American Airlines

CDG to JFK. Flight bought at the last minute at a very reasonable price. Of course you get what you pay for. The plane (B767) looks good from the outside (new painting). Inside it's so old that I can't even remember the last time I've been in such an outdated plane. The overhead compartments were so small that even my bag pack could not fit in. No need to talk about inflight entertainment as there's barely any. It's just a few central screens with two movies played. The funniest is that business class seats apparently don't have inflight entertainment either as before we landed the crew mentioned that they would be collecting portable devices in business class. The seat was of course quite worn out and not that comfortable. At least the food was not that bad. I expected much worse after boarding the plane. Maybe it's because it was made in CDG but the pasta I ordered were tasty (even though the portion could have been bigger). What struck me was how non existent the flight attendants were during the flight. They showed up to bring the main meal and the snack before arrival in JFK and that's about it. AA had reserved the last three seats of the plane for them. Two of the FA's spent the flight on those seats while the third one remained hidden behind the curtain in the galley. You didn't feel welcome to ask for refreshments during the flight. Anyway all in all American clearly offers a substandard product. The worst product I've seen I think is that of US Airways. I can't imagine what the merger of the two will produce.

DCA-LAX-DCA. 737-800. Outbound: Flight on time. Pre-ordered steak dinner was quite good. Staff efficient and reasonably friendly. Drinks service OK for flight length with a mini pre-packed snack basket (sweets chips nuts etc.) served closer to landing. Seat and entertainment system simply awful for so-called First Class with no foot rest or individual video screens. Only a video via the ceiling mounted screens and cheap earplug type headsets given free. This seat is not comfortable for a 5.5 hour flight. I hope the new seats that are advertised work better when these planes are retrofitted in the future. Inbound: Had access to the AA LAX Flagship Lounge (inside Admiral's Club) due to my OneWorld Emerald (BA Gold) status. Almost empty in the early morning with a reasonable spread of food and drinks. Flight on time. Staff more friendly than the outbound flight. Pre-ordered omelette breakfast quite good. This aircraft had the new sky interior but the same awful seats and entertainment. Looking forward to trying out new AA domestic seat and video products in the near future. Bags delivered slower than expected at DCA.

LHR - DLW - Reno. Major complaint is seat allocation. Booked flight for 6 including 2 children under 7 6 months ago. Online checks appeared to show a group of 6 seats allocated together. At check in for return flight we were told that no allocation had been made and that only 3 groups of 2 seats were available. I thought that seating for family groups were a prime consideration. How naive of me. Other airlines such as Virgin can manage this simple task! DFW to Reno leg used an old Mcdonnell Douglas 80. In each direction the family were placed right at the rear where the engine noise was fearsome throughout the trip. Incidentally why not load the rear first to avoid the constant queuing to get on board and luggage stowed when loaded from the front?

RDU-LHR return in Y. Outbound check-in and bag check handled smoothly no complaints. Boarding somewhat chaotic but this was mainly due to the layout of the gate area. Aircraft on this route are older 763s with no IFE but seats and toilets seemed in decent condition. Food decent enough and FAs - while not terribly friendly - were diligent about offering drinks. Entertainment was pretty miserable but what do you expect when you have no seatback system and have to rely on the overheads? Pretty laughable for an international leg. Return flight check- in at LHR was a breeze but boarding was infuriating! Pax with group 3/4 boarding passes rushing the gate during pre-boarding gate attendants barely speaking above a whisper when announcing boarding groups. Really ridiculous. FAs on return flight much friendlier. Main Cabin Extra proved worthwhile as the legroom was plentiful. All in all worth the competitive fare but not nearly at the standard of other nations' flag carriers.

LHR-DFW-SJO return via JFK. I set out with middling expectations of AA in economy and was pleasantly surprised. New 777 is great seats a little narrow but what can you expect? Flights to and from SJO on old 757s but crew made both flights quite enjoyable. If only JKF immigration would work a little better. Everyone's experiences are always different but on this occasion AA looked after us nicely.

Recently landed from DFW-LAX-SFO. On my initial flight from DFW to SFO most things in comparison were fine however the quality of first class compared to Virgin is excessively disappointing. There were a lot more passengers in the first class then ever the FA was running around endlessly and even forgot to give us a cookie or even a snack with our drink. On the return trip the service was much better but did not offer any pre-flight beverages. On the last leg they even failed to grab my coat and hang it up for us. Overall Virgin America still has true First Class seats the new AA first class are more like business class with amenities. The food is quote mediocre but better then before.

AA hits a homerun with its new business class on the 777-300. They've entirely reinvented the AA business class experience with lie-flat seats in private pods. From JFK-LHR we experienced great food good service and restful sleep. It beats the business class of many quality European and Asian airlines - and is the best among US airlines. Nice to see AA investing in its product.

Wanted to fly from ORD to CLE and decided to take AA for the first time after having had bad experiences with them a few years ago. Flight was canceled 1 min before departure without any information and now have been waiting for 7 hours to get my bag returned. The ground staff are rude and unhelpful if this is suppose to be the new American as they advertise it then I think they should over think their business model.

I have read many negative reviews about American Airlines and was hesitant about booking my recent flight on them but due to the price of the ticket (flew first class) and the short notice of booking a flight over the holidays I chose them. Well I was very pleasantly surprised. All my flights (GNV-MIA-IAD) were on time. The flight attendants were friendly and very professional. The meals were good and the airplanes were modern and clean. I usually fly Delta but with such a pleasant experience on American I may reconsider who I book on future flights.

As noted in previous posts the American Airlines of today is in the midst of a steady decline. The AA of the 70's and 80's is now just a distant memory. This week I had my 17 year old on a flight from from ORF to DFW then to SGF. Easy connection and my son knows DFW very well and can get around pretty easily. While tracking the flight it was diverted to Charlotte. Reason was weather in DFW. Delay after delay now became a mechanical issue. So arrive DFW 2 hrs late. Needless to say he missed the connection and with Christmas there are no other seats the rest of the day until 9am the following morning. If I had not acted quickly and did some pleading with AA I was able to get him to XNA 7 hours late. So all in all AA is just nothing but a band of misfits and poor maintained aircraft. My son made it to XNA where a relative picked him up and delivered to SGF 2 hours away. Picked up bag next morning in SGF.