Complaint Review: American Airlines

I have never been treated so badly by an airline in my life. My child and I took a weekend vacation to Miami, Florida. I booked an evening flight on our last day (a month in advance). I could not print our boarding passes off the website from the hotel because we were told that we didn't have seats. I called American Airlines (AA) and the Rep said to get to the airport very early so we could get seats. That's all she could do. This ruined our last day of vacation. We got to the airport 3 hours early and the AA Reps at the gate told us we couldn't get on the flight. No explanation...NOTHING.

We were also told that we had to wait until 10 minutes of boarding to check back and see if seats were available. That was 2 hours. I noticed a minor child sitting next to us in the same situation all alone. I couldn't believe it. Five minutes until boarding, they happened to have two seats available. They sent the minor child to run down to another gate to catch an available flight. We boarded the plane and it was filthy. Trash left over from the previous flight. Disgusting. I sent AA an email expressing my frustration. They responded with a generic email stating that they always overbook flights to make sure they have a full flight. I responded that I was very upset that they did not offer me any compensation for the trouble and rude customer service that I was put through. They responded with another generic email stating that they don't feel they owe me any compensation. I will NEVER fly on AA ever again.

Don
Boston, Massachusetts
U.S.A.