Friendly crew and pilot. And thank you to the pilot for his smooth landing technique where the wheels don't hit the ground hard - that should be table stakes but doesn't seem to be the case nowadays.
Three aircraft in succession experienced maintenance issues, resulting in a six-hour delay. The original aircraft required replacement, and the substitute aircraft arrived more than two hours late. Passengers boarded that aircraft, only to be told later to deplane due to maintenance concerns. We then boarded a different aircraft that had arrived at the gate, only to be instructed to deplane once again because it, too, experienced maintenance issues. After hours of delays and two separate boarding and deplaning events, passengers were directed to a third aircraft departing from a different terminal and had to rush across the airport to make that flight. That was the only aircraft that ultimately departed without incident. Of course, passenger safety must come first, and I am grateful these issues were identified before takeoff. However, when three aircraft in succession require maintenance attention and passengers are repeatedly boarded before those issues are discovered, it raises legitimate concerns about American Airlines' preventive maintenance procedures and aircraft readiness checks. One aircraft with an unexpected issue can happen. Three aircraft in a row, combined with multiple boarding and deplaning events, suggests a pattern that warrants review. American Airlines needs to take a hard look at both its maintenance practices and its decision-making process for boarding passengers before determining that an aircraft is ready for service.
There was a 4 hour delay, some of which was attributed to ATC weather but started with maintenance and then later also log books. Though the flight went far beyond the scheduled time, there were no accommodations such as additional meal options or anything else.
Delay for 1 hour due to maintenance issue and late boarding
Liked: staff, no delays, Could use some improvement: Food, comfort, cleanliness, lack of chargers on the DCA -> DSM flight
The boarding by groups is pointless. The first two groups worked fine, but almost Noone boarded in goups three thru five leaving the vast majority boarding when group six was called. It defeated the purpose of spreading out the crowd.
I blame kayak for my last trip to dca. Kayak cancelled my direct flight and put on a one stop flight and made lost whole day from my vacation and had not even refunded my ticket.
delayed multiple times. no resolution on anything from AA customer service. was put on hold in chat to talk to manager. was 6th in line to talk to manager for more than TWELVE HOURS - from sometime around 9AM until well after I had gone to bed that evening. no explanation, no attempt to make it right. just a five hour delay because of repeated maintenance claims
Was the most uncomfortable I ever had in the air. Felt like I was trapped in the seat legs cramped and was just horrible. The flight to DSM was a lot better. Even being on a smaller plane was better. Staff are outstanding. No complaints about the people.
It was exactly as I expected, on time, smooth flight, courteous staff.
