American Airlines

Not Verified | If I could rate them lower than a one star, I would. To make a long story short, I was attempting to bring a pelican case full of expensive camera equipment onto the plane as a carry on. It was small enough and easily contained $10K worth of equipment inside. While at Ronald Reagan, I was told that I must check the bag or not get let on. I reluctantly handed over the pelican and was assured that the luggage was in good hands. I found out once arriving in Phoenix that baggage workers stole nearly $8K worth of equipment and are also are refusing to cover the loss. If you fly with them, do not check anything of value. There isn’t a guarantee that it will be there when you land. And yes, there were no lithium batteries in the case; just in case if American Airlines is reading this.

✅ Trip Verified | I am writing this review because the experience that I have had with American Airlines in the past two days is honestly unbelievable. My daughter is a minor and was flying back from Anchorage to Myrtle Beach on November 2, 2022. When she arrived at the airport for check in they sent her to the gate with the app on her cell phone for boarding. She is an unaccompanied minor which I paid extra for so you cannot use the app for boarding. That was their first mistake because by the time she went back to the desk she ended up missing her flight. Because of that she did not return to Myrtle Beach when she was supposed to. She had to be put on a flight for the next night which was extremely inconvenient especially because of her school. She then leaves Anchorage on the next flight which was the next night and when she arrives in Dallas she has no unaccompanied minor tag or chaperone. When I find this out I go straight to the Myrtle Beach airport to find out why my child is alone in Dallas. In the process she finds someone and ask about her chaperone and she is told that she is not on a list for a chaperone. A lady sits with her anyway but tells her that she will probably not have a chaperone when she gets to Charlotte. While I am at Myrtle Beach airport I find out that Anchorage airport put my child on the plane and did not list her as an unaccompanied minor so she was not chaperoned. I wasted my entire morning at Myrtle Beach airport trying to make sure that my child was safe and would make it back to Myrtle Beach because she still had another connecting flight. I am making this review to make anyone aware that has a minor child to possibly find another airline because this is the most unacceptable thing that I have ever had to deal with. I am extremely unhappy with this entire situation and I can say that if nothing else the one mistake that an airline should never make is not having a chaperone available for a minor that has three different flights. When booking this flight I was assured multiple times that my child would not be alone and that was not the case. Once again this whole situation has been absolutely unbelievable. I pray that no parent ever has to experience the stress that I have with this airline.

✅ Trip Verified | After 55 years of flying, as my father before me, to every major city in the US and to many countries abroad with over 100 flights annually, I can truely say I have had it with civil aviation. I never want to see another domestic carrier again. DFW/XNA this past Friday was one of the worst on record for me. A 42 minute flight was most deplorable. I have been tied to United, Delta, SW and even TWA, US AIR, Continental over the years until nearly all were absorbed by the Big 3. Now with AA exclusive since 1995. The perpetuated lies from pilots and maintenance personnel is just beyond the pale. It borders on harassment and being taken hostage. Yes the weather at DFW was sketchy on 10/28 but most every flight was moving in and out. I am OK with being delayed 2-3 hours if I am told the truth and updated, but 7 hours is horrid for passengers and AA staff. The lead FA and gate agent were on the verge of panic attacks because of the lies being told. The Captain just gets up and walks out without saying a word for he timed out on his duty hours. The FAs were furious he did this and they were calling their management over it. Secondly, How can a passenger expect they are being told the truth when you are told your aircraft " has been taken out of service" by maintenance only to reboard the same aircraft an hour later. I have my suspicions about that sequence of events but to long to go on in this forum. In the end the FAs saved us for they extended their duty hours to get us to XNA, otherwise we were screwed. Every passenger should be grateful to them as I was, even being 7 hours late. I read these comments about AA, it is shameful that a once premier domestic carrier and brand is now rated as a 2 star carrier. Its shameful that AA management does not care one ounce for their staff nor the passengers but only for the stock price of the shareholder. I don't begrudge that but I want reliable service week in and week out when I travel on business and not the ongoing maintenance and operational stupidity that happens almost weekly. The new loyalty program is joke and only rewards those committed to a CC not the AA brand. So when booking AA, roll the dice and take your chances. I would hate to stake my vacation, honeymoon or cruise based on their service level. I doubt you are much better off with SW, Jet Blue, Alaska or United. Maybe Delta is the best bet in todays environment but with their 15,000 pilots threatening strike action I doubt they can be depended on either. Good Luck out there because civil aviation is no longer civil.

✅ Trip Verified | My wife and I were flying Barcelona to Kansas City via Philadelphia. (Flight 743, Scheduled for Oct 14) Our flight had mechanical issues and was delayed to the next day. (Oct 15) AA-BCN provided an excellent hotel for passengers and did an excellent service start to finish. Cudos for AA-BCN staff. We were to a finally arrived to MCI 2 days later after another provided hotel from AA in Philadelphia. While working with the AA-BCN staff, they informed the passengers that this cancellation / delay would fall EC 261 passenger rights, and definitely submit the documents. I have found the EC 261 form itself, but info has was evident on where to send the doc for processing. I have been working with AA support trying to get an answer. It 'appears' that the AA support is most likely robo-responders. Response letters that do not say anything. I have not found any address or instructions on where to send the document (and any others) to get this into the AA system. Any ideas? The 2nd issue is about the complaint / concern with the far less than acceptable overnight accommodation in Philadelphia. The hotel in question is the Wyndham Garden Hotel. This is how AA takes care of international flyers? I have to believe than no customer support executives have stayed at this hotel. How does AA justify sending their flying customers to a 1 star hotel. Unbelievable, but that is AA's hotel of choice. Does anyone work in AA customer support?

✅ Trip Verified | Return flight to LAX. Flight out AA 265 wonderful, multiple choice meal, drinks, IFE functioning. Return AA 266 provided the worst culinary slop ever seen. IFE not working entire 5 1/2 hr flight. Flight attendants fantastic, mostly being apologetic for food service and lack of IFE. Business class, had only one fixed menu consisting of: no appetizer, an entree of beans and quinoa - navy beans, kidney beans, fava beans. For the medical audience, fava beans can induce a hemolytic blood crisis in patients with an enzyme deficiency. To not offer any choice definitely put passengers at risk. Grapes and processed cheese. Processed cheese! Luscious dessert - Oreos in a foil packet. There was at least a choice of two different crackers! I've attached a photo of the delectable repast. The flight attendants all advised writing letters to AA at aa.com, as this was not the first time the Lihue-LAX flight was shortchanged in quality. The letter was subsequently sent on the aa.com complaint window. As a frequent flyer, we normally would expect some amends in terms of a mileage bonus or something considering the fare paid, the lack of any IFE on a long haul flight, and the abysmal meal served. This was their response, suspect automated: October 19, 2022 Hello xxxxx: Thank you for contacting American Airlines. We strive to put our customers at the center of everything we do. The details you provided highlight the importance of that focus, and we are sorry to hear things did not go as planned. Please know that we strive to learn from every experience, so we appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback with us. Your input will be shared with our team as we continue towards our goal of providing a world class experience. Thank you again for reaching out to share your experience with us. We hope to better deliver on our high standard of excellence next time we have the opportunity to welcome you aboard. Sincerely, xxxxx Customer Relations American Airlines AA. Your opinion matters to us! We invite you to share your overall experience in this quick one minute survey. Click here for the survey. We appreciate your time and valuable feedback. The biggest laugh came from the one minute survey, where first question was " How likely are you to refer friends and family to American Airlines ?". AA didn't lose a customer, though I would never fly that route again on AA. They have lost a lot of my respect, and lost any referrals that I might have given. Loyalty means nothing to AA - a common sentiment, no doubt.

✅ Trip Verified | Montreal to Indianapolis via Charlotte. I was not able to get on board for my connection at CLT, when they gave me my boarding pass I didn't had a seat so I goes to the onboarding agent counter to ask her some questions and she told me the flight was overbooked by 17 people .... how it can possible? They wanted to give me a money compensation but I didn't care about money compensation because it was a business flight so the company who I work for was paying, I missed the diner kickoff of an intern technician competition it's priceless. So I was stuck in CLT, the sweet onboarding agent found me a flight on the next morning but the new American Airlines supervisor didn't want to give me an hotel compensation for the night because I was supposedly not there when they call me for boarding ... but I was there 30 min before boarding. The boarding agent was arguing with him to make him understood but he didn't want to understand, unacceptable! October 21th 2022, IND to MTL, I had a connection to PHL. During the night I received an email, the flight was cancelled and they give me another flight 5 hours late in the day. New connection CLT, okay fine I go to the airport, the new flight is delayed about 30min then 45, 60, 75, 120 min. Enough delayed to miss my connection to CLT. Unacceptable! The boarding agent found me a flight next morning, They give me a night at the hotel and then I took my flight on the next morning. Everybody told me to avoid American Airlines and now I understand why. Trust me I will never travel with them once it's over.

✅ Trip Verified | Could it be? Does AA have their mojo back? At least in premium cabins it seems they do. I have flown 3 flights in two weeks and all were excellent. Hawaii to/from west coast generally gets the worst of everything. Tonight’s flight far exceeded my expectations. Hot meal, coursed out followed by ice cream sundaes! The flight attendant worked hard, almost solo to serve, clean up, etc.. all with a genuine smile. The seats were comfy. My negatives are no screens and no Wi-Fi. No excuse for no Wi-Fi…other airlines have it. Flight was on time and we were left impressed..even luggage delivery was swift which is unheard of in Honolulu.

✅ Trip Verified | We boarded the flight and when everyone was seated, they said get your bags and get down there is a change in flight. We got down and they don't even know what our new gate will be. They eventually got us a new gate number. We got to the new gate and they promised that the flight was here and they are just cleaning it and will be boarding in 5 minutes. Then after about 30 minutes they announce that the flight needed repairs. And after that no more updates for about an hour and we are sitting here with no idea of what is happening. Customer support is getting rude and people are just frustrated. I have heard a lot of bad things about American Airlines but I didn't know it was this bad. This is my second time of flying with them and I know this will be my last. If you have other options don't choose American airlines, they are a total failure to humanity.

Not Verified | I am from the United States but teach in Thailand. Last Christmas, I was back in the United States visiting family and friends. This was when COVID was absolutely rampant in the U.S. and ended up getting COVID while there and was very, very sick from it. At that time, to get into Thailand, you needed a negative PCR COVID test, which I didn’t have, for my original flight to get back to Thailand. I ended up having to change my flight twice because of all of this and missed more than a week of school because of it. It was extremely stressful, especially while being so, so sick from COVID like I was. The customer service I received when I needed to rebook my flight multiple times was phenomenal. That was all such a stressful situation, and dealing with American to rebook my flight could’ve been one more area of stress, but it wasn’t. And I was so, so thankful. I called later than I was supposed to one of the times because I was driving to the airport to see if maybe I would get my COVID test back in time while driving to the airport to make my flight. I didn’t get the test back in time but didn’t call right away to change my flight because I had a pounding headache that was turning into a migraine and was extremely exhausted. When I called a few hours later, the woman I spoke to was incredibly helpful and understanding and still allowed me to rebook my flight without having to pay for a new one. She didn’t give me a hard time or make me wait a long time. It’s almost a year later, and I still remember her kindness and am still so thankful for her and how she helped me in the midst of a really stressful, really hard situation. I felt like she really valued customers as people and understood how stressful air travel was at that time; she wasn’t just going by policies. She may have technically been “breaking the policy,” but she made me want to be a loyal customer to American. With all of my flights since, when American has been an option, I’ve chosen American almost every time. She made me feel valued and seen as a person. So if anyone from American reads these reviews, I want you to know showing understanding and care to your customers, like this woman did to me, is how you gain loyal customers. Work to keep your employees like her, and hire more like her!

✅ Trip Verified | First class service has been back for a while at AA and I enjoy it (specifically the pre-meal warm nuts). I find the tickets a bit pricey and the first class seat only average for the 5 hours spent in it compared to other transcon services serving California. But the staff is pleasant and service enjoyable. Food options can be inconsistent but booking special meals is easy online and are great alternatives to main courses. I switched to AA after flying more than 2.3M miles with Delta and do not regret that choice!