I have some time off now and want to know if there is anything I can do to help you? Let me know. If I can help, I would love to.

This entry is for customer service praise and not a pity party for our travel day from hell. The details of our second flight have been left out for everyones benefit...

I booked a straight through flight from Phoenix to Detroit when we usually have two legs. It's a longer flight but this time we wanted to get it over with and not change planes. Our travel day last Friday started out pretty well. We planned our daughters nap schedule based on our flight takeoff time so she would start the flight with a nap. We finished packing and left for the airport on time. We checked our luggage and headed to the gate. Security was a breeze, even with our baby and all her gear.

Our seats were not together but being one row apart, we were pretty sure we could switch with someone. No problem, the first person I asked obliged our request. We settled in and waited for our flight to begin.

After taxing out of and gate and on to the runway, our pilot came on and said we have to go back to the gate because the left engine would not start. A mechanic was sent and we were told it would not take long for them to determine whether the problem would be a big one or a small one. About 10 minutes later, the pilot informed us it was not easily fixable and instructed us to get off the plane and head to the gate where the airline agents would make every effort to make other flight arrangements to get us to our destination. We were one of the last people off the plane and I couldn't see the end of the line. Over 200 people were already waiting in line where three agents were making alternate flight arrangements. It didn't look good. With one flight canceled, it makes a huge impact on other flights. It changes the day for thousands of people.

While my wife watched our daughter and all our stuff, I headed to the back of the line as I dialed American Express. I booked the flight through them because I was using points for the trip. I was sure they could take care of this faster than the line was moving. By the time I could actually see the end of the line, I had Gracie from American Express on the phone. I turned around to go back with my wife, waiting in that line wasn't going to work. Gracie couldn't have been more helpful. She saw in the travel notes that we were with an infant and did everything she could to get is on our way.

All the remaining seats on any straight through flight were taken but she worked with the airline and booked the last two seats on a connecting flight to get us to Detroit and it left an hour and fifteen minutes later. Nice work! That was just enough time to stop at the bar, you know, to sit down and feed our daughter. The line moved forward about 30 people by the time our flight change was made. I went over to our new departure gate so the agent could print our tickets. This could have been much, much worse.

We knew it would be an extremely long day and really suck by the end of it. That was much better than going home and starting all over the next day. If that were to happen, we would not have made the Celebration of Life party being thrown in honor of my wife's grandfather, who passed away two weeks ago.

American Express took care of the problem and got us where we needed to be. Thank You!

Scot