Worried about getting bumped while traveling on the airlines this summer? Worry even more if you are trying to get out of Mexico City with prize winning show dogs. I have a client who travels all over the world showing her Basenji’s. Last week she traveled with two colleagues and 5 dogs to Mexico City for the World Dog Show. The travel down on American Airlines went fine. Coming home was a completely different story. They arrived at the airport more than 3 hours prior to departure to check themselves and the dogs in for the return flights. At check in the American Airlines counter agent advised that their flights were over booked out of Mexico City and they were more than likely going to be bumped and there was no space at all for the dogs. American knew the dogs were booked on the flight with these passengers and had been ticketed for at least 3 months. The counter agent was not the least bit accommodating and my client had to do plenty of screaming and yelling to get anything accomplished. There is no way they could leave the dogs in Mexico and the American agents just did not care. She demanded that they reroute them on another airline if necessary. They had to get out of Mexico City no matter what. Final destinations were Albuquerque, Calgary and Tulsa. At her suggestion, they re-accommodated the Calgary traveler on United Airlines via LAX. Problem solved; well kind of. She quickly put 2 dogs in 1 crate-not recommended- so that she would not have to leave any dogs in Mexico. Needless to say she was stressed putting her World Champion dogs together in 1 crate but literally had no option if she wanted to get them out of Mexico. Once again she was given little if no help from the American Airlines counter agents.
When the Calgary traveler arrived at the United counter, the United agent advised him that they would not accept the metal crates that his 2 dogs were in. He called me in a panic. I called UA Cargo in the U.S. and asked them to call down to Mexico City and advise them that the crates are IATA approved and completely acceptable for international pet travel. They did. He then was required to pay for the dogs travel fees at the counter. My client handed the United Airlines agent the cash for the dogs. The United agent asked him if he had correct change-he did not. The agent handed the cash to the person standing next to them requesting they get correct change. The person said they would and left. This person did not work for the airline; the money was gone. The traveler had to pay for the dogs again! Because he had to overnight on arrival into LAX I booked him a pet friendly room at the LAX Airport Hilton. He asked me to reconfirm that the dogs had been booked from LAX to Calgary for the following morning. I discovered that the yes he was booked as a passenger but not the dogs and that the aircraft American had re-accommodated him on was actually a small commuter plane that does NOT accept pets. I had to call United – get the booking changed, and then call the co-share carrier to Calgary to get the dogs confirmed. They told me I had to confirm the dogs with United because it was their booking. I called United back; they put in the “request” for the dogs. I called the co-share carrier back and they said they never confirm dogs – it has to be done at the airport.
Of course I got another panic phone call from my client when he arrived at LAX. They charged him AGAIN for the dogs to accompany him from LAX to Calgary. He was furious.
So who do we call to recap all the added expenses for the hotel room, paying for the dogs 3 times and getting home much later than ticketed?
Guess I will start with American and work my way back.
Does anyone at the airlines care anymore? What in the world happened to customer service? Where do they find these people that they are hiring? What a mess.
