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Prove Me Wrong: American Airlines is the worst domestic airline

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#1101

Flew to Dallas for a meeting two weeks ago - morning flight for an afternoon meeting.  Meeting locale was slightly closer to DFW, so I booked on American instead of SWA to Love Field.  A couple of hours before my scheduled flight, I started getting notices...."delayed 30 minutes."  Then "delayed 45 minutes."  No biggie, I'd built in plenty of cushion.  Then "delayed 90 minutes."  Nope, that ate too much of my cushion.  Ditched the reservation, bought a ticket on SWA for a flight departing 10 mins after my original departure time.  Easy-peasy, no delays, got there in plenty of time.

Meanwhile, I'm actually IN my meeting, and still getting text messages - "your flight is now delayed three hours."  Then "your flight is now delayed four hours."  I don't know when it ever fucking took off, I don't care.

SWA has slipped, it's not what it once was, etc.  But by and large, I don't have experiences with it pulling shit like that, which I've had with American at a much higher rate.  Most of my travel is short domestic routes.  Take off on time, get me to my destination when scheduled.  That's 99%of what I'm asking for.  And American can't seem to do that with regularity.

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#1102

Just had 2 trips on AA where they emailed me way ahead with flight delays. I think both were due to DFW weather ground stops.

#1103
10 hours ago, Sam Lin said:

Just had 2 trips on AA where they emailed me way ahead with flight delays. I think both were due to DFW weather ground stops.

DFW is a complete and total weather shithole.  Going forward, I will avoid it at all costs, despite the fact that the geographical location is close to ideal for most of my travels.

#1105
On 5/30/2025 at 10:02 AM, Brisketexan said:

Flew to Dallas for a meeting two weeks ago - morning flight for an afternoon meeting.  Meeting locale was slightly closer to DFW, so I booked on American instead of SWA to Love Field.  A couple of hours before my scheduled flight, I started getting notices...."delayed 30 minutes."  Then "delayed 45 minutes."  No biggie, I'd built in plenty of cushion.  Then "delayed 90 minutes."  Nope, that ate too much of my cushion.  Ditched the reservation, bought a ticket on SWA for a flight departing 10 mins after my original departure time.  Easy-peasy, no delays, got there in plenty of time.

Meanwhile, I'm actually IN my meeting, and still getting text messages - "your flight is now delayed three hours."  Then "your flight is now delayed four hours."  I don't know when it ever fucking took off, I don't care.

SWA has slipped, it's not what it once was, etc.  But by and large, I don't have experiences with it pulling shit like that, which I've had with American at a much higher rate.  Most of my travel is short domestic routes.  Take off on time, get me to my destination when scheduled.  That's 99%of what I'm asking for.  And American can't seem to do that with regularity.

AA will do the “oh you were booked in First Class and paid that fare? Well we rebooked you due to cancellation in middle seat steerage”. 
I loathe AA

#1106
On 5/30/2025 at 11:57 AM, Sam Lin said:

Just had 2 trips on AA where they emailed me way ahead with flight delays. I think both were due to DFW weather ground stops.

In our family, when we book tickets, accounting for weather while flying through the South in the late spring is basically on par with dealing with Ohare in January. 

#1107

I was expecting the worst, but…

After flying Singapore to San Francisco yesterday on Singapore Air, today I took AA:

SFO - LAX - AUS

Both flights on time (I’m in air to AUS).

Counter checkin service in SFO was excellent (he only charged me for 1 cat (travelled with 2) and didn’t do any baggage overage fees (was 5-10 lbs over on 2 of 4 luggage pieces).

Flight attendants have been great with the cats. Even giving extra free booze.

Only bad part was the terminal in LAX was basically a portable building that they bussed us over to the real terminal. And of course AAs total lack of on board entertainment.

If they were like this all then they might have a business*.

*they will probably lose my bag(s) and ruin it all.

#1108

My flight to London on AA last week was delayed 2.5 hours (while we are on the plane) due to the luggage cart crashing into the side of the plane.
 

An old Russian dude having a diabetic episode mid-flight added an additional 2 hour delay (not blaming AA for that one). 

#1109
2 hours ago, Fastbreak said:

I was expecting the worst, but…

After flying Singapore to San Francisco yesterday on Singapore Air, today I took AA:

SFO - LAX - AUS

Both flights on time (I’m in air to AUS).

Counter checkin service in SFO was excellent (he only charged me for 1 cat (travelled with 2) and didn’t do any baggage overage fees (was 5-10 lbs over on 2 of 4 luggage pieces).

Flight attendants have been great with the cats. Even giving extra free booze.

Only bad part was the terminal in LAX was basically a portable building that they bussed us over to the real terminal. And of course AAs total lack of on board entertainment.

If they were like this all then they might have a business*.

*they will probably lose my bag(s) and ruin it all.

Did the cats do OK?

#1110

Just booked a few flights through CLT to USVI on AA. I just need the greyhound to get to ground on time. This should not be much to ask. 

#1111

As much shit as AA deserves, at least they have more leg room than Hawaiian. I’m a little fella a 5’8” and my knees almost touched the seat in front of mine.

Don’t know when they decided to add more rows. It wasn’t like this the past few times. 

#1113
On 6/5/2025 at 10:03 PM, Anastasis said:

Did the cats do OK?

They got extra free booze, they were fine.

#1114
On 6/5/2025 at 8:26 PM, Superhero said:

As much shit as AA deserves, at least they have more leg room than Hawaiian. I’m a little fella a 5’8” and my knees almost touched the seat in front of mine.

Don’t know when they decided to add more rows. It wasn’t like this the past few times. 

I'm 6'1", and I'm always pretty comfortable on AA, but I try to book main cabin extra.

#1115
3 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

I'm 6'1", and I'm always pretty comfortable on AA, but I try to book main cabin extra.

Booked that on the way back from Orlando last week.  Flight was only delayed 3.5 hours this time.  

#1116

Two opposite experiences with AA in the past few days for me...

Last Thursday night flew ORD to DFW, after landing we taxied to the random holding area where we parked and eventually got to our gate 65 minutes later. I get it, they can't magically create a new gate just for us and tight turnarounds at existing gates are why I can fly to Chicago for an affordable $800. But we sat on the ramp for an hour under clear skies. WTF.

But then last night flying back from FL, severe weather was rolling into DFW and the entire crew was in super teamwork/cheerleader mode to get us boarded ASAP so we could beat the storms. We pushed back 15 minutes early and landed safely at DFW just as the storms were approaching. And we didn't have to wait for our gate, we simply landed and taxied right to it. Sometimes the stars align I guess.

 

  • 2 weeks later...
#1117
On 6/5/2025 at 7:18 PM, Fastbreak said:

And of course AAs total lack of on board entertainment.

Point of order...AA has fleetwide onboard entertainment, unless WiFi on your specific aircraft was inop or you were flying a 50-seater (0% chance of the latter on SFO-LAX-AUS). Yeah yeah no seatback IFE screen, but they have a very solid streaming library, and it's 100% free. So unless you're one of the 0.0000001% who still doesn't have a smartphone/tablet/laptop in the year 2025, you had onboard entertainment.

#1118

About half the time you can get free wifi from watching a 20sec ad, otherwise free wifi for Tmobile customers.

#1119

If you are exec platinum or usually fly first/biz, American is actually pretty great. If you don’t, Delta is better. 

Edited by Bozo_Casanova

#1120
7 hours ago, Rex Kramer said:

I’m exec platinum and I disagree. I’ve had the worst AA experience from Spring Break til now - and it didn’t involve me dipping on the plane - and I’m done. Absolutely done. I may share my story here but the bottom line is they cost me $2500, wouldn’t make me whole and instead gave me 10,000 miles and 4 $50 flight credits. I’m embarrassed to be from DFW and have this assclown of a company, along with AT&T, be HQ’ed here. 

I wish you would share your story, I’ve never heard of anything like that for Exec Platinum. I agree it’s a shitshow, but they’ve always gone above and beyond to insulate me from their problems- like putting me on other carriers flights or bumping coach passengers to get me home when my flight was cancelled, etc. 

Im currently on a status match with Delta, and it’s clearly a better airline overall, but the top tier experience is better on American. 

Edited by Bozo_Casanova

  • 6 months later...
#1121

I am just back from a trip that routed AUS-DFW-LHR-VCE on the outbound and VCE-LHR-ORD-AUS on the return. I had the double connect both beause of cost and timing (the return would've required me to catch a 7:00 AM flight out of VCE if I wanted to catch the BA nonstop from LHR to AUS). On both the transatlantic flights, I was up front on the new 787-900 Premium plane, with AA's new Business Class product, and have a few thoughts:

1) On both flights, I was in the front row, which actually has a fair amount more room. They also provide extra bedding, though the food and drink are the same. I presume the plan is to start charging for that seat in the future, but for right now its available to anyone. I'll tell you that, as a larger guy, it's well worth it even though you are close to the galley/lavs.

2) The crew on the outbound flight (DFW-LHR) were fantastic. I normally fly BA straight out of Austin, but the AA crew blew away any BA crew I've ever had. I'm not saying that's a super-high bar. But I was a bit surprised.

The crew on the return (LHR-ORD) were pretty league average. Not great; not terrible. The real problem with American is the high degree of variability. On Singapore, I know I'm going to get oustanding service. On BA, I know it's going to be mediocre but with a very pleasant accent. On AA, it's just a fucking crapshoot.

3) To precisely that point, the lounge situation is just wild. At T3 at LHR, you can go to the Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge if you're Emerald on OneWorld and hang out at one of the best airline lounges in the world. At T5, you go over to the BA First lounge, which isn't nearly as good but is still very comfortable.

On American at DFW, you go to the Flagship lounge. Is it great? No. But it's probably within spitting distance of the BA First lounge at LHR.

And then you have O'Hare. I gotta tell you--I really don't understand American's strategy at ORD. Supposedly they're competing with United. But if you're really competing with United, shouldn't you . . . compete? Instead, American puts absolutely minimum investment into its terminal. On the American side, O'Hare probably has the worst food and beverage option of any major airport in America. It's fucking abysmal. And that's pretty consistent with the Flagship Lounge at Terminal 3. Honestly, it was shocking how mid it was. I'd have been disappointed if that had been an AAdmirals Club. Food offerings were sparce. There were no real hot dishes, and certainly nothing that could be ordered a la carte. But here's the wild thing--there was no bartender. None. There was a bunch of booze out, and they had little laminated index cards with recipes on how to make various cocktails. But goddamn--that's why there's supposed to be a bartender. I mean, this is supposed to be a first class lounge, after all.

So in my trip, I went from one of the best first class lounges in the world to what has to be one of the worst. And that's the real problem with AA. I just don't know what I'm going to get from one flight to the next or from one station to the next. It's just a complete goddamned crapshoot.

Edited by Ghost of LL

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