for such a long time on the tarmac. Initially, our plan
was to re-fuel and depart (which obviously did not work out as we planned). However, I
would like to assure you, your comments have been taken very seriously and have been
forwarded to the appropriate personnel for internal review and improvement. Thank you for
taking the time to describe, from a customer's perspective, how that situation unfolded.
Having explained that, and although you did not request any, I would like to extend
compensation for that experience. With that in mind, I have placed 15,000 Customer
Service bonus miles into your AAdvantage® account. You should be able to confirm this
adjustment in 48 hours when reviewing your account via our website.
Although compensation of any kind will not change what occurred, we wanted to demonstrate
our concern for what happened in a tangible way.
On the other hand, I would like to thank you for your kind words regarding our crew. You
were very thoughtful to include you praises for them in your correspondence. I am certain
they will be very pleased to learn their efforts did not go unrecognized.
While I know you are disappointed with our service, Mr. Skelton, I hope you will give us
another opportunity to prove traveling on American can be a pleasant experience. I am
confident we can do a great deal better.
We welcome all customer feedback. The next time you feel something deserves our
attention, please email us via AA.com at www.aa.com/customerrelations. We'll receive your
comments without delay and get back to you as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
XXX XXX
Customer Relations
American Airlines

As long as we're on the subject of poor performance by airlines, I just saw this hysterical complaint letter to Richard Branson reprinted by the UK Telegraph.  It's much more entertaining than my letter.  Thank you, Greg Young.