american airlines

[historian]

Has anyone here traveled american airlines and how was the experience? Im doomed to travel to Europe on it and I have a bad feeling about it.

[djean111]

1. Wow. Looks like your first checked bag is free - and the second is $100.

https://www.aa.com/i18n/travelInformation/baggage/checked-baggage.jsp

third and fourth - $200 each. Unless you belong to a mileage club or something like that. Just wow.

Is your bad feeling about service, or just getting to Europe in one piece? I flew a lot on business at one time, a bit less for pleasure, and never got over feeling that if I arrived safely, that was a good flight.

[Art_from_Ark]

2. That baggage fee seems to be standard for trans-ocean carriers

I also have to pay $100 for the 2nd checked bag when I fly to the US from Japan with different carriers.

It used to be two bags up to 70 pounds each were free.

Then two bags up to 50 pounds each were free.

Now it's one bag up to 50 pounds is free.

[djean111]

4. It is shocking to me because I used to fly to Japan and Holland several times a year, in the 90's,

for years, on business. I would be there for a month or six weeks at a time, and staggered through the airports laden down with luggage, and never a fee. I wonder, are the airlines discouraging luggage so they can transport more profitable stuff, or is luggage just a really easy source of extra profit.

I always flew Delta, economy to Holland, Business Elite to Japan. Flights were always nice, but I admit that, even though I never really got over my fear of flying, the flights to Japan were kind of fun. Maybe not in economy, though.

[historian]

10. they want less baggage

so they can squeeze more sardines into their flying cans. I am 68 and I remember when the attendants would greet you with a smile, take you to your seat, give you a pillow and blanket, offer you a mint and a warm hand towel and ask if you have any special requests for meals. Meals were NOT sandwiches made in Chine and frozen for several months. All in all it is sad.

[djean111]

11. Hey, I am a year older than you, and I remember that, too!

We used to get dressed up!

I have to admit the business elite flight to Narita was awesome in the 90's - I likely will never be able to afford that on my own. Got seated first, champagne or orange juice or both or whatever, as soon as seated. Asked by name. Menus for the meals. Good meals, Warm damp towels. No peanuts - mixed nuts in warm little bowls. All the beverages of choice you could drink. People were relaxed. The owner/CEO of a software company taught me to eat with chopsticks impeccably - he asked the attendant to bring me a big bowl of finely chopped lettuce, with oily dressing and whole olives, and by the time I finished it, I was good to go with chopsticks. Still prefer them, actually. I got so used to the long flight that going to Europe seemed like just a little jump. But never ever slept on any flights my whole life.

Yeah, the attendants were more friendly, but then again, the people flying were more polite. I am have seen really terrible behavior - in all classes of seating - that astonished me. In fact, whenever someone bleats "entitlement" and is talking about Social Security, what I first think of is jackasses on airplanes.

Anyway, I still do feel that any flight that lands safely - and where I was going! - is a good flight.

[Art_from_Ark]

20. Economy flights to Japan are not so fun

I flew economy a couple of years ago on a 14-hour flight and got a middle seat where I was scrunched up between two big guys who were both taking up part of my space. I should have paid the extra $65 so I could have had an aisle seat.

The official explanation for discouraging checked baggage is to keep fuel costs down. However, each free bag takes up space that could theoretically be occupied a paying bag.

[djean111]

25. The huge telecom company I worked for did try to make us fly economy -

they instituted some sort of 12 hour rule, and then instructed the folks who made the reservations to make us hop all over from Tampa, so no one leg was over 12 hours or whatever. In perhaps the only recorded instance where all of us programmers/QA support people agreed on anything, we refused to fly economy. And then, of course, Delta started the Atlanta-Narita straight shot, so the rule was moot. To be fair, the price for a BE, totally changeable and refundable ticket was between $5000-$7000 in those days. I think businesses sort of subsidized the airlines back then.

You must have been totally wiped when you got to Narita - I know I was, and then I took the Limousine Bus (just a bus, really!) to the other side of Tokyo to my hotel. Hour, hour and a half, if I remember correctly. Took the train once, buses stopped due to snow, had my passport stolen. Would still go back in a heartbeat. Not the train/stolen stuff, but Tokyo.

[historian]

31. fuel costs are down

but that doesnt seem to make much difference. I too was sat next to an enormously fat guy and i told the attendant that i had paid fro a full seat, but that the next passenger had half of it, and I refused to accept that ( I mentioned i was an attorney which im not). Result they moved me to business just to keep my mouth shut since i had begun to raise my voice and other passengers were listening.

[bettydavis]

3. they suck

i travel A LOT and they were my worst experience by far. I paid $200 for 1 bag that was 3 lbs overweight. never again

[Bonobo]

5. Agreed. They suck big time. nt

[melm00se]

6. your experience

is almost entirely dependent upon the gate agents and flight crew.

i have found that almost all of th carriers are about the same (been to Europe 4 times in the last 3 years: US Air, American, Austrian Airways and United).

Baggage
Make absolutely sure you follow the weight rules to the letter or you will get zapped. I always leave room in mt carry ons for a little extra to put anything in case my checked is declared overweight.

Food
It sucks. You can get slightly better food if you make a special meal request (check with the airline). I take an empty plastic bottle and fill it at the airport from one of the drinking fountains. Some carriers will offer you 1 free drink (beer or wine). Take it, drink it, it might help you sleep on an overnight flight.

Seats
Always a little tight (i an 6'2&quot unless you are willing to pay for the "premium" seats or go business class (check at the airport what it would cost to upgrade. Sometimes you get lucky and the upgrade is surprisingly cheap...or it will cause you to laugh).

In Flight
Depending on the plane, you will more than likely have an in seat on demand entertainment. Bring your own earphones unless you want to use the ones provided (but I am not entirely convinced that they are unused, many people leave them behind and it would surprise me if they are recycled.

Don't sweat the flight. It is what it is: a way to get there and you will enjoy it when you get there.

[historian]

9. thank you

This is my wife's frist trip to Europe and I don't want it to be a disaster.

[mercuryblues]

22. wegh your luggage before you leave the house

If the limit is 50 lbs. I find that getting it in the 46 -45 lb range will weigh 49-50 at the airport. Leave weight allowance for purchases you may make on the trip.

Pack all your shampoos, shoes and stuff in your checked bag. Carry on strictly clothing items, to get through security without a hassle.

Get a prepaid credit card for use during your flights. I hate putting a $5 purchase on my credit card and airlines don't take cash anymore. Notify your bank and credit card company you will be overseas so they don't put a hold on your card for purchasing outside your comfort zone. Get acquainted with the exchange rate. Ask your bank how much they charge for cash withdrawals and what your max daily withdrawal is on a foreign ATM. If you can, get some Euros from your bank before you leave. Some banks can do this if they have enough notice.

[dhol82]

7. American must have European carriers

That they are affiliated with. See if you can catch a flight with one of them. I find that the international carriers are way better than our domestic ones in terms of service.
Also, see if you swing 'premium economy.' The seats are a bit larger and the food is better.

[DrDan]

15. took the premium economy to Spain a few weeks ago on United

more legroom - but the real benefit was that no one was in the middle seat either way.

Same food. Same charge for a glass of wine. But the extra charge was definitely worth it.

[dhol82]

19. Did the premium thing on KLM

It was definitely worth the $125.

[CTyankee]

8. I'm flying to Spain in the fall and will be on American going over and Iberia coming

back. American owns Iberia as well as several other European carriers. You still get free wine with your dinner going over and the trip is pretty good, considering what you have to put up with on any airline trip. It's better than most commercial trips domestically, IMO. Air France is probably my favorite, tho.

[Human101948]

12. Not too many crashes...

I have 300,000 miles with them and no serious incidents.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_accidents_and_incidents

[NutmegYankee]

13. They are Ok.

I've flown Hartford, Conn. to Honolulu on them several times.

[DrDan]

14. took American to Paris last year.

no better or worse than Delta, United, or British Air - all of which we have taken in the couple years of so the Europe.

[1939]

16. Best bet (if they are going your way)

Singapore Airlines.

[historian]

30. sadly no

Ive traveled Korean many times and they are good. I know that this country is run on greed and to hell with the consumers if a company can get away with it, but if the Asian Airlines can offer decent flights and have a loyal customer base, why cant american companies do it? Money and greed our downfall.

[cbayer]

17. Why would you feel doomed to travel on american?

I feel like I am missing something.

[Tanuki]

23. I don't get it either. If I had a chance to go to Europe in the near future,

I would feel excited and delighted, and certainly not doomed! Maybe a little perspective is in order...after all, the flight is only a few hours out of one day of your life, even if it is cramped and the food not to your taste. The anticipation of a wonderful adventure should get you through a little discomfort.

[cbayer]

24. That's exactly how I feel.

I would fly any carrier and most likely would fly the one with the best price.

As you say, the flight itself is something to just get through, but it is only a very small piece of the whole experience.

[historian]

29. AA is always chronically late

I should be arriving in London at 10.45 pm which is late enough - it then takes another hour or so to get to the address im staying in London. If it is late, then ill have to spend the night at the airport and apparently AA is good at arriving late. Why did i take AA? Because the people at the booking agency kept pushing it and to be honest at my age with shaky health i was so exhausted i just took it.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

18. Why select American? n/t

[justiceischeap]

21. IMO, traveling on American is no worse than traveling on United, Delta, etc.

Flying is not a comfortable process these days (though I've never flown trans-atlantic, so maybe it's different) but my domestic flights on various airlines are about the same these days, no matter whom I'm flying with.

[djean111]

26. Just reminded myself of something - ALWAYS make copies of your passport, tickets,

credit cards, etc. Make two or three copies, maybe. I once had my passport stolen when arriving in Japan, and did not have a copy, and only the fact that I was staying at the same hotel as the last trip saved me a lot of trouble/explanations, because the hotel had made a copy when I checked in the first time. Still a lot of trouble to get a new passport, but at least I could tell the American Embassy the passport number, better than starting from scratch.

[tammywammy]

27. Make copies AND don't keep your copy with your real passport.

[djean111]

32. I would have hoped it was not necessary to say that! :-)

Anyway, if anyone does have their passport stolen, dealing with the American Embassy is one thing (they mostly want to be sure you did not sell it) - but you also should try and square things with regard to whatever country you entered, and have an entry stamp from. The Japanese would stamp and also put a sticker in a passport, and the hardest part of getting a new passport was going to the Japanese offices and explaining what happened; a big letter was stapled into my passport, evidently it said something about how I stupidly had my passport stolen, and every time I entered or left Japan after that, I was pulled aside into a little room where I had to tell the entire story over again. But not having an entry stamp when leaving the country was some sort of red flag or something. I doubt I could have left the country without having spent a day trying to find the right Japanese person to okay my new passport.

[melm00se]

38. i scanned our passports

and emailed those scans to my email account so i can access the images from any internet device

[tammywammy]

39. Smart

I never thought of that. Even if you put them on a small thumb drive to carry too.

[JustAnotherGen]

28. I won't fly transatlantic

On United or American. Nope -not gonna do it.

It's either Alitalia to Rome.

Or it's Air France to De Gaulle.

Or B.A. to Heathrow.


Then I can't Easy Jet or a train wherever else I need to go.

If you can get out of it - get out of it.


We could save $300 each ticket by flying united to Thailand and and about $450 if we went via AA.

We decided we are probably never going there again so we are paying a lot more to fly Qatar.

[ScreamingMeemie]

33. The last place I would ask is DU. We are all jaded snobs who will find a reason

to slam on anything anyone else chooses to do or asks for input on.

Enjoy your flight. I'm one of those idiots who likes flying AA. They had maintenance trouble on a flight we booked to LA a few years ago. We missed our connection in Chicago, so they gave us nonstop first class tickets.

[tammywammy]

34. I live in the DFW area, AA's hub

I work with a lot of people that travel for business and they almost always prefer AA.

[ScreamingMeemie]

35. If I could, I would always fly AA.

I look at all airlines as basically the same (I don't fly often anymore), but AA really went above and beyond with customer service.

Houston Bush is United's hub and Hobby is a hub for Southwest, so I typically fly one or the other of those now.

[tammywammy]

37. I flew United last summer to Vermont.

AA on the way back, it was fine. I went to Australia last year. Flew AA to LAX, Qantas to Sydney and Sydney to DFW and I really liked Qantas. They seemed to try to make economy for 15 hours as pleasurable as possible, which is a feat in and of itself. I thought about the Qantas premium economy, but that more than doubled the ticket price of regular economy. I'd rather have the money to spend in country.

A good friend of mine likes Lufthansa to go to Munich. I've heard KLM is good.

[Baitball Blogger]

36. Didn't fly American airlines.

Flew Delta. We planned to fly out the day before, on Saturday, to give us ample time to make the international flight out of New York on Sunday. But the first flight was canceled. The airline wanted us to take the next flight out...the following day. Had we followed their advice we would have had to make three connecting flights to make it from Orlando to New York. It was crazy. Their suggestion would have taken us from Atlanta to Raleigh to another city before getting to New York, where we would have a little over an hour to make it to the international flight.

My husband looked at the attendant and in a pleasant way asked her, "Just tell me, how can you suggest that with a straight face knowing that our baggage will probably not make it through?"

We had to make our own arrangements through JetBlue-because Delta did not have a deal with them.

Transatlantic trips are rough in economy class, unless you are an easy sleeper. The chairs don't recline very much anymore, probably because too many people complained that it left little room for the guy behind the recliner. And, that little space is the result of the air plane industry cramming too many seats in a plane.

But there was upsides. You get all kinds of movies available for free. Each seat has its own panel, though I found the distance from the panel to eye distance a little too close.

They will feed you dinner and breakfast, or two meals, depending on your flight time. Maybe a snack or two in between. I suggest you pick up some snacks of your own liking to bring with you on the plane. Wear comfortable clothes that are pajama comfortable.

Hope for eucalyptus air deodorizer in the bathroom.

If there is one thing that will make it more pleasant for your wife, buy an upgrade in seat assignment. Going over we had all the four seats to ourselves in economy and should have taken the aisles seats to stretch out on the two inner seats, but didn't think of it. Coming over was slightly better. We had two seats with windows with our backs to a toilet commode. The privacy was actually an improvement.

It's not unheard of that people upgrade themselves to the business section once the flight begins if there is an opening. That's how we got the four middle seats to ourselves. The woman we were sharing it with was flying with her husband who was in the business section and the seat next to his remained opened. So she just got up and took it.

Coming back there were lots of middle section seats with only one person taking up four seats.

Take some ayr nasal ointment because your nostrils might dry out. Maybe even one of those nostrils spreaders. Sounds nerdy, but it works. Take lots of fluids before and during the flight. Delta provided the eye shades to block out light and ear phones.

Probably a good idea to bring along toothbrush and toothpaste and a light cologne spritzer to keep you feeling fresh. I picked up something from Clinique that was on the mark. Not strong at all, but just enough to make me fell refreshed. You can pick it up at Dillards, where for five dollars they'll sell you a one ounce travel container that can pump up the allowable measure and it is reusable.

[underahedgerow]

40. It's an airplane flight, not a life changing event like a 20 year mortgage or something. You'll be

fine.

If you're worried about connections and baggage, splash out a couple bucks for the insurance that covers that stuff.

And if you're really worried, take out a huge travel insurance policy where someone benefits for a million bucks, then you'll be sure not to crash.