American Airlines

Customer Reviews

3 star Skytrax Rating
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Seat Comfort 12345
Staff Service 12345
Value for Money 12345
Customer rating from 5917 reviews
2/10
3 star Skytrax Rating
Filter Reviews by :
Show
1/10

"Genuinely disgusted"

(United States)

Trip Verified | I'm writing this scathing review after 3 back and forth emails with AA's customer disservice team. When your flight matters, when you have a vacation on the line or a critical meeting, and something goes wrong - don't expect AA to lift a finger to make it right. The policy they have shared with me is "If we make an exception for you, we have to make an exception for everyone" - Well that's the point! You should be making things right for every passenger you screwed over on this flight. My flight was AA515 Cancun to Phoenix, final destination Orange County CA. That's ONE connecting flight. Our flight was turned around mid-flight - the captain came on and explained we had mechanical issues. This is terrifying to hear. There was no mention of "this is a minor issue and we are not going to crash and die". People were panicking, praying, crying with stress and panic. We were told we would not receive an alternate flight that day and we would be sent to a hotel and be given dinner and breakfast. Bottom line, the transportation from/to the airport, the hotel, and the food was all unacceptable. We were herded around like cattle with no explanation of what was going on. When we were bussed back to the airport we encountered AA employees who had no idea what our situation was, and when we explained things they didn't care at all. "Next!" So instead of getting another flight set up to handle a full flight of people whose flight was cancelled, they just tried to put everyone wherever they could to fly out of Cancun. We ended up forced into a flight plan that didn't even get us home until the next day! After already missing a day of work over this, and begging our dog sitter to stay another day, we HAD to get home Friday. Their suggested route was Miami/Orlando/Phoenix/Orange County (Saturday). At the ticket counter in Miami, we spoke with the dumbest customer service employee I've ever spoken to, who spoke to himself instead of speaking to us, and he couldn't produce any flight solution that got us within 50 miles of home (that's 4 airports) on Friday. After we worked on our phones for a few minutes we found a flight that he missed and were able to convince him to get us on it. That's literally the rebooking agent's job - and he couldn't do it. Fast forward to Phoenix customer service desk and we realized the whole trip we hadn't sat next to each other - we went to the clerk and asked her if she could help us, after the day we have had, and waive a seat change fee (~$12). NO, she said plainly. This small gesture of courtesy was not even considered. This would have gone a long way in simply showing they care. But they 100% do not care about any of us. When we finally arrive in OC, surprise, or baggage was lost. Speaking to customer support we were told AA was not responsible for any of our $200+ in incidental unexpected charges (receipts provided) for the extra day of travel. They still wouldn't budge on the seat change fees, and now a random unexplained $12.87 charge is on my card that they won't address. They force you into an email only conversations - they claim their structure prevents the need for a supervisor to be involved. That their email team is the highest escalation possible. Speaking to someone in person is not allowed. You will take what they give you and you will like it! Genuinely disgusted by their service and handling of a tough situation that they could have easily rectified.
AircraftBoeing 737
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteCancun to Orange County via Phoenix
Date FlownMay 2019
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Ground Service 12345
Wifi & Connectivity 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
1/10

still missing my luggage"

(United States)

Trip Verified | Savannah to Frankfurt via Charlotte. It has been a week and I am still missing my luggage! Luggage agents stating that there is no communication between the baggage claims at the airports? Switched luggage tags, not booked through destination - too much to all write down! However, sorry to say, incapable personnel, no real communication with the customer. Return calls are under a private number, emails are from unmonitored mailboxes. Sorry AA you need to do better. I am outraged!
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteSavannah to Frankfurt via Charlotte
Date FlownMay 2019
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
1/10

"agent who refuse to help"

(United States)

Trip Verified | Las Vegas to Lafayette. Terrible customer service. Rude, cold agent who refuse to help after flight was cancelled. Sat around the Dallas airport waiting for twelve hours. Had to pay $400 for a hotel. They don't care about anyone. Cold and rude agents that just act like they are Superior to everyone.
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteLas Vegas to Lafayette
Date FlownJune 2019
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Ground Service 12345
Wifi & Connectivity 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
1/10

"I have seen service degrade"£

(United States)

Trip Verified | Austin to London via Dallas Ft Worth. I have been a very long American Airlines (AA) flyer (since 1993), an American AAdvantage member since 2001, and an AAdvantage credit card holder since 2011. I just went through the worst flying experience I’ve ever had and as a result I’m going to try as hard as I can to avoid AA in the future. This all started with a canceled flight (AA1373) due to weather that actually didn’t impact the flight path at the time. I understand safety concerns, but canceling a flight that’s part of a larger booking literally hours before without a better solution than moving to next day is just not acceptable, and having some of the most incompetent customer support didn’t help our overall situation either. It was a flight from Austin to Dallas as part of another booking to Europe. The reason I know the weather didn’t impact the flight is because I wound up getting a rental car last minute instead and drove the 3 hours to Dallas to make the connecting flight. The communication of the canceled flight was literally hours before the takeoff. My wife and I were lucky enough to find a rental car in time, and after 2-3 hours on the phone making sure we could fly from Dallas (our connecting airport), AA decided to cancel and rebook the flight for the next day mid-drive! Thankfully we were able to get the issue resolved during our drive and at the airport. So, $140 later for the rental car, around 3-4 hours on the phone, and a 3 hour drive later, we made our connecting flight (operated by British Airways). We thought we were done with the horror of this, but on the return flight AA incompetence struck again. We had to wait at the customer assistance desk for BA (who were very helpful) while their ticketing support was on the line with AA for over 45 minutes. AA noted that I had already flown the flight we were at the airport checking-in to. Apparently I am now a time-traveler. We were at the airport over two hours before our flight. However, we didn’t get checked in until 15 minutes before boarding at LHR which is one of the largest airports. We managed to drop off our luggage under 5 minutes before cut-off time, and we made barely made it to our gate despite going through security after our boarding already started. This was all due to our persistence and BA customer service help. The entire trip was stressful, hectic, and AA left us with a horrible taste for their service. We received no refunds for the cancelled flight, no upgrades for having to rent a car and drive instead of flying our initial leg of the journey, nothing for having to be on the phone literally for hours trying to make sure we can fly and fixing the rebooked cancellation, nothing for messing up our bookings while on the phone trying to fix their mistake, nothing for stressing and spending a lot of time at service desks at airports, nothing for running through airports instead of spending quality time and enjoying our trip, no apology, nothing at all. The only silver lining is that we actually made it to where we should eventually and with our luggage, but that was only due to our persistence and BA customer service and help. Since all the years of flying with AA I have seen service degrade while other airlines have only improved theirs. I feel really bad for countless other people who didn’t have the know-how and persistence that we did to fix AA’ mistakes. I hope this review at least shines some light on the incompetence, and hopefully helps others in to make a decision when flying.
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteAustin to London via Dallas Ft Worth
Date FlownMay 2019
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
1/10

"will never use them again"

(United States)

Not Verified | Killeen to Dallas. Worse experience of my life and will never use them again customer service was no help at all they had me stranded in Dallas tx due to their flight delays and would not help me with a hotel. I had to sleep on the sidewalk due to them not helping me get a hotel. I'll never fly with them ever again, and no one on customer service would help me or give me any answer. I asked to speak to a supervisor multiple time which they refused. I paid over 400 for this plane ticket just for them to have me sleep on a side walk.
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteKilleen to Dallas
Date FlownJune 2019
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
1/10

"The worst airline ever"

(Czech Republic)

Trip Verified | San Francisco to Los Angeles. The worst airline ever. Our flight was delayed because they couldn’t find a flight attendant! Horrible. On top of that they were extremely rude! People were asking politely and they were so rude. All they were repeating was “We cannot find our flight attendant” like what? We were waiting hours without any information. People were shocked by the behaviour!
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteSan Francisco to Los Angeles
Date FlownJune 2019
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Ground Service 12345
Wifi & Connectivity 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
1/10

"Worst experience in my life"

(United States)

Not Verified | Dallas to Chicago. Worst experience in my life. They have delayed both of my flights and canceled one of them. I had to rebook a flight with a stop even though when I bought my tickets I made sure that both of the tickets are nonstop. Since they cancelled one of my flights I had to rebook another one which I could have gotten for cheaper. I will never use American Airlines again, because you can’t be sure if you are going to get to your destination on time.
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteDallas to Chicago
Date FlownJune 2019
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
1/10

"customer service has been horrible"

(United States)

Trip Verified | Indianapolis to Washington Reagan. Everything went wrong during our team travel to the 2019 NCAA Rowing championships. Half of the group did not have tickets upon checking in, and we were held at check in until 20 minutes before boarding. The group of 30 had to run through TSA, and barely made it to the gate in time. However 3 individuals, the head coach, athletic director and an athlete were not allowed to board the plane, and were left standing at the gate while we sat for 10 minutes. We were told nothing could be done, and that it was the American Airlines way. The next flight to LGA was overbooked by over 10 seats. Overall the customer service has been horrible, with no consideration of keeping a group of 30 student athletes together or even having tickets to board the next flight.
Type Of TravellerBusiness
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteIndianapolis to Washington Reagan
Date FlownJune 2019
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Ground Service 12345
Wifi & Connectivity 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
2/10

"No one seems to care"

(United States)

Trip Verified | Wichita to Knoxville with American Airlines. This airline is terrible! Flight delayed at midnight due to something with crew. Of course would never make connection. Wife called and was told nothing they could do. I called back irate and finally the got me on a flight. Upon arriving to Dallas they changed gates 3 times! Was supposed to take off now and they say they need to do maintenance will know more later. No one seems to care, just deal with it. Never flying American again! Flight 5848.
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteWichita to Knoxville
Date FlownJune 2019
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
1/10

"lack of service or genuine care"

(United States)

Not Verified | Chicago to Los Angeles. I know that inconveniences happen and I try to be patient. However, the lack of service or genuine care from American Airlines is ridiculous. After being delayed from my first flight (due to a mechanical issue) I arrived in Chicago to try to book a flight to LAX. I discovered that they never have enough people to assist passengers in rebooking (the one lady was too busy talking and laughing with a friend), American Airlines had cancelled yet another flight so all their flights to LAX were full and standby was packed, and when I told the customer service agent my issue she rolled her eyes and repeated what she had just said in a demeaning tone as if I was a child. The icing on the cake was when I asked where to go to receive a travel voucher for the two delayed/cancelled flights and the inconvenience of having to arrive at my destination 12 hours later...they looked at me as if I was crazy. I calmly explained that other airlines at least try to compensate you for the inconvenience. Instead they gave me a number to call (wrong number) and that lady said I would have to request compensation through their website after my trip. Of course the likelihood of receiving anything from the incompetent airline post travel will be next to nothing! And now that I think about it I want to avoid them at all costs in the future! Save yourself the headache and fly Southwest! At least they are kind and compensate you for inconveniences! With Southwest anytime a flight is delayed they pass out travel vouchers like candy, they care about their passengers unlike American Airlines!
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteChicago to Los Angeles
Date FlownJune 2019
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
no