American Airlines

Let me preface, I have elite status with American and fly at minimum, twice a month.
This company has no transparency nor understands VOC. Poor management and old planes that seem to brake down constantly. I hope they can continue to run their P&L as more of my colleagues continue to use the competition. It’s a shame.
I’m writing this review while still being delayed 3hrs after boarding a plane.
My last 3 flights have been delayed with no logical reason and no willingness to accommodate people’s connections or life.

You kidding me?
I arrived at 9:11, waited 20 minutes just to check in at the kiosk (limited personnel at desks), and by the time I got to the kiosk, it was too late to check in at the kiosk
All the while, guys from AA kept walking people up to the counter ahead of everyone in line.
. I then got into the ticket counter line and waited 19 minutes more to get to the counter.
Then, I’m told I can’t take the next available flight, because it isn’t the same route. What? Same airline…
I’ll stick with Southwest. American sucks!

American must be the WORST Airline to fly that I’ve seen. No guidance signs at the check in area in San Diego. Then I watched them make a mother flying alone with 3 kids under the age of 10, youngest being around 1 check her stroller. Absolutely terrible airline! We will not be flying them again!

The wife and I recently traveled with American Airlines (AA). After booking the flight through Travelocity we began receiving offers from AA to apply for their credit card. They were very persuasive, receive so many miles and a free checked bag. We took them up on the offer.
Prior to our scheduled flight, we called the AA 800 number to be sure we would be eligible for the free checked bag since the flight was actually paid for using our old American Express credit card. We were assured that since we had obtained the AA credit card more than 7 days before our scheduled flight, all we had to do was go to the check-​in counter and show the AA credit card and the baggage fee would be waived. Based upon this information, my wife took a larger suitcase rather than do carry on.
Guess what happened, they refused to waive the baggage fee. Roundtrip flight, $ 50 in baggage fees. It seems there is a disconnect between their customer service 800 number and their frontline personnel.
I look forward to receiving an explanation from American Airlines.
Ira Kaplan, San Diego, CA

Flight delayed and luggage lost on same day. Horrible customer service. Took forever to find someone with which to file a claim.

American Airlines is the worst airline I’ve flown on in years!
You can book your ticket online, but if you need to cancel your fully refundable flight, you have to call reservations! And they tell you it can take 2 weeks or more for your refund to process and show up on your credit card bill!
When you check your bag, you have to tag it yourself using a kiosk and then carry it over to be weighed and then put it on the conveyor yourself (in Miami)! What?! No customer service!
The seats (even the bigger ones in the exit row) are the most uncomfortable ones I’ve had to endure – my neck and shoulders are still sore 2 days after my flight!
The only reason we used American was because they had a direct flight from San Diego to Miami.

Hey everyone American is devaluing your air miles use them before 22 March 2016. They really don’t value frequent flyers!

American Airlines (AA) once it used to be one of the greatest, most professional, and modern Airlines in the world, and today its totally the opposite. This company went from bad to disaster, and it still shocks me how its part of the OneWorld airlines alliance.
I try very hard to stay positive flying AA, but it continues to disappoint me all across the board. Starting from the first Check-​in, to inflight services, to landing and exiting the airport. AA’s international relationship with other airlines are by far the worse, if we are comparing apples to apples. The loyalty program known as AA Advantage got no advantages but yet disadvantages privileges to frequent Flyers like myself. I currently hold over 150k miles, and yet can’t really use them because of its high rates of domestic/​international fights.
That being said, this review is primarily on the Airport check-​in at the San Diego Airport– Horrible. The crew are rude, function as robots, answering questions based on a «Yes or No» terms without further explanations of why, and how a problem can be resolved.
On personal note, I really believe that the negative vibe, and customer service AA offers customers; are because due to their leadership, which I question it, i.e., Abuse, long hours, and low benefits or possible no benefits at all.
Sadly, I have no option but to continue flying AA because of the linked international airlines (Qatar Airways) to connect me to my final destination.

Repetitive horrible rude service., we can use other airlines! Your associates either need more training or need to rethink the job they are doing. If they can’t or don’t want to speak to people without yelling or being down right rude they should find a job that doesn’t require interaction with the public.
This is not a one time experience… Specifically issue with your San Diego airport location. All I can say is wow if I yelled or had 1% of the attitude they have I wouldn’t have a job, maybe some of your associates shouldn’t either.

Terrible service except for one employee. Awful schedule, awful connections, every flight overbooked, they are working hard to become the new Greyhound w wings. I don’t fly much (I live in SD where else to go?) but when I do in the future it won’t be w American. You are forewarned…

Two stars, only because everything was on time. Overall the san diego airport is great, this review pertains to American Airlines!
Airlines– wake up!
When you started charging fees to check bags, did you notice how almost everyone brings roller bags on board (that unlikely fit into your template)? Have you noticed how the overhead storage gets filled? On the last flight i was on, they forced half the passengers to check luggage (at the gate), that would not fit under seat. Did you charge them? I know i was just charged $ 25 for my bag at the curbside checkin! What’s fair is fair…
On that subject, do you weigh those roller bags destined to overload the overhead bins? You weighed my bag that i checked in responsibly…
Let’s finish with boarding. I wish i could say that after decades of commercial aviation, you have this figured out. Sadly, you don’t! Seriously, board from the back of the plane, to the front. Call it out by rows or groups. If you don’t feel this is fair due to overhead storage space, reread the paragraphs above! If you don’t feel this is fair to first class passengers, consider this: ask yourself if you really want 200 hooligans bumping into you on their way to the «economy» seats. I personally wouldn’t want to be stared at, bumped into, or had dandruff dropping into my free drinks. I want to spend the least possible time on the airplane as possible! It seems like timeliness is a huge issue to airlines and you would put in the effort to improve this!
Happy traveling!

American Airlines is the worst carrier available. The customer service is polite but has no compassion for personal error due to bereavement or illness. That flight attendants are rude doing the least they can get away with. I am shocked at the way they treated me. Do not fly unless you just Have to! I wish I had listened to what I heard from others.

It would be 5 stars just for Mrs Pam inside at the counter was super nice loved her… but the other guys outside and the guys directing rude, mean and yell at you. They don’t let you ask a simple question!!! I wanted to ask about paying for my luggage he sent me to the wrong line then i figured it out myself !!! The were just straight out rude! And then they yeledl at the old lady helping them out front talking down to them. Train your people to smile! And be kind!!!

If you have children traveling, DO NOT fly this airline.
I am not the type of person to write a negative review. I typically only hop on Unilocal to talk about excellent service as I am in a service oriented industry and know how difficult it can be to receive a negative review.
We are traveling this morning to Chicago O’Hare and then on to Newark from San Diego, and when we arrived at our gate not only were we asked to board the plane last because of our child, but they confiscated our stroller and wouldn’t let us gate check it.
Our daughter has been on five other cross-​country flights, and we have never been treated so rudely. Randy at gate 29 in San Diego was especially unpleasant to work with.
We will now have a 9 month old baby in arms with all our luggage for a 3 hr. Layover in O’ Hare.
It is clear from the way we were treated this morning that American would rather not deal with children or their parents. Well, I am a very frequent cross country and international traveler who will never fly American again.

2÷5÷16: I’d usually rank AA a little higher, but for this particular trip, the check-​in agent (at the gate, not the one when you first come into the airport) did a big a$$ no-​no. I needed to do pre-​boarding due to a medical condition acting up and I kid you not she literally pretended to type something in the computer and said I was good to go to my final destination (of course at the next layover they had no clue, they said nothing was noted in the computer) and then said «come up when I call group 1». Lady, do you think I’m stupid? Group 1 was on my ticket, I needed PRE-​BOARDING!
I still have to email AA about the incident. She needs to trained on dealing w/​passengers. People have many reasons why they may need pre-​boarding, and not all of them are visible disabilities, etc. Dumb a$$!
Oh and while waiting there, at Gate 28, the TVs are soooooo loud and blaring. Not good for those of us who woke up butt crack of the middle of the night to get to the airport. Headache inducing. Also, hardly any outlets anywhere.
So of course, boarding starts so I go up (because she doesn’t call pre-​boarding) and the guy let us on. She’s lucky she didn’t say anything to me. I would’ve ripped her a new one to kingdom come if she did. OK, I probably wouldn’t, I’m too nice to do that. But in my head, I would’ve! LOL.
Once we got on the airplane it was fine. Hubby and I each got aisle seating. But, as you can see from the photo, that doesn’t help him much. These airlines wanna cram you in like sardines.
Oh, and they ran out of water on the flight. Seriously?
But it was a fairly quick, less than 3 hours flight for our first leg of the trip: SAN-​DFW. Hubby said it seemed longer. Oh no WI-​Fi on the flight.
PMT: Use your AA credit card to save 25% off in flight purchases.

I’ve flown on American Airlines for several trips but I don’t seem to recall ever having an issue with them. On my trip out of San Diego to Mexico, I had been booked via AA for every plane throughout the trip. They make it really easy to check in via the internet on their website, which can be done about a day before your flight is scheduled to take off. I suggest you do this to avoid getting crappy seats like I did. When arriving at SAN, the guy behind the counter Ted worked a bit of magic to get me better seats, because being tall on airplane really sucks. He managed to switch me from center seats to aisle seats to make my trip a bit more manageable. However after being checked in and waiting for my plane, I was called up to the desk to be told by the agent they switched me seats because a family member wanted to sit together. Uh yeah, thanks for putting me in the center seat again, at least the trip was only for an hour to Phoenix. AA like all the airlines have gone the route of charging extra for people to sit in exit row seats, a practice which sucks for people like me trying to catch a break at better seats in coach.
At Phoenix I had an AA agent argue with me that my carryon bag was too big to bring on the plane, which was weird because it’s never been contested before in my many years of flying places. Meanwhile people are bringing these huge wheeled luggage bags onto the plane past me, after shoving my bag into their sizing cube and proving it was acceptable I was allowed to bring it on the plane. It’s not that I don’t want to pay a fee to check my bag; I just don’t feel like dealing with the hassle of it, especially for such a short trip. The planes were relatively comfortable when flying on them, the coach seats weren’t too bad for leg room in my opinion. I didn’t really interact with any of the staff though, I slept both ways on the plane the whole trip. American Airlines is just alright in my opinion, but if I have the choice, I would go with another one for longer trips.

Here we go again, Kiosk check-​in system can’t find my reservation. One agent and long line at check-​in in San Diego.
Flight from San Diego to Charlotte was full but also smooth and uneventful.
Flight from Charlotte to Pittsburgh was also full. Smooth flight and uneventful landing.

A few problems with AA in San Diego (most people on this Unilocal page are just complaining about standard Airline problems).
1) Shared lounge. No Admirals Club, which is a pain. Admirals Club agents can handle IRROPs and other stuff, but not in San Diego! Instead you have to call or find an agent, and most are not the most cordial.
2) No direct flights to SFO, which would be huge. AA, for whatever reason, only has flights to SFO from LAX, which is a real shame.
Comeon AA, add some flights to SFO! Get some better trained agents in a branded lounge! San Diego is turning into a bigger market!

So I used to be Us Airways fan. But American bought them out. So I have been working my way to liking them. You know how that is. It’s like when you were in elementary school and then you started the knew school. Takes a bit to get used to it. But they have done great. On the way back they upgraded my girlfriend and I to first class. It was great. But it was even better for her. She had never sat up in first class. She soaked it up. She is a die hard Southwest person. But she got a great taste of the good life. I don’t know how we will be able to fly any other way with her with me. She loved the food the warm cookies. The free drinks. And the blankets they gave her. She is always cold. And it came in a bag. She loved that. She’s a germafobic person. But I believe now we are both fans.

I am a big fan of AA from their vast selection of flights to each city we regularly travel too, to their admirals club to their customer service. I rarely have bad thing to say and if I did, its usually outside of the persons control that I may be dealing with. Not sure why I am choosing this particular time to review them but I had 2, not so enjoyable experiences on this trip from San Diego to ATL. First with the CS at check in… she was just not friendly at all and kept looking up beyond a the commotion going on by the door (someone was not get a wheel chair fast enough for a lady that just walked in… yes she walked in and did not look like she needed one but I am sure there was a very valid reason… either way someone was getting reprimanded in public for not getting it quick enough. (I am digressing or «seeing a squirrel» here but yes the person was talking to her other worker friend and should have been reprimanded but not so loudly and in public!)
Either way, that was taking the attention of my CS person and I even joking waved my hand in front my own face and said, can we finish this please? She apologized and finished up. TSA was quick and easy. Then I went to my gate and the gate attendant was busy so she was not overly friendly or helpful either. However every person around her and on the plane were fantastic! Service was excellent on board and we made to ATL 30 min early!!! Which was great since everyone I was meeting for a class was already out to dinner when we arrived… so we made it to see them all!
I overall love AA so I only docked it 1 star for the 2 incidents because I know its not a comment occurrence.