American Airlines

[alizesmom]

tell me the good and bad.

 

[rwdavis2]

Based on the consumer site elliott dot org, its the most complained about one in the country. Go over to his site and search around.

 

[Happiest.Haunt_999]

It's a large commercial airline. None of them are excellent or perfect.

From frequent flyer experience I would rank them second in the domestic airlines in the US. The worst would be a toss up between United and smaller airlines like Allegiant.

 

[Nhebron]

I fly American all the time because I live near a hub airport. Like previous poster stated, it’s just a large domestic airline that has all the standard issues (occasional delays, minimal service, etc.). I have only had one really bad weather related experience in many years of flying with them.

 

[ClapYourHands]

It's our airline of choice. DH flies for business rather frequently, so when we go with him, we get priority boarding, admiral's club access, etc. It has pretty extensive service, and partners all around the world. DH recently took, literally, an around the world trip, and flew a combination of American Airlines and their One World partners.

For us, it makes sense to pick one airline, and focus loyalty points there. The budget airlines just don't have the reach we need, as DH flies both domestically and internationally. AA a big airline, and the bigger the airline, the more opportunities for something to go wrong for someone to complain about it.

However, when it's a quick trip down to Orlando for me and the kids, I fly whatever is cheapest and most convenient. Last fall, that was Delta. This coming fall, we're booked on Jet Blue.

 

[WishICouldSpeakWhale]

American has been fine. We live an hour from Philly, so that is the airline we fly most often. We used to fly USAir, and they were great at not sending our luggage on our flight. So as far as I'm concerned, American is leaps and bounds better than the airline they took over.

The flight attendants are pleasant, flights have mostly been on time, and our luggage makes it to our destination with us.

 

[CalDisneyMomof2]

Anyone have issues with their "ticket pending" after purchase? I bought $700 in gift cards to save 7% (every little bit helps) and paid the rest with a credit card. I purchased the tickets Friday night and it's now Tuesday. I have yet to receive a conformation email and when I check the status of my flight it says "Ticket Pending".

My fear is that there's some sort of issue, they'll cancel the order, prices will then be more than the $242 round trip price I paid for and I'll be stuck with the gift cards.

Anyone ever have the same experience? We're flying with AA in a few weeks to D.C. from LAX and I can remember getting a confirmation email within about 10 minutes (also used gift cards then as well).

 

[FCDub]

Anyone have issues with their "ticket pending" after purchase? I bought $700 in gift cards to save 7% (every little bit helps) and paid the rest with a credit card. I purchased the tickets Friday night and it's now Tuesday. I have yet to receive a conformation email and when I check the status of my flight it says "Ticket Pending".

My fear is that there's some sort of issue, they'll cancel the order, prices will then be more than the $242 round trip price I paid for and I'll be stuck with the gift cards.

Anyone ever have the same experience? We're flying with AA in a few weeks to D.C. from LAX and I can remember getting a confirmation email within about 10 minutes (also used gift cards then as well).

Why not call and ask?

 

[drwadadli]

tell me the good and bad.

Wow....That is such a vague comment.........

It is our airline of choice as we live near a major East coast hub and can catch a non-stop flight to just about anywhere including Orlando, San Diego, Toronto, London, Dublin, and other places throughout Europe and the Caribbean. We have never had a lost bag or an problems to report.

 

[WishICouldSpeakWhale]

Anyone have issues with their "ticket pending" after purchase? I bought $700 in gift cards to save 7% (every little bit helps) and paid the rest with a credit card. I purchased the tickets Friday night and it's now Tuesday. I have yet to receive a conformation email and when I check the status of my flight it says "Ticket Pending".

My fear is that there's some sort of issue, they'll cancel the order, prices will then be more than the $242 round trip price I paid for and I'll be stuck with the gift cards.

Anyone ever have the same experience? We're flying with AA in a few weeks to D.C. from LAX and I can remember getting a confirmation email within about 10 minutes (also used gift cards then as well).

I bought airfare on June 1, so I checked my email and found the "ticket pending" one came at 7:40 & the confirmed one 13 minutes later. I agree with PP, call the airline and find out what's up.

 

[JimMIA]

I've been flying American for many years (Gold FF for life). I've never had anything but good results with them -- hundreds of flights, never lost a piece of luggage or had any other kind of issue that was the airline's fault.

I think you will find "more complaints" with the larger legacy carriers simply because they have many times more passengers each day, and therefore more opportunities for complaints. Personally, I have NEVER had a complaint with American or Delta...about anything.

I've only flown United 3-4 times on group ski trips and one of those return legs was an issue purely because of a pilot determined to win an argument with air traffic control (United used to let you listen in, which was a mistake in this case! The pilot was a total jerk.), and the airline's terrible handling of the resulting fiasco. The rest of the United flights were fine.

One of the big pluses for me with American is the size and scope of the airline. That provides a lot more options than the low cost airlines, and it also provides vastly more equipment to adjust for mechanical issues, weather-caused connecting problems, etc. Those qualities have paid off frequently.

The only downside I've seen is the changes to the frequent flyer program in the past few years -- but that's happened with all the major airlines. Flights which used to cost 25,000 miles now either are not available, or they cost 37,500 - 50,000. Rather than fight it, I just switched my main credit card from AA cards to Costco for the cash back. I've burned up most of my frequent flyer miles and am only accumulating small amounts now. Eventually I'll use them for one ticket.

 

[CalDisneyMomof2]

Why not call and ask?

At the moment I don't have 2+ hours to wait on hold I will when I get a chance. Thought I might get an answer here.

 

[ClapYourHands]

I've been flying American for many years (Gold FF for life). I've never had anything but good results with them -- hundreds of flights, never lost a piece of luggage or had any other kind of issue that was the airline's fault...

The only downside I've seen is the changes to the frequent flyer program in the past few years -- but that's happened with all the major airlines. Flights which used to cost 25,000 miles now either are not available, or they cost 37,500 - 50,000. Rather than fight it, I just switched my main credit card from AA cards to Costco for the cash back. I've burned up most of my frequent flyer miles and am only accumulating small amounts now. Eventually I'll use them for one ticket.

Because of DH's work travel, he has a lot of frequent flyer miles, supplemented by our AA credit card (not our primary card, but not everyplace takes AmEx). We rarely book flights on them because, as you say, flights cost an insane number of miles. But they are very handy for upgrading. There's a huge monetary cost between coach tickets and business, but a coach ticket upgraded with miles makes for an affordable luxury. DH just managed to get his parents upgraded for their flight to London this summer. Couldn't get an upgrade coming back, but one-way upgrade is still better than paying $8K for a business class ticket.

 

[DebbieB]

One thing to keep in mind if you are used to Southwest, is no free changes. They will charge you $200 a ticket. Plus they have frequent schedule changes. I thought I had perfect flights home for October, within 2 weeks they changed it to a 3 1/2 hour layover. I got it changed but now I’m leaving 2 hours earlier.

 

[JimMIA]

One thing to keep in mind if you are used to Southwest, is no free changes. They will charge you $200 a ticket. Plus they have frequent schedule changes. I thought I had perfect flights home for October, within 2 weeks they changed it to a 3 1/2 hour layover. I got it changed but now I’m leaving 2 hours earlier.

I think that's pretty much standard across all of the larger airlines when you buy non-refundable fares.

I've gotten caught like that a couple of times with my daughter's figure skating where we booked non-refundable, and then due to either injury or once for a hurricane we had to cancel. In the case of the hurricane, American did what they could to help us, but in the end we were not able to use the tickets.

Also, usually you'll find that even the $200 change fee has to be for a flight within 1 year of the booking date of the original flight. In one case, we booked to PHL for Regionals, had to cancel, and tried to book to DC the next year. We were about two weeks too late because of the booking date of the original flights.

 

[gharter]

Its like any other major carrier. No better or worse. We have flown it for the last 5 years. They are the only airline out of our city, and to be fair, they have done a really good job. Most of the time they are on time or close. They use Ohare as a hub, and even that has not been bad.

 

[Lynn CC]

I’ve flown domestically & International with American, they were fine. I’ve found first class on United to be outstanding tho compared to American. If your flying coach they are both good!