Given the fact that America’s faith in its airline companies is roughly equivalent to its faith in Congress, we feel like the big names should be doing everything in their power to remind customers how great they are.

This week, however, the opposite happened.

American Airlines suffered from flight cancellations, absentee pilots, planned layoffs for 11-14,000 workers, and an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal urging all readers to avoid the airline altogether. Wow, that last one was quite harsh. But we were even more disturbed by this story:

In short, a man (who happened to be a frequent business traveler and regular AA customer) bought tickets to Disney World for himself, his wife and his daughter. Four months after buying these tickets, his plans got complicated by the fact that American changed the flight plans for the return trip. Unfortunately, this meant placing all the paid passengers in arbitrary seating arrangements. As American set things up, the man’s daughter would be sitting on the other side of the plane.

Read more