Second rate airline (American Airlines)

Member Name: garymarsh6

Product:	American Airlines
Date:	25/10/08 (98 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: More leg room than some other airlines

Disadvantages: Rude, disinterested, surly staff.

We flew with AA again after a few years taking my daughter to Las Vegas Via DAllas for her 21st. It was supposed to be a special and exciting trip but AA let us down.

Check in at Gatwick was superb great baggage allowance but then it went down hill from there. The plane was full and our assigned seats were in the middle of the plane. The seats were comfortable and have a 34 inch pitch which is much better than BA or Virgin both at 31 inches.

Pre flight safety demo was appalling the crew were treating it as a joke and during take off flight crew had water bottles on their laps drinking.

As noticed with previous posts some of the crew were much older and were extremely rude barking orders at passengers without justification.

There was just one male cabin crew attendant who was brilliant but the women were quite nasty. For example the first round of drinks were served and my daughter and I were told to share a can of coke........unbelievable. They charged £3 or $5 for a drink.

Hey we were on holiday what the heck but drinks complimentary on BA or virgin I might add but to be paid for on American Airlines.

Now for the food run....Usual kind of American fare but while my daughter had declined the meal I was just taking a bite of mine and all of a sudden my tray was whipped away from in front of me.... I said hang on I havent finished by which time it was already in the trolley. Evidently I had.... The stewardess searched the trolley and said you can have it back...I said no keep it now as I wasnt sure it was the same tray I had had. No apology or anything she just moved on and did it to the poor unsuspecting people behind us.

The in seat televisions were ok but the choice of films were terrible the films were about 8 years old and the music selection was pants.

The crew could do with some customer care training as their approach to the passengers was appalling as if we were a nuisance. They looked tatty untidy and as if they couldnt be bothered. There was no uniformity in their dress code and they looked as if they had been partying hard in London. Boy did they look rough...

This is in complete contrast to previous flights with AA. It seems that standards have fallen dramatically. Maybe they are disgruntled employess but it was not a pleasant experience at all.

AA were not the cheapest option but I chose comfort over price.
Internal flights were good cabin crew were cheerful and flights left on time. Two days after our return AA grounded their fleet of MD80s so we would have been stuffed if we had delayed our return.

Dallas airport was a big airport ground crew were not in abundance. Immigration was disgusting waiting for over an hour to go through only to find that when checking through to our next flight our duty free drinks were confiscated despite being in a sealed bag in a sealed bottle. They told us it had to go in hold baggage donuts!!! Our faults I suppose but to go back and put it in our checked in luggage we would have missed our connection.

Rating for AA before when I had used them I would have rated 5 but after this flight I would only rate themn only 3.

Summary: Would only use for extra leg room and comfort.