I haven’t had a lot of luck with air travel of late. My flights always seem
to be delayed – and for some reason, when a flight is delayed more than
half an hour, it always turns out to be six hours at least. You lose a whole
day, your sleep patterns get completly screwed up, and, of course, any vague
hint of a bug you might have had getting on to the plane gets turned into a
full-on raging cold by the time you’ve spent 12 hours in a metal tube breathing
stale, fifth-hand, dry-as-dust air.
I’m in Argentina now, and my trip down here is a case in point. The kind of
people who say "you’re lucky" to someone with a terrible injury would
probably say the same thing about me: I was on the last plane out of JFK as
a major
snowstorm was blowing in to New York, and who knows when I might have been
able to leave had the flight been cancelled.
That said, however, the American Airlines experience left a very great deal
to be desired. On an evening when all flights out of the airport were significantly
delayed due to weather, they insisted on boarding us right on time, only to
sit at the gate… and sit at the gate… and sit at the gate a bit longer.
The announcements from the captain were mumbled, short, and unhelpful: something
about engines, power, de-icing, it was not clear at all.
After about an hour, finally a coherent message from the captain. The good
news: we were finally able to leave the gate. The bad news: a couple of standby
passengers who were meant to be on board turned out not to be, and so their
luggage would have to be removed. Of course, they had all the relevant information
an hour earlier, when we were waiting around twiddling our thumbs, but somehow
failed to act on it until the point when we were hopeful we might finally be
able to take off.
Eventually, the bags were found, the plane left the gate, and – I think,
nothing was made very clear to us – we started the first phase of de-icing.
Apparently there are de-icing "stations" at JFK: this is not a procedure,
like refuelling, that can be done at the gate. So various bits of the plane
got de-iced, and then we headed off to station number two, where the wings and
fuselage would get done. Except we never got there. What with heating and lighting
the cabin, and de-icing whatever they de-iced, they’d somehow managed to run
out of whatever battery power they needed to actually move the aircraft. So
we had to wait for another hour while someone could, in effect, give us a jump-start.
Then, the second phase of de-icing took at least twice as long as it should
have, for similar reasons to do with power. First one side of the plane got
de-iced, then the other, instead of them both being done at the same time.
More profoundly, the way we were running out of power created a big problem:
there now wasn’t enough fuel left to get us all to Buenos Aires. The captain
had three choices: cancel the flight, which no-one wanted; lose 60 passengers
to lighten the load; or refuel in Miami. In the end, the choice was made for
him: the crew had spent so long sitting on the ground that under union rules
they weren’t allowed to work the whole 11 hours to BA. So Miami it was.
It was exactly at this point that things really started to go wrong. Once the
flight had been sitting on the tarmac for a certain amount of time, Miami was
a certainty. In fact, the pilot more or less admitted we would have to refuel
there in one of his earliest announcements, while we were still stuck at the
gate. But let’s be charitable and say it took them a couple of hours to put
two and two together. The plane was meant to leave at 10:20, so by 12:20 American
Airlines should have been getting on the phone to Miami, organising a new crew
to replace the JFK crew, and generally attempting to ensure that we wouldn’t
need to spend any more time in Miami than we needed to refuel.
We finally took off, five hours late, at 3:20. The flight was fast and uneventful,
and we landed by 5:15. The crew, by this point, was very annoyed: rather than
working 22 hours New York – Buenos Aires – New York, they would
get paid for only nine or so, for the time spent idling in New York and the
flight to Miami. Still, they told us, not to worry: the American Airlines agent
would be waiting for us at the gate, along with the replacement crew, and we
should be on our way in no time.
Of course, when we get to the gate, there’s no agent there: no one in Miami
seems to have the foggiest notion what’s going on. Eventually, at 6:00, roughly
when we were expected to be leaving, an agent arrived, and seemed most surprised
to see us at the gate. After a bunch of scrambling around, it’s determined that
our nine-person crew from JFK is going to be replaced by a five-person crew
from Miami – they should be here any time. And, indeed, they all turn
up relatively quickly, except for the one who doesn’t. An extra crew member
must be found, which is likely to take an hour or so, and so at this point it’s
decided that maybe we should be let out of the airplane after all. We’d been
cooped up for eight hours, no one knows how long we’ll be stuck in Miami, and
the flight on to Buenos Aires is another nine: even American realised that it
might not be smart to make a 767 with more than its fair share of small children
stay in its seats for something over 18 hours at a stretch.
So we’re told that we can stretch our legs for half an hour. No longer will
groups of no more than four people at a time be accompanied to the phone booths
and back; rather, we can all enjoy the splendours of the American Airlines departure
lounge in Miami at our pleasure.
The departure lounge is a pretty grim place, outfitted with little more than
a Nathan’s hot-dog stand staffed by the surliest people I’ve ever seen in Miami
(although the fact that they were working at 6:00 on a Monday morning might
explain that bit). All the same, it’s an improvement over the interior of our
airplane’s fuselage.
Actually, scratch that. The surliest people I’ve ever seen in Miami weren’t
the hot-dog vendors, they were the gate Nazis. What no one bothered to tell
us when we were deplaning (yes, they really used that word) was that once we
were off, they wouldn’t let us back on again until they were good and ready.
No, they never said why. For me, it was no great hardship: all it meant was
that I couldn’t read my book, which I’d left safely tucked in the pocket on
the back of the seat in front of me. But for others, especially one woman who
had just got up to make a phone call and who had left two children on board,
including a four-year-old, this petty decision had huge consequences.
Everybody was cranky, remember: it was now 7 in the morning, and no one had
got much in the way of sleep. An 11-hour flight is pretty hard work at the best
of times, but now that another seven or eight hours were being added on to that,
most of them spent on board the airplane, people were getting angry. No one
at Miami knew anything; the only thing they told us was that they’d simply arrived
at the airport at 6:00 and really had no idea what was going on, where the crew
was, how many of them there had to be, when we might be taking off, when we
might be landing, or anything else.
At this point, understandably, various passengers decided that they’d had enough.
They were in Miami, which has many flights down to Buenos Aires each day, and
rather than stick around this accursed airplane, they were going to hang out
in Florida for a day or so and then, somewhat rested, continue on to Argentina.
After all, for the elderly or the very young, an 18-hour plane journey is the
last thing you want, and if you can avoid it, you do.
I don’t know whether anybody actually got off at Miami, whether their bags
had to follow them, or what. No one saw fit to tell us peons what was going
on: all we knew was that the 7:00 deadline for us to get back on to the plane
had come and gone, and there was no sign of anything happening. Communication
was nil. The American staff started playing the sorry-we’re-clueless card a
bit too often: sorry, I don’t know. I don’t know anybody who knows. I can’t
help you.
On the plane, it was the same story: people who’d missed dinner on the grounds
that it had been served at 4 in the morning when no one wants to eat were told
that no, they couldn’t have anything to eat, and that actually, I, your flight
attendant, haven’t had anything to eat since last night either. Oh, and no,
I can’t get you immigration cards for Argentina or anything like that, because
the JFK crew put them somewhere and we have no idea where. And in general, sorry
if you have no service on this flight, but you have to understand: we’re very
understaffed.
On arriving at Buenos Aires, we just got the standard "welcome to Argentina
and thank you for flying American" message: no apology for being eight
hours delayed, and certainly no attempt to make things up to us.
This general unhelpful attitude is something I’ve come across before with American
(and I’ve only flown them on two other occasions). I had an American flight
from Los Angeles to New York once, which involved a change at Dallas-Fort Worth.
All flights in and out of DFW were delayed for some reason, but we were assured
that because everyone was delayed by pretty much the same amount of time, there
shouldn’t be any difficulty making our connections.
Of course the story changed when we got to DFW. Sorry, your flight to LaGuardia
has left already: for noise reasons, planes aren’t allowed to land there after
a certain time, so it got bumped up the list. Again, a failure of communication
from one airport to another: while on the Argentina flight it was New York not
communicating with Miami, on the New York flight it was DFW not communicating
with Los Angeles. Of course, if we’d known in LA that we wouldn’t be getting
to New York that evening, we would never have left at all, and rather spent
one more night in California, catching an early flight back to New York the
following day. But because of information failure, we were stuck in Dallas-Fort
Worth overnight.
It got worse, though: American decided/decreed that the reason we were forced
to stay in Texas overnight was weather, not general incompetence on its own
part, and that therefore they weren’t even going to put us up in a hotel. If
we liked, they could procure some army-style cots and maybe a blanket or two
and we could sleep on the floor of the departure lounge.
Cock-ups, of course, happen on all airlines, through their fault or otherwise.
But where other airlines seem to genuinely want to make things better, American
seems to be as unhelpful as possible. Virgin once gave me a voucher for being
delayed, even though they’d phoned me in advance to tell me that the flight
was late and I could turn up a few hours later. Even the low-cost airlines in
Europe, like Buzz, or in the US, like JetBlue and SouthWest, are known for their
customer service. But American seems to have a completely different mindset.
I think that the problem could well be the aftermath of September 11. American
has been inflicting wave after wave of job cuts, and evidently a lot of the
lost jobs have been the people coordinating its different operations around
the country. I worry, too, that others have been in more vital areas: I don’t
think it’s coincidence that the Rockaway
crash happened so soon after September 11, when morale in the airline industry
was at its lowest and thousands of jobs had just been cut.
People are nervous about flying these days, and maybe they ought to be, although
their reasons for nervousness (war, terrorism) are, I think, misplaced. The
chances of an airline passenger being the victim of a terrorist attack are minimal.
But the chances of the same passenger falling victim to incompetencies which
are a result of downsizing following general nervousness about a terrorist attack
are much greater. It’s almost as though being scared of a flying is a self-fulfilling
prophecy: the more people that are scared of flying, the fewer people flying,
the more layoffs the airlines need to make, the less safe flying becomes, and
the more justified a fear of flying is.
Still, I’m going to continue to fly American, just because of their leg-room.
I’m telling you, once we were airborne, I actually managed to stretch out and
get some sleep – in economy! That doesn’t mean I like them, though.
Airline gate agents like the one above are usually skanky, nasty, and doing 2 or 3 of the puerto ricans on the ramp!
I worked as a flight attendant for a major US legacy carrier in the early 90s for 3 years. I then worked for AA as a flight attendant 6 years ago, and was shocked by the difference in corporate culture and safety procedures.
I didn’t feel safe on AA aircraft and was very surprised by some of their evacuation procedures. At AA I never had mechanical delays on the ground like at my other carrier. However in less than one year, I had 2 emergency landings and 5 aborted landings at low altitude (one due to wake turbulence inches from the ground that put the plane into a partial spin, and we had to struggle to take off again; the captain came out of the cockpit later as white as a ghost). I called the employee assistance program…told them about the incident, and that I needed a little time away from that aircraft type (Fokker 100..with no exit in the rear…a “feature” that the NTSB deemed unsafe in memos years before; thankfully AA no longer flies this), He said to me “you’re very junior..when you come back the company will try to get rid of you.” I told him I had a lot of experience flying but had a post-traumatic reaction to that landing and wasn’t sure what to do about it. He said “i have a flight attendant who doesn’t want to fly because her cat died..what do you expect me to do?” Turns out the company harassing me turned out to be far worse than anything that happened on the aircraft! They are all talk about how the care about the employee and if you ever have an incident you should be honest and take a little time off. Instead, I was harassed and blamed for this. I hope they have changed the way they handle incidents like this since 9/11. Anyway, needless to say, I still love to fly as a passenger but never give AA my money.
The flight attendant in the post above should sue AA. I recently flew and had crap service, so I returned the favor by crapping all over the toilet at 30,000 feet and then threw the toilet paper in the trash! Needless to say it was INOP for the rest of the flight!
If you think American Airlines is bad, try flying ANY other airline.
Granted, they dont’ treat you as nicely if you don’t have status, but all these things you are complaining about happen on EVERY other airline.
People expect to be carried around in a rickshaw and treated like Henry VIII while acting like Bobby Brown. Suck it up chumps. It could have been worse. You could have flown United.
Uhhhhhh to be honest most of the people working at AA are Bobby Brown gangsta wannabees.
They sell drugs and steal luggage thanks to the TWU 2003 paycuts!
AA sucks period. I will never fly them again. The flight attendants were outright rude and did not seem to give a damn about anyone but themselves. One in particular acted like she was Ms. America, her name is Julie, she was prissy and acted like we should be serving her! Some of their pilots have frat boy mentality and really need to get over themselves. I agree that a lot of their employees are “gangsta wannabees”. The crews between ORD and DFW were complete trash and extremely inefficient! Never again.
AA is the official airline of NiggAAs!
PASSENGERS.. GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS!
http://WWW.PUPOFF.COM
READ THIS SITE!
WRITTEN BY AA EMPLOYEES.
NOW CALL 1-800-I-FLY-SWA TO BOOK WITH SOUTHWEST!
PASSENGERS.. GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS!
http://WWW.PUPOFF.COM
READ THIS SITE!
WRITTEN BY AA EMPLOYEES.
NOW CALL 1-800-I-FLY-SWA TO BOOK WITH SOUTHWEST!
A week in the life of AA…………
What a farse! they covered up the truth so bad it’s un-real! AA has had a total of 12 employee suicides this year, 6 being DFW AMT’s.
Moral is in the toilet with the acquisition of all the TWA managers. they don’t spend money on parts nor equipment. we cannabilize airplanes and defer the hell out of everything because we don’t have parts. They run AA like it’s a bankrupt TWA. our airplanes are covered in skydrol from leaks it’s a SAD state of affairs! ALL in the name of Corporate greed.
where’s all the money? It’s in the thieves poockets over at Centerport. remember the next time you see tape all over your interior that it looks just as bad below.
they used to tell us to make sure the stripe and “One World” sticker look nice and fresh where the jetbridge mates up to the fuselage.
Why? so you don’t realize what kind of leaky taped together POS your getting on.
I don’t think that TWA Flt800 was shot out of the sky, all the tape and lack of fastners holding it together probably caused it to fall out of the sky. I see how they pushed the TWA JUNK down the road everyday. it’s SCARY and Un-Safe.
I HOPE AMERICAN AIRLINES BURNS IN HELL. THEY ARE SINGLE HANDEDLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RASH OF SUICIDES AFTER THE CONCESSIONS ALONG WITH A SELL OUT UNION CALLED THE T W U .
12 SUICIDES BECAUSE PEOPEL CANNOT PAY THEIR BILLS WHILE AA’S PRESIDENT GOT A 23% RAISE….SAD.
I’ve flown American at least 4x/year for the last 10 years and can honestly say that, to me, they have been fine overall. I’ve had a few ‘mechanical problems’ over the years, 1 missed flight and USUALLY the people helping were at least pleasant.
AA for me is basically an efficient, on-time, no frills carrier and for me usually cheaper than anyone else. I can see how some people get charmed by the ‘smiling’ faces at a SouthWest or JetBlue, but I’ve had worse luck on those airline the few times I’ve flown them being on-time.
Now that AA is making money again, HOPEFULLY they can notch-up morale, the overall quality of their planes and begin to offer SOME of the niceties of other arilines.
Marc in the above post….you SUCK!
The reason AA makes money is because they stole it from their employees, then management gave themselves a raise.
The President got a 23 % raise…..I got screwed out of 17.5 % 1 week VC, 1 week Sick time, and moving expenses (25 grand) laid off twice, and lost a 600 dollar relocation fee.
Hell yes you are getting shit service….just call me DILLIGAF \ do I look like I give a ___?
screw you marc! I hope you fly SWA or jetscrew.
My coworkers might steal your socks to keep warm this winter now that a few have been evicted after the paycuts!
AA is one of best US best airlines.
I read some posts from 2003 predictions were that AA will go bankrupt at the very least, out of business at worst. well, surprise, surprise…..
Let’s see:
1.UA – bankrupcy, screwing their employees out of retirement, etc…
2.DL – bankrupcy, screwing their employees out of retirement, etc…
3.NW – bankrupcy, screwing their employees out of retirement, etc…
4.US – bankrupcy, screwing their employees out of retirement, etc…
AA – no bankrupcy, still contributing to the retirement fund, actually making a profit, etc…
but you idiots go on and bash a corp that actually tried and keeps on trying to satisfy both, the passengers and their employees during tough times.
btw, AA has never outsourced their res centers to India, Poland or whatever. One can talk to a res agent that actually speaks English and knows something about the intricacies of US domestic travel, unlike UA’s India based agents that could only read what’s in their company provided CS books and won’t bend….
Enjoy the shitty service with UA, DL, NW…
Me personally? Love AA and will fly 125K miles with the airline this year and over 100K miles per for the next few years…
AA – SCREWED ITS EMPLOYEES ON 1/2 DAY SICK PAY.
LOSS OF 1 WEEK VACATION – SCREWING ME OUT OF TIME W/ MY CHILDREN.
LOSS OF 600 DOLLAR RELOCATION FEE
LOSS OF $12,500 RELOCATION EXPENSE FOR LAYOFF/ TRANSFER TO OTHER CITY
17. 5 PERCENT PAYCUT
INCREASED HELATH CARE
NOW I JUST DONT CARE THANKS TO PASSENGERS IN THE ABOVE POST AND THEIR JACKASS DEMAND FOR 99 DOLLAR FARE COAST TO COAST. THESE PEOPLE COMPLAIN ABOUR A FARE OVER 100 DOLLARS , SUBSIDIZE OVERSEAS SCAB LABOR THAT IS QUESTIONABLE , YET PAY 4 BUCKS FOR A CANDY BAR IN THE AIRPORT THAT IS WORTH 99 CENTS, AND PAY 50 BUCKS FOR AN OIL CHANGE ON THEIR SUV.
JUST REMEMBER….FLY CHEAP…DIE CHEAP…LOOK WHAT THAT DID FOR VALUJET.
http://WWW.PUPOFF.COM
THE PRESEDIENT GOT A 23 PERCENT RAISE AFTER SCREWING MY FAMILY OVER AND DAMN NEAR PUT THEM ON THE STREET!
NO WONDER EMPLOYEES STEAL, DO HALF ASS WORK , AND CALL IN SICK TO MOW GRASS FOR CASH MONEY!
ANY COMPANY CAN MAKE A PROFIT WHEN THEY STEAL FROM EMPLOYEES JERK OFF!
http://WWW.PUPOFF.COM
AA wanted to dump their pension, but after anally raping their employees, they could not justify it like NW, DL, and UAL could. They underfund them instead, hold a big press release with the sincerity of a L.A. Gang member syaing ” I didnt mean to shoot that innocent 4 year old in my last drive by.” and brag about how they helped pass rension reform blah blah blah. Sounds like J. R. Ewing is running this show. They couldnt justify stealing any more, so they bad mouth the other carriers and talk shit about them , saying look at us, we didnt steal pensions, no , they didnt , they just underfund them put angel wings and a halo on a J. R. Ewing / Ken Lay type spokesman and spin the details. sAAtan runs american airlines.
1- 800 – i- fly- swa
screw aa
theyre employees dont put cocaine on planes and steal luggage!
http://WWW.PUPOFF.COM
AMERICAN AIRLINES SINGLE HANDEDLY IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RASH OF SUICIDES AFTER THE PAYCUTS.
DONT FLY AN AIRLINE WHERE PEOPLE CANT PAY THEIR BILLS BECAUSE THEIR EMPLOYER SHAFTED THEM.
What a whiner. Havn’t you ever heard “Time to spare, go by air”
What a whiner. Havn’t you ever heard “Time to spare, go by air”
American Airlines has the higher porcentage in delay flight, and actually if you have miles in the AAdvntage frequent flyer is possible with any excuses American Airlines try to suspende yur account.
Try to change the airline to fly to get better servics
Mike
Billy Sanez of AA is rumored to monitor sites like this. He is A-Hole Airlines’ super snoop on finding anti-AA crap on the net according to a Major Newspaper. I wonder what he thinks about the pupoff.com website. People like him need to work the ramp in Miami and see the REAL bullshit that goes on at AA get out of their cubicle at Headquarters.
I wonder why AA ‘s spokespeople dont address the issue of their employees committing suicide at an alarming rate since the FORCED paycuts.
AA is an evil company. They are pro muslim so that should tell you something!
Give me a break people, this guy wasn’t complaining about weather related issues, he was complaining about the complete and utter lack of customer service skills displayed by AA employees. I’m AA platinum, and I encounter awful, and I mean awful, customer service issues on a weekly basis, even when the weather and travel conditions are perfect (great weather, empty plane, etc).
And I am SICK and TIRED of the “upper management” excuse. Whatever. Everyone from the CEO on down gets the blame. My curse is living in Dallas. I am, therefore, forced to fly this crappy airline.
And does that Billy Sanez guy really speak five languages? I VERY much doubt it.
Give me a break people, this guy wasn’t complaining about weather related issues, he was complaining about the complete and utter lack of customer service skills displayed by AA employees. I’m AA platinum, and I encounter awful, and I mean awful, customer service issues on a weekly basis, even when the weather and travel conditions are perfect (great weather, empty plane, etc).
And I am SICK and TIRED of the “upper management” excuse. Whatever. Everyone from the CEO on down gets the blame. My curse is living in Dallas. I am, therefore, forced to fly this crappy airline.
And does that Billy Sanez guy really speak five languages? I VERY much doubt it.
Well, if you took a 30 grand paycut , your customer service skills would slip also!
Take your platinum arse elsewhere Mr. “I wipe my butt with golden toilet tissue” flyer! I hope we lose your bag, steal your IZOD sweater, and spill hot coffee in your lap!
http://WWW.PUPOFF.COM
AA Union people did NOT buy a bankrupt airline called TWA….
Take your platinum arse elsewhere Mr. “I wipe my butt with golden toilet tissue” flyer! I hope we lose your bag, steal your IZOD sweater, and spill hot coffee in your lap!
http://WWW.PUPOFF.COM
AA Union people did NOT buy a bankrupt airline called TWA….
AA – no bankrupcy, still contributing to the retirement fund, actually making a profit, etc…
*************************************************
Well NOW that DL officially cut the cord on their pension watch and see how quick Arse Hole Airways does the same. it seems like upper management is waiting for another Chicago or Airbus New York incident to launch another attack on their employee’s. I can’t believe the way this company puts SCARY death traps into the air and awaits something catasrophic to happen all in the name of a NEXT attempt to badger their employee’s pay and mental welfare.
AA is SATAN in the finest form of Human Greed.
Their upper management will stop at NOTHING to fatten their pockets and that means human lives IF that’s what it costs in the long run.
It’s a bitter disgrace that Ourpay is a pilot and see’s how these things are maintained. I’d like to know IF he maintained his machine like they maintain THEIRS would he put his family on it? Without LIFE INSURANCE? I think their is a reason WHY he flies his own plane to alot of the places he goes. it’s called. “He Knows and that’s WHY he doesn’t FLY Arsehole Airways”.
I WORKD FOR AA AND IT’S THE BEST MANAGED AIRLINE OUT THERE…NO AIRLINE IS PERFECT,,,NO BUSINESS IS PERFECT!!!! THERE ARE PLENTY OF CARING AND HARD WORKING PEOPLE AT AA AND I AM ONE OF THEM..
GREG IS ON DOPE!
They FIRED the good people after 9-11. The ones that cared found other jobs after paycuts.
THE ON-TIME MACHINE IS DEAD!!!!
SUICIDES are rampant at AA thanks to the paycuts.
I have flown over 60k miles this year and have done so on American Airlines, Southwest, Continental and America West. I have dealt with rude employees, delays, cancellations, and good employees on all. I think people who assign bad status to any given airline simply do not travel enough to have an educated opinion. I would dare say that most of the people who post on here do not seem to have an education period. I have read quit a few posts on here and had to quit when I began to grow bored with the rampant racism, name calling, and outright fabrications. The simple truth is most airlines run in a similar fashion and if you don’t like it take an alternate form of transportation. To the employees who are disgruntled, find another job.
I have flown over 60k miles this year and have done so on American Airlines, Southwest, Continental and America West. I have dealt with rude employees, delays, cancellations, and good employees on all. I think people who assign bad status to any given airline simply do not travel enough to have an educated opinion. I would dare say that most of the people who post on here do not seem to have an education period. I have read quit a few posts on here and had to quit when I began to grow bored with the rampant racism, name calling, and outright fabrications. The simple truth is most airlines run in a similar fashion and if you don’t like it take an alternate form of transportation. To the employees who are disgruntled, find another job.
The low seniority guy on gate 21 used your lost cell phone to call a bunch of porno hotlines!!!
http://WWW.PUPOFF.COM
Written by AAers for AAers and the people who fly them.
For a good airline call 1-800-I-FLY-SWA
The guy who calls himself “frequent flyer” in one of the posts above is one ignorant goof. I bet he would be singing a different tune if the employee committing suicide after the 9-11 paycuts and layoffs was his son or daughter.
DON’T FLY AMERICAN AIRLINES! What an unpleasant bunch of Nazis run American Airlines. They made a clerical error on my name (didn’t match my ID) when they changed flights, and then had an all-too-facile answer -$100 please- to change their mistake. The agents kept squinting and talking about my “economy” fare. Robbers. Low class oil patch no-good pissant thieves. They frisked me, and then when I called corporate to try to get my name corrected, oh no… and they started escalating and threatening me that my “file” was getting larger. Would they help me, nope. The very nice customer relations lady finally told me to let it go if I knew what was good for me. That in the present fascist climate they can do anything they want. And they do. i SUGGEST JET BLUE or even CONTINENTAL. Anybody but American Airlines. They should have to change their name. They are an anti-American bunch of sociopaths.
I can give you an even worse tale of AA incompetence. 10 days and still trying to get my baggage from them. I have done everything they asked -taxi to the airport every day of my vacation, hours on hold every day of my vacation, and still no one can help me get my luggage. My 5-year-old did not want to leave home for Christmas because he was afraid Santa would not find him. I assured him that Santa knows where he is and everything would be fine. The presents are still in the baggage room at the airport and my little boy just can’t understand what he did that was so bad that Santa did not bring him anything. “Santa” left him a note and some hand drawn pictures with an explanation that the presents are waiting under his tree at home so they would not get damaged by the airline on our trip home, but somehow that does not seem to help.
Sorry to hear that Chris. Check out the url — http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/today/2005-11-23-sky-archivenov22_x.htm
someone lost the wrong person’s luggage- an aviation lawyer! They suggest tallying up your losses and filing in small claims court. Can’t think of a more deserving company than AA. They are hiding behind security scares to excuse unfair lousy service.
One more thing: http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/
Check out complaints for October 2006. The winner of the number of customer complaints and lost baggage is … tada… you guessed right… American Airlines.
Please feel free to write the Department of Transportation with a formal complaint.
Yep I feel your pain. I just had a miserable experience as well!
I made a formal DOT complaint and I think you should as well!
http://como.typepad.com/community_mobilization/2006/12/american_airlin.html
Time for that union vote agents! CWA Stands ready to clean up the mess!
CHRISTAINS SHOULD NOT FLY AMERICAN AIRLINES!
I could not agree more with the poster talking about the benefits of the CWA. Unions are just what every airline needs. Just look at what a good job the International Association of Machinists (IAM) union did at Eastern Airlines. They were joined by the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) and Local 553 of the Transport Workers Union (TWU). You don’t remember Eastern Airlines, they ceased operations 18 January 1991. Great union benefits.
Geoff, if it werent for the Eastern strikers, Lorenzo would have got his way and brought wages down across the USA. He failed because brave strikers chose to shut them down and not work for illegal alien wages. AA hired most of them and payed them a decent wage until after 9-11.
Better get your whip and have your slaves go back to pickin’ cotton on your plantation you slave driver!
CHECK OUT WHAT AN AMERICAN AIRLINES MANAGER HAD TO SAY ABOUT IT’S MECHANICS.
http://WWW.PUPOFF.COM
IS AA UNSAFE???????????????????????????????????
after my trip to st. maarten this summer, itll be a cold day in july before i ever get on a AA plane. ill pay double and go delta non stop from atl. we left atl late. got to miami , left there 3 hours late. finally got there. So i figured that maybe the trip home 7 days later would be a little better. NOPE , 5 hour delay in smx, naturally we missed connecting flight in miami, and of course there were no more flights going to atl until the next morning. i understand that there are situations that arise, but my father in law travels all the time on AA every time he does so , there is an issue with the flight , EVERY TIME. GEESH FOLKS CAN YAWLL JUST GET IT RIGHT ONCE , JUST ONCE FOR EVERYBODY PLEASE. they lost my business for good.
Haha, funny to see a million negative comments here.. Had the very same experiences on several AA flights. And my favorite part: The defensive position of the AA staff. How dare I complain about several hours of wait! AA suuuucks! Never, ever will I fly AA again!
THEY JUST HAD A PLANE IN TEXAS WITH PISS AND HUMAN SHIT OVERFLOWING THE TOILET AND THE PASENGER WERE LOCKED IN FOR HOUR IN THIS STENCH!
AA HAS SHIT SERVICE…LITERALLY
The eomployees either do not care about their customers or service. I flew back on a flight from Miami, FL to JFK, NY at 8:00AM on a scheduled flight from 7:05AM. I was waiting to board from 620AM at the gate and we were not allowed to board until 7AM. All of the awaiting passengers at the gate for the fligth asked the ground gate crews: what heppened? why are we delayed? The crewman initially refused to find out why and just insist:” I don’t know”. Even, afterr 20 passenger asked her consecutively within a 5 minute, she still wouldn’t budge. Until a group of another 25 passengers forcefully ask her to call and find out, then she picked up the phone and called. All she found out after the call is: “I don’t know.”
When we got to NY, we and other passengers waited 1 hour at the luggage belt for our suitcases. After the belt suddenly stopped about 80 of us remaining went to the Luggage desk for AA to find out why it stopped. One of the two girls working at the desk gave us a typicfal response the they are probably reloading the conveyer belt with luggages from the plane. After another half hour the belt still didnt move. We then asked again, the same girl asked her supervisor to call and find out. After the call he told us they don’t know what happened. That he doesn’t know what happened. After the 80 of ust became agitated then he called to find out. He told us that the luggages probably were left at Miami Int’l Airport and didnt board the plane with us.
We were told to file a Delayed Luggages report and that the luggages would be on the next plane in from Miami, FL. However, their policy states that it isn’t guaranteed and could take 5 days. If 5 dyas passed well have to file a Intensified Search Report.
I remembered after we checked in, inttead of our luggages being put onto the conveyor belt behind the counter, we were asked to tke it to 3 counters down with a group of other luggage awaiting boarding. I beleive the luggages were left there in the Departure Counter area and the plane left without 80 of its oassengers’ cargo.
This is extreme negligence of AA. This is one of the many reasons why the United States Transportation Inductry is floundering. I’ve travelled with 15 airlines since I was 6 months old raking up a total approx. of 2 million miles and I’m only in my twenties. I’ve never lost any luggages with any other airlines in my life, let alone being mistreated this badly. This was my second time travelling with AA. Once was for international and this time. Both times I had horrible services and were quite similar, This is the worst case of ignorance and negligent treatment of its customers. I planned using AA for most travels as much as possible in the future because of its larger seats. But these two experience is deterring me from going this option. AA and most large Airlines must inprove its QoS, interior cabin and food/amenities and try to learn from Singapore Airlines, Qantas or Lufthansa. Cathay Pacific is also a great optoin except for its small seats and leg room. I 15+ international flights a lot. AA’s seats were luring me over. Now I’ll have to stay with Cathay until I find another Airline with large seats and great service.