Would you fly American today?
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Would you fly American today?
From recent news reports, American Airlines is currently in a slow motion melt-down. Pilots and mechanics are creating a blizzard of repair tickets causing lots of delays and canceled flights. Management is trying to poison pill a US Air merger. And I don't know what all else is going on to this previously first-rate airline.
Thing is, my wife and I need to attend a conference in the Caribbean in February and American has the cheapest flights and best connections from this part of Texas. The alternatives on Delta and US Air are both more expensive and less less efficient in terms of connections and routing.
So do we roll the dice and fly American as we usually have in the past? Or do we play it safe and book through a less ideal alternate airline?
Thing is, my wife and I need to attend a conference in the Caribbean in February and American has the cheapest flights and best connections from this part of Texas. The alternatives on Delta and US Air are both more expensive and less less efficient in terms of connections and routing.
So do we roll the dice and fly American as we usually have in the past? Or do we play it safe and book through a less ideal alternate airline?
Re: Would you fly American today?
AA flights are very cheap now - but like investing - it's a risk/reward thing. If your schedule is relaxed and you don't get upset at delays (or you feel lucky) it could be a good deal.
- Archie Sinclair
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Re: Would you fly American today?
If you do fly with them, you will want to schedule a lot of time in between connecting flights.
Re: Would you fly American today?
I am a frequent flyer on AA. I normally have no problems with them other than the usual annoyances of airports and flying. But I did take a domestic flight from Dallas a few weeks ago; there were delays taking off, an "electric malfunction" in-flight that necessitated a diversion to Albuquerque, and finally reached our destination 6 hours later than planned. I still fly American but I would be very cautious and leave sufficient times between connections.
Re: Would you fly American today?
Hopefully, by next February, all the nonsense with American will be a distant memory.texasdiver wrote:
Thing is, my wife and I need to attend a conference in the Caribbean in February and American has the cheapest flights and best connections from this part of Texas. The alternatives on Delta and US Air are both more expensive and less less efficient in terms of connections and routing.
Re: Would you fly American today?
While I was not a prolific traveler i used to (prior to retirement) travel domestically 2 - 6 + times annually on business and a couple of times for leisure which generally meant a connection to an international carrier. American was my last choice based on in flight and on the ground performance.
Re: Would you fly American today?
Rather go with Jet Blue. Worth the extra bucks with their bigger seats and tv.
Re: Would you fly American today?
Not if I had a strict schedule.
I always wanted to be a procrastinator.
Re: Would you fly American today?
I just booked a trip for work and I went out of my way to avoid AA. There's a risk of delays and cancellations for all airlines, but with AA, it seems there's a higher one now.
Re: Would you fly American today?
Got a $500 voucher from them last week, though I wonder if we'll be able to redeem it if they merge with another carrier.
Re: Would you fly American today?
What kind of voucher? You mean a voucher because of some service issue you had on a flight you took?lws6772 wrote:Got a $500 voucher from them last week, though I wonder if we'll be able to redeem it if they merge with another carrier.
Re: Would you fly American today?
Voucher for volunteering to take a later flight that day. And the later flight also included the delays(at no extra charge) just like the earlier flight.rjbraun wrote:What kind of voucher? You mean a voucher because of some service issue you had on a flight you took?lws6772 wrote:Got a $500 voucher from them last week, though I wonder if we'll be able to redeem it if they merge with another carrier.
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Re: Would you fly American today?
Upon reflection I think I'll probably avoid AA this trip even though it is slightly less convenient.
We are going to a conference in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. AA has one or two direct flights/day from Miami so flying AA would mean an early morning flight from DFW to Miami and a 1 hour connection in Miami to make our DR flight. If we miss it we could be waiting until the next day or taking some convoluted alternative to another city in the Dominican Republic and a local puddle jumper to Punta Cana. Same thing on the way home. We fly back Sunday and both have to be back at work Monday. Doesn't seem prudent to mess around with an airline in crisis.
Delta has direct flights via Atlanta and US Air has direct flights via Charlotte. I'm thinking that Delta sounds like the best option as it is by far much easier to get to Atlanta compared to Charlotte from either DFW or Austin which are our two closest airports.
Too bad there are not direct flights from Houston as I would just drive down there and fly out that way.
We are going to a conference in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. AA has one or two direct flights/day from Miami so flying AA would mean an early morning flight from DFW to Miami and a 1 hour connection in Miami to make our DR flight. If we miss it we could be waiting until the next day or taking some convoluted alternative to another city in the Dominican Republic and a local puddle jumper to Punta Cana. Same thing on the way home. We fly back Sunday and both have to be back at work Monday. Doesn't seem prudent to mess around with an airline in crisis.
Delta has direct flights via Atlanta and US Air has direct flights via Charlotte. I'm thinking that Delta sounds like the best option as it is by far much easier to get to Atlanta compared to Charlotte from either DFW or Austin which are our two closest airports.
Too bad there are not direct flights from Houston as I would just drive down there and fly out that way.
Re: Would you fly American today?
My wife and I just travelled American Airlines internationally this past mid-September from Asia. We had booked our tickets to sit together in coach, had a nice little window-aisle combo. We didn't even know about all the troubles with American until I was checking in online a day before our flight back to the states. Found out our flight had been cancelled, and our tickets were rebooked to an earlier flight that had 2 more hours of waiting around at a different stop-over city, so we'd still get back home later than our original flight. The worst part was that we'd be sitting apart, in the exact middle of a 5-seat row on an 11 hour flight...
The wife was not pleased, to say the least, ha!
Luckily, we called to negotiate with american airlines's international office, and after some sweet-talking, they bumped us over free of charge to a direct flight with their code-share airline (our original one was not direct).
When all was said and done, it ended up well, but it was pretty stressful up until things got settled.
If I had a strict schedule, I personally probably wouldn't fly American for a while until they get all this straightened out.
Too bad, because we have all our mileage through this company.
The wife was not pleased, to say the least, ha!
Luckily, we called to negotiate with american airlines's international office, and after some sweet-talking, they bumped us over free of charge to a direct flight with their code-share airline (our original one was not direct).
When all was said and done, it ended up well, but it was pretty stressful up until things got settled.
If I had a strict schedule, I personally probably wouldn't fly American for a while until they get all this straightened out.
Too bad, because we have all our mileage through this company.
Re: Would you fly American today?
You might want to give this guy a try. Works for us when we can't get what we want.
http://www.executivejetmanagement.com/default.asp
http://www.executivejetmanagement.com/default.asp
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Re: Would you fly American today?
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Last edited by Soonerintn on Mon Jul 22, 2013 2:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Would you fly American today?
I fly American somewhat frequently (50k miles this year).
In the last 12 months I've had my share of bad luck (weather and a medical emergency), but nothing related to their current difficulties. Just took a flight to PVG today on AA and everything went smoothly.
AA is probably having more difficulties than other US legacy carriers right now, but I can't think of any other US legacy carrier that I'd rather fly (comparing service, equipment, price, etc). Not a tremendous difference between any of them (IMO).
My suggestion...roll the dice. If you can get a much better routing with AA than the competition, hopefully that will reduce the points of failure. Weather, mechanical issues and crew issues can disrupt a trip on any carrier.
In the last 12 months I've had my share of bad luck (weather and a medical emergency), but nothing related to their current difficulties. Just took a flight to PVG today on AA and everything went smoothly.
AA is probably having more difficulties than other US legacy carriers right now, but I can't think of any other US legacy carrier that I'd rather fly (comparing service, equipment, price, etc). Not a tremendous difference between any of them (IMO).
My suggestion...roll the dice. If you can get a much better routing with AA than the competition, hopefully that will reduce the points of failure. Weather, mechanical issues and crew issues can disrupt a trip on any carrier.
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Re: Would you fly American today?
New York JFK to Zurich late August -- on schedule
Paris to JFK early September -- cargo door initially delayed departure 2 hours and then cancelled flight. It was American's last one of the day so they put us up at a nice airport hotel and provided dinner and breakfast.
Switched to British Air through Heathrow the following day. At Heathrow incurred a five hour delay on 747 as two tires needed replacement after which the starter on the second engine failed.
For important events like catching a cruise or attending a wedding, adding cushion to a schedule makes sense.
Paris to JFK early September -- cargo door initially delayed departure 2 hours and then cancelled flight. It was American's last one of the day so they put us up at a nice airport hotel and provided dinner and breakfast.
Switched to British Air through Heathrow the following day. At Heathrow incurred a five hour delay on 747 as two tires needed replacement after which the starter on the second engine failed.
For important events like catching a cruise or attending a wedding, adding cushion to a schedule makes sense.
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Re: Would you fly American today?
Ironically, AA saved my bacon yesterday.
I had a flight with United. When I checked in at the airport I was told the flight had been cancelled just minutes before I got there. They could NOT get me another flight that arrived that day. I went over to the AA counter. They fixed it all up and I ended up only an hour late at my final destination. (All flights had one stopover.)
I had a flight with United. When I checked in at the airport I was told the flight had been cancelled just minutes before I got there. They could NOT get me another flight that arrived that day. I went over to the AA counter. They fixed it all up and I ended up only an hour late at my final destination. (All flights had one stopover.)
May neither drought nor rain nor blizzard disturb the joy juice in your gizzard. -- Squire Omar Barker (aka S.O.B.), the Cowboy Poet
Re: Would you fly American today?
Statistics from Sunday http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/19453026-post971.html
Pretty much the same as United
Pretty much the same as United
Re: Would you fly American today?
I wouldn't risk it, especially if you don't have a non-stop flight.
Re: Would you fly American today?
Texasdiver, I think by February, everything will be settled at AA. It looks like you already have decided to book on another carrier, and I don't blame you for that. If you are the type to obsess about things, you would have gone crazy thinking about your trip. I have worked for AA for 29 years and it hasn't been fun or easy watching us circle the toilet bowl, so to speak.
Re: Would you fly American today?
We got our two-seats split up and didn't notice until boarding time. Because we bought the AA credit card each - to save $100 each - we had to buy our tickets separately. Of course now the airline thought we were two separate bookings and split us up. I was furious to find we ended up in crappy seats in the middle row on a 10 hr flight - right behind a baby too. Ugh.RockOn wrote:My wife and I just travelled American Airlines internationally this past mid-September from Asia. We had booked our tickets to sit together in coach, had a nice little window-aisle combo. We didn't even know about all the troubles with American until I was checking in online a day before our flight back to the states. Found out our flight had been cancelled, and our tickets were rebooked to an earlier flight that had 2 more hours of waiting around at a different stop-over city, so we'd still get back home later than our original flight. The worst part was that we'd be sitting apart, in the exact middle of a 5-seat row on an 11 hour flight...
The wife was not pleased, to say the least, ha!
I made a mistake of buying flights the day after Thanksgiving through AA but that will be the last time we fly with them. They've already mucked around with those bookings.
Re: Would you fly American today?
"American Airlines Employees Say All These Flight Delays Are Turning Passengers Violent"
http://consumerist.com/2012/10/09/ameri ... s-violent/
http://consumerist.com/2012/10/09/ameri ... s-violent/
Re: Would you fly American today?
My best suggestions:
- Fly more on the same carrier so that you maintain high tier frequent flier status (50K miles/yr minimum, preferably 100K/yr). If you ran an airline you would take care of your best customers first. High status customers get priority on rebooking and seat assignment.
- Buy a business class ticket or full fare coach ticket. Customers who pay more for their tickets get rebooked first, and it gives you leverage that the phone/gate agent can't ignore.
You probably won't like either of these, so here's some other suggestions:
- As soon as you learn the flight is cancelled get on the phone to the reservation desk to rebook. Do not wait in line or wait for the airline to rebook you "automatically" (sometimes they do -- sometimes they don't). Usually it is first come first served.
- Always strive for a MINIMUM 2 hour connection time when booking (3 hours if you have to go through customs). It's better to wait at the airport than to face rebooking.
And finally, which you probably won't like either:
- Lower your expectations for air travel to what you expect from public transit. When someone gets on a crowded subway or a city bus it is understood it might be necessary to stand or sit separately.
- If a flight is cancelled, be glad you are getting home on the next flight. Most people would rather get out on the next flight even if it means sitting in a middle seat; if you would rather delay AT YOUR COST to get a better seat on another later flight the person rebooking you will probably accomodate.
- If you have to sit in a connecting airport for three hours be glad you didn't miss a connection causing a 6+ hour or multi-day delay in standby hell.
- Fly more on the same carrier so that you maintain high tier frequent flier status (50K miles/yr minimum, preferably 100K/yr). If you ran an airline you would take care of your best customers first. High status customers get priority on rebooking and seat assignment.
- Buy a business class ticket or full fare coach ticket. Customers who pay more for their tickets get rebooked first, and it gives you leverage that the phone/gate agent can't ignore.
You probably won't like either of these, so here's some other suggestions:
- As soon as you learn the flight is cancelled get on the phone to the reservation desk to rebook. Do not wait in line or wait for the airline to rebook you "automatically" (sometimes they do -- sometimes they don't). Usually it is first come first served.
- Always strive for a MINIMUM 2 hour connection time when booking (3 hours if you have to go through customs). It's better to wait at the airport than to face rebooking.
And finally, which you probably won't like either:
- Lower your expectations for air travel to what you expect from public transit. When someone gets on a crowded subway or a city bus it is understood it might be necessary to stand or sit separately.
- If a flight is cancelled, be glad you are getting home on the next flight. Most people would rather get out on the next flight even if it means sitting in a middle seat; if you would rather delay AT YOUR COST to get a better seat on another later flight the person rebooking you will probably accomodate.
- If you have to sit in a connecting airport for three hours be glad you didn't miss a connection causing a 6+ hour or multi-day delay in standby hell.
Warning: I am about 80% satisficer (accepting of good enough) and 20% maximizer