American Airlines - My First And Last Flight (American Airlines)

Member Name: Astavar

Product:	American Airlines
Date:	13/05/09 (14 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: OneWorld partner, so booking was made with points

Disadvantages: average food, rude attendants

We didn't really choose to fly with American Airlines on our trip to Las Vegas in April. We had points on our Qantas frequent flyer membership, though, and when we selected the flight times we wanted, we discovered that the flights were operated by AA as part of the OneWorld group. Having now had the experience of flying with American, I would probably avoid them in the future - considering that we weren't saving anything by travelling with American, as it cost the same number of points as it would to fly with any other OneWorld partner. It's not that they're particularly bad... it's just that they're not especially good, either, and if I've got a choice I'd rather fly with someone else.

On the up side, the seating wasn't really any more uncomfortable than any other economy class plane trip. The food was a little more average than other airlines, but nothing to cause major complaint. On the down side, they do charge the typically high prices on-board for food on internal flights inside America - which I was not impressed about, given that the internal flight we took (New York to Las Vegas) was only an hour shorter than the Heathrow-New York leg of the flight, and after struggling through passport control we didn't have enough time to grab food in the airport. Still, the expensive chicken wrap was pretty good. Overall, not especially bad flights, but less comfortable than my experiences with other OneWorld airlines.

The major negative comment I'd make about AA was to do with the behaviour of the flight attendants. I accept that what I'm about to say might sound a little petty, but still - I saw one of them give another passenger a stern lecture on the virtues of sharing, I got reprimanded for failing to request drinks quickly enough (I didn't realize she had coffee on the cart until she was about to leave!), and witnessed another attendant shout at a teenager when he stood up to got to the toilet. When one passenger persisted in wandering up & down the aisles during some turbulence the entire plane got treated to repeated demands of "Ma'am! Take Your Seat! Do You Require Assistance? TAKE YOUR SEAT!" Two minutes of this - fine, the woman should have been sitting down anyway. But after half an hour of bawling over the announcement system - perhaps you need to take a different approach. Where most airlines usually try to cultivate an image of smiling, gracious, friendly attendants, American Airlines seems to have recruited theirs from among detention facility staff.

Summary: Nothing seriously bad to report, but nothing particularly good, either.