A man from Buffalo, NY had to cancel his flight with American Airlines when he got sick and  was told that he’d have to pay a $200 change fee.

When he went to rebook a month later, he asked if the fee could be waived since he had gotten sick. Rather than just write the letter and send in a doctor’s not, he decided to “get a little creative with it“.

Alex Hamberger was supposed to fly on AA  from Buffalo, NY to Kansas City, Missouri to visit his sister, brother in law and six month old niece.

He started off his fun and amusing letter to American Airlines by writing “Dear Most Kind and Benevolent American Airlines Customer Service Staff Member, I write to you with the hopes that you may take mercy on me and afford a little sympathy for this flyer who was taken quite ill and had to postpone his trip to see his beloved niece.”

He went on to describe how he had gotten sick and his symptoms were much more serious than he thought. His “infectious disease” was a bacterial infection which could cause meningitis in children under 5.

Hamberger mentioned that it was good that he cancelled the trip since his disease could’ve literally killed his niece!

He thanked the airline for making his travel dreams come true and signed it in a funny way too.

He finished it with:

Alex Hamberger
-Frequent Flyer
-Brother
-Uncle
-Formerly sick person
-Currently healthy person
-Grateful flyer

An AA rep responded that they enjoyed reading his note and how his niece was a lucky little girl to have such a loving Uncle Al. The $200 fee was also waived!

It’s nice to see AA looking at letters like these on a personal level and not just going strictly by the rules.

When I had to cancel an award flight to Fiji, I wrote a letter asking for the fee to reinstate my miles to be waived. I was offered a one-time courtesy if I sent a doctor’s note in (which we still need to do.)

Maybe AA is turning a page and going back to good customer service in a more personal way.

Find out more about Alex Hamberger’s witty letter to AA here.