Talk to me about American Airlines

[crazymomof4]

No one is going to bother to post that their flight was uneventful and they got to their destination on time or close to it.

That was exactly my thought and the reason why I came here looking for more *balanced* feedback. Pos and Neg.

 

[Ross Kratter]

I fly AA all the time, for work and for vacations, and rarely have issues.

 

[writerguyfl]

While personal experiences shouldn't be discounted, the reality of our social media world is that people complain vociferously but stay silent even things go as planned. (Other people already noted that fact). To put things in perspective, here are some numbers that allow you to compare and contrast American Airlines with other carriers for Orlando.

Statistics for Destination Airport: Orlando Florida from April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019

Percent Flights Late

• All Airlines: 21.24%
• American Airlines: 22.41%
• Delta: 16.88%
• Frontier: 28.70%
• JetBlue: 26.89%
• Southwest: 19.01%
• Spirit: 19.41%
• United: 20.59%

Percent Flights Canceled

• All Airlines: 1.04%
• American Airlines: 0.88%
• Delta: 0.10%
• Frontier: 2.12%
• JetBlue: 1.43%
• Southwest: 1.47%
• Spirit: 0.60%
• United: 0.27%

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If you're a glass half-full person, you can view the above statistics in a completely different way.

Percent Flights On-Time

• All Airlines: 77.43%
• American Airlines: 76.44%
• Delta: 82.7%
• Frontier: 69.06%
• JetBlue: 71.38%
• Southwest: 79.21%
• Spirit: 79.72%
• United: 78.76%

Total Flights On-Time

• All Airlines: 107,964
• American Airlines: 13,889
• Delta: 15,131
• Frontier: 7.614
• JetBlue: 14,252
• Southwest: 33,621
• Spirit: 11,545
• United: 10,146

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It's also critical to realize that late flights are not always due to the fault of an airline. When Mother Nature decides planes shouldn't be in the air, the airlines listen. Additionally, there are times when the government (via the air traffic control system) says airlines can't fly as scheduled.

Airline On-Time Statistics and Delay Causes for Orlando Florida

• On Time: 77.41%
• Air Carrier Delay: 6.3%
• Weather Delay: 0.51%
• National Aviation System Delay: 6.94%
• Security Delay: 0.05%
• Aircraft Arriving Late: 7.45%
• Cancelled: 1.05%
• Diverted: 0.3%

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My personal take-way: Regardless of which airline you choose, you have a very good chance that everything will go as planned. You'll arrive in Orlando on-time.

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Numbers taken from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
Summary Statistics Destination Airport: https://www.transtats.bts.gov/ONTIME/DestinationAirport.aspx
Cause of Delays: https://www.transtats.bts.gov/OT_Delay/OT_DelayCause1.asp

Related data can be found on the other links.
Summary Statistics Origin Airport: https://www.transtats.bts.gov/ONTIME/OriginAirport.aspx
Summary Statistics Origin and Destination Airport: https://www.transtats.bts.gov/ONTIME/OriginDestination.asp

Notes:
* The statistics cover one year, ending in March 2019. Per the website, that's the last month with full data.
* The Percent Flights and Total Flights On-Time numbers are calculated by subtracting late flights, canceled flights, and diverted flights from the total number of flights.
* The total on-time percentage varies from the "glass half-full" section and the "reason for delays" section due to rounding.
* Major US airlines use regional airlines to supplement their networks. Regional airlines typically have worse performance statistics. The above statistics relate solely to the main carrier (none as "mainline") and not their regional partners. Regional airlines will have qualified stuck on their title. Examples: Delta Connection, American Eagle, United Express. These are "doing business as" names. If searching for their statistics in the links provided, you need to look using their actual business names.

 

[gharter]

We have flown AA for the last 6 years as its the only airline out of our airport.
Honestly, they are no better or worse than any other airline we have flown.
Most of the time, for us, they are on time or close.
I frequently get updates with time changes.

 

[AngiTN]

Fly them often from our local airport.
Flight always includes a change (in Charlotte)
We've had a few delays but never anything severe.
I keep our connection short, about an hour, so we rarely have a lot of room for error.
Once our flight from MCO was late and we missed our connection and they rescheduled us with no issues on the next available flight to a nearby airport, also within driving distance from our house. DH was picking me up so he just drove there to get me instead. No big deal.
I've never had a bad flight or experience.
Nothing but good things to say.
I love that they have excellent bag tracking. Though they are the ones that left my gate checked bag behind one trip, they got it to me so in the end, it all worked well. And with tracking, I knew right where it was the entire time, even knew it wasn't going to make it.
Be aware if you fly out of small airports, some of the small planes (for both AA and Delta at least) can't take rolling bags. So don't use them for your "24 hour required items" since they have to be gate checked and my lesson learned is, those can be left behind.

 

[AngiTN]

My MIL flies exclusively with AA because she flies out of CLT which is a hub. She ALWAYS has some issue or another. I can't even tell you how many of her flights have been free with vouchers because she gets bumped due to overbooking. I suppose that is why she keeps flying with them...hard to complain when your flight is free. She puts up with way more than I would.

One would have to ask why she is constantly bumped off her flights? Is she stand by or something? It's odd for one passenger to be the one that is always bumped unless there's something about their status.
I mean, sure, my brother and his family are always bumped but hey, they fly free seeing how he's an employee (one more promotion and I get to fly too, if I wanted) but I can't imagine a paying passenger that is always being bumped from their flight, involuntarily that is.

 

[AngiTN]

My mom flies AA, she's never had a bad experience with the team in CLT....so it's probably just a roll of the dice.

CLT team is the one that was so helpful to us when we had to reroute due to a missed connection. Couldn't have been nicer.

 

[pixiedustedme]

I just had my 74000 miles post to my AAdvantage account. I am looking at flights home from Calif in Nov. (already booked our flight out there with SW) I happened to pop on American Airlines (AA) Facebook page, you know, just for some tips and pointers and HOLY COW! All the user posts I see are complaints.... like major complaints! Super long delays, frequent maintenance issues, sleeping overnight on floors of airports due to cancellations, very poor customer service. Our flight home from SNA to PHL would most likely involve a stop and plane change, thus doubling our chances for some of the issues mentioned. This has me a bit worried.

Does anyone have anything positive to say about AA?

Here is where flight prices stand currently Southwest (my go-to for years now) wants $556 for "Wanna Get Away"!!! AA has several flights that would suit us for $211 for "Main Cabin". (With AAdvantage cc I get first checked bag free, so there's no additional baggage fee).

I much prefer AA over SWA. AA is the biggest airline in America, so it's going to get complaints just due to how many fliers it has. People tend to take the time to express anger about problems with a flight, not so much a normal experience with a flight.

With all the legacies (AA, Delta, United), fly in the Main Cabin or higher. Avoid "Basic" fares. Basic passengers are the most likely to get bumped, can't choose seats, etc.

 

[DLgal]

One would have to ask why she is constantly bumped off her flights? Is she stand by or something? It's odd for one passenger to be the one that is always bumped unless there's something about their status.
I mean, sure, my brother and his family are always bumped but hey, they fly free seeing how he's an employee (one more promotion and I get to fly too, if I wanted) but I can't imagine a paying passenger that is always being bumped from their flight, involuntarily that is.

I should have clarified. She was bumped once involuntarily and given a HUGE voucher for it. After that, she got the fever and now when they ask for volunteers, she is the first one to jump up. So, yeah, she is volunteering, but the fact is, this happens on almost every flight she takes. That is something that I can't get behind, and a big reason why I only fly Southwest and Jet Blue, neither of which overlooks their flights.

 

[AngiTN]

I should have clarified. She was bumped once involuntarily and given a HUGE voucher for it. After that, she got the fever and now when they ask for volunteers, she is the first one to jump up. So, yeah, she is volunteering, but the fact is, this happens on almost every flight she takes. That is something that I can't get behind, and a big reason why I only fly Southwest and Jet Blue, neither of which overlooks their flights.

Ah, gotcha. That huge bait they offer is hard to resist
In all our flights we've only had 1 time they offered vouchers to volunteers and it was on Southwest.
Not a single Delta or AA flight has ever offered. Guess we don't have the luck, cause I'd often take the voucher for a later trip, especially going home.
So sorry, even Southwest can overbook

 

[DLgal]

Ah, gotcha. That huge bait they offer is hard to resist
In all our flights we've only had 1 time they offered vouchers to volunteers and it was on Southwest.
Not a single Delta or AA flight has ever offered. Guess we don't have the luck, cause I'd often take the voucher for a later trip, especially going home.
So sorry, even Southwest can overbook

Southwest does NOT overbook. They stopped that practice several years ago.

 

[AngiTN]

Southwest does NOT overbook. They stopped that practice several years ago.

Call it what you want but I was on a flight last year that had requests for who wanted a chance to get vouchers (I can not recall the number now).
Plus, they have more than 1 seating configuration on their aircraft. Sometimes, things happen and 1 aircraft has to replace another due to no fault of anyone. Then, someone is out a seat. Bottom line is the same result, someone, or several someones ends up without a seat

 

[crazymomof4]

OP here. I am so happy I posted this question here. I feel like I have a realistic and honest picture of an airline I am totally unfamiliar with. Thanks to all who took the time to give feedback

 

[jec6613]

I fly AA extensively, about 100,000 miles in the last 3 years, with NYC as my home market. I've never had a single issue that was caused by the airline with them, and last week when there was a weather issue getting to PHL out of our small local airport, a quick phone call and they re-rerouted her on a direct flight out of JFK in Flagship Business (the lie flat seats). When I've had weather misconnects even potentially, they've proactively re-routed me on better flights or direct flights and often upgraded my seat in the process.

And if you have Admiral's Club access, the service is even better - you can check in with the CS agents in the lounge and they proactively handle everything for you; there's a reason they're nicknamed AAngels.

 

[crazymomof4]

PHL is our closest airport, so another factor for me is the fact that it is a major hub for AA. AA, as the #1 airline in PHL, carries 10x more passengers in/out of PHL than the #2 carrier, SW. So this means more flight options and in the case of canceled flights, better chances of getting on an alternate flight to/from PHL.

While I have all of you AA flyers..... QUESTION:
With SW I am used to watching prices, even after I've booked a flight, bc I can easily and w/o penalty re-book at the lower price if/when the price drops. What is the recommended strategy for getting best flight prices with AA? Tips? When is the best time period for seeng the best rates?

 

[Farro]

PHL is our closest airport, so another factor for me is the fact that it is a major hub for AA. AA, as the #1 airline in PHL, carries 10x more passengers in/out of PHL than the #2 carrier, SW. So this means more flight options and in the case of canceled flights, better chances of getting on an alternate flight to/from PHL.

While I have all of you AA flyers..... QUESTION:
With SW I am used to watching prices, even after I've booked a flight, bc I can easily and w/o penalty re-book at the lower price if/when the price drops. What is the recommended strategy for getting best flight prices with AA? Tips? When is the best time period for seeng the best rates?

I can't help you with that one, sorry! I usually just book whenever I'm ready and then I don't look at the prices again so I have nothing to regret.

I'm not good at playing the waiting game with prices, I'm always afraid it will go up before I have a chance to purchase!

 

[sponica]

Ah, gotcha. That huge bait they offer is hard to resist
In all our flights we've only had 1 time they offered vouchers to volunteers and it was on Southwest.
Not a single Delta or AA flight has ever offered. Guess we don't have the luck, cause I'd often take the voucher for a later trip, especially going home.
So sorry, even Southwest can overbook

My husband flies AA for his business trips, this summer it's been bonkers with the Max groundings. Almost every flight he's checked in to, on the app, there's been the message "x dollars if you volunteer to take another flight".

 

[pixiedustedme]

PHL is our closest airport, so another factor for me is the fact that it is a major hub for AA. AA, as the #1 airline in PHL, carries 10x more passengers in/out of PHL than the #2 carrier, SW. So this means more flight options and in the case of canceled flights, better chances of getting on an alternate flight to/from PHL.

While I have all of you AA flyers..... QUESTION:
With SW I am used to watching prices, even after I've booked a flight, bc I can easily and w/o penalty re-book at the lower price if/when the price drops. What is the recommended strategy for getting best flight prices with AA? Tips? When is the best time period for seeng the best rates?

I've only seen prices rise over time with AA, although I admit I don't follow fares per se because you can't do a price adjustment. In my experience with them, prices are lowest the earliest you can book with them. YMMV.

 

[chicagodisneyguy]

OP, have you considered flying home from LAX instead of SNA? I know the driving time to the airport is probably double (60 minutes vs 30 minutes), but I'd rather spend that extra 30 minutes to get a nonstop home LAX-PHL. I'm guessing prices will be cheaper and mileage tickets at the lowest levels are probably more readily available.

I've only been to DL once, so I'm not an expert on traffic from DL to SNA/LAX....so if my estimates of 30 and 60 minutes are off I'm sure someone can correct me.

 

[JimMIA]

OP, have you considered flying home from LAX instead of SNA? I know the driving time to the airport is probably double (60 minutes vs 30 minutes), but I'd rather spend that extra 30 minutes to get a nonstop home LAX-PHL. I'm guessing prices will be cheaper and mileage tickets at the lowest levels are probably more readily available.

I've only been to DL once, so I'm not an expert on traffic from DL to SNA/LAX....so if my estimates of 30 and 60 minutes are off I'm sure someone can correct me.

Agree. plus any time you are in a major metro area like LA, you should always check fares for nearby airports.

In this particular case, you will almost always find way more flight choices and often better fares from LAX.