The flight was delayed and was not forthright on the time that it was likely to depart where Flight Radar 24 was reflecting a later time that ended up being accurate for the takeoff. The plane was filthy with food smashed into the carpet and crumbs were piled under the seat where I was to put my backpack. It looked like a full sized Lotus Biscoff cookie was pulverized under the seats in my section. The seats were so uncomfortable especially when the person in front reclined his seat completely to where it was smashed against my knees and I am only 5'2". The fruit and cheese box for $13 was lackluster with no flavor and not satiating at all. The plus side is that I did get one full can of ginger ale. The flight attendants looked miserable and tired, probably due to the last minute need for a new flight attendant to fill in since the original one assigned could not continue on to service this flight. Improve the flight experience for customers and maybe the irritability and stress of flying in today's environment will not negatively impact the joy and stress of the employees/flight crew. This is why I prefer to fly non-US carriers whenever given the chance.
I believe my father had a good flight. What was not good, was the associate who helped us during Step 2 of check-in. After getting his boarding passes and bag tags, we proceeded to Step 2 where we were met with Carol. This was around 3:15-20pm at Phoenix Sky Harbor. She weighed my father’s checked bag which was 2lbs over, she recommended removing a pair of jeans to correct this. My father asked/joked if “she could just let him go” and she fairly rudely responded something along the lines of, “I don’t own the airline so no I can’t do that”. From this point on I just want to assume she was having a bad day. I spent my life raised in a business and front-facing customer service so I understand previous clients can make you feel irritated. How she continued to act leads me to believe she was really careless about her job or racially biased/straight-up racist. After we moved the 2lbs to his other bag, she told us she believed he would need to claim his bag at his connecting flight in Hong Kong, before it could go to his final destination, Malaysia. This thoroughly confused us as we are fairly frequent international travelers and 95% of the time the bag is sent to its final destination without this requirement. Last time we traveled to Malaysia was less than a month ago, so again we’re fairly confused. Multiple times she used a fairly aggressive tone of “I know what YOU THINK, this is what I believe”. The multiple “YOU THINK” as if we didn’t understand what she was saying was rude and insulting, and her tone came along with a insincere smile, hence the feeling of she was racially biased. Despite the fact that she might have been having a bad day previously, it is AA’s airline’s duty to train their employee about international bag protocol, as clearly AA is a major partner of internationally traveling airlines. Carol made the experience overall unenjoyable sending my father off and made us both question AA’s training of their employees.
DELAYED AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN - not only that, you delay in 20 minute increments for hours and hours instead of having an accurate delay understanding.
The plane was experiencing problems with the HVAC system, it was very cold in the front of the plane and very hot in the back.
The boarding process needs to be fixed. The zone don't work, especially when there is hardly anyone in zones 3, 4,and 5, leaving the majority of the passengers backed up in the aisle, especially because passengers seated near the front are blocking passengers who are seated in the rear of the plane. It would also help if the size of carry on bags was more strictly enforced.
In flight connectivity (via T-Mobile) was often not working.
Terrible. Internet/kiosk glitch prevented baggage checkin. Line at ticket co in Ter was under serviced and did not move. Agents did not call for flight but rather allowed time to pass. Then told each person as they reached the front if line that it was too late to check bags so they’d have to rebook flights. At least 15 people missed the flight as a result of this incompetence.
It was exactly what I expected, actually arriving sooner than scheduled.
Terrible, they canceled my flight due to an issue they had, couldn't fly me into the same place within 24 hrs so had to fly in 2.5 hrs away from my destination and spend even more money. The customer service was terrible (except at the airport in Charleston). Had to call to get my checked baggage fees reimbursed 2 wks later in which one customer service agent was very rude, wouldn't listen and then hung up on me. The second lady I spoke with was actually able to help me with that part thankfully. Would not recommend flying AA.
Delayed, missed connecting flight, ground crew double charged for international charges, were super rude and told me to just”deal with it” when I complained. Horrible airline, very frustrating.
