Really, American Airlines?

I was just writing a blog about our travels in the Czech Republic when I checked e-mail and was surprised to receive a message from American Airlines confirming our trip home.

Then I opened it. Somehow our flights home from Vienna, Austria (airport code VIE) had changed a wee bit. We were informed "We made a change to your flight, and this is your updated itinerary. We issued new ticket numbers but did not charge you."  Well ok, that sounds like it might be reasonable, or at least defensible.

Until I noticed that the flights home were from Venice, Italy (airport code VCE). Um, Houston, we have a problem (or given the airline's headquarters, perhaps one should say Dallas [actually Fort Worth], we have a problem).

We found the American Airlines phone # to call from the Czech Republic. We learned how to dial that #....the # didn't work, adding a + to the front didn't work, eventually we skipped the leading 0 and it worked. Long story short, somehow the agents we spoke with didn't have the authority to fix it since they couldn't reach the domestic desk (yes, two agents since the first one disconnected me, I'd like to think by mistake). The second agent suggested I call the domestic #. Um, that's going to be difficult since I'm in the middle of my trip.

At this point we have a plan....but not yet a solution. And airlines wonder why passengers are not entirely pleased with their services?!?!?!