American Airlines

✅ Trip Verified | I used to love American Airlines. We go way, way back. It was honestly, the only airline I ever flew, mostly because I would acquire and use miles. Unfortunately, Covid has created a lot of problems for everyone and created inconveniences and extra costs for airlines. AA claims their filtration is top-notch. And that may be so, when the aircraft is in flight with doors closed. But when on-boarding and off-boarding a hot, stagnant aircraft, in the boarding areas, on the jetway and yes, in the aircraft during flight, you are breathing the air of those close to you with no mask or their mask below their nose! I am not talking about during eating or drinking. I am talking about continuous, extended time periods and while talking. AA does nothing effective to enforce or even suggest compliance among passengers waiting to board, among those boarding and with non-complying passengers on the aircraft. I am vaccinated. But consistently on every AA flight I have taken in the last year, the boarding areas are chaos with no social distancing, a large number of people are maskless or cheating with their masks below their noses (same as no mask, right?), maskless people are even boarding and talking unchecked. And the same behavior takes place on the aircraft during flight while not eating or drinking. I advised our flight attendant out of Dallas of the situation during boarding the other day and asked her to ask offending passengers to comply. All she did was respond that, "they (crew) are going to make an announcement" and that "I have to get these overhead bins shut." In my opinion, it is not on passengers to ask others to comply but on the airline (that is putting us into these tight, tight quarters to start with). I got a similar response from other AA attendants on other flights. Interestingly, the first class attendant was wearing gloves and closing overhead bins with a 2 ft long stick with a rubber tip. So she is afraid to touch bin lids in the aircraft yet is fine breathing unmasked and poorly masked passenger air? It is very disappointing - AA claims "Your safety is our priority" on signage and has Covid videos online and all the right notices and corporate speak. Guess what American? You know passengers cheat - attendants check for seat belts, seat backs and tray tables all the time! Yet unmasked passengers walk right by your boarding agents and flight attendants? It is all meaningless when so many AA passengers freely and openly disobey federal law in American Airlines boarding ares and on American Airlines flights. An American employee drove the transportation cart right by me effectively unmasked with mask below his nose. I am not one to fear this controversial Covid, over-react to the media or dis-regard the rights of those who wish to remain un-vaccinated. But in the face of delta and lambda variants, increases in Covid cases and many remaining un-vaccinated, American's lack of real concern for it's passengers' well-being is clear indication that it's time to switch for me.

✅ Trip Verified | I have been an AA Advantage member for decades and the experience my family and I had on Sunday Aug 1st, Mon Aug 2nd, Sat Aug 7th was by far the worst ever. American Airlines has really fallen off. Absolutely no customer service whatsoever. No matter what you do, you are directed to their website and expected to figure it out for yourself. Then when you are needing information that is not offered, good luck in trying to get in touch with a real live person. One of our flights was cancelled. It was scheduled to depart at 12.46 pm. Got notification early that morning saying it had a 15 minute delay. Ended up waiting 4 hours in Dallas, the plane finally arrives, and then was informed they were cancelling flight because they did not have a crew. Give me a break. American couldn't see that they were not going to have a crew. I was able to rebook us on early flight next morning (no help from American), had to find hotel (again, no help from American). Lost the rental car we had reserved in Pensacola. Got to our final destination a day late but no luggage. Was told by American that we would have bags delivered by end of Monday. Late Wednesday finally showed up. By then we had to buy some clothes, and other essentials to get by. Fortunately the trip home had no cancellations but had delays. During this experience we definitely were left to fend for ourselves. Spent almost $800 related to this. Good luck on getting any of this back. Like I said earlier, the worst experience ever. American Airlines should fire those at the top, and get people in there that understand Customer Service, and that are not afraid to spend some money to improve their operations. It will be a long long time before I fly American Airlines if I ever do.

Not Verified | Avoid American Airlines at all costs - absolutely the most incompetent, lazy and disrespectful airline experience I have had. We had a 8 hour layover due to so few flights available to State College from Chicago, our plane set to depart at 8.40 pm. At 8.20, they delayed the plane until 6.30 am the next morning, did not have enough hotel vouchers and gave $12 meal vouchers. We tried to re-direct to a flight to Philly, and the same pattern happened. That flight was supposed to leave at 12.03 am and 10 minutes later they moved it to 8.00 am the next morning. In both instances, there were multiple gate changes, and we saw elderly passengers struggling to get to all the different gates. The staff were overwhelmed and not able to help customers, either due to lack of information or lack of training. We slept on the floor and when we finally got on our 6.30 am flight to SC, it took 45 minutes to get in the air as AA was waiting on paperwork. These tickets were very expensive and it’s unacceptable how AA treats its customers. Airplanes were dirty, two of my tray tables were broken. All signs point to a company with no care, pushing employees to the limit and rotting from the inside. Don’t place the high value of your life and travel experience with a company that is so lowly.

✅ Trip Verified | I paid an extra $70 for myself and my wife to have our seat upgraded and had the correct seats issued by the American Airlines app. When we arrived at the airport the American Airlines ground staff change the seats to regular seats because they said that seats were already occupied. When I told them that I already had the boarding passes issued from the App they said there was too bad and that nothing could be done about it because those seats are not available. Their attitude was totally unacceptable- harsh and unsympathetic. They said if I was not happy or if I wanted a refund I should contact American Airlines directly as it wasn't their problem (even though she was in American Airlines uniform. (Particularly awful was the woman in charge of the airplane passenger loading gate). I think it is impossible to contact American Airlines by email. I tried for nearly 2 hours and could not find any email number. If you try to work with them on chat, what you get is a Bot that is not capable of answering questions about a partial refund. Apart from the inconvenience of what happened, the arrogance of the American Airlines ground staff at the gate was beyond my comprehension. Do they NOT get any training in passenger management? Also, why does American Airlines make it near impossible to claim any compensation? I haven't chosen to fly on American Airlines in about 10 years and if I'm lucky I hope that I will never have the misfortune to have to choose them again.

Not Verified | Worst airline ever! Flights delayed terminals changed with zero time to make changes. Delayed, changed terminals more delays. Missed flight due to Chicago American Airlines having zero employees to help figure out issues. Zero hotel recommendations after they are so at fault they re issue another flight for next day. Left standing outside of airport due to security and airline employees going home for the night. One employee left to assist 60 people with issues. What a joke.

Not Verified | AA canceled my flight at 2am same day I was supposed to fly out. So after I get through from a 4 hour hold time, they switched me from a departure at Dallas instead of Austin. Meaning I had to drive 2.5 hours to get to my new flight. Just snacks were served in the 7.5 hour flight. Coming back was a different airline so we returned to Austin and because AA changed the flight, I had to find a ride home from Austin to my home 1 hour away, find a ride to Dallas to pick up my vehicle which means days accrued at the parking garage; money lost for mileage along with the inconvenience. Not once did they Apologize and I have yet to hear back from customer relations. No compensation offered, seats were hard, minimal movies to watch. Glad i wasn't diabetic because all they gave out were sweet or salty snacks! We were supposed to have wifi and that was NOT accurate.

✅ Trip Verified | I booked a flight from LAX to ALB which consisted of one stop/layover in Chicago. Due to there not being enough crew on the plane, my flight from LAX to Chicago was delayed over an hour. Once we actually boarded the plane, the flight was delayed further as the luggage sat outside the plane for 20 minutes while numerous employees walked by. Because of this, I missed my layover and was stuck in Chicago overnight. After getting off the plane at midnight, alone, lost, and confused in an airport I’ve never been in, I had to stand on an hour-long line to speak with customer service. They did accommodate me with a hotel room and transportation, however, the line for a taxi (transportation) was another hour-long wait due to the fact that the people with transportation vouchers were put at lowest priority after those paying with cash. This was genuinely the worst flight experience I’ve ever had and I will not be flying American again.

Not Verified | The flight was 8 hours long from New York to Rome, the plane was large but the legroom wasn’t much, the inflight entertainment was ok but there wasn’t many movies for the kids to choose. For dinner we ate chicken with veggies, we didn’t like it and for breakfast we ate a brownie and a bar. Not the highest quality experience but expect it in economy class.

✅ Trip Verified | Had my flight get delayed over night with no explanation and the crew left immediately. I was not given a meal or hotel voucher. On another flight I have a layover of 12 hours. There are 4 other flights of the same airline going to the same destination this morning and I cannot switch because I am basic economy! American Airlines is the absolute worst.

✅ Trip Verified | What was supposed to be a 12 hour day of travel ended up taking me 3 days. No customer service available (unless you stood in a mile long line for 6 hrs only to have them go home and left 100s without any assistance) even a phone call would take 5 or more hours! Once I was on hold all night, woke up to still being on hold! I ended up having to pay out of pocket for lodging and a new flight! I'm still fighting them for reimbursement yet they play games don't get to the point and still refuse to pay for actual flight. They canceled my flight. Then they canceled another one. Then they delayed it. And once I finally got to the airport three days later for another flight they changed the gate three times in 2 hours! My app was not updated in a timely manner, and even the airport arrival departure boards had the wrong gate listed. Nobody knows what's going on. All the staff seems like chicken with their heads cut off. They're stressed out angry airports are hot, and all the customers are furious. It's been one of the worst experiences of my life flying with American Airlines this past year. Avoid it like the plague if you can. 3 out of 3 of my trips had various issues. All kinds of excuses, or worse, no communication! They also lost my luggage. When I arrived to Guatemala I did not have my bags. It took them almost 3 days to find my luggage and finally get it to me. Of course one of my nice new hard case bags was broken. It looks like it was dropped off the plane for the amount of damage that was done to it. I am also now trying to get reimbursement for the bag. You should see the form you have to fill out if they destroy your bag or any of your belongings! They expect you to have an original receipt for every single thing that you're asking for. I don't know who keeps all the receipts for years of lost clothing shoes etc.