American Airlines

✅ Trip Verified | Washington DCA to Albany. I Purchased an economy class ticket. In doing so American stated that I do not have access to the overhead bin’s. I may only bring on a personal item that measures no more than 18x14x9“. Fine. I checked a bag. But nowhere on the American website does it state that any personal item that has wheels and a handle is not considered a personal item even if the measurements are less than required. On my flight, as I was getting ready to board I was basically held hostage before I could board because my personal item had a handle and wheels and that is considered a carry-on. Not only did I pay a baggage fee, I was assessed a penalty fee for a total of $60. If the website had stated that I wouldn’t have bothered purchasing an underseat wheeled bag that was under the size requirment. Any complaints through customer service resulted in a black hole stating they cannot go back on what the gate agent assesses.

✅ Trip Verified | Jacksonville to Tucson via Dallas. This is a story about what happens when you are a Platinum Million Miler with American Airlines and you pay full fare for three first-class tickets for your family, booking through AAVacations and one of your family gets bumped by an air marshal. Spoiler alert: To stop you tweeting they mollify you with "Our AA Vacations team will be able to help out with a refund once your travel is complete." And once your travel is complete, the AAVacations team tells you they cannot issue refunds and sends you into a bureaucratic maze designed to punish you until you surrender. Here's the back story: First know that there were two marshals sitting in a 9-passenger first-class cabin on the dangerous passage between JAX and DFW. My petite wife ended up taking our displaced son's seat 20A because she was the only one who could fit into it--an unhappy way to start a $7K "luxury vacation." 20A is the seat opposite the aft cabin lav on a CR9 RJ900 aircraft. Her seatmate, a small elderly woman who also paid full-fare for a first-class seat, had been displaced by a second air marshal. More, so that the two air marshals could sit silently together, ever vigilant, one played poker and the other solitaire on their phones - my son and I were split up and placed as far apart as possible and still be in the same cabin. Having flown many millions of miles on many carriers, I suspected that not everyone in First had paid full fare for their ticket, so far in advance of boarding we asked the gate agent to look into the possibility of getting us back into our original seats, together three across. Subsequently, she managed to avoid my requests for updates until just before boarding when she advised that "No one had volunteered to give up their seat" and attempted to foist a $300 voucher on us as compensation, adding "There's nothing else I can do." Not true. When you do finally arrive at your vacation destination, American has managed to lose your bag. Now I understand that this happens, but how did they lose only one of the four bags we checked and why did it have to be my wife's bag? The following morning they delivered the bag to the Westin La Paloma, where we enjoyed a terrific week. The good folks at Westin took it upon themselves to make up for the lack of customer care and service from AA and AAVacations.

✅ Trip Verified | Asheville to Chicago via Charlotte. Do yourself a favor and fly another airline. They try and make you pay to pick your seat if you are in basic economy or else they will assign you one. I choose to let them assume because on the app it said all available seats were for purchase. I board the aircraft and they have roughly 30 open seats and i am able to have an entire exit row. I land in Charlotte NC for my connecting flight and they charge me $50 to check my bag at the gate because I’m the last group to board and the overhead bin is full. Asheville allowed me to check my bag complimentary at the gate for an even smaller aircraft. The staff was incredibly rude and did not care that $50 is a lot of money for people. I will never fly this airline and neither should anyone else.

✅ Trip Verified | Las Vegas to Dublin via Philadelphia. Very comfortable flight from Las Vegas to Philadelphia on the A321. The next leg from Philadelphia to Dublin was fantastic. Comfortable seats with AVOD plus non stop food and drinks service. Started with a hot meal which was great - I had the beef, then the crew came through with ice cream and then later with a hot pizza and cake combo. Flight crew were professional and friendly. Aircraft was clean and comfortable. I am appreciating the new American Airlines these days.

✅ Trip Verified | I bought the ticket from American Airlines going Houston to Portland via Phoenix. At first the flight got delayed in Houston for 30 mins, then we still able to flight to Phoenix. However, at Phoenix they change the gate and didn't email me, I had to try and run quick to get to the gate, but when I get to the gate and scan my ticket, they say the ticket is invalid and somehow I got dropped from them - they don't even try to get me on the flight, I have the ticket already but they insist on getting me on the flight in the morning. I bought another ticket from Southwest and it was expensive. It seems as though the seat on my ticket was giving to someone else on the flight on American Airlines. Bad airline and would never go this airline again.

✅ Trip Verified | St Louis to Los Angeles. Horrible service, very arrogant and useless from check-in all the way to the airline. I had problem with self checking, nobody tried to help. In the plane half empty didn’t let me and my son take our standard sized luggage. Service sucks Never fly any more with these guys.

✅ Trip Verified | Akron to Birmingham via Philadelphia. Flight: 5243 March 23, 2018 from CAK to PHL First, we would like to thank the flight crew for their efforts to make a bad situation better and to resolve the unfortunate miscommunication with flight maintenance. Our understanding of the issue provided by the pilot was that there was some discrepancy with the flight maintenance log and that someone from maintenance would need to review and approve it before we could take off. The plane had been at the gate for over an hour before we boarded, and no maintenance was performed. We were informed that flight maintenance needed 30 minutes to resolve the issue, which turned into an additional 30+ plus minutes. At this point we have missed the original departure schedule but the crew was told it would be resolved in another 30 minutes and we could make up some time due to tail winds. Because of the delay sitting on the tarmac passengers were offered to deplane with the knowledge that they could not board again. Apparently, a passenger that only spoke Russian did deplane not realizing she could not return. She was very upset and in tears when she was allowed back on the plane, which, unfortunately impacted the departure time. At this point we had been on hold for more than two hours and it was clear we would miss our connecting flight from Philadelphia to Birmingham. Since there were no more flights to Birmingham that evening we were provided rooms at the Airport Wyndham hotel, comfortable at this point due to our exhaustion, but nowhere near a three-star hotel as advertised. We didn’t fly Spirit Airlines because of bad reviews, now we have one to tell regarding our experience with American Airlines. The situation seems like it could have been avoided with better communications and if flight maintenance would have done their required repairs before we boarded the flight. Lastly, “providing dinner and breakfast” does not mean vouchers that can only be used in the airport fast food court.

✅ Trip Verified | Toronto to Dayton via New York. Every flight I’ve ever had with American Airlines has been delayed. This time my flight was delayed by 3 hours for “maintenance.” I understand that things happen, but I’ve seriously had a problem with this airline every single time I’ve flown with them. I’ve had enough, and I will never fly with them again.

✅ Trip Verified | Orlando to Kahului. Customer service training must happen or happen more frequently. I have flown many times on business trips and with my family. I have never experienced what we experienced this trip. Our flight to Florida was okay. On our way back home, we were checking in at the Orlando Airport. A AA agent told us that we had to check in our Sit & Stand stroller. We told her that it was never a problem coming and all the past times we traveled. She said that at this airport, we had no choice and had to check it in. I went to ask another AA agent. I politely said, "Good morning Maam" to get her attention. She looked at me and said, "Uuuggg", you are the second person that called me Maam today! What do you want?" I looked at her and said, "I'll ask someone else". Can you imagine the things you need to carry while traveling with two children? This made it very difficult to travel with two young children to say the least. When passing through TSA, we asked what the deal was and they said, it was okay with TSA. They check and allow any type of stroller. We got up to our gate and we saw one family on the flight before us who had the same exact Sit & Stand stroller and had no questions asked and strolled right into the jet way. I asked the agent, why the family before us was allowed and why we had to check our stroller in. She stated that it must have been missed. I found that hard to believe as another family checked in a double stroller (wider and more bulky than what we had). I looked around and noticed that we were the only family without our stroller. When we got to Texas, the AA agent was so rude. We asked if our family could sit closer together. She asked for my boarding pass. Since my wife had it, I asked if I could show her a picture on my phone. She looked at me and said, "I don't want to hold you phone. Phones are full of germs." I didn't want her to hold my phone anyway, but what a thing to tell a guest. Phones could be full of germs, but you don't need to say that to a guest. There are many ways to politely respond and assume someone is giving you their phone to hold.

✅ Trip Verified | Our flight was canceled because of snow-fine, no one can control the weather. The issue is in what happened after our flight was canceled. We were rebooked on a flight for the next morning, that would have taken us from NY to Boston, and then to Miami - a total of about 6 hours travel the next day. I called the 800# for AA to talk to someone about rebooking for something, anything that would get us into Miami that day, so we would not have to waste 2 entire days of our 5 day break (while also wasting hotel nights, and other things we'd planned). When I spoke to the person on the 800# she told me that there were no more flights leaving JFK, Newark, or LaGuardia, going to Miami that day. And maybe this was true for direct flights. I asked if there were any other options whatsoever, with flights going elsewhere that might then connect to Miami that day. She told me there were no other options. I asked, point blank, "So you're telling me that no more flights are arriving in Miami for American Airlines for the rest of the day?" She told me the only option was for this flight we had been rebooked. I then went to a counter to try to get on a standby list for an AA flight that was full, and going to Miami. Seeing a growing line of upset people, the attendant at the counter actually made an announcement that he could not help anyone who had been booked for the 6.45 canceled flight. I spoke to him anyway. I, again, asked if there were any options at all that would get us to Miami via American. He told me he was just too busy to help me. I'd like you to meditate on this for a moment: an AA service representative told me that he was too busy to help me, a customer whose paid flight on American Airlines for himself and his family to go away for spring break had just been canceled. We went to another AA gate for a later Miami flight to try to get on the standby list. At this gate we spoke to a gentleman. He was very pleasant, added us to the standby list, and then we sat. A few minutes later, he me up to the counter and said he could get us on a flight to Chicago, and from there we could pick up a flight to Miami. I was somewhat incredulous after a) being told that there were no options by the AA "service" rep on the phone, and b) being told that by another AA "service" rep that he was "too busy" to help me. So I asked him to confirm that we would have guaranteed seats to Chicago, and then to Miami. He said yes, and that we'd get in around 9pm. It worked-we made it to Chicago, then Miami, and ultimately only lost 1 day, arriving at our hotel in Miami almost exactly 12 hours late. But we did not lose a hotel night, and we did not have to reschedule anything else. This man saved our vacation. The rest of the AA staff and system is rigid, inflexible, and robotic, and do not try to help customers. They seem perfectly okay with unhappy, sad, disappointed and angry customers. Maybe they see it all the time and are numb to it. Maybe they need better training, maybe they take too much garbage from some customers who no doubt act like jerks. We did not act like jerks because we respect people trying to do their jobs. But we don't respect organizations that foster a culture where most staff clearly don't care about customers and only do the bare minimum for their jobs. We will never fly American Airlines again.