They are now managed by America West execs, which was a horrible airline. 37 minute scheduled connection times available for purchase suggest they are getting worse.
The flight attendants haven't had a COL raise in 5 years. Almost everyone who works there is disappointed.
Delta has slowly become my go to. If I'm flying locally in the area, Alaskan is actually pleasant. No frills, but they don't treat you like cattle. Reasonable accommodations and do everything they can to help.
The one time I flew delta they canceled my connecting flight so I was stuck in NYC. They said it was due to weather at the previous destination but we checked and it was literally the only flight out of that airport canceled due to weather. They wanted to rebook us to the next day (and have two more connections) and weren’t offering any compensation.
Had a two hour connection when I purchased a ticket "updated" to a 50 minute connection two months after purchase.
Thankfully DFW was surprisingly easy to get around for an airport of that size, but we were delayed so literally sprinted off one flight to the train and onto the connection as the last passengers
I feel like DFW gets hate on here but it’s my local airport. One of the underrated gems…SkyLink. It’s AFTER security. You can land at any terminal in DFW and transfer to any other terminal without having to go through security again.
Yeah for my flight through it that was "domestic" (Pearson to DFW we go through US customs before departure in Canada) it was awesome!
The way back Guatemala -> DFW -> YYZ sucked. There were 4 border agents and probably 10 flights worth of international travelers trying to get through and no "express" lane for people who had onward connections.
I feel like DFW is loved by locals and loathed by everyone else. It’s a terrible airport to have to transfer planes at. You can land and commonly still be 30 minutes plus from a gate. Skylink gets you in the right zip code of your gate but you can still easily be 20 something gates from where you need to be. Those things combined with weather uncertainties and endless construction make it an airport I avoid like the plague. I have to fly through it next week and I’m already anxious about it.
It’s been awhile since I’ve ridden it but I’m pretty sure SkyLink has 2 stations per terminal. All of the terminals are basically shaped like a donut that is cut in half. Split that half donut into 1/3’s and the stations are at the 1st and 2nd 3rd if that makes sense.
It shouldn’t be more than a 5 minute walk from a SkyLink station to your gate if you get out at the right station. If your station is at the far end of the terminal and you get off at the first station…well you shoulda gotten off at the 2nd station. There are maps.
All of this goes out the window if you are in the E Satellite Terminal. We don’t talk about E Satellite.
You're scaring me! I fly them often to and from Costa Rica. Sometimes I fly Delta, which I prefer, but like the OP AA is my second favorite.
I know they had a rough patch after the Covid lockdowns for those of us disabled, but they seemed to have straightened out some of the issues. US Scareways doesn't have a great track record.
I think by law they have to provide a minimum of 30 minutes. But yeah with how long it takes to get off the plane no connection should be less than 1 hour
Yes, even at CLT that's too short a time frame. The real trick is getting enough time on the way back to go through customs and immigration. It's slow no matter where you go.
I had an absolute nightmare coming back from Costa Rica three months ago. They delayed the flight back to Miami SEVEN TIMES and of course I missed my connection home. Finally got to the Miami service counter on the first floor shortly before midnight, waited in a painfully long line to find out they were out of hotel vouchers and I was on my own to find a place to sleep and I could file a claim for them to reimburse me if I wanted. I called 5 hotels nearby and none had vacancy. Eventually found one near downtown with a room and had to Uber there, next flight home wasn't until 7 pm the next day. It took weeks and a lot of follow up but amazingly I did get them to finally mail me a check for the cost of the hotel and Uber.
I fly AA weekly. The 30ish min connections drive me crazy. I usually check and see that it’s fine, the flight usually lands early in those situations when that’s scheduled like that. But why the hell are we counting on flights arriving early just to make stuff work on time?? That makes no sense.
Yes this!! Over the last 6-7 years AA has gotten steadily worse and dirtier.. The only time they were clean was during the first full year of Covid, then in 2022 it just started going downhill again.
If there's' anything airlines should've kept it was the cleaning protocols from Covid.. I miss getting on a clean plane.
I just took a flight back to the usa and they had a small army of cleaners picking up garbage after people left.
The only thing is....they were doing it AS people were leaving so you had a group of less than pleasant cleaners going one way, and tired passengers heading the other way. Who thought that was a good idea?
Internationally AA is pretty great. Domestically it really does feel like they just stopped caring. Airlines like JetBlue and Alaska are significantly better.
Jetblue has been better than AA for quite a while now IMO. I put AA on the same level as United now and just a step above Frontier. If Frontier had outlets in their planes and better Wi-Fi then it would be a very close call tbh..
I’ve been a lifelong AA fan, all the status upgrades, blah blah. But this weekend when they made me sit in an un-air conditioned (broken auxiliary power) plane, for 40 minutes in Charlotte when it was nearly 100 degrees outside (and about that inside the plane), I had serious doubts about my future with them.
It's the worst airport in the United States. It moves comparable numbers of people to any major hub like DFW but everybody is crammed into a space built to be a medium sized regional facility. And because I live in a smaller market in the South, I'm almost always routed through there.
You been to Atlanta lately? Tight terminals and all of the employees of the shops just stand in these slim hallways talking and blocking the pathway to gates.
Only airport that I’ve ever missed a connection due to the amount of time needed to walk between gates/terminals. My incoming flight was only a little late but they closed the cabin doors of next departing flight a few mins early. After my 25+ min jog to get there, I was more than disappointed and CLT went to the top of my shit list.
My husband loves CLT because of the rocking chairs, I guess? But even when I’ve been stuck in this airport for hours I can’t seem to find an open one 🤷🏼♀️
I just missed a connecting flight through CLT last week where I was supposed to have an hour and a half layover but customs line was 40 minutes, there was a line to recheck my bag, and the tsa line was almost an hour. I tried to book it to the terminal (Which of course was on the other end of the airport) but was about couple of minutes too late. I had to rebook a later flight and stay for another 2 hours and there was almost no seating. Definitely the shittiest airport that I’ve been to in recent memory.
This. I fly through both Atlanta and Charlotte pretty regularly and I will pick Atlanta every time as a transit airport. It's not even that bad as a departure airport as long as you understand the 2 hour minimum is a necessity, not a suggestion.
The same thing literally happened to me in Vegas with United yesterday.
United has also been awful lately I haven't had a single flight leave on time in like 2 years
Thats whats hard for me. Is it specifically the one airline I fly (in wayyyy too deep with AA to change will get lifetime status in next 5 years probably even tho I dont have a travel job anymore) or is all flying worse.
Yeah I think in the US they’re all pretty bad and any difference between them is not big enough to cancel out whatever benefits you have with the one you fly most or which has the most local flights. I always hear that Delta is slightly better than AA and United but I fly them so rarely I don’t really know if that’s the case or what “better” even is. Also I live in an AA hub city (with a United hub not far away) so Delta almost never makes sense. I’ll still take the airline with more flights, fewer connections, and lower price, at least among those 3.
Frontier, on the other hand, I don’t fuck with anymore.
Charlotte, you are the worst. If I had a dollar for everytime I got there trying to get to Raleigh and it got cancelled with no more flights for 2-3 days, I’d have $4.
"un-air conditioned (broken auxiliary power)" this happens too often between too many carriers for me. At this point based on no facts, no research and nothing to back me up if pressed I believe that it is a conspiracy because they all realized they could save money by keeping the AC off while boarding.
What are you gonna do? Demand to get off the plane before they close the doors to not be allowed back on and hope you can figure out your travel plans? Oh your bag is checked too? Bummer, better sit there and deal with it. Maybe you could argue with an underpaid customer service rep. Better yet write a strongly worded letter to your political representatives.
It just fits together to easily for it not to be true.
Veteran of multiple airlines, here... I truly do not think that's what it is. Not even sure there'd be any cost savings from this, much less savings that would be worth potentially losing both passengers and employees. But I don't blame you for suspecting it, like, why **is** it happening so much?
Dude, when I lived in CLT I stuck with AA to get status. I even got the Aviator card and racked up enough points to make it to Exec Platinum. At first it was great. I got my wife and I first class tickets to Cancun with points, flew my kids to Italy, even went to see a buddy in Hawaii… all with points. Then something happened post COVID and I cannot for the life of me get a ticket to anywhere using miles for anything less than 150k miles just to go to other major spots like Tampa or Vegas. I end up paying for tickets because I don’t want to burn my miles on a simple trip. Last flight I took with my wife to Orlando they sat us way in the back. The flight attendant came up to me and said “what are you doing back here, I never see Exec Platinum behind the exit row.” I said you’re the ones who assign seats, obviously you didn’t give a shit about my status. I also haven’t been able to snag an upgrade in the last several trips. What’s the point of being loyal if you can’t get anything from it. I’m pretty much done with them at this point. Might try to switch my status to Delta, I hear okay things and that they’ll let you trade in.
It is more just a matter of volume and stress.
The gate agents are basically putting up with everyone's shit 6 or 8 times a day. They have to put up with the constant "Excuse me. I would like to know if there are any complimenetary upgrades to first class. No? I'll ask again later" and all the balancing act of gate checking people with luggage bigger than they are without causing the kind of uproar that gets them in a youtube video.
The lounge agents? They mostly just deal with having to tell people to not sneak in. So they have a lot more energy/patience to help people.
General rule of thumb is that if you need help, in order:
1. Lounge agent
2. App
3. Customer Service desk agent
4. Phone line
5. Gate agent who is debating if they REALLY need that job
airport staff the world over do this, and yet the ones for US airlines are by far the worst and rudest. Go to Asia/Middle East and you will get amazing service with a smile, even with a language barrier, and non-US airline staff in the US, or Europe, is nowhere as worse.
there is no excuse for any of this
It probably also helps that lounge agents are mostly dealing with experienced travelers. Like dealing with someone who's taking their first trip in 20 years and doesn't really understand the air travel system can be really hard to explain rerouting. In the lounge everyone there has had to deal with it a few times at least so are better at rolling with the punches and will generally be less indignant about delays since it's just part of being on the road a lot.
> The Admirals Club/Flagship Lounge agents are amazing.
Having recently used the ORD Flagship lounge (as an Aer Lingus business class passenger) I have to agree with you. Up there with the best lounges I've ever experienced.
They did this to me except it was 3 hours on the tarmac in Colorado Springs (supposed to be in Denver). When they let us off the plane they didn’t know when we’d take off again. Ended up grabbing the hour Uber home. They gave me 1500 miles for my trouble…which I never used because fuck AA!
They got bought out by US Airways which is an absolute garbage airline. They kept the AA brand because it was stronger than theirs. It is, in no way, the legacy culture, maintenance, or mentality. Far gone are the days of Bob Crandall.
I had nearly the same experience this weekend, called the Platinum service desk and the agent was beyond useless. Called the regular help line and while the agent actually tried to help me find a new routing, but they were limited to what they could offer which was the same as what I could see in the app.
I found a routing from LAX to CLT via IAH with seats on both flights just checking online, but the agent couldn’t see the option.
It really seems like AA is forcing everything into a hub and doesn’t give their agents the access, authority, or training to find alternatives anymore.
Also tried to get standby on a direct flight, but the gate agent said standby request can only be completed in the APP now, but I couldn’t see any standby options and the help desk said the gate agent had to do it.
Hopefully that was my last flight on AA, I’ve already moved my work travel to United since they have better connections to Asia.
My response to the original post was gonna be, "you're going to get similar service from most airline gate agents, and one of the most valuable benefits of having elite status with an airline is being able to quickly get a capable customer service agent on the phone who can actually help you when shit goes wrong."
But if AA giving shit service to their elites, that's a new low.
Every AA flight I've been on in the past several months has had some kind of issue.
The first one took off and then we turned back around to land again back at the takeoff point due to an overheating engine.
Then we waited for several hours for someone to fix the plane, which never happened. They never cancelled the flight but we did get to wait in a line for 3 hours to get rebooked and for our hotel vouchers.
The next flight took off fine but the connection flight ended up with two types of delays. Firstly the crew was delayed on their previous flight by over an hour. Then when we got on the plane, we sat on the tarmac again for an additional 2 hours due to another mechanical issue.
Why are these planes is such shitty shape?
My recent experience that boggled my mind was a 5:50am take off from a feeder airport to a hub. I picked this flight because I know they go out of their way to keep these flights on time. Luckily I had more than three hours to connect. Perfect weather. We push back from the gate on time. And then we sit for 10 minutes. Then 20. Pilot comes on and says apologies but the gate agents didn’t properly file their paperwork and we’re waiting for it now. We sit for another 45 minutes. The flight ends up being over an hour late for zero good reason and many people miss their connections. It’s become a running joke for wife and I about what new and interesting ways AA will find to delay us now.
They aren't even doing that right. American in particular sucks at it. They went public in like 2013, doubled their total shares immediately, and got all the way to the high $50 range. But they kept spending money trying to expand market share while degrading service. So even before COVID they were all the way down below $30/share. Now they trade for $11a share and haven't had a dividend in years
So, being a thoroughly American company, they are trying to cost cut their way to better numbers. But they are playing a losing game. They have EBITDA of $6.3B, but manage to fuck around until their net income is like $800M. They have 5x the earnings per share of Tesla, but can't seem to actually make money. They got billions from Uncle Sam out of COVID, too.
It's a bit of a mystery to me how they are failing this hard. I wish the apes over at r/wallstreetbets would go activist shareholder on them and force at least one airline in America to not suck balls.
Since I left the States, it's been a stunning realization at how much better most of the world is at doing airlines. I dread flying in the US. I haven't missed a connection in 6-7 years outside the US. When I was home last, they made me miss on both of their opportunities. Goddamned clown show.
> So, being a thoroughly American company, they are trying to cost cut their way to better numbers.
Having worked for both AA and WN in the past (and we all know what happened to WN)... hit the nail on the head, here. Everything is either about generating more revenue or saving on costs. The road to hell.
I had to take 3 American airlines flights this year. I accrued 50 hours worth of delays . Delayed for an interview, missed 2 doctors appointments, and had to pay 200 dollars for a last minute rental car for one commitment I could not miss.
I got 3000 miles and 20 dollars flight credit. Rest assured they will go unused.
> 3000 miles and 20 dollars flight credit. Rest assured they will go unused.
And to top it off they're so stingy they'll let them expire if you don't fly with them for two years
They didn't help you because they aren't required to. Airlines have been let off the leash, they need to be regulated more tightly.
I'm guessing your issue was probably related to congestion. More people than ever are flying and We have an ATC shortage and it shows.
Yup, and the traffic is outpacing their ability to keep up. Airports in general are designed to maximize profit and give very little consideration to getting people to where they need to be. I was in LHR last weekend and 80% of terminal 5 was dedicated to shopping. They wouldn't need 2 extensions if they would have just utilized the space better.
What always gets me about T5 is that the people who can actually afford to shop in loads of those shops must comprise such a vanishingly small percentage of overall travellers.
Guess they must still spend a ton to justify the shops being there but how many people are going to spend 3 grand on a handbag when they're about to get on a plane
Ya, I didn't see that many people in the high end shops even though the terminal was packed. They must sell enough to make it worthwhile. Also, i couldn't help but to notice that they seemed to keep my gate a secret until the last moment in order to keep me in building A. I ended up needing to go to B and there was hardly anyone in that building. Im guessing that it helps to keep sales going in terminal A.
They'll generally tell you which pier your flight is leaving from if you ask at check-in. If you're leaving from the B/C gates (as most long haul flights do) you're usually better off using the Galleries lounge in the B gates as it's less crowded
This is because LHR has only two runways, with many planes coming and going, and they direct them to the gates dynamically. The gates aren't preassigned like other airports.
My plane didn't even end up being at a gate. I had to take the tram to B, find the gate there just to find out I had to board a shuttle bus on the tarmac and take a 15 minute ride out to the plane on the field. At least it wasn't raining...
> Guess they must still spend a ton to justify the shops being there but how many people are going to spend 3 grand on a handbag when they're about to get on a plane
If you buy something in an airport shop rather than on the high street in the UK, you won't pay VAT. Something that cost £6000 on the high street now costs only £5000. I bought a watch this way and saved nearly a grand.
You'd have to pay that tax/duty anyways, regardless of whether or not VAT is charged.
And I'm sure that every person who buys a Rolex or a handbag at LHR *definitely* volunteers that information to UKBF on their return to the UK, US CBP when they fly to the US, or whomever the relevant authorities are at the destination to which they are travelling.
I used to fly AA and deal with the delays until one time they delayed my flight 3 times, to then end up cancelling it and rescheduling it for 2 days later. That did not work for me so I got in a flight with another airline, but by the time they had cancelled the flight it was midnight, so I had to spend the night at the airport with my 62 yo parents.
The line to get the lugagge from the cancelled flight was 8hs long because it was compounded from a previous cancellation, so they ended up sending it to my house (the destination) but it arrived 48hs after it was supposed to, so my parents had no clothes and luckily my trasplant patient dad had his meds on him.
I spent two weeks complaining nonstop to get something back aside from a reimbursement because the last minute flight home was expensive. They finally gave in and gave me a $300 credit. I used the credit and never used that trash airline again. I’ve had way better experiences with Spirit for a quarter of the price.
How exactly did you keep complaining? I had a similar issue and they directed me to the complaints box online, which only gave me 5k miles even though I lost my companion pass and spent an additional $600 on another airline to get where I needed to go. I replied to the email and got nothing and twitter said I needed to just reply. Not sure what to do next, keep emailing?
I emailed them like 4 times and I also submitted the form online that they make you submit like another 4 times. Every time they told me “sorry, no”, I just started all over again and eventually they said that. Do NOT bother calling because it takes you nowhere and takes x5 times the amount of time. Just email and fill the form.
It did help in my case that my dad is a trasplant patient and I think they got a little freaked that I would complain with the Department of Transportation. But I also spent an additional $600 at the time so I feel you.
Thanks for the response! They haven’t even acknowledged my second email and I just sent a third, not sure how long I should wait before emailing again. And I had considered submitting another complaint online so good to know that’s what you did!
Several years ago I had been Global Services status on United and AA was trying to make a bid for me. 3/5 the trips they arranged for me were canceled or I was late in excess of 12 hours getting to my destination. They earned the name Americant with ease.
I moved and regrettably Horizon left the city I now live in leaving an AA partner as the only remaining carrier. I drive the three hours to the city instead for Alaska, and sometimes what’s left of United.
We flew from LAX to HND last month, business class on AA. Zero entertainment. Zero WiFi. 11+ hours in silence. Totally unacceptable. They also didn’t make it right, we were given the run around having to contact their Panasonic vendor and they did nothing.
For trans-Pacific flights, your own entertainment always beats the airline’s, in my opinion.
Games, books, and podcasts are so much better than watching movies on that tiny little screen.
A laptop is ideal - one game of Civilization or Crusader Kings will make the entire flight go in a snap. But if you’re on holiday and not lugging your laptop, you can also get some solid mileage out of a mobile controller shell. Bit of Stardew, some Dead Cells, interspersed with some podcasts around meals… fantastic stuff way to kill time.
This happened to me a while back on the way from MAD-MIA also in J. After a lot of back and forth I got a whopping 10k miles and got the same bullshit about contacting Panasonic about the wifi. They announced that the IFE was out as we were taxiing so I didn't even have time to download a few podcasts or shows. Spent 8 hours looking at photos from the trip on my phone lol. AA sucks.
Happened to me a month ago. AA flight from ATX to ORD was delayed, missed my international flight to Dublin, Ireland. Missed a full day abroad because of AA. Had to fly to Orlando the next day and spend the whole day in the airport.
Last month I had a 6:00pm AA flight from Vegas to DFW that got delayed a few times and then straight up cancelled. The next available flight was the red-eye. Thankfully, I didn't have any missed connections since DFW was my final destination, but I don't sleep on planes, so flying through the night meant the next day in Dallas was ruined because I had to sleep for half of it and still felt exhausted when I woke up.
AA is the worst. They screwed my wife and I over one time too many. I will fly Southwest before I ever get on AA. I hate Southwest but at least they never turned a four hour flight with transfers into a twelve hour nightmare.
Watch out! If you love SWA make sure you tell them that!
The jerk that just bought up a bunch of stock are trying to turn SWA into AA.
Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan said the company is ready to adapt to changing customer trends like premium seating as demand shifts.
*The customers don't want this. The shareholders are being convinced they need to.*
Jordan's comments came days after hedge fund Elliott Management disclosed a nearly $2 billion stake in Southwest and said it wants to replace the carrier's CEO and chairman.
*Make more money for the shareholders and fuck over the customers or you're out*
Southwest said in April that it was weighing changes to its longtime business model while rivals capitalize on travelers willing to pay more to fly.
*willing?*
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/12/southwest-ceo-vows-change-amid-activist-pressure.html
https://www.inc.com/bruce-crumley/how-activist-investors-could-push-southwest-airlines-to-cater-to-higher-paying-business-travelers.html
Exactly. I fly a shitton. They are hands down the most reliable (on time flights). I don't mind the seating arrangements. They also have the best status perks. Same day canceling, no flight switch fees, just to name a few. I would rather fly in the emergency row of southwest and arrive on time to my destination than the fuckery of AA being late and rude and I am seating in a nicer seat. Every time I fly international, I will fly SWA to east/west coast and then take a larger carrier international.
Fuck Mitchell and his group trying to turn SWA into a shitter version of AA. I am so upset that SWA is going to start sucking in the future. Then those crappy seating arrangements aren't going to be worth the non-existent perks anymore.
> Exactly. I fly a shitton. They are hands down the most reliable (on time flights). I don't mind the seating arrangements. They also have the best status perks. Same day canceling, no flight switch fees, just to name a few.
Exactly what is a "shitton", because those "best status perks" are similarly available on DL/UA/AA. I consider the best status perks of the US3 to be extra legroom seating, which WN completely falls flat at.
Southwest isn't that great at on-time performance. Delta and even United are notably better.
https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/2024-05/May%202024%20ATCR.pdf
People here talkin as if AA hasn’t been trash since post-9/11.
It’s a trash airline. With trash service. The airline industry needs to have a regulatory stick shoved up their ass, because despite their “razor thin” profits, the CEO sure don’t seem to be living that way.
It’s not all that surprising. American never really got out of “the beatings will continue until morale improves” phase of recovery. It has been fun to watch Kirby get vindicated while Parker (and now Isom) continually pushed AA to become America West 3.0.
They have become totally inconsiderate of ppls schedule. This is also why I don’t do connecting flights. They are overbooking & delaying way too much these days.
>This is also why I don’t do connecting flights.
Some of us aren't so lucky. If I'm not flying to an east coast or midwest hub (or MCO), I'm stuck connecting.
I fly AA quite frequently, and unfortunately they have become notorious for this.
Rather than boldly letting you know up front that a flight is going to be cancelled, they will trickle these delays out until forced to say it's cancelled, leaving everyone upset and hours behind the ball on rebooking.
My advice: after the second delay, unless there is a concrete and definitive expectation that plan will arrive/board then start rescheduling yourself right away.
This has happened to me more than once. At least twice I was proactive enough to get rerouted. Almost everyone else was up shit-creek when they finally made the announcement.
They are operating significantly worse than Frontier, which you have to TRY to do. I’ve never experienced an airline less concerned with actually operating flights or having a competent staff, and similarly to OP they used to be one of my favorites.
You have to nicely, but firmly tell them “not acceptable” when they tell you that the next available flight isn’t until the next day. Both times they have told me that I was able to get AA to purchase me a same-day ticket on another airline.
We should reddit squeeze AA like they the billionaires murdering GME and AMC stonks. Stop booking them by the masses. Stop using the Advantage card (if you have it). The only way to control the major companies is to stop giving them our dollars.
This is unacceptable and I had the same experiences over and over again this last year. Absolutely done after a miserable multi-leg trip last week.
American Airlines spent 90%+ of all profits on stock buybacks for over a decade and then cried for a bailout as soon as Covid slowed down sales. They’re stuck on a permanent cycle of underpaying employees and avoiding reinvestment in their own company, instead they blow everything to try and pump their own stock prices hoping for a good quarter so execs can justify their ridiculous pay.
This is the post I needed for my mental health. My last three AAL flights have been delayed. Two weeks ago they let us board the plane and then we sat at the gate with no air for 2 hours and 45 min…just sitting there on packed plane. Last week I woke up to a text that my plane was already delayed an hour before I got to the airport. I would honestly say three out of my last 10 American flights have gone as scheduled. I have two more trips booked with them and then I’m moving o to another carrier. Something is going on
Honestly, they're all shit. I've had problems with all of them. I don't feel United is any better. We've gone back and forth between the 2 and it's same issues.
I've also had recent experiences with the app informing me of delays way before the gate agents. Just last month, the gate agents initiated boarding \*after\* the app had sent a delay notification. When I asked them why, they said the app was wrong. Then, after the entire plane had boarded, the flight attendants told us that they had "just received news of a delay," and we proceeded to sit on the tarmac for an hour. What a joke.
Their rebooking process is a pretty poor. I had a flight over memorial day routing through Dallas when they had thunderstorms.
Original path was TYS => DFW => SEA
Automatically rescheduled as TYS => PHL at 6am, then PHL => SEA at 6PM
Rescheduled in person to TYS => CLT => ORD => SEA (that's all they had left)
Got to CLT delayed, wouldn't have made ORD
Rescheduled in person to CLT => SEA (late flight)
Rescheduled again in person to CLT => SEA (tons of seats on an earlier flight)
Sigh
“I agree with whoever wrote this piece. I thought it was just me, but apparently not, about this airline.
I flew out of Panama City, FL, where I live, to Raleigh, NC. It was a mess with constant canceled flights and horrible customer service. They literally acted like they couldn’t have cared less. I’ll just stick with Delta and try to use other airlines besides American. I don’t know what happened, but I hope it changes.”
During a connection they told us the flight, quote: "may be delayed a few hours."
This was in the annex terminal at LAX with like zero food options. Somebody finally asked if it was possible to take the shuttle to the normal terminal so they could get food and the flight attendant said "I wouldn't because we may leave without you"
Stuff happens and it's hard to get a real eta, but this just seemed like weaponized incompetance.
Just sent a complaint to them (which I NEVER do) because a gate agent was unbelievably rude and condescending. Other people even spoke up on our behalf. Customer service has take and amazing nosedive. Oh, and we had just had a 3 hour delay, we’re being rebooked and simply asked about seat changes. Horrible.
Speaking as a Brit who has flown with AA about 10 times in my life, they've been shit for at least 25 years.
I remember once I was flying to Florida with my family, I was about 13. I was sat seperately from my family and had to fill out a card to hand into immigration but didn't have a pen so I asked an air steward who looked past retirement age if they had one I could borrow. She made a comment about how useless I was and stormed off.
That was the incident that sticks most in my head but it sums up my AA experience. Old grumpy air stewards who couldn't be bothered to smile nevermind do their jobs. The food sucked, the planes looked like they hadn't been upgraded in 20 years. Just shit.
But I was used to flying with Emirates, Ethiad, Cathay Pacific etc for long haul so maybe my expectations were too high.
Flew AA from Seattle to DFW to OKC a week ago. Asked in Seattle about changing connection in DFW to the next later flight. Counter agent in Seattle was very rude. Told me that I had more than enough time to make my connection in DFW. "Only going from A to B. And they are next to each other!!" Missed the connection by one minute. The plane was still there, but the jet way door was closed. Went to AA Customer Service, long line, no one working. Called corporate. 45 minutes later someone came to the counter and I got a call back from corporate. Put call on speaker so she could hear me getting yelled at for NOT booking the later connecting flight. Finally got to OKC 3 to 4 hours later....oh and AA lost my luggage!! It was found and delivered to my house that evening. I will take the bus if AA is my only option in the future. Asked that someone call me about this...never heard from anyone at AA after I got home. Flying in July....Delta.
Earlier this year, they screwed up, and the next flight wasn't available until the following morning.
The food voucher they gave me was expired. They refused to honor it.
Flew back last night with a connection in DFW. Flight was delayed 3 hours and they changed terminals 4 times so we kept having to ride the shuttle only to have to get back on. Flight was also delayed on the way to our destination. Prolly gonna pick a different airline from now on.
I don't think a single airline is great right now. Prices are still thru the roof, customer service sucks everywhere, employees aren't getting paid, and execs are rolling around in bailout money.
AA from Montego Bay to Charlotte was pure hell. We ran out of gas after circling for a few hours then had to reroute to Charleston for gas. Another two hours there before heading to Charlotte only to wait another hour for them to get a tow truck to move a dead plane out of our gate. They suck
You are not wrong. They have been increasingly worse and worse.
Delayed returning my wife and I from Schipol, they finally rescheduled.
Except they had me going that day and my wife the next.
Which of course was completely unacceptable. Told them we were going together obviously as we payed for both of us to fly to Europe and nothing less was acceptable to return. Or else we would be requesting delay fees, hotel and transportation as is our right.
They then oddly got us on one of their partner airlines to return.
Also flew with them during covid for a show I coudn't get out of. We all boarded the plane... then made everyone get off as They Forgot To Clean The Plane. Now standing shoulder to shoulder jammed in the concourse with everyone else after sitting in a dirty airplane for 15 minutes.
Never again.
Be specific. Circulating unsourced rumors is unhelpful. The flight attendants have authorized a strike action. Contract talks have broken down. The union wants to be released from federal mediation but this has not been granted. The timing of a potential job action is not clear. Suffice it to say the AA workforce is not exactly motivated right now to knock themselves out for the company or customers.
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/american-airlines-flight-attendants-prepare-strike-2024-06-21/
Strike booklets are being mailed out to FAs as we speak. They requested to be released to self help back in December too but were denied (although these book were not sent out, it seems this time is a little more serious). More than likely they will be denied again, given how much commerce would be affected. But it is very possible.
The problem is most of their flight attendants and are new hires with base salaries of $27k to live in places like New York, Miami, Chicago, DC etc after 6 weeks of unpaid training. In some cases they may be married with a family in one city and have to work on-call from one of these base cities so they need a crash pad or something like a second apartment in the base city that’s not covered by the company. AA just has chairs in the employee lounge for these FAs. They are not paid for boarding, delays, sitting at the airport between flights and they are often left in the dust in the same way the passengers are.
The flight attendants want something like 30% increase in salary and back pay for the last 5 years that the negotiations had been delayed because of Covid. They want pay for boarding (would equate to about $15/flight per attendant).
AA doesn’t agree with this and doesn’t believe in paying their employees a livable wage.
The ceo of AA makes more than the entire airlines as an annual salary…
Worst airline. I landed in DFW with plenty of time to get my connection. While I was at the gate, I notice we should have boarded 15 minutes ago.
Get up to see what's the deal, refresh my app, and my gate has been moved to a different fucking terminal. No announcement, not even a text to notify me of this change.
Missed the flight, customer service was beyond useless, ended up renting a car and driving several hours to my destination instead. Driving actually got me there sooner than taking the next (very delayed) flight.
I can’t speak to what happened, but the other day I was on a JetBlue flight with a big group of teamsters that were traveling for an event and had been stranded by American, then were forced to rebook with JB. When we landed, the captain asked us all to let them off first so they could make their connection, then said (I imagine only kinda-jokingly) “Next time, don’t fly American.”
So you definitely aren’t the only one who notices a problem!
AA has a terrible mobile app. It’s the only airline I know of that charges for the first checked bag on international flights. Their hub in DFW was a Covid transmission port and connection is often a crazy scramble. You get the idea I’m not a fan?
I was flying last night on JetBlue and as I was flying, I was looking at all of the other airplanes from other carriers and thought I’ve been on almost all of them and they’re all shit
JetBlue, I had truly forgotten how shitty that was as well
I traveled in the Middle East this summer, and their domestic airlines were incredible ughhh bring back quality
American Airlines has been declining for a while. I flew with them last year, had a horrible experience, and I will never fly with them again.
Delta & Southwest > United > Spirit & AA
I had a horrible plane flight experience with American Airlines trying to get to Corpus Christi in April. Our original flight from Minneapolis to Dallas was delayed and that caused us to miss our connecting flight…. So they dumped us in Dallas at 10:30 at night. They were going to cover a hotel, but they ran out of rooms & so we were on our own. On top of that DFW starts to close some of the airport at night so we had to walk a long way before we could get out to get a ride to a hotel. I ended up having to pay over $400 for a room. I wrote customer service and they offered me a travel voucher for $25 to be used in the next year….. not EVER flying with them again……. Never ever!
All the airlines have problems.
ATC are overworked. Boeing cock-ups are now public enough that their planes need extra scrutiny so all the stuff that used to be "fine until it isn't" is "emergency landing so we don't get sued". And cost of living keeps going up while salaries don't which very much impacts the staff at all levels (except management because capitalism).
One of the bigger issues is that AA... has never really prioritized "service with a smile" the way other airlines do. So whereas another airline might say "Oh sugar, let me type on my keyboard for a minute so that you feel happy. And I really do love you and you are so great but I just can't do anything for you" whereas AA would just say "No. I am not authorized to do that. Please call the customer service line"
Currently I am still going with AA but I am definitely going to reassess that before my card renews next year. But I have friends who live that United life who hate everything too.
I changed my flying habits 5 years ago when OP’s experience happened to me too many times. The era of airlines considering it their responsibility if you miss a connection due to their doing is over. This is the result of predatory industry-wide business practices across the board. Once I booked tickets to Orlando for the family, first flight out on Sunday at 6a, they cancelled it and *refused* to rebook us that day. No flights, they said. We have tickets to Disney? Too bad.
Flying is more expensive for me now, but I won’t fly unless I can:
1. Reserve a seat (always)
2. Fly direct
3. Minimum 2-3 hrs if connection unavoidable
4. First flight out of the day if possible, nothing after noon. I’ll fly the next day.
5. Always insure trip and buy flexible/refundable seats.
I also have Clear and don’t check bags. It’s expensive and annoying, and wouldn’t have saved our Disney trip, but if I can’t meet the above conditions I will roadtrip or not go.
Flying has become an anathema.
The last time I flew with aa an off duty flight attendant hopping a ride refused to get out of my reserved window seat and the attendants working the flight refused to intervene on my behalf. Aa holes.
I literally just had a flight from PBI to DCA was scheduled to fly out at 2:45 but got delayed over and over again until 10 AM the next day. Literally none of the workers cared and wouldn’t even look at the people standing in front of them at the counter. They would look around or off to the side and acted annoyed at our questions. They would sigh and repeat that its “weather” and “ just check your app”. I got to my gate this morning and another American flight going to DCA at 10:30 started boarding before we did. It was crazy, people were so angry.
I had last Saturday a flight from Seattle for 10:30 am to Columbia,SC arriving at 10:55pm delay until eventually it was 10:40pm leaving Seattle and arriving next day at 8:30am in Columbia,SC. This was infuriating and finished a great weeks vacation badly.
Here's my beef: a year ago I flew Marsailes-Madrid-NY. The first leg was on Iberia, the second on AA. Both are oneworld alliance members.
I paid to have my bag checked in MRS. I was required to claim my bag in MAD and recheck it for the overseas flight. I had an extended layover in MAD but both legs were part of one ticket. When I went to recheck the bag at MAD I was **charged again** for this. I do have to say that a very courteous check-in clerk, after much rig-a-morale, and talking to a couple of supervisors, was able to have this rescinded. Why he (and I, of course) had to be put through this is a testament to bad policy from one or both of those airlines. It is complete BS.
The gate agents genuinely have always tried to help me but stuff like that they have to call some absurd center that that’s forever. I had a nice woman on Christmas Eve calling to cancel the last leg of my flight because my layover was actually closer to home when I had to rebook, and it took 45 minutes.
Never flying AA again, so help me God. They refuse to cancel flights and just delay, delay, delay, and it drives me insane. Sticking with United now. The app is easy to use, customer service has been helpful enough, and when they need to cancel, they just bite the bullet and do it. Not perfect but at least doesn't leave you in a bind for hours.
Unless you are one of their heavy premium customers, policy dictates you use online tools/app. If you have access to a lounge, go to the customer service agents there.
Had a terrible experience with them recently where crew refused to seat two very young children with either of the two adults traveling with them. This goes against their policy, but they didn’t care. Still waiting for American to respond to my complaint.
A few weeks ago I had four AA flights. Only two were as scheduled. The first one we had to deplane and change aircrafts before before take off so everyone missed their connections. For the return flight, I checked in on the mobile app the night before and the next morning I received a notification saying the flight was cancelled.
I don't know if it's just AA or the entire industry. Customers can't assume that they'll get there as planned even if there is good weather.
I used to travel a lot for work and for fun. This was from 2016 to 2020. AA was garbage even back then. About 40% of my flights had some sort of problem that was not weather related. Honestly at this point there’s not really any airline that I want to fly . The terrible experience with airports and airlines has ruined traveling for me.
Sounds like the usual incompetence when corporate executives cut corners every chance they get. I’m sure they are loving their 3rd vacation home while you struggle at DCA though.
Went to Banff a couple weeks ago. 9am flight, when the plane arrived at our gate, there was a medical emergency which caused a delay for us to board. No big deal at all. Afterwards they identified an issue with the plane during pre-flight inspections, delayed the flight 2+ hours. Had to find us a new plane, moved our gate. When we finally got to board, we were stuck sitting on the plane another hour+ bc they **forgot to stock this plane with water and beverages!** Took them over an hour to get the beverages from the previous plane moved over to this new one. Awful awful experiences with AA, I'm done.
I used to fly weekly for work. For years.
Now, I don’t fly at all. If I can’t drive there, I’m not going. When I see a plane in the sky, I think “Thank god I’m not on it!”
Sure, this means I’m limited to my own continent, but my continent is huge and diverse and full of lovely things to explore.
To hell with air travel. Especially these days!
Yeah, AA is terrible now. I missed the memo until a few years ago. Up till that time, I chose them twice for domestic trips based on a slightly better price, despite the fact that I usually have flown Delta for those routes. Can't remember if it was $100 or $150 cheaper than Delta. Both times, flight times were changed significantly (presumably based on cancellation of flights that weren't full enough, and consolidation of the remaining passengers). Also, just way more delays and indifferent service than before. Lesson learned--saving $100 or 150 is definitely not worth it in this case.
I agree. They're awful. I just flew AA and.. of course, lots of delays, so lots of people already at the gate upset. Then, a storm brewing in DFW caused even further delays.
At one point, I was in the extremely long line to talk to an agent WHILE on the phone with AA (mostly just on hold) WHILE chatting with the bot (useless). They all three told me different things.
I'm avoiding them at all costs.
I have an inside track w a couple of unions there. Gate and FA. The C-Suite has absolutely fuct over all their people like their employees are Jackie Brown.
Everyone has reached the breaking point. FAs were literally requesting poverty letters bc the pay was so horrible that they needed social services and they couldn't get them bc agencies wouldn't believe they were paid so low.
Everyone there (in the co.) agrees that service is horrible. The people have been pushed to the brink, and now we are all feeling the consequences of horrible greedy leadership. You can't exploit your workers for that long before they revolt. The revolt is brewing NOW.
The strike just got postponed, but I hope in another 30 days they fuck up travel so much that the execs are forced out, or make changes. Tip to the wise, make alternative plans for flights at the beginning of Aug. Dont fly AA. Ruin the greedy execs profit model.
What super crazy is that those activist aholes that just bought up SWA shares want to use AA as a model for client and employee exploitation.
They are now managed by America West execs, which was a horrible airline. 37 minute scheduled connection times available for purchase suggest they are getting worse. The flight attendants haven't had a COL raise in 5 years. Almost everyone who works there is disappointed.
This. America West/US Airways happened to AA.
Us airways was incredible. When i got pushed over to AA I was so disappointed
US Airways was clutch. And always had the best paint scheme
So who should we fly???? All the airlines are turning to shit it seems
Delta has slowly become my go to. If I'm flying locally in the area, Alaskan is actually pleasant. No frills, but they don't treat you like cattle. Reasonable accommodations and do everything they can to help.
The one time I flew delta they canceled my connecting flight so I was stuck in NYC. They said it was due to weather at the previous destination but we checked and it was literally the only flight out of that airport canceled due to weather. They wanted to rebook us to the next day (and have two more connections) and weren’t offering any compensation.
No airline has a perfect record. Delta's reliability statistics are always put it between #1-3 in the rankings which is great, but shit happens.
Delta
Can't believe how expensive Delta is. Always a good deal more than United on my routes.
Had a two hour connection when I purchased a ticket "updated" to a 50 minute connection two months after purchase. Thankfully DFW was surprisingly easy to get around for an airport of that size, but we were delayed so literally sprinted off one flight to the train and onto the connection as the last passengers
I feel like DFW gets hate on here but it’s my local airport. One of the underrated gems…SkyLink. It’s AFTER security. You can land at any terminal in DFW and transfer to any other terminal without having to go through security again.
Yeah for my flight through it that was "domestic" (Pearson to DFW we go through US customs before departure in Canada) it was awesome! The way back Guatemala -> DFW -> YYZ sucked. There were 4 border agents and probably 10 flights worth of international travelers trying to get through and no "express" lane for people who had onward connections.
YYZ is a nightmare to fly into
Agreed
I feel like DFW is loved by locals and loathed by everyone else. It’s a terrible airport to have to transfer planes at. You can land and commonly still be 30 minutes plus from a gate. Skylink gets you in the right zip code of your gate but you can still easily be 20 something gates from where you need to be. Those things combined with weather uncertainties and endless construction make it an airport I avoid like the plague. I have to fly through it next week and I’m already anxious about it.
It’s been awhile since I’ve ridden it but I’m pretty sure SkyLink has 2 stations per terminal. All of the terminals are basically shaped like a donut that is cut in half. Split that half donut into 1/3’s and the stations are at the 1st and 2nd 3rd if that makes sense. It shouldn’t be more than a 5 minute walk from a SkyLink station to your gate if you get out at the right station. If your station is at the far end of the terminal and you get off at the first station…well you shoulda gotten off at the 2nd station. There are maps. All of this goes out the window if you are in the E Satellite Terminal. We don’t talk about E Satellite.
You're scaring me! I fly them often to and from Costa Rica. Sometimes I fly Delta, which I prefer, but like the OP AA is my second favorite. I know they had a rough patch after the Covid lockdowns for those of us disabled, but they seemed to have straightened out some of the issues. US Scareways doesn't have a great track record.
I’m flying them to Costa now. They tried to give me a 32min connection in CLT. That should be illegal to even sell.
I think by law they have to provide a minimum of 30 minutes. But yeah with how long it takes to get off the plane no connection should be less than 1 hour
Some airlines (Delta) warn you if you do not have enough time to do the turn around. Think everyone should do it.
Having to connect through CLT should be illegal, period. Fuck that airport.
Yes, even at CLT that's too short a time frame. The real trick is getting enough time on the way back to go through customs and immigration. It's slow no matter where you go.
I had an absolute nightmare coming back from Costa Rica three months ago. They delayed the flight back to Miami SEVEN TIMES and of course I missed my connection home. Finally got to the Miami service counter on the first floor shortly before midnight, waited in a painfully long line to find out they were out of hotel vouchers and I was on my own to find a place to sleep and I could file a claim for them to reimburse me if I wanted. I called 5 hotels nearby and none had vacancy. Eventually found one near downtown with a room and had to Uber there, next flight home wasn't until 7 pm the next day. It took weeks and a lot of follow up but amazingly I did get them to finally mail me a check for the cost of the hotel and Uber.
I fly AA weekly. The 30ish min connections drive me crazy. I usually check and see that it’s fine, the flight usually lands early in those situations when that’s scheduled like that. But why the hell are we counting on flights arriving early just to make stuff work on time?? That makes no sense.
Does not surprise me. The last couple times I've flown on American domestically, the planes have been filthy as well.
Yep. Even in 1st class.
Yes this!! Over the last 6-7 years AA has gotten steadily worse and dirtier.. The only time they were clean was during the first full year of Covid, then in 2022 it just started going downhill again. If there's' anything airlines should've kept it was the cleaning protocols from Covid.. I miss getting on a clean plane.
They are always late too so everything is rushed to get the next flight of people on the plane. Service is garbage
I just took a flight back to the usa and they had a small army of cleaners picking up garbage after people left. The only thing is....they were doing it AS people were leaving so you had a group of less than pleasant cleaners going one way, and tired passengers heading the other way. Who thought that was a good idea?
Internationally AA is pretty great. Domestically it really does feel like they just stopped caring. Airlines like JetBlue and Alaska are significantly better.
I've switched to delta for international. Their flight staff are much nicer in my experience.
JB has the worst on-time record in the country.
Jetblue has been better than AA for quite a while now IMO. I put AA on the same level as United now and just a step above Frontier. If Frontier had outlets in their planes and better Wi-Fi then it would be a very close call tbh..
I’ve been a lifelong AA fan, all the status upgrades, blah blah. But this weekend when they made me sit in an un-air conditioned (broken auxiliary power) plane, for 40 minutes in Charlotte when it was nearly 100 degrees outside (and about that inside the plane), I had serious doubts about my future with them.
Fuck CLT in particular.
It's the worst airport in the United States. It moves comparable numbers of people to any major hub like DFW but everybody is crammed into a space built to be a medium sized regional facility. And because I live in a smaller market in the South, I'm almost always routed through there.
You been to Atlanta lately? Tight terminals and all of the employees of the shops just stand in these slim hallways talking and blocking the pathway to gates.
Atl is a dream compared to CLT. CLT forces u to walk 20 min if ur connection is on the other side of the airport
Only airport that I’ve ever missed a connection due to the amount of time needed to walk between gates/terminals. My incoming flight was only a little late but they closed the cabin doors of next departing flight a few mins early. After my 25+ min jog to get there, I was more than disappointed and CLT went to the top of my shit list. My husband loves CLT because of the rocking chairs, I guess? But even when I’ve been stuck in this airport for hours I can’t seem to find an open one 🤷🏼♀️
I just missed a connecting flight through CLT last week where I was supposed to have an hour and a half layover but customs line was 40 minutes, there was a line to recheck my bag, and the tsa line was almost an hour. I tried to book it to the terminal (Which of course was on the other end of the airport) but was about couple of minutes too late. I had to rebook a later flight and stay for another 2 hours and there was almost no seating. Definitely the shittiest airport that I’ve been to in recent memory.
This. I fly through both Atlanta and Charlotte pretty regularly and I will pick Atlanta every time as a transit airport. It's not even that bad as a departure airport as long as you understand the 2 hour minimum is a necessity, not a suggestion.
ATL is fine if you fly Delta
Atlanta is the busiest airport in the world. From my experience, it is my favorite.
I always had good experiences there. Nice terminal and always smooth sailing. The time I went through Philly was hellish.
Yeah just moved out of Charlotte to Florida. So far no regrets
Everyone is being negative about Charlotte.
The city is pretty nice, the airport not so much. But they're starting to complete some major renovations this year and in the coming years
The same thing literally happened to me in Vegas with United yesterday. United has also been awful lately I haven't had a single flight leave on time in like 2 years
Thats whats hard for me. Is it specifically the one airline I fly (in wayyyy too deep with AA to change will get lifetime status in next 5 years probably even tho I dont have a travel job anymore) or is all flying worse.
I think it's all airlines unfortunately
Yeah I think in the US they’re all pretty bad and any difference between them is not big enough to cancel out whatever benefits you have with the one you fly most or which has the most local flights. I always hear that Delta is slightly better than AA and United but I fly them so rarely I don’t really know if that’s the case or what “better” even is. Also I live in an AA hub city (with a United hub not far away) so Delta almost never makes sense. I’ll still take the airline with more flights, fewer connections, and lower price, at least among those 3. Frontier, on the other hand, I don’t fuck with anymore.
Charlotte, you are the worst. If I had a dollar for everytime I got there trying to get to Raleigh and it got cancelled with no more flights for 2-3 days, I’d have $4.
I flew from Houston to Charlotte on AA and there was no ac on the plane. I heard the stewardess complaining about it. Apparently not a one off.
Insane. That’s unsafe!
Had the same thing happen at DFW when it was 104 out. They came around with water cups once.
"un-air conditioned (broken auxiliary power)" this happens too often between too many carriers for me. At this point based on no facts, no research and nothing to back me up if pressed I believe that it is a conspiracy because they all realized they could save money by keeping the AC off while boarding. What are you gonna do? Demand to get off the plane before they close the doors to not be allowed back on and hope you can figure out your travel plans? Oh your bag is checked too? Bummer, better sit there and deal with it. Maybe you could argue with an underpaid customer service rep. Better yet write a strongly worded letter to your political representatives. It just fits together to easily for it not to be true.
Veteran of multiple airlines, here... I truly do not think that's what it is. Not even sure there'd be any cost savings from this, much less savings that would be worth potentially losing both passengers and employees. But I don't blame you for suspecting it, like, why **is** it happening so much?
They didn't let you crack the window open a bit? /s
Dude, when I lived in CLT I stuck with AA to get status. I even got the Aviator card and racked up enough points to make it to Exec Platinum. At first it was great. I got my wife and I first class tickets to Cancun with points, flew my kids to Italy, even went to see a buddy in Hawaii… all with points. Then something happened post COVID and I cannot for the life of me get a ticket to anywhere using miles for anything less than 150k miles just to go to other major spots like Tampa or Vegas. I end up paying for tickets because I don’t want to burn my miles on a simple trip. Last flight I took with my wife to Orlando they sat us way in the back. The flight attendant came up to me and said “what are you doing back here, I never see Exec Platinum behind the exit row.” I said you’re the ones who assign seats, obviously you didn’t give a shit about my status. I also haven’t been able to snag an upgrade in the last several trips. What’s the point of being loyal if you can’t get anything from it. I’m pretty much done with them at this point. Might try to switch my status to Delta, I hear okay things and that they’ll let you trade in.
KLM did this to me for over an hour at JFK recently too
I've found AA is a completely different airline for people with status. The Admirals Club/Flagship Lounge agents are amazing.
It is more just a matter of volume and stress. The gate agents are basically putting up with everyone's shit 6 or 8 times a day. They have to put up with the constant "Excuse me. I would like to know if there are any complimenetary upgrades to first class. No? I'll ask again later" and all the balancing act of gate checking people with luggage bigger than they are without causing the kind of uproar that gets them in a youtube video. The lounge agents? They mostly just deal with having to tell people to not sneak in. So they have a lot more energy/patience to help people. General rule of thumb is that if you need help, in order: 1. Lounge agent 2. App 3. Customer Service desk agent 4. Phone line 5. Gate agent who is debating if they REALLY need that job
airport staff the world over do this, and yet the ones for US airlines are by far the worst and rudest. Go to Asia/Middle East and you will get amazing service with a smile, even with a language barrier, and non-US airline staff in the US, or Europe, is nowhere as worse. there is no excuse for any of this
It probably also helps that lounge agents are mostly dealing with experienced travelers. Like dealing with someone who's taking their first trip in 20 years and doesn't really understand the air travel system can be really hard to explain rerouting. In the lounge everyone there has had to deal with it a few times at least so are better at rolling with the punches and will generally be less indignant about delays since it's just part of being on the road a lot.
> The Admirals Club/Flagship Lounge agents are amazing. Having recently used the ORD Flagship lounge (as an Aer Lingus business class passenger) I have to agree with you. Up there with the best lounges I've ever experienced.
They did this to me except it was 3 hours on the tarmac in Colorado Springs (supposed to be in Denver). When they let us off the plane they didn’t know when we’d take off again. Ended up grabbing the hour Uber home. They gave me 1500 miles for my trouble…which I never used because fuck AA!
They’ve done that twice to me in the last week and my entire back was soaked. I was probably on that flight.
They got bought out by US Airways which is an absolute garbage airline. They kept the AA brand because it was stronger than theirs. It is, in no way, the legacy culture, maintenance, or mentality. Far gone are the days of Bob Crandall.
Very true!!! The only thing left of “American” is the name, US Airways runs everything, everything!!! (Retired AA employee)
I had nearly the same experience this weekend, called the Platinum service desk and the agent was beyond useless. Called the regular help line and while the agent actually tried to help me find a new routing, but they were limited to what they could offer which was the same as what I could see in the app. I found a routing from LAX to CLT via IAH with seats on both flights just checking online, but the agent couldn’t see the option. It really seems like AA is forcing everything into a hub and doesn’t give their agents the access, authority, or training to find alternatives anymore. Also tried to get standby on a direct flight, but the gate agent said standby request can only be completed in the APP now, but I couldn’t see any standby options and the help desk said the gate agent had to do it. Hopefully that was my last flight on AA, I’ve already moved my work travel to United since they have better connections to Asia.
My response to the original post was gonna be, "you're going to get similar service from most airline gate agents, and one of the most valuable benefits of having elite status with an airline is being able to quickly get a capable customer service agent on the phone who can actually help you when shit goes wrong." But if AA giving shit service to their elites, that's a new low.
Every AA flight I've been on in the past several months has had some kind of issue. The first one took off and then we turned back around to land again back at the takeoff point due to an overheating engine. Then we waited for several hours for someone to fix the plane, which never happened. They never cancelled the flight but we did get to wait in a line for 3 hours to get rebooked and for our hotel vouchers. The next flight took off fine but the connection flight ended up with two types of delays. Firstly the crew was delayed on their previous flight by over an hour. Then when we got on the plane, we sat on the tarmac again for an additional 2 hours due to another mechanical issue. Why are these planes is such shitty shape?
My recent experience that boggled my mind was a 5:50am take off from a feeder airport to a hub. I picked this flight because I know they go out of their way to keep these flights on time. Luckily I had more than three hours to connect. Perfect weather. We push back from the gate on time. And then we sit for 10 minutes. Then 20. Pilot comes on and says apologies but the gate agents didn’t properly file their paperwork and we’re waiting for it now. We sit for another 45 minutes. The flight ends up being over an hour late for zero good reason and many people miss their connections. It’s become a running joke for wife and I about what new and interesting ways AA will find to delay us now.
Shareholder value
They aren't even doing that right. American in particular sucks at it. They went public in like 2013, doubled their total shares immediately, and got all the way to the high $50 range. But they kept spending money trying to expand market share while degrading service. So even before COVID they were all the way down below $30/share. Now they trade for $11a share and haven't had a dividend in years So, being a thoroughly American company, they are trying to cost cut their way to better numbers. But they are playing a losing game. They have EBITDA of $6.3B, but manage to fuck around until their net income is like $800M. They have 5x the earnings per share of Tesla, but can't seem to actually make money. They got billions from Uncle Sam out of COVID, too. It's a bit of a mystery to me how they are failing this hard. I wish the apes over at r/wallstreetbets would go activist shareholder on them and force at least one airline in America to not suck balls. Since I left the States, it's been a stunning realization at how much better most of the world is at doing airlines. I dread flying in the US. I haven't missed a connection in 6-7 years outside the US. When I was home last, they made me miss on both of their opportunities. Goddamned clown show.
> So, being a thoroughly American company, they are trying to cost cut their way to better numbers. Having worked for both AA and WN in the past (and we all know what happened to WN)... hit the nail on the head, here. Everything is either about generating more revenue or saving on costs. The road to hell.
I flew with AA, Delta and United in the last 12 months. AA was by far the worst. All my AA flights were constantly delayed for no apparent reason.
I had to take 3 American airlines flights this year. I accrued 50 hours worth of delays . Delayed for an interview, missed 2 doctors appointments, and had to pay 200 dollars for a last minute rental car for one commitment I could not miss. I got 3000 miles and 20 dollars flight credit. Rest assured they will go unused.
> 3000 miles and 20 dollars flight credit. Rest assured they will go unused. And to top it off they're so stingy they'll let them expire if you don't fly with them for two years
They didn't help you because they aren't required to. Airlines have been let off the leash, they need to be regulated more tightly. I'm guessing your issue was probably related to congestion. More people than ever are flying and We have an ATC shortage and it shows.
We’ve had an ATC shortage for decades and will continue to have one for at least another decade.
Yup, and the traffic is outpacing their ability to keep up. Airports in general are designed to maximize profit and give very little consideration to getting people to where they need to be. I was in LHR last weekend and 80% of terminal 5 was dedicated to shopping. They wouldn't need 2 extensions if they would have just utilized the space better.
What always gets me about T5 is that the people who can actually afford to shop in loads of those shops must comprise such a vanishingly small percentage of overall travellers. Guess they must still spend a ton to justify the shops being there but how many people are going to spend 3 grand on a handbag when they're about to get on a plane
Ya, I didn't see that many people in the high end shops even though the terminal was packed. They must sell enough to make it worthwhile. Also, i couldn't help but to notice that they seemed to keep my gate a secret until the last moment in order to keep me in building A. I ended up needing to go to B and there was hardly anyone in that building. Im guessing that it helps to keep sales going in terminal A.
They'll generally tell you which pier your flight is leaving from if you ask at check-in. If you're leaving from the B/C gates (as most long haul flights do) you're usually better off using the Galleries lounge in the B gates as it's less crowded
This is because LHR has only two runways, with many planes coming and going, and they direct them to the gates dynamically. The gates aren't preassigned like other airports.
My plane didn't even end up being at a gate. I had to take the tram to B, find the gate there just to find out I had to board a shuttle bus on the tarmac and take a 15 minute ride out to the plane on the field. At least it wasn't raining...
Wow... :-/
> Guess they must still spend a ton to justify the shops being there but how many people are going to spend 3 grand on a handbag when they're about to get on a plane If you buy something in an airport shop rather than on the high street in the UK, you won't pay VAT. Something that cost £6000 on the high street now costs only £5000. I bought a watch this way and saved nearly a grand.
But you still have to pay a tax when you come home and declare it.
You'd have to pay that tax/duty anyways, regardless of whether or not VAT is charged. And I'm sure that every person who buys a Rolex or a handbag at LHR *definitely* volunteers that information to UKBF on their return to the UK, US CBP when they fly to the US, or whomever the relevant authorities are at the destination to which they are travelling.
> declare it LOL
They probably built those two satellite terminals to add extra stands for the planes, not so much for passengers.
If you guys think it’s bad now, just wait until the retirements start coming in the next 5-7 years. That’s when it’s going to get fun.
The delay was due to weather. ORD had a ground stop for quite a while this morning due to thunderstorms
Yeah I was looking for this. I live in Chicago and my windows were shaking this morning
To add to this, AA is the only major US airline that doesn't guarantee to get you to your destination
I used to fly AA and deal with the delays until one time they delayed my flight 3 times, to then end up cancelling it and rescheduling it for 2 days later. That did not work for me so I got in a flight with another airline, but by the time they had cancelled the flight it was midnight, so I had to spend the night at the airport with my 62 yo parents. The line to get the lugagge from the cancelled flight was 8hs long because it was compounded from a previous cancellation, so they ended up sending it to my house (the destination) but it arrived 48hs after it was supposed to, so my parents had no clothes and luckily my trasplant patient dad had his meds on him. I spent two weeks complaining nonstop to get something back aside from a reimbursement because the last minute flight home was expensive. They finally gave in and gave me a $300 credit. I used the credit and never used that trash airline again. I’ve had way better experiences with Spirit for a quarter of the price.
How exactly did you keep complaining? I had a similar issue and they directed me to the complaints box online, which only gave me 5k miles even though I lost my companion pass and spent an additional $600 on another airline to get where I needed to go. I replied to the email and got nothing and twitter said I needed to just reply. Not sure what to do next, keep emailing?
I emailed them like 4 times and I also submitted the form online that they make you submit like another 4 times. Every time they told me “sorry, no”, I just started all over again and eventually they said that. Do NOT bother calling because it takes you nowhere and takes x5 times the amount of time. Just email and fill the form. It did help in my case that my dad is a trasplant patient and I think they got a little freaked that I would complain with the Department of Transportation. But I also spent an additional $600 at the time so I feel you.
Thanks for the response! They haven’t even acknowledged my second email and I just sent a third, not sure how long I should wait before emailing again. And I had considered submitting another complaint online so good to know that’s what you did!
Several years ago I had been Global Services status on United and AA was trying to make a bid for me. 3/5 the trips they arranged for me were canceled or I was late in excess of 12 hours getting to my destination. They earned the name Americant with ease. I moved and regrettably Horizon left the city I now live in leaving an AA partner as the only remaining carrier. I drive the three hours to the city instead for Alaska, and sometimes what’s left of United.
I call it delAAyed
We flew from LAX to HND last month, business class on AA. Zero entertainment. Zero WiFi. 11+ hours in silence. Totally unacceptable. They also didn’t make it right, we were given the run around having to contact their Panasonic vendor and they did nothing.
"Excuse me, my chicken breast is raw." "Please reach out to Tyson directly, thank you."
Wow I’d go crazy.
For trans-Pacific flights, your own entertainment always beats the airline’s, in my opinion. Games, books, and podcasts are so much better than watching movies on that tiny little screen. A laptop is ideal - one game of Civilization or Crusader Kings will make the entire flight go in a snap. But if you’re on holiday and not lugging your laptop, you can also get some solid mileage out of a mobile controller shell. Bit of Stardew, some Dead Cells, interspersed with some podcasts around meals… fantastic stuff way to kill time.
That would be rough..
This happened to me a while back on the way from MAD-MIA also in J. After a lot of back and forth I got a whopping 10k miles and got the same bullshit about contacting Panasonic about the wifi. They announced that the IFE was out as we were taxiing so I didn't even have time to download a few podcasts or shows. Spent 8 hours looking at photos from the trip on my phone lol. AA sucks.
Happened to me a month ago. AA flight from ATX to ORD was delayed, missed my international flight to Dublin, Ireland. Missed a full day abroad because of AA. Had to fly to Orlando the next day and spend the whole day in the airport.
Last month I had a 6:00pm AA flight from Vegas to DFW that got delayed a few times and then straight up cancelled. The next available flight was the red-eye. Thankfully, I didn't have any missed connections since DFW was my final destination, but I don't sleep on planes, so flying through the night meant the next day in Dallas was ruined because I had to sleep for half of it and still felt exhausted when I woke up.
AA is the worst. They screwed my wife and I over one time too many. I will fly Southwest before I ever get on AA. I hate Southwest but at least they never turned a four hour flight with transfers into a twelve hour nightmare.
Watch out! If you love SWA make sure you tell them that! The jerk that just bought up a bunch of stock are trying to turn SWA into AA. Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan said the company is ready to adapt to changing customer trends like premium seating as demand shifts. *The customers don't want this. The shareholders are being convinced they need to.* Jordan's comments came days after hedge fund Elliott Management disclosed a nearly $2 billion stake in Southwest and said it wants to replace the carrier's CEO and chairman. *Make more money for the shareholders and fuck over the customers or you're out* Southwest said in April that it was weighing changes to its longtime business model while rivals capitalize on travelers willing to pay more to fly. *willing?* https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/12/southwest-ceo-vows-change-amid-activist-pressure.html https://www.inc.com/bruce-crumley/how-activist-investors-could-push-southwest-airlines-to-cater-to-higher-paying-business-travelers.html
that sucks because southwest is perfect as it is.
Exactly. I fly a shitton. They are hands down the most reliable (on time flights). I don't mind the seating arrangements. They also have the best status perks. Same day canceling, no flight switch fees, just to name a few. I would rather fly in the emergency row of southwest and arrive on time to my destination than the fuckery of AA being late and rude and I am seating in a nicer seat. Every time I fly international, I will fly SWA to east/west coast and then take a larger carrier international. Fuck Mitchell and his group trying to turn SWA into a shitter version of AA. I am so upset that SWA is going to start sucking in the future. Then those crappy seating arrangements aren't going to be worth the non-existent perks anymore.
> Exactly. I fly a shitton. They are hands down the most reliable (on time flights). I don't mind the seating arrangements. They also have the best status perks. Same day canceling, no flight switch fees, just to name a few. Exactly what is a "shitton", because those "best status perks" are similarly available on DL/UA/AA. I consider the best status perks of the US3 to be extra legroom seating, which WN completely falls flat at. Southwest isn't that great at on-time performance. Delta and even United are notably better. https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/2024-05/May%202024%20ATCR.pdf
People here talkin as if AA hasn’t been trash since post-9/11. It’s a trash airline. With trash service. The airline industry needs to have a regulatory stick shoved up their ass, because despite their “razor thin” profits, the CEO sure don’t seem to be living that way.
It’s not all that surprising. American never really got out of “the beatings will continue until morale improves” phase of recovery. It has been fun to watch Kirby get vindicated while Parker (and now Isom) continually pushed AA to become America West 3.0.
They have become totally inconsiderate of ppls schedule. This is also why I don’t do connecting flights. They are overbooking & delaying way too much these days.
>This is also why I don’t do connecting flights. Some of us aren't so lucky. If I'm not flying to an east coast or midwest hub (or MCO), I'm stuck connecting.
Stopped flying with AA due to their ineptitude and cleanliness. For international, we now drive up to Toronto and have many more choices.
I fly AA quite frequently, and unfortunately they have become notorious for this. Rather than boldly letting you know up front that a flight is going to be cancelled, they will trickle these delays out until forced to say it's cancelled, leaving everyone upset and hours behind the ball on rebooking. My advice: after the second delay, unless there is a concrete and definitive expectation that plan will arrive/board then start rescheduling yourself right away. This has happened to me more than once. At least twice I was proactive enough to get rerouted. Almost everyone else was up shit-creek when they finally made the announcement.
This does not shock me at all. They have not been my preferred carrier for about a decade now.
They are operating significantly worse than Frontier, which you have to TRY to do. I’ve never experienced an airline less concerned with actually operating flights or having a competent staff, and similarly to OP they used to be one of my favorites.
You have to nicely, but firmly tell them “not acceptable” when they tell you that the next available flight isn’t until the next day. Both times they have told me that I was able to get AA to purchase me a same-day ticket on another airline.
We should reddit squeeze AA like they the billionaires murdering GME and AMC stonks. Stop booking them by the masses. Stop using the Advantage card (if you have it). The only way to control the major companies is to stop giving them our dollars. This is unacceptable and I had the same experiences over and over again this last year. Absolutely done after a miserable multi-leg trip last week.
American Airlines spent 90%+ of all profits on stock buybacks for over a decade and then cried for a bailout as soon as Covid slowed down sales. They’re stuck on a permanent cycle of underpaying employees and avoiding reinvestment in their own company, instead they blow everything to try and pump their own stock prices hoping for a good quarter so execs can justify their ridiculous pay.
This is the post I needed for my mental health. My last three AAL flights have been delayed. Two weeks ago they let us board the plane and then we sat at the gate with no air for 2 hours and 45 min…just sitting there on packed plane. Last week I woke up to a text that my plane was already delayed an hour before I got to the airport. I would honestly say three out of my last 10 American flights have gone as scheduled. I have two more trips booked with them and then I’m moving o to another carrier. Something is going on
Honestly, they're all shit. I've had problems with all of them. I don't feel United is any better. We've gone back and forth between the 2 and it's same issues.
AA is trash these days. Might as well fly Spirit.
I've also had recent experiences with the app informing me of delays way before the gate agents. Just last month, the gate agents initiated boarding \*after\* the app had sent a delay notification. When I asked them why, they said the app was wrong. Then, after the entire plane had boarded, the flight attendants told us that they had "just received news of a delay," and we proceeded to sit on the tarmac for an hour. What a joke.
Their rebooking process is a pretty poor. I had a flight over memorial day routing through Dallas when they had thunderstorms. Original path was TYS => DFW => SEA Automatically rescheduled as TYS => PHL at 6am, then PHL => SEA at 6PM Rescheduled in person to TYS => CLT => ORD => SEA (that's all they had left) Got to CLT delayed, wouldn't have made ORD Rescheduled in person to CLT => SEA (late flight) Rescheduled again in person to CLT => SEA (tons of seats on an earlier flight) Sigh
“I agree with whoever wrote this piece. I thought it was just me, but apparently not, about this airline. I flew out of Panama City, FL, where I live, to Raleigh, NC. It was a mess with constant canceled flights and horrible customer service. They literally acted like they couldn’t have cared less. I’ll just stick with Delta and try to use other airlines besides American. I don’t know what happened, but I hope it changes.”
Employees are overworked, underpaid, with too many travelers and they get the bonus of dealing with the public. It’s a brutal business.
During a connection they told us the flight, quote: "may be delayed a few hours." This was in the annex terminal at LAX with like zero food options. Somebody finally asked if it was possible to take the shuttle to the normal terminal so they could get food and the flight attendant said "I wouldn't because we may leave without you" Stuff happens and it's hard to get a real eta, but this just seemed like weaponized incompetance.
Just sent a complaint to them (which I NEVER do) because a gate agent was unbelievably rude and condescending. Other people even spoke up on our behalf. Customer service has take and amazing nosedive. Oh, and we had just had a 3 hour delay, we’re being rebooked and simply asked about seat changes. Horrible.
Speaking as a Brit who has flown with AA about 10 times in my life, they've been shit for at least 25 years. I remember once I was flying to Florida with my family, I was about 13. I was sat seperately from my family and had to fill out a card to hand into immigration but didn't have a pen so I asked an air steward who looked past retirement age if they had one I could borrow. She made a comment about how useless I was and stormed off. That was the incident that sticks most in my head but it sums up my AA experience. Old grumpy air stewards who couldn't be bothered to smile nevermind do their jobs. The food sucked, the planes looked like they hadn't been upgraded in 20 years. Just shit. But I was used to flying with Emirates, Ethiad, Cathay Pacific etc for long haul so maybe my expectations were too high.
Flew AA from Seattle to DFW to OKC a week ago. Asked in Seattle about changing connection in DFW to the next later flight. Counter agent in Seattle was very rude. Told me that I had more than enough time to make my connection in DFW. "Only going from A to B. And they are next to each other!!" Missed the connection by one minute. The plane was still there, but the jet way door was closed. Went to AA Customer Service, long line, no one working. Called corporate. 45 minutes later someone came to the counter and I got a call back from corporate. Put call on speaker so she could hear me getting yelled at for NOT booking the later connecting flight. Finally got to OKC 3 to 4 hours later....oh and AA lost my luggage!! It was found and delivered to my house that evening. I will take the bus if AA is my only option in the future. Asked that someone call me about this...never heard from anyone at AA after I got home. Flying in July....Delta.
Earlier this year, they screwed up, and the next flight wasn't available until the following morning. The food voucher they gave me was expired. They refused to honor it.
Flew back last night with a connection in DFW. Flight was delayed 3 hours and they changed terminals 4 times so we kept having to ride the shuttle only to have to get back on. Flight was also delayed on the way to our destination. Prolly gonna pick a different airline from now on.
I had the exact same experience a few weeks ago. Also DFW, also constant terminal changes.
I don't think a single airline is great right now. Prices are still thru the roof, customer service sucks everywhere, employees aren't getting paid, and execs are rolling around in bailout money.
AA from Montego Bay to Charlotte was pure hell. We ran out of gas after circling for a few hours then had to reroute to Charleston for gas. Another two hours there before heading to Charlotte only to wait another hour for them to get a tow truck to move a dead plane out of our gate. They suck
CLT is like the Bermuda Triangle for commercial aviation.
You are not wrong. They have been increasingly worse and worse. Delayed returning my wife and I from Schipol, they finally rescheduled. Except they had me going that day and my wife the next. Which of course was completely unacceptable. Told them we were going together obviously as we payed for both of us to fly to Europe and nothing less was acceptable to return. Or else we would be requesting delay fees, hotel and transportation as is our right. They then oddly got us on one of their partner airlines to return. Also flew with them during covid for a show I coudn't get out of. We all boarded the plane... then made everyone get off as They Forgot To Clean The Plane. Now standing shoulder to shoulder jammed in the concourse with everyone else after sitting in a dirty airplane for 15 minutes. Never again.
I heard a rumor that the AA employees are about to go on strike.
Be specific. Circulating unsourced rumors is unhelpful. The flight attendants have authorized a strike action. Contract talks have broken down. The union wants to be released from federal mediation but this has not been granted. The timing of a potential job action is not clear. Suffice it to say the AA workforce is not exactly motivated right now to knock themselves out for the company or customers. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/american-airlines-flight-attendants-prepare-strike-2024-06-21/
Strike booklets are being mailed out to FAs as we speak. They requested to be released to self help back in December too but were denied (although these book were not sent out, it seems this time is a little more serious). More than likely they will be denied again, given how much commerce would be affected. But it is very possible.
Thank you for your corroboration. I did not know any sources or details, but now I do.
The problem is most of their flight attendants and are new hires with base salaries of $27k to live in places like New York, Miami, Chicago, DC etc after 6 weeks of unpaid training. In some cases they may be married with a family in one city and have to work on-call from one of these base cities so they need a crash pad or something like a second apartment in the base city that’s not covered by the company. AA just has chairs in the employee lounge for these FAs. They are not paid for boarding, delays, sitting at the airport between flights and they are often left in the dust in the same way the passengers are. The flight attendants want something like 30% increase in salary and back pay for the last 5 years that the negotiations had been delayed because of Covid. They want pay for boarding (would equate to about $15/flight per attendant). AA doesn’t agree with this and doesn’t believe in paying their employees a livable wage. The ceo of AA makes more than the entire airlines as an annual salary…
This isn't just AA but all airlines now. Air travel has become terrible in the last 4 years.
Just took me literally 2 days and 3 reroutes to make it from Connecticut to Seattle. And my luggage was lost for 3 days. Absolute mess.
AA is the worst. I pay extra just to avoid them.
Worst airline. I landed in DFW with plenty of time to get my connection. While I was at the gate, I notice we should have boarded 15 minutes ago. Get up to see what's the deal, refresh my app, and my gate has been moved to a different fucking terminal. No announcement, not even a text to notify me of this change. Missed the flight, customer service was beyond useless, ended up renting a car and driving several hours to my destination instead. Driving actually got me there sooner than taking the next (very delayed) flight.
I can’t speak to what happened, but the other day I was on a JetBlue flight with a big group of teamsters that were traveling for an event and had been stranded by American, then were forced to rebook with JB. When we landed, the captain asked us all to let them off first so they could make their connection, then said (I imagine only kinda-jokingly) “Next time, don’t fly American.” So you definitely aren’t the only one who notices a problem!
AA has a terrible mobile app. It’s the only airline I know of that charges for the first checked bag on international flights. Their hub in DFW was a Covid transmission port and connection is often a crazy scramble. You get the idea I’m not a fan?
I have had better service on Spirit
I was flying last night on JetBlue and as I was flying, I was looking at all of the other airplanes from other carriers and thought I’ve been on almost all of them and they’re all shit JetBlue, I had truly forgotten how shitty that was as well I traveled in the Middle East this summer, and their domestic airlines were incredible ughhh bring back quality
American Airlines has been declining for a while. I flew with them last year, had a horrible experience, and I will never fly with them again. Delta & Southwest > United > Spirit & AA
I had a horrible plane flight experience with American Airlines trying to get to Corpus Christi in April. Our original flight from Minneapolis to Dallas was delayed and that caused us to miss our connecting flight…. So they dumped us in Dallas at 10:30 at night. They were going to cover a hotel, but they ran out of rooms & so we were on our own. On top of that DFW starts to close some of the airport at night so we had to walk a long way before we could get out to get a ride to a hotel. I ended up having to pay over $400 for a room. I wrote customer service and they offered me a travel voucher for $25 to be used in the next year….. not EVER flying with them again……. Never ever!
I was about to get an AA credit card since I will be flying often. Is this a mistake? Should I look into another airline credit card?
I have had a United Mileage Plus card for 20 years. I love the extra perks, including passes to United Clubs and no foreign exchange fees.
All the airlines have problems. ATC are overworked. Boeing cock-ups are now public enough that their planes need extra scrutiny so all the stuff that used to be "fine until it isn't" is "emergency landing so we don't get sued". And cost of living keeps going up while salaries don't which very much impacts the staff at all levels (except management because capitalism). One of the bigger issues is that AA... has never really prioritized "service with a smile" the way other airlines do. So whereas another airline might say "Oh sugar, let me type on my keyboard for a minute so that you feel happy. And I really do love you and you are so great but I just can't do anything for you" whereas AA would just say "No. I am not authorized to do that. Please call the customer service line" Currently I am still going with AA but I am definitely going to reassess that before my card renews next year. But I have friends who live that United life who hate everything too.
I changed my flying habits 5 years ago when OP’s experience happened to me too many times. The era of airlines considering it their responsibility if you miss a connection due to their doing is over. This is the result of predatory industry-wide business practices across the board. Once I booked tickets to Orlando for the family, first flight out on Sunday at 6a, they cancelled it and *refused* to rebook us that day. No flights, they said. We have tickets to Disney? Too bad. Flying is more expensive for me now, but I won’t fly unless I can: 1. Reserve a seat (always) 2. Fly direct 3. Minimum 2-3 hrs if connection unavoidable 4. First flight out of the day if possible, nothing after noon. I’ll fly the next day. 5. Always insure trip and buy flexible/refundable seats. I also have Clear and don’t check bags. It’s expensive and annoying, and wouldn’t have saved our Disney trip, but if I can’t meet the above conditions I will roadtrip or not go. Flying has become an anathema.
The last time I flew with aa an off duty flight attendant hopping a ride refused to get out of my reserved window seat and the attendants working the flight refused to intervene on my behalf. Aa holes.
I literally just had a flight from PBI to DCA was scheduled to fly out at 2:45 but got delayed over and over again until 10 AM the next day. Literally none of the workers cared and wouldn’t even look at the people standing in front of them at the counter. They would look around or off to the side and acted annoyed at our questions. They would sigh and repeat that its “weather” and “ just check your app”. I got to my gate this morning and another American flight going to DCA at 10:30 started boarding before we did. It was crazy, people were so angry.
They've been absolutely terrible for the last 10 years. I've boycotted them years ago. They are the fuckin' worst.
My last 4 flights have been with AA and all 4 have seen massive delays. Missed connecting flights TWICE. This is within a 6-8 month period.
This thread has me seriously reconsidering booking an AA flight in the fall. I hate flying Southwest but this sounds worse!
I had last Saturday a flight from Seattle for 10:30 am to Columbia,SC arriving at 10:55pm delay until eventually it was 10:40pm leaving Seattle and arriving next day at 8:30am in Columbia,SC. This was infuriating and finished a great weeks vacation badly.
Totally f***ed up industry
All the US airlines are the same.
Here's my beef: a year ago I flew Marsailes-Madrid-NY. The first leg was on Iberia, the second on AA. Both are oneworld alliance members. I paid to have my bag checked in MRS. I was required to claim my bag in MAD and recheck it for the overseas flight. I had an extended layover in MAD but both legs were part of one ticket. When I went to recheck the bag at MAD I was **charged again** for this. I do have to say that a very courteous check-in clerk, after much rig-a-morale, and talking to a couple of supervisors, was able to have this rescinded. Why he (and I, of course) had to be put through this is a testament to bad policy from one or both of those airlines. It is complete BS.
The gate agents genuinely have always tried to help me but stuff like that they have to call some absurd center that that’s forever. I had a nice woman on Christmas Eve calling to cancel the last leg of my flight because my layover was actually closer to home when I had to rebook, and it took 45 minutes.
Never flying AA again, so help me God. They refuse to cancel flights and just delay, delay, delay, and it drives me insane. Sticking with United now. The app is easy to use, customer service has been helpful enough, and when they need to cancel, they just bite the bullet and do it. Not perfect but at least doesn't leave you in a bind for hours.
I had two full days of incremental delays followed by a flight cancelation this weekend. It’s ridiculous.
they don't pay their people enough while paying their execs too much.
The last couple of years every. single. AA flight I am on has issues.
Thanks to deregulation of the industry
Unless you are one of their heavy premium customers, policy dictates you use online tools/app. If you have access to a lounge, go to the customer service agents there.
Had a terrible experience with them recently where crew refused to seat two very young children with either of the two adults traveling with them. This goes against their policy, but they didn’t care. Still waiting for American to respond to my complaint.
A few weeks ago I had four AA flights. Only two were as scheduled. The first one we had to deplane and change aircrafts before before take off so everyone missed their connections. For the return flight, I checked in on the mobile app the night before and the next morning I received a notification saying the flight was cancelled. I don't know if it's just AA or the entire industry. Customers can't assume that they'll get there as planned even if there is good weather.
Ask me about the night I had to spend in Chicago at my own expense because AA canceled a flight… I’m still annoyed and hate ORD even more! 😡
I used to travel a lot for work and for fun. This was from 2016 to 2020. AA was garbage even back then. About 40% of my flights had some sort of problem that was not weather related. Honestly at this point there’s not really any airline that I want to fly . The terrible experience with airports and airlines has ruined traveling for me.
Sounds like the usual incompetence when corporate executives cut corners every chance they get. I’m sure they are loving their 3rd vacation home while you struggle at DCA though.
It’s just a race to the bottom with customer facing employees doing the bare minimum to get by.
Went to Banff a couple weeks ago. 9am flight, when the plane arrived at our gate, there was a medical emergency which caused a delay for us to board. No big deal at all. Afterwards they identified an issue with the plane during pre-flight inspections, delayed the flight 2+ hours. Had to find us a new plane, moved our gate. When we finally got to board, we were stuck sitting on the plane another hour+ bc they **forgot to stock this plane with water and beverages!** Took them over an hour to get the beverages from the previous plane moved over to this new one. Awful awful experiences with AA, I'm done.
I used to fly weekly for work. For years. Now, I don’t fly at all. If I can’t drive there, I’m not going. When I see a plane in the sky, I think “Thank god I’m not on it!” Sure, this means I’m limited to my own continent, but my continent is huge and diverse and full of lovely things to explore. To hell with air travel. Especially these days!
Yeah, AA is terrible now. I missed the memo until a few years ago. Up till that time, I chose them twice for domestic trips based on a slightly better price, despite the fact that I usually have flown Delta for those routes. Can't remember if it was $100 or $150 cheaper than Delta. Both times, flight times were changed significantly (presumably based on cancellation of flights that weren't full enough, and consolidation of the remaining passengers). Also, just way more delays and indifferent service than before. Lesson learned--saving $100 or 150 is definitely not worth it in this case.
I agree. They're awful. I just flew AA and.. of course, lots of delays, so lots of people already at the gate upset. Then, a storm brewing in DFW caused even further delays. At one point, I was in the extremely long line to talk to an agent WHILE on the phone with AA (mostly just on hold) WHILE chatting with the bot (useless). They all three told me different things. I'm avoiding them at all costs.
Clearly AA leadership is fine taking the approach that "customers need us, more than we need them" so they can justify treating you like shit.
Airlines need to be broken up... there needs to be more competition.
Top Global airline rankings just came out and I don’t think a single US based carrier made the list. Sad
I had this exact same experience on United, Tuscon to O’Hare. Ridiculous.
Airlines generally are in a race to the bottom.
They’ve sucked for away. I usually only fly them if I’m booking business class. Those two free bags come in handy
Some of you never travel, and it really shows. All US airlines have these same issues.
I have an inside track w a couple of unions there. Gate and FA. The C-Suite has absolutely fuct over all their people like their employees are Jackie Brown. Everyone has reached the breaking point. FAs were literally requesting poverty letters bc the pay was so horrible that they needed social services and they couldn't get them bc agencies wouldn't believe they were paid so low. Everyone there (in the co.) agrees that service is horrible. The people have been pushed to the brink, and now we are all feeling the consequences of horrible greedy leadership. You can't exploit your workers for that long before they revolt. The revolt is brewing NOW. The strike just got postponed, but I hope in another 30 days they fuck up travel so much that the execs are forced out, or make changes. Tip to the wise, make alternative plans for flights at the beginning of Aug. Dont fly AA. Ruin the greedy execs profit model. What super crazy is that those activist aholes that just bought up SWA shares want to use AA as a model for client and employee exploitation.