Prove Me Wrong: American Airlines is the worst domestic airline

[Gil Bang 25864]

23 hours ago, Armybrat said:

That is what has happened to Las Vegas Over the last dozen years. Gottdam bean counters have ruined it.

What the fuck IS a "resort fee" anyway?

[Armybrat 40678]

A “just for nothing” fee that covers previously free stuff like wifi in your room, access to the spa, parking,  etc.

Edited November 11, 2020 by Armybrat

[blacklab 11841]

2 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

What the fuck IS a "resort fee" anyway?

A fee/scam that allows them to make money off you but still advertise a super low rate on the hotels.com type sites.

[DonkeyCigars 144]

On 11/10/2020 at 9:22 AM, Dr. Beeper said:

I’ll always be a SWA loyalist. Not because of fares or bag fees, but because of the way AA treats me in the airplane, at the gate and over the phone. I’ve never been treated worse by any company, and I’m not that high maintenance. It’s like AA gets off on being cunts to their clients. 

If I can achieve the same direct flight, I will always fly SWA out of Love over AA out of DFW. And pay more to do so. Sometimes when flying to the Caribbean / Mexico, I’ll fly out of Houston just to take SWA over AA. Even though it’s a longer haul. 

Disagree. Been a while but nothing better than being first on and first off and having the key to the rental already in the car waiting for you in a seamless process where you don't have to engage or talk to a human being unless you want to.

[BearSchlong 8076]

Flying my daughter home for a few days so she can spend time with my sister and her kids. She's flying back to COU early in the am the day before she starts her big girl junior year internship with a big firm in St. Louis.

I'm honestly concerned that something is going to go wrong because American Airlines and their recent cancellations warning.

[DonkeyCigars 144]

Lost a bag. This is fine. The most confusing part is that I checked 7 bags. 6 arrived. How do you lose one of the 6? Logically they’d either all 7 be lost or none. They aren’t baby ducks with one prone to walking off or getting lost. They get scanned and checked and thrown on a conveyor belt and loaded.

[Updawg 2260]

What are you complaining about -6 out of 7 is pretty good

[Gil Bang 25864]

17 hours ago, DonkeyCigars said:

Lost a bag. This is fine. The most confusing part is that I checked 7 bags. 6 arrived. How do you lose one of the 6? Logically they’d either all 7 be lost or none. They aren’t baby ducks with one prone to walking off or getting lost. They get scanned and checked and thrown on a conveyor belt and loaded.

Actually, depending on the airport(s), it's more complicated than that.  They could go through several conveyor belts, and are routed to different conveyors based on the barcode.  It's not hard to imagine one not reading right and getting  put on the wrong belt. 

[Surly Bevo 24692]

7 bags?  I've gone to Europe for 16 days with a family of 5 with just 4 checked bags.

Edited August 25, 2021 by Surly Bevo

[DonkeyCigars 144]

1 minute ago, Surly Bevo said:

7 bags?  I've gone to Europe for 16 days with a family of 5 with just 4 checked bags.

Family of 6 (female heavy) checking in. Did you have two bags solely dedicated for make up and toiletries and hair stuff?  No? I envy you. 

(I have a hand scale so you know the weight before heading to the airport and both were 40+ lbs.)

[Gil Bang 25864]

We once met up with friends in Las Vegas.  We drove up, in the Corolla that we owned.

Friends had their college-aged daughter and her friend with them.   We were leaving Monday, they were leaving Sunday.  Daughter comes to us and asks if her and the friend can ride home with us  on Monday, so they can have another day.  I say sure, but you have to travel light.  We don't have much room.  Keep only what you need and send everything else home in your parents' car. 

We agree to meet at the Valet Monday at 10 AM.  I get there, and two girls had 4 large suitcases.  I'm like WTF?  I TOLD YOU.  "Well, we needed all of our stuff".

I was able to get two bags in the trunk by bungee'ing the lid down. And those two dumb bitches got to ride 280 miles with a suitcase in each of their laps.  They were miserable. Tough shit. 

[TornACL 7673]

Pics of college aged daughter and friend?

[DonkeyCigars 144]

4 minutes ago, Dr. Beeper said:

Please, no pics of heavy females. Are you Vic’s sock?

No Vic, but you have to understand our household. Three men that weigh over two-hundred pounds a piece, a woman that's a little plump (Dutch girl), and a daughter who's thirteen. You see what I mean? It ain't going to work and I ain't going to purchase their product ever again. Goodbye!

Edited August 26, 2021 by DonkeyCigars

[DonkeyCigars 144]

5 minutes ago, Dr. Beeper said:

[Updawg 2260]

Don’t engage Rex on AA matters. Unless you dip

[elfenix 34167]

13 hours ago, DonkeyCigars said:

No Vic, but you have to understand our household. Three men that weigh over two-hundred pounds a piece, a woman that's a little plump (Dutch girl), and a daughter who's thirteen. You see what I mean? It ain't going to work and I ain't going to purchase their product ever again. Goodbye!

[BearSchlong 8076]

Monday after my son's wedding, trying to get my daughter back to COU as she has midterms this week.

Her connection at DFW at 10:26 was "delayed" til 4:10 and finally cancelled, long lines at the airport and on hold.

I login to her record and choose the next available flight which is tomorrow but puts her into the airport 20 minutes before her final.

Word is filtering back that AA gate agents are not letting people make changes to MCI or STL, tough shit, sleep in the airport and travel tomorrow.

Fuck it, I just booked her a flight into STL tonight and her roomate is going to pick her up.

So she's checked in to 2 AA flights, I'm assuming they will just send her bag to COU at some point.

Should I wait til she's airborne on tonight's flight and then cancel tomorrow AM's flight?

[BearSchlong 8076]

So she races from terminal E to C, talks to a "customer service" guy who books her on an earlier flight using the original flight credit. . .which has already pushed back. 3 boarding passes for 3 flights now. What a shitshow. I told her to text me when they start the takeoff roll and I'll cancel what I can.

Edited October 11, 2021 by BearSchlong

[DonkeyCigars 144]

14 hours ago, BearSchlong said:

So she races from terminal E to C, talks to a "customer service" guy who books her on an earlier flight using the original flight credit. . .which has already pushed back. 3 boarding passes for 3 flights now. What a shitshow. I told her to text me when they start the takeoff roll and I'll cancel what I can.

Could be worse, could be southwest which apparently stranded 35% of customers, thousands of people, due to the pilots version of “blue flu” because they are butt hurt about a vax mandate 

[Zepol87 9163]

Boarding pass said to speak to gate agent for seat assignment. I wasn't happy since I paid for upgraded shit but it wasn't bad other than paying for a window seat but got changed to middle. Ppl on plane being jackasses about masks though. 

Edited October 18, 2021 by Zepol87

[closetohumping 17380]

Not as bad as Frontier and the like but worse than Delta, Jet Blue, etc

[Blotto 23418]

1 hour ago, closetohumping said:

Not as bad as Frontier and the like but worse than Delta, Jet Blue, etc

appreciate the update

[closetohumping 17380]

1 hour ago, Blotto said:

appreciate the update

[Beantown Express 2.0 6531]

How about a real update from my AA experience yesterday.  I had a flight yesterday at 4pm from Orlando back to DFW.  4pm gets delayed until 6pm and then we start to board.  About 50 of us scan our ticket and are on the jet bridge but we aren’t allowed to board the plane.  Suddenly the American Airlines app “bings” and it says the new flight time is 8pm.  30 seconds later it changes the flight time to 10:30pm.  Another minute goes by and it says 12:30am.  All of the people on the jet bridge head back to the gate or admirals club to try and figure out what is going on.  Over the next 10 minutes the departure time on the app changes 20 times going back to 6pm and then to 1am and everything in between.  It finally says 6pm and a mass of people head back to the gate which says 6pm and they start boarding us again.  While boarding a second time our app continues to change the departure time over and over again.  About 30 of us get on the flight and are in our seats and we notice nobody else has boarded for a few minutes.  Not a good sign.  After sitting there for 15 minutes and the app changing to different departures every 2 minutes it finally moves my flight departure time to 1:30am with a 3:30am arrival and my seat gets moved to 10L (this is a 737 so the only seats are A-F).  The pilot then announces he has timed out and can’t fly so everybody needs to get off the plane and a new plane will be coming at 12:45am with a 1:30am departure.  I call my corporate travel and they find me a flight on SW to Love Field leaving at 9:30pm arriving at 11:30pm.  I had to go to a different terminal, through security and finally got a flight to Love so at midnight I had to take a Uber to DFW to grab my car.  My boss waited on the AA flight and he just started boarding in Orlando by the time I got to DFW.  I sill have no idea what was going on with them yesterday but I have never seen anything like that in all my years of travel. 

[DalTxHornFan 3084]

7 minutes ago, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

How about a real update from my AA experience yesterday.  I had a flight yesterday at 4pm from Orlando back to DFW.  4pm gets delayed until 6pm and then we start to board.  About 50 of us scan our ticket and are on the jet bridge but we aren’t allowed to board the plane.  Suddenly the American Airlines app “bings” and it says the new flight time is 8pm.  30 seconds later it changes the flight time to 10:30pm.  Another minute goes by and it says 12:30am.  All of the people on the jet bridge head back to the gate or admirals club to try and figure out what is going on.  Over the next 10 minutes the departure time on the app changes 20 times going back to 6pm and then to 1am and everything in between.  It finally says 6pm and a mass of people head back to the gate which says 6pm and they start boarding us again.  While boarding a second time our app continues to change the departure time over and over again.  About 30 of us get on the flight and are in our seats and we notice nobody else has boarded for a few minutes.  Not a good sign.  After sitting there for 15 minutes and the app changing to different departures every 2 minutes it finally moves my flight departure time to 1:30am with a 3:30am arrival and my seat gets moved to 10L (this is a 737 so the only seats are A-F).  The pilot then announces he has timed out and can’t fly so everybody needs to get off the plane and a new plane will be coming at 12:45am with a 1:30am departure.  I call my corporate travel and they find me a flight on SW to Love Field leaving at 9:30pm arriving at 11:30pm.  I had to go to a different terminal, through security and finally got a flight to Love so at midnight I had to take a Uber to DFW to grab my car.  My boss waited on the AA flight and he just started boarding in Orlando by the time I got to DFW.  I sill have no idea what was going on with them yesterday but I have never seen anything like that in all my years of travel. 

One word -- logistics.

[ChiTownDoc 21091]

Case.  Closed.  

[Vegas64 657]

I had Jet Blue do that number on me from LGA -> BOS and I couldn’t miss my morning meeting, and the next flight was a morning flight, so I had to rent a car and drive…in the snow…for nearly 4 hours and got in at 2am. It was brutal and I was angry, but if you live the life long enough we all have business travel war stories.

Edited April 15, 2022 by Vegas64

[ChiTownDoc 21091]

1 hour ago, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

my seat 10L

 

[Incredulity 11532]

9 hours ago, ChiTownDoc said:

Case.  Closed.  

[Hagbard Celine 10734]

proof point #78,942 why paid first is the only option in the field of sardine tube combat

never willingly surrender your luggage

maintain walkaway optionality 100% of the time

invoke the 3-hour rule to AAngels the moment you have proof

get a room and fly the next day

i'm not rich, but the rules have changed

[Hagbard Celine 10734]

also, why is the southwest thread in the penelope forum and aamericaan thread here in business

[staboner 4955]

On 4/15/2022 at 4:14 PM, ChiTownDoc said:

Case.  Closed.  

[Blotto 23418]

goddamn AA, if the facts presented in this story are accurate, you fucked this guy's life up pretty good. 

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/fort-worth/article262126407.html

Quote

A man’s life was changed after he spent 17 days in a New Mexico jail because American Airlines wrongfully accused and identified him to police as a shoplifter at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, according to a lawsuit filed Monday. 

Michael Lowe boarded a flight at DFW Airport in May 2020. More than a year later, he said, he was on vacation in New Mexico when he was arrested on warrants he had never heard of for a crime he did not commit. 

For more than two weeks, Lowe was held in Quay County Jail at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in “grossly unsanitary conditions,” according to the lawsuit. Lowe said he didn’t even find out what he was charged with until after his release.

“I’ve never heard of this fact pattern in my life or my career,” said Lowe’s attorney, Scott Palmer. “If it can happen to him, it can happen to anyone.”

The events that changed Lowe’s life began in May 2020, when a stranger to him shoplifted from a store inside Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, the suit says. Surveillance cameras caught the suspect boarding a flight headed to Reno. American Airlines reported the theft to DFW Airport police, which ordered the Fort Worth-based airline to send over the footage and a passenger manifest showing everyone who boarded the flight. 

Instead, American Airlines “departed from its established procedures,” according to the lawsuit, and sent police a single passenger’s information — Lowe’s. An American Airlines spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment. 

Lowe had been on the flight as a layover on a trip from Flagstaff to Reno. 

At the time of the flight, Lowe had two-inch long gray hair and wore a mask. The surveillance footage — screenshots of which are shown in the lawsuit — shows a man with a military-style buzz cut wearing no mask and carrying several items. 

Despite the discrepancies in their appearances, American Airlines identified Lowe as the shoplifter seen in the surveillance footage, the lawsuit said. Based on that information, police issued two arrest warrants for Lowe — one for felony burglary of a building and the second for criminal mischief.
 

Article goes on to describe his incarceration during covid which sounds suboptimal 

[DaysOff 7821]

In May of 2020 passenger loads were down 90%. Shouldn't have been that hard to finger the right guy.

[Js1 85055]

49 minutes ago, DaysOff said:

In May of 2020 passenger loads were down 90%. Shouldn't have been that hard to finger the right guy.

Oh so it’s that kind of airline 

[HRSchenker 2257]

Did DFW Airport police and Tarrant County not attempt to make contact with him? 14 months seems like a long time to not receive any kind of notice from police that you have an outstanding felony warrant out for your arrest

[royiv 9131]

Flying from Flagstaff to Reno with a change of planes in DFW? Guy should be charged with a count of terrible trip planning.

[closetohumping 17380]

Delta:

no free wifi

spring loaded luggage compartments, yep have to help every old or short by pulling down the compartment 

no iPhone holder to watch your downloads 

tiny ass seats

dish tv that does not have a channel guide

male flight attendant who thinks you’re interested just because you laugh at their lame ass joke

[closetohumping 17380]

On 6/6/2022 at 10:14 AM, royiv said:

Flying from Flagstaff to Reno with a change of planes in DFW? Guy should be charged with a count of terrible trip planning.

Minneapolis to Atlanta to OC

[Gil Bang 25864]

2 hours ago, closetohumping said:

Delta:

no free wifi

spring loaded luggage compartments, yep have to help every old or short by pulling down the compartment 

no iPhone holder to watch your downloads 

tiny ass seats

dish tv that does not have a channel guide

male flight attendant who thinks you’re interested just because you laugh at their lame ass joke

His gaydar was going off.  

[Aqua Buddha 14488]

Gather round, gather round.....

The wife (no pics but think Tina Fey), and I went to Napa this past week.  Great times were had by all, as always, but in the past with flying into SFO, the drive to Napa was a bit of a beating.  Between the rental car desk and actual drive, it could add three hours.

So, recently AA started direct service into Santa Rosa from DFW so we decided to give that a try.  (In the past, they only ran direct in from Phoenix and we didn't want to connect.)  Upgraded to first prior to the flight, figuring it was a 4 hour flight and it wasn't that much more.   The inbound flight was great.  Landed in Santa Rosa, which is the smallest airport I've ever seen.  Smaller than Waco even though it has significantly more service.  We were at the resort in St Helena an hour after landing and that includes the drive from Santa Rosa.

However, the outbound flight is where things got interesting.  Flight was scheduled at 1:40 PST and it was a fairly warm day.  (95 degrees.)  We were told that the plane couldn't take off due to being too heavy with the heat and a short runway.  I know heat can be a factor but there also seemed to be something called air bleed, which means the HVAC system has to work harder with the weight and the heat.  (I don't know about this and maybe more experienced people could weigh in.)

Anyway, here's where shit got real.  We were on an E-175, which is about 75 seats and were told 25 people needed to be cut and they were wanting volunteers.  Starting ask was $1,200 per person and overnight hotel, rebook, etc.  (Of course they had no open seats for the next three days but did offer to bus me to SFO.)  Over the next 2 hours, they only got 6 volunteers.  (Not sure why it took 2 hours to get to that point but I digress.)  

The gate agent told me with complete certainty that the plane was going to DFW.  There was a delayed flight to Phoenix and some dude wanted a voucher for that and she said "No, Phoenix might be canceled but Dallas is going."  Come hell or high water, that plane was going to DFW that night even with no one on it.  My guess is they needed it for the return flight the next day and didn't have any backups.  (The smaller regionals don't have the range, is my guess.)

The pros at this point were all making backup plans.  We all had backup itineraries and booking hotels at DFW.  (Not interested in the airline hotels at Motel 6 or some shit.)  We knew better than to let the airline take care of it.  None of us had checked bags, either, so there's that.

We all know what happened next and all of us saw it coming.  Status and class matter a lot to airlines.  While I'm not the Ryan Bingham with my own phone numbers level, I am Platinum and we were in first.  While other passengers were on a 2 hour hold, I talked to AA three times in one hour.  Gal in line was an FA on United and she was traveling with her husband and his work paid for AA.  She was like "yep, all of coach about to get screwed."

The names of the 20 involuntary cuts were read and everyone with status and/or in first was spared, like it was ever in doubt.  The rest of them were either bused to SFO or rebooked on United the next morning.  We figured between the vouchers and the rebooking on other airlines, they spent over $30K just to get the flight airborne.  

Between myself and the other people in first and that includes the United FA, we had never seen anything like this.  This plane was leaving, damn it all.

Plane finally took off seven hours late.  Landed at DFW at 1 a.m.  Of course everyone was told AA would have agents there to help with the hotel.  (Lulz.)  We had already booked at the Hyatt and didn't check bags so we didn't even break stride walking off the plane towards the shuttle.  Some of the others, however, looked stunned and amazed to find no one there at 1 am.  "We checked our bags so we don't have anything!"  

Go to the hotel and got a decent night's sleep and rebooked on a 12:30 back to XNA so all was well so it could have been MUCH worse.

The whole saga was a perfect microcosm of airline operations, class, status, people who know how to travel, people that don't, etc.  (There were families on this flight.  One was going to Atlanta.  Why fuck with a connection?  Just drive to SFO and fly direct to Atlanta.  They got rebooked into Seattle so they could fly to Atlanta.)

Tl;dr -- Status and class matter a lot, people either know how to fly or they don't, gate agent is the worst job in the world.

[PilotsError 2280]

Fuck gate agents.

[JGrayDBU 334]

On 4/16/2022 at 4:03 PM, Hagbard Celine said:

proof point #78,942 why paid first is the only option in the field of sardine tube combat

never willingly surrender your luggage

maintain walkaway optionality 100% of the time

invoke the 3-hour rule to AAngels the moment you have proof

get a room and fly the next day

i'm not rich, but the rules have changed

What is the three hour rule? 

[ATexanAbroad 627]

some of you havent lived in weird ass places with terrible airlines and it shows

I offer you air safari, holes in the floor and the exit window was in front of the propellor. No beverages, no service, no nothing. 21 year old indian bush pilots getting their experiene. 

[brownboy 45]

Just to provide some contrast I booked a last minute (literally the day before) trip to Nashville on AA a few weeks ago.  Even with the lowest status, Gold, I was upgraded both ways (thank you Expert Flyer for showing me I had a chance).  Flight left Austin at 7a on a Wed.  TSA-pre line took 5 min to get through security.  Flight took off on time and they served me a screwdriver before we took off.  No one talked after takeoff and all the window shades were down near me.

Return was Saturday at 11:30a.  Landed early and had no problem getting a gate.  Had 4 doubles on the 2 hour flight counting the one before takeoff.

Both flights were on an E170 RJ and I was able get the single seat side of the aisle in first.  Perfect when you're solo.

Of course I've had AA screw me but sometimes thing go smoothly and flying is quite pleasant.  Cheers.

 

I really wish AUS had a non airline affiliated club since I'll fly whoever goes direct.

[elfenix 34167]

On 6/12/2022 at 11:59 AM, Aqua Buddha said:

people who know how to travel

but don't know what "direct" means in travel context

[The Dog 43771]

On 4/15/2022 at 1:14 AM, ChiTownDoc said:

Case.  Closed.  

Delta used to have a bus service from Rome to Naples when I was working there. IIRC it was for military going to Naples (so for military contract service - not something you could book).

Was weird seeing the aircraft type of "BUS" in the reservations system. 

[Vegas64 657]

AA to cut flights into 3 smaller regional cities I saw this AM. 

[royiv 9131]

15 minutes ago, Vegas64 said:

AA to cut flights into 3 smaller regional cities I saw this AM. 

I think we'll be seeing more of this across the board. The regionals can't hire pilots fast enough. Hard to fly a plane when there's no one sitting up front.

[Gil Bang 25864]

18 minutes ago, Vegas64 said:

AA to cut flights into 3 smaller regional cities I saw this AM. 

Islip, Ithica, and Toledo IIRC>