American Airlines Refunds

Two days ago, when I was picking up my sister from the airport, I mistakenly left behind my eyeglasses in their case. I had been reading a magazine I had purchased when her flight got delayed and set my glasses down on it when I saw her coming out of baggage claim. Unfortunately, I forgot to pick them up again, and since I haven't done any reading, I haven't realized until now that they were left behind. Therefore, I called the airline to see what they could do for me about the situation. It was in the American Airlines terminal, so I thought I would start there. 

Now I'm aware that there are a lot of flights out of O'Hara regularly and that this was a longshot, but since eyeglasses are the type of thing that someone might turn in since they don't have a resell value, I figured it was worth a shot. I also expected to be on hold for a while, given the number of reasons that people could be calling American Airlines, but once I got to the right line, it wasn't too bad. The biggest problem I had was that the number was wrong, and since I wasn't a ticketholder, the system didn't seem to know what to do with me. 

I called this number twice, but it took me to a busy single, so I went online and found a different number (1-800-433-7300) that worked. An automated assistant picked up and advised me that if I wanted faster service, I could try their mobile app or website. There was a long message about what you can do online, and it said, "I see you are calling from a cell phone; whenever possible, we will try to use your phone number to look up information. In a few words, can you tell me what you are calling about?"

It took me a second to figure out what to say, but I went with, "lost item," and then it asked if the item was checked or not. I responded no, and then it said, "If you think you left your item on the plane, gate area, or Admirals Club, you need to fill out a lost item form at AA.com. After that, you will receive text or email updates." Clearly, that wasn't the issue, so I responded no again and then said I could either have the message repeated or go back to the main menu. 

I interjected with "need more help," and it said, "Okay, in a few words, tell me what I can help you with next." At this point, I just wanted to talk to someone, so I kept saying customer service every time it deflected and tried to get more info. Finally, I switched and said baggage issues, and that was enough to get placed on hold to talk to someone. It took about five minutes, but I got a customer service agent named Marie, who was very nice but informed me I would need to call the airport directly to find out more about my eyeglasses.