Over the pond (American Airlines)

Member Name: Cat19

Product:	American Airlines
Date:	17/11/06 (1088 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: One World alliance partner, customer service, in-flight attendants

Disadvantages: tired fleet of planes

I have lost count of the exact number of times I have flown with American Airlines but nearly always the trip has been between London and New York. In the last few years I have certainly taken four flights in economy class and many more than this in business class, being as it was the preferred carrier of a previous employer. I am also a gold member of the American Airlines frequent flyer scheme and will share a few thoughts on this too. I know there is a separate category but I am not sure the scheme needs a review all to itself so here’s hoping I won’t be punished too severely by the dooyoo massif for being out of category.

Booking and prices
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My business class flights were always booked by my company at a highly discounted rate so the details would not be useful to anybody reading. I booked and paid for the economy flights myself and as I frequently consider trips many of which I don’t take, my opinion, based on extensive research, is that AA prices are generally very competitive. To check and by way of example, I have just priced a direct economy flight London to New York the week before Christmas on Expedia.co.uk and Airline-network.co.uk. American Airlines came up as the cheapest airline in both searches at GBP 365 and GBP 293 respectively.

My latest trip was Bermuda to New York last weekend and I booked these flights on their own website www.AA.com. Initially I planned to travel in September, however I changed this when I realized that Bermuda was going to be hit by a hurricane and I decided that I needed to stay to ensure my two cats were safe and not scared. Despite buying very cheap flights in the first place, I had no trouble whatsoever in postponing the dates. Initially I called the day before we were due to fly and was told it was fine and when I knew what dates I wanted to go I should call back. I was informed of a $30 admin charge per person but when I called back a month later to re-book in fact I ended up with a $40 refund. I thought this was very good service and not often is there this much flexibility with a cheap economy fare.

Customer Services
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I have had cause to communicate with AA several times over the years and have done so by either telephoning, for instance when changing my tickets as mentioned above and a few times I have sent queries by email. I have been pleased with the service provided, the phone is answered quickly by knowledgeable representatives who have been able to deal with my request to my satisfaction and without referring me to another department. The emails I have sent, including the most recent which concerned changing to my married name, are generally answered overnight.

They certainly compares extremely favourably with BA who I have had unfortunately had to contact several times this year and generally if you have to call BA you can expect to spend a long time in a phone queue and forget about an email enquiry being responded to ever. If you can find the e-mail address that is, it is quite well hidden on their website. Changing to my married name was a four month process.

Class experience
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I hate queuing but fortunately as most of my flights have been in business this is never too much of a problem and it is rare to have to wait more than a few minutes. As a gold member of the AA membership scheme, I have also been able to use the business class check-ins for economy flights.

Unlike some of their competitors operating trans-Atlantic routes, such as BA, United and Virgin, American Airlines does not have a premium economy class, i.e. some more expensive seats offering typically 6-7 inches more of leg room. Instead American Airlines offers a slightly larger than average seat pitch throughout economy class and personally I think the extra two - three inches quite important in such generally cramped conditions. I would say the extra space was noticeable but I would not go so far as to say comfortable.

The rest of the economy offering on the trans-Atlantic route is fairly standard; seat back entertainment (not on all planes yet), choice of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and a couple of meals including a fabulous pizza for the second snack on most flights when I traveled although it might have changed by now. On my shorter economy class flight, two hours between Bermuda and New York I was served one ghastly coffee in a polystyrene cup.

The fleet of aircraft are not the most pristine I have ever seen, in fact they generally look a bit tired and it is probably about time they got a face lift. The tiredness is also evident in the business class cabin which still does not have flat seats and in fact far from it. Of course it is far more comfortable here than in economy class, with the seats being wider and with a lot of space and personal TV screens plus noise-eliminating headphones. The experience is quite pleasant on a day flight but most business people tend to travel home to the UK on an overnight flight and these seats are not conducive to a good nights sleep.

Service is good though and the attendants are attentive and polite. Champagne is served before takeoff and the main meal is served by individual course, with proper cutlery and glasses and there is even a white linen tablecloth for your tray table.

American Airlines frequent flyer scheme
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The AAdvantage program is easy to join on-line and you will accumulate one airmile for every mile traveled on AA flights or on any of the One-World partner airline flights. If traveling business or first class the mileage earned increases by 50%. I earn additional miles through having an AAdvantage credit card, operated by Citibank, and earn one mile per GBP1 spent. An exception is that they will not credit the airmiles if you travel between UK and USA on a partner airline, the argument being that you could have taken a flight with them. I learned this to my cost when I was not credited with miles for a British Airways business class flight to the west coast earlier this year.

Gold status is achieved by traveling 25,000 miles in one calendar year and platinum status is achieved by traveling 50,000 miles in one calendar year. Points earned on my credit card do not count towards this.

For me the two main benefits of gold membership are being able to check in at the business class desk and being able to request priority seats at booking. This was particularly nice on my most recent flight because the first three rows in economy class were actually business class seats and we managed to get two of them (my husband also enjoys the benefits from my gold card)! The membership booklet does talk about upgrades but this is only relevant if you have bought a full price economy ticket and who on earth does that?

I cannot comment on availability or booking of flights on airmiles because despite collecting them for years, I have never actually done this. Maybe next year.

Summary: A good choice for competitive pricing and decent service. The planes could be better though.