American Airlines

SAN-ORD-ROC and BUF-ORD-SAN. I decided to fly paid first as the cost when booking only a few weeks out was only slightly more than economy. I've flown AA first domestically many times so didn't expect much but flying so early in the morning it was nice to have a slightly larger seat to sleep. I'm only writing this review to point out what a drastic turn for the worse after the merger. The food quality while on domestic F is never great has always been better than the rest on AA. It is now absolutely disgusting. The one positive is that first is now offered on American Eagle - a very minor improvement of course for a flight so short in duration. I really hope management wakes up and realizes that they are ruining what was a much better than average airline.

Traveled three times round trip LAX to LHR in the last 4 months of 2014: flights 136 and 135. Equipment - 777 300ER (I go out of my way to fly this plane as it is the newest and most comfortable). Business Class. Seats J12 J13 and J14 (window seats). I can't say enough good things about the seat (private and roomy flat bed) the inflight entertainment (15" screen) and the noise-canceling headphones (sized large enough to surround the ear rather than mashing it as do the headphones on BA). In all instances the food from LAX to LHR was not good and certainly not worth the calories (the same can be said for BA). Better to eat in the Admirals Club Lounge (more on this later). The food from LHR to LAX was much better and excellent on one flight (must have a better kitchen at LHR). The LAX Admirals Lounge is comfortable enough but it is unconscionable that long-haul business class passengers are required to pay for everything beyond bar snacks and coffee. I have never paid for food in the business class lounge of any other comparably-sized airline. And we were mislead (cheated) by one of the wait staff. As an aside BA shares the Admirals Club Lounge in San Diego and as a BA passenger I wasn't charged for food in the lounge there. The LHR Admirals Club Lounge is certainly spartan but well-tended and thankfully much less crowded than the BA lounge. In fact the AA lounge was just about empty on my three visits. Yes the food in the AA lounge is limited compared to BA but at least you don't have to pay extra for it as you do in all of the Admirals Clubs in the USA. Check-in was spotty at best and miserable at worst. At LHR we had to use the check-in desk for coach passengers because there was only one business class desk in operation. I would recommend AA but only for passengers flying business class in the 777 300ER aircraft.

In the air American was decent. We flew TUS-DFW-BNA and EVV-ORD-TUS and found the flight crew to be friendly and helpful for the most part. The issues we had were with customer service on the ground particularly in Dallas where our missed flight did not result in any support for our troubles. They also lost our luggage but they apologized and compensated us appropriately sending a check in a very timely manner. The MD-80s they fly are fine but the fact that I flew in a plane 5 years younger than me doesn't do much for my faith in the company. American Eagle's ERJs are horrible for anyone over 5 feet tall and they feel dated. The newer 737s were nice however.

Nov 10th AA2216. AA2463 Nov 11th. Our flight from LA to SYD was QF12 on Nov 11 2014. I would like to give American Airlines a poor review on their performance and customer service we experienced on a flight to Sydney Australia in November 2014. Our flight was delayed leaving MSP partially due to weather but really because they left us sitting on the plane while they delayed the de-icing and then took 45 minutes to do something the pilot said usually takes 15 minutes. We missed our connecting flight in DFW that was to take us to Sydney and the ticket attendants there absolutely refused to re-route us onto several flights that could have taken us to LAX to connect to a flight to SYD that same night. They instead put us on a flight the next day that would re-route us through LAX and on to SYD making us lose an entire day in Australia. The ticket attendants were rude and inconsiderate. I have never had such poor customer service in all my years of flying. DFW said it is a policy not to allow someone on a flight through stand-by if their end destination is international. American Airlines said each airport has their own policy on that and it is not a standard AA policy. There were several flights that went from DFW to LAX that evening and they allowed over 30 people to board those planes on stand-by but would not allow us to.

JFK-SFO-LAX-LAS-JFK with American Airlines were the worst four flights of my life! Ground staff and cabin crew were rude and inefficient. The cabin and seats were very old and worn out. Not a single crew member on any four of the flights I took even bothered to say hello or welcome or even smile. Obviously we had to purchase snacks onboard because AA does not offer food. The snack options were very limited and if you were seated at the very back of the economy cabin you will never be guaranteed whether you will get the snacks you wanted to buy because they only stock few onboard and they get sold out half way through. Even during the selling of snacks and drinks the cabin crew looked very displeased that they had to do it. The cabin crew were extremely badly groomed. The economy seat had hardly any legroom. If you are a tall person you will have a hard time moving in your seat because it is so small with no legroom. We even bought extra legroom seats and still there was not enough legroom. All four flights were delayed and took off hours late. We were boarded late and then had to sit in the aircraft for at least 1 to 2 hours before take off. As a result our plans had to be cancelled and changed. I will never fly with AA again.

I flew from LHR-MIA in Business on one of their new 777-300. I cant fault this flight. The seats in Business have lots of space places for storage and good size IFE screens. IFE itself is also good. Food was of a good quality. Service was very good from the crew who were pleasant friendly and were happy to keep your drink topped up. If you're feeling peckish during the flight the galley is stocked with snacks where you can help yourself. Overall a very pleasant on time flight. In contrast I flew the return with BA on a very worn 747 business class cabin is badly designed and crew not very friendly at all. If you are doing this route definitely choose AA over BA miles better product!

I have never seen anything like I saw today at MIA. We arrived an hour and a half before my son's domestic flight and could not believe the chaos at American's ticket counters. There were long lines at every kiosk and even longer lines at the checked bag line. After finally checking in at a kiosk my son could not print his boarding pass because the machine had run out of paper. I had been standing in the checked bag line and when we approached the employee and explained that we had a luggage tag but the boarding pass had not printed she directed us to another line that had easily more than 60 people! I then approached another American Airlines employee and asked for assistance and she was incredibly rude and offered no help. Fortunately we were able to get my son's boarding pass on the phone. Despite a ridiculous security check-in line he was able to board his flight on time. A friend of his that was on the same flight had to forcefully argue with other employees to get on the flight because they said they had closed the gate and would not let him board even though he was checked in!

Last January 13th I took my flight back from Madrid Spain to JFK AA 095 we started our flight two hours late not being informed about time or anything similar we were not allowed to leave the area inside the airport where our plane was and if we wanted they said that they would open our carry-on bags totally. We boarded and when we were boarding they informed us that we had a stop in Goose bay Canada to have gas otherwise we would not be able to get to New York the stop was 1h 30m long. We arrive in JFK so late that almost everybody lost their connection. However we were given new connections once we got out of the plane. But they did not give us any voucher or anything in compensation for this horrible flight. I would try not to fly American Airlines again.

Flight Miami to LHR 13/01. Technically the flight was good early arrival very soft touchdown and excellent information from flight deck. However the cabin service left a lot to be desired. The crew were very unhelpful and the food poor by the standards of comparable airlines. Our return trip to the UK (operated by AA) was far inferior to our outward trip to Boston operated by BA. Given the choice at a comparable price level I would not fly with AA again.

Itinerary: Chicago - Miami - Campinas Brasil. Flight from MIA to VRP was canceled because the AA crew did not show up. Service crew for the make-up flight were very nice and accommodating but the AA staff at MIA were not very friendly at all and we had to search for them after seeing our flight was canceled. On all legs the planes were AA and not very clean at all. Overall I lost a couple days traveling and when I arrived I felt dirtier than when I have flown better international carriers not to mention no personalized inflight entertainment or WiFi. Two thumbs down for international AA.