My Brazilian Trip Was Cancelled By the A.I. Robots

by Christopher Hodapp

I was supposed to be in Belo Horizonte, Brazil right about now, addressing the Conferência Brasileira de Estudos de Maçonaria (Brazilian Conference of Masonic Studies). But I'm not there, thanks to American Airlines.

If you fly on American and haven't experienced its automated AI rebooking system Aura, don't worry. You will. 

I was supposed to fly out Thursday at 7:00pm, which means leaving the house at 4:00pm. At 3:00, I began getting conflicting automated emails telling me my Indy to Miami flight was running too late to make my 50 minute Miami connection to São Paulo, and I got automatically rebooked Friday through JFK to arrive A DAY LATE, almost at the end of the conference. 

Then, 30 minutes later, it changed its mind again and booked me through DFW Friday. 

An hour later, the AI bot changed its mind once more, and it re-booked me on FRIDAY'S Indy-Miami flight, once again with the same short 50 minute connection. For an international connection, that's cutting it way too close.

I tried calling customer service to try and arrange flying to Miami any way I could Thursday evening, and staying overnight so I wouldn't have any problem's making Friday's San Paolo flight, but the wait time to speak to a human was an estimated 3-hour wait, which meant all possible flights out of Indy would be gone for the night before I could actually get through to a person.

The conference organizers were disappointed, but assured me there was still time to get there before things totally shut down Saturday night. I could step off the plane at 4:15pm, drive to the hotel, and give my talk before 6:00pm, then fly back home Sunday. Not ideal, but still doable.

At 3:50pm Friday as I was loading the car to go to the airport, I got an email from American saying, once again, today’s Indy to Miami flight was running too late to connect, and Aura RE-re-booked me AGAIN back though JFK TOMORROW, arriving SUNDAY, AFTER the conference ends. 

So my whole trip is cancelled.

This is the second trip of mine this year that American's automated system has booked and re-booked me right out of any chance of arriving in time for an event. 

American now has the worst record among US airlines for these kinds of arbitrary computer - made decisions, and few human agents are left and are generally prevented from trying to change reservations manually.

And no, it didn't calm me down for a customer service rep to say, "There's nothing I can do," followed by telling me to "Have a blessed day." It isn't blessed, it's ruined.

Worst is that Brother Kennyo Ismail, who translated Freemasons For Dummies into Brazilian Portuguese (Maçonaria Para Leigos) a couple of years ago, had to pay the Brazilian publisher to make a special print run of a box of the books anticipating me signing them, and now he’s stuck with them.

Last night I recorded my speech and they'll play it today. The conference certainly wasn't ruined without the personal presence of my cherubic good looks—they had six other excellent presenters and I'm sure attendees will go home happy. But that's not really the point. As more and more employees get fired by these companies and their jobs are given to the AI bots with no human interaction, these situations are already commonplace, and it's only going to get worse. We all thought it was bad when customer support lines were answered by distant, tinny-voiced women in Malaysia who claimed they really were named Betty, who were "very, very, very sorry that we were having these problems." 

From now on, we'll look on those halcyon days as paradise.

I was honored and gratified to have been invited to speak at the conference this year, and if the organizers so desire, I promise I will attend their next scheduled event. (After hearing my recorded presentation this afternoon, they may consider themselves lucky that I didn't get there in person...)

Next year, I'll book myself to arrive two weeks before the conference. That way I might actually get there on time.

Meanwhile, I have upcoming dates in Connecticut and Pennsylvania in October. I know better now. Instead of flying, I'll pack up Alice, a moderate pile of books, and our canine companions, and drag the Airstream to the East Coast. 

That way I'll have half a chance of making it on time.