American Airlines Reviews

I told the attendant what occurred and that I had to wash my hands, and she told me I couldn't because they were taking off. I asked for a sanitizing wipe and she said she didn't have any, but would bring me a wet towel after takeoff. I stressed with her that this was vomit from a prior passenger and she left without a word, while I was holding a bag of someone else's vomit. She returned with a garbage bag for me to put the vomit in, but another attendant came behind her with a sanitizing wipe. My son wasn't sick, he is hearing impaired, wears hearing aids and prefers to have the bag handy to breath into if the pressure in his ears bothers him during takeoff. And, for the remainder of the flight we had the odor of vomit surrounding us and we couldn't avoid smelling it.

I filed an online complaint and received an email essentially stating that cabins are cleaned each night and it was unfortunate that it was untidy. "Untidy?" It was bio hazard that I was exposed to on an AA flight with exposure to Hepatitis B, C and HIV!!! I complained further by email received a call from an AA representative who had the audacity to tell me that AA staff can't check every seat back pocket for cleanliness, and it wasn't staff's responsibility to do so, and that it was mine! It was my fault that I didn't wear a hazmat suit and check the pocket for adequate sanitation before I reached into it! UNSANITARY CONDITIONS. DIDN'T FOLLOW CDC GUIDELINES. NO ACCOUNTABILITY AND DISCLAIM RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE CABIN... Like passenger can do anything! I have to undergo medical testing and I hope that's it!

They finally found one and we reboard, but at this time they realize they've messed up the paperwork. We wait for them to fix this and during this time the first officer times out, so now we must wait for them to find another first officer. This entire time they remain saying on their website that we left at 2 pm, laughable since it's already 5 pm and we are still in LGA. I checked the flight status the next day and they decided to keep saying that we left at 2:30 pm probably to lie and improve their on time delay amount even though it is blatantly inaccurate. We also had to switch terminals multiple times and ride a bus from one to another.

I've never seen such a disorganized and rude airline. Customer service extremely rude when I tried to complain. The guy on the phone seemed like a robot, just terrible and unhelpful. You can complain to them, but you know it's not like they are going to do anything about it since their customer service is already known to be one of the worst. When we asked the American Airlines woman who was answering questions at the terminal counter, she kept rolling her eyes, was extremely rude and looked like she hated her life and job. I almost wanted to ask for her name to complain about her, but she probably would have ripped my eyes out.

A few days later I called AA and I was told to submit my refund request online which I did. I was only ever emailed by a human being one time after that saying they could not locate my information. I scanned the ticket and sent them a break down of all the info they needed. AFTER THAT IT WAS A COLD CASE. I was never contacted again. It seems that my emails were considered as spam because no one responded. Just automated responses. I cannot reach AA by phone. I had to create another email address with the hope that this one won't be blocked by their system.

My last resort is to send them a request by mail! Imagine that, and I bet I'm going to hear that it was never received. They are taking millions of dollars form customers every single day. They customer service is most outrageous. I never imagined such an experience. But I am making back up copies of everything before I mail them anything today. I am disappointed and upset.

The second incident occurred when I attempted to board the plane when first class and active duty personnel were welcomed to board. I provided my tickets and official military ID to the AA employee, in which she insisted three times and a loud and rude manner that I am not first class and I need to get out the line. Refusing to get out the line, I explained to her that I am active duty Coast Guard (with my Coast Guard sweatshirt on). She then apologized and tried to de-escalate the situation saying she didn't recognize the Military ID card and her father was in the Coast Guard. I flew American Airlines on official business, through booking from CWT Sato. As an active duty member, who travels frequently on multiple airlines, I have never experienced such blatant disrespect until today. This is completely unacceptable.

They are holding them for families traveling with children... What? We have to wait until my sister arrives at the ticket counter for a seat assignment. I have booked a backup flight because of previous experience with American. If you cannot provide a seat on the flight when I purchase a ticket, don't take the money. It is just an overbooking scam! Despicable customer service, nobody has any power to resolve an issue like this.

It was obvious that the employees of American Airlines are as tired as the passengers of poor cooperate stewardship. No wonder they went bankrupt lately. They really make the consumer feel so powerless and insignificant. Like most others, I shop for airline flights based in price, I mean after all, it's only 3-4 hours right? Well don't forget to add the delays. American is the worst on time airline in our country - well maybe Spirit is worse - After my latest experience, I am now convinced that unless consumers vote with their feet, and the next highest price is only a few dollars more, American Airlines will continue to disdain their consumers and they are now the steerage class provider of air travel.

She didn't look at me immediately but continued to place napkins on the other passenger's tables. She then turned to me with a venomous look on her face and shouted "I seen you! You don't have to say excuse me! I seen you woke!" Firstly, the grammatical errors were appalling and I really wanted to correct her but instead I said "Well, you didn't look at me so I wasn't sure if you saw me." She continued to yell with viciously, "I seen you." Her attitude was nasty, appalling and a bad reflection on American Airlines. The other passengers were horrified. The male flight attendant who was helping her serve kept looking down like he was afraid to look at her or say something. Frankly, I am confused as to what I did that was so annoying to her. I have told many people about the incident and they all say that "Excuse me" was the way they would have tried to get her attention.

Instead of creating a fuss and being confrontational, I decided that I wouldn't bother to accept the drink that she obviously thought I desperately wanted. I just said to her "never mind" and tried to go back to sleep. The rest of the flight was awful, she disturbed the peace I felt minutes before the incident and left a very poor impression of American Airlines' customer service. The passengers around me approached me afterwards. They had been horrified and one of them even videotaped the whole thing and sent it to me. I don't want anything from you people. I want an apology from this woman if she is going to continue to work for your company. I highly doubt that she is in a supervisory position with that attitude but she certainly behaved like she thought she could say anything to me. If you inquire about the incident she may tell you lies.

Frankly I don't care, I know what happened and the other passengers do too. She will also doubt that I am who I am because I look young and I am ** as well but I am a Pediatrician and a business owner, and my staff and I travel frequently with American. My family members do too and I have shared this story with many audiences. I will no longer be using your airline.

I have a damaged lower back. I am still suffering from that trip. My back is a complete mess. The lady at the counter did not tell me that the seat does not recline. I requesting a full refund that I paid for this trip. Code **. MY MEMBER CODE **. I am not certain that this the place to write. IF IT IS NOT THE LINK TO WRITE, PLEASE GIVE THE LINK OR PASS THIS COMPLAINT TO THE PROPER DEPT.

The responses were mostly rude and very straightforward that we weren't getting the refund. I would receive phone calls from people telling me they wanted to resolve the issue and all they really wanted to do was tell me I wasn't getting my money back. One woman blamed it all on US Airways and said "there was nothing that could be done". After months of frustration I found Douglas Parker's email and sent him an email pleading my case. By coincidence the issue finally got resolved the next day and we are told we have a full credit. Mr. Parker had nothing to do with that at all.

Now in early February 2016 we are told that the funds no longer exist because we had to use the tickets by September 14, 2016. The supervisor of the international reservations tells me I have to go through... Customer Service on the American Airlines website. So I start all over and explain that we couldn't use the tickets by September 14, 2015 because we had to cancel that flight because of my wife's illness and I had been told that we had 1 year to rebook our tickets. American Airlines eventually sends credit for the tickets, minus the $200.00 per ticket flight changing fee.

I emailed customer service explaining the above clearly and why it's ridiculous that all this is happening. I get a call from another customer service woman who tells me "You're not getting your money back" multiple times in the coldest and most callous way possible. I ask for her supervisor and she tells me she is the supervisor. I tell her she is not her own supervisor and she refuses to give me her supervisor's contact information telling me "You're not going to talk to anyone else in the company."

So I email Doug and some of his VP cronies and receive a VM the next day (today 02/16/2016) that Doug received the email and they weren't giving me my $400.00 back. I have emailed Doug and his VP cronies again explaining what callous, heartless, pathological people they are and requested again that they properly refund the money. I will never fly American Airlines again in my life. They are horrid.

This time, my husband was stranded in Philadelphia and had to call his father, who rented a car and drove, in the snow... Hours away, to pick him up. They didn't get home until 5 in the morning! On top of that, they claimed they would have his luggage there that day... Then emailed me saying it was delayed... It happened to have his meds in it. When I contact the airline, the won't discuss it with me because it's his ticket? They don't mind sending me the bill and confirmation and luggage delay, but they won't discuss something I paid for? Never again. Find a different way. This airline likes to take your money and cancel flights with no regards to anyone.

But what is even worse that even though it was their fault that I missed my flight when I later contact customer relations (which they have a really bad one), they did not want to compensate me in any way. So they bumped me off the flight for their own intention (they probably had a reason why they wanted to leave early) and still not give me a penny. That is called taking ADVANTAGE of customers (maybe that's why they're called ADVANTAGE because they know how to take ADVANTAGE of customer!). If a company does not know how to value respect and treat their customers, they should not be allowed to do business. THE END!

However, what they forgot to mention is that the fare that you find on another website must be AA or in partnership with AA. Funny thing is, I was able to find a rate that was nearly $50 dollars cheaper provided by Alaskan/AA. However, because this rate was offered on Kayak, they would not refund me the difference. After sending nearly four e-mails with pictures and attachments of competitor pricing and a request for explanation about their policy, I've yet to receive any kind of response. Ridiculous. Now I'm stuck with this ticket and would cancel my flight to book with another carrier if I didn't have to forfeit my entire ticket.

After processing my son’s boarding pass and letting him head down the ramp, the AA representative called him back. She told all 8 of us that we could not board the plane, it was past the 10-minute cut-off point, and that our boarding passes were no longer valid. She refused to let us talk to any manager. We were told we had to go to Rebooking, located all the way back where we had started, across the two huge terminals (Miami airport).

Although we ran to Rebooking, hoping to catch the next flight, we waited in line for an hour before even reaching the desk. We were told at 9pm that the next flight wasn't until 6:30am - my daughter would miss her surgery appointment the next day. We overheard another agent tell one of the four other passengers that there was a plane to Boston that had been delayed and hadn’t yet left the tarmac. She told us all, if we ran, we might catch the connecting bus and reach the plane before it took off. So all 8 of us ran back across the two terminals once more, (at one point, I slipped and fell to the ground). Although the bus hadn’t left yet, a security guard refused to let us get on the bus. She said she couldn't contact Rebooking to confirm our situation because she did not work directly for American Airlines. She said she was also not authorized to contact the flight crew.

It was only through pure luck that we found an American Airlines representative at the next gate who could intervene. He told the guard to let us get on the bus. We begged him to stay with us to make sure we made it to the plane. After we all got on the bus, a different security guard actually ran up to the bus and insisted that all 8 of us had to get off immediately, saying that the plane to Boston had already left. Thankfully, our AA guy had stayed with us and told the guard that we were all going on the bus and if the plane wasn't there, we'd come back. The bus drove us to the plane. IT WAS OUR OWN FLIGHT! OUR BOARDING PASSES WERE STILL VALID! Although they had given away all our seats, there were still enough seats left for all 8 of us to find one. And the flight officer still didn't show up for another half hour. We got home after 2am.

We sent a group letter to the CEO of American Airlines, describing our experience in polite terms, recommending changes so that other customers wouldn't experience the same difficulties. We requested some form of flight credit for a future flight. Here is American Airlines unbelievable emailed response, dated a full month after our flight: "Feb. 10, 2016 - The Department of Transportation Aviation Consumer Protection Division has forwarded your recent correspondence regarding your travel on January 11, 2016. In addition, we've also received your correspondence sent directly to Doug Parker's office regarding the same issues. We appreciate the opportunity to reply to your concerns. We have looked into the issues you brought to our attention.

I regret the 10-minute delay of your flight into Miami along with the long lines for U.S. Customs/Border Patrol and TSA Security assisted in the delay of your arrival at the departure gate for Flight 2440. We also apologize for any possible confusion in boarding Flight 2440. According to American Airlines boarding policies on our website, if you are not present in the boarding area at least 15 minutes before the scheduled departure time, your reservation may be canceled and your seat may be released to another passenger. It appears that you may have arrived to the gate later than American's (15) fifteen minutes prior boarding requirement, and as a result, you were refused boarding. The DOT does not regulate an air carrier's boarding procedures or cut-off times.

Still, there is simply no excuse for rudeness. Our customers should always experience polite service from our employees, regardless of the circumstances. We acknowledge your recognition of our gate agent who assisted in accommodation you back on Flight 2440, which was delayed due to a crew-related issue. Please know we are not trying to diminish your unsatisfactory experience and regret we have fallen short of meeting your expectations. Unfortunately, passengers may presume that an airline is not customer-oriented or lacks sensitivity when compensation is not provided for service that did not meet an individual's expectations.

Rest assured your concerns have been reviewed and the intent is to use your feedback to help us to improve and make changes with the goal of improving our service and providing more efficient assistance to our passengers in the future. Ms. **, while we know you are disappointed with our service, we hope you will give us another opportunity to prove traveling on American can be a pleasant experience."

As we were now exhausted, the thought of sitting in the airport did not appeal to our 70+ year old constitutions. The taxi cost $100 and American refuses to reimburse. They seem to have all the power and the consumer has none. JetBlue will be my airline of choice from now on unless we get some resolution to this unnecessarily abusive treatment.

To cut a long story short, we have had to renounce the Yucatan tour and the accommodation we had booked and paid for, the cost of which cannot clearly be refunded by our travel Agency, due to the impossibility to report the loss of our luggage. We had to pay alternative accommodation in Cancun to be near the airport. We had to buy a few necessary items during the four days without luggage. Last but not the least, we have suffered a considerable emotional stress which spoiled our expensive and much longed for holiday. My legitimate question is, does code-sharing mean sharing responsibility or is it simply a means of blaming each other, i.e. passing the buck, leaving the unfortunate passengers to their destiny?

Detailed account. On our arrival in Madrid, we found out that the connecting flight for Miami (operated by American Airlines) had a delay of over two hours. Had we caught this late flight, we would have been compelled to spend a night in Miami in the absence of a subsequent flight to Cancun. We were therefore transferred to an Iberia flight to Mexico City and subsequently to an Interjet flight to Cancun (no business class available). When we asked both Iberia and American Airlines what would be of our luggage, we were answered we would find it in Cancun. Once in Cancun, we arrived at 23:40, not only did we not find our luggage, but we couldn't even report its loss in the total absence of staff from the three airlines involved.

Next morning, we were due to start a pre-paid tour of Yucatan, inclusive of guide and accommodation. In the light of the previous night's events, however, we had no other option but to go to Cancun airport to report the loss of our luggage. After founding out that Iberia is not represented there, we went to AA offices where we were advised that we should report our missing bags to Interjet since it was the last company we had flown, whether or not they handled our luggage. This was, apparently, in accordance with IATA regulations.

We then transferred to terminal 2 to speak to an Interjet representative who declined any responsibility and refused to accept our report for the missing bags, suggesting that we spoke to Iberia free-toll number, which both our local travel agency and ourselves tried to do all the times with no result whatsoever. The other suggested alternative was to fly to Mexico City, to our own expenses, where Iberia was indeed represented! It was only on the third day, 21st January, that we had the good fortune to touch the heart of the AA representative who, out of sheer courtesy (her very words) agreed to file a report on our behalf for the missing bags. The following day, 22nd January, our two bags were found and delivered at the Cancun hotel we dwelt at during our luggage hunt. Incidentally, the TSA lock of one of the bags had been permanently damaged. Thank you for your attention.

This airline should not offer connections that are not possible to make. It was impossible for me to travel through two terminals in 10 minutes to catch my flight. Their representative showed no empathy and was acting like I was the reason my connection was missed. Someone really needs to investigate how often passengers miss flights and have to rent a car to reach their destination due to American Airlines's insubordination. I will no longer use their "services."

When I called the airline to change my flight they wanted to charge me $200 per ticket to change my flight. When I asked if they could waive the fee due to the situation at hand they said only if I was pregnant could I receive a full refund. When I asked them what about all the other symptoms that Zika causes, they replied saying they weren't anything to be worried about. Who wants to be stuck on vacation sick in a foreign hospital? All of the staff was beyond rude and when I asked to speak with someone higher up they said there was no on available. Worst customer service I have ever received from what I thought was a well known "prestigious" company. My family spends thousands of dollars thru their credit card every month and have always been a loyal customers. They simply had no remorse or care about the situation.

We get to the airport and the first customer service agent cancelled my wife's and 1 year old son's tickets. Qantas couldn't do anything because it was an AA booking. I called the New Zealand # for AA. And spent the next 1.5 hours with Aggie who had no idea what she was doing. She was putting me on hold to call her "resource team" and she told me they were in Sydney. At what cost do you cut costs by outsourcing these customer service jobs to 3rd world countries? I can't believe a business would let someone with no training or knowledge on their systems deal with customers. Unbelievable! Horrible experience with AA!

I called back in the am and gotten a rude customer service woman. When she got on the phone, I explained to her the situation of the $200 that I was charged. She explained to me that I would have to either speak to someone in a different department or write a letter. I explained to her that, I did not have to do all of that during booking so could I please speak to a supervisor. At that time is when she asked me my record number and my information, at that time is when she said that it was noted that a supervisor had already seen that mistake and was fixing it. I asked was my money going to be in my account as fast as they took it due to it being a mistake on AA part. She said she didn't know.

I asked to speak to a supervisor again and she again declined to do so and explained again that they were handling it. I feel that as a customer that when you asked for a supervisor, you get them or put them on the phone. It was rude to tell me outright "no" as in it was something on my behalf that I did wrong. This is unacceptable and I'm furious behind it. This will be my last time using AA airlines.

Today (2/1/16) I called to get a refund on the ticket because my daughter's trip had been cancelled. I was told the airline ticket was nonrefundable by the American Airline representative. I told the representative that it was not stated on the website at the time of purchase. I was then told "too bad that's the way it is." I was also told that the money would be available for a year for another airplane ticket but only in my daughter's name (although I purchased the ticket) and after a year she would lose the money. Also, if she did want to use the money she would have to pay a fee in order to even use her own money! The person on the phone would not even tell me what the fee was when I asked her.

I asked her to send me a confirmation email of what she told me about the money and she would not do that. She said she could put in a request with "somebody" but was not sure if I would receive it or not. I never received any receipt on my balance with them or how to use it. I called back and asked to speak with a supervisor. The supervisor told me that in the "terms and Conditions" there was something written about the flight being nonrefundable. I also asked her what are the fees to use the money and she would not tell me either. I want to tell you that computer screen after screen of steps to go through to purchase the ticket, there is absolutely nothing about the ticket being nonrefundable. There is absolutely nothing on the email confirmation about the ticket being nonrefundable.

The website is completely confusing and it's a scam. I received ambiguous responses when asked for a refund and also no confirmation that I even still have money with them. My daughter had to work for over a month for that money. She's a high school student that needed the ticket for a marching band trip. All we want is for her money back. The trip wasn't until April and 3 days after the reservation I asked to cancel it. American Airlines is completely deceitful with a confusing website that hides the fact that the flights are nonrefundable. I have flown before and other airlines state right next to the flight listing it is nonrefundable. I would have never purchased this ticket if I would have known it was a nonrefundable flight, the trip was tenuous.

While at DFW (Flight number 1641, departing 02/02/16 at 07:10), he was given attitude and his small carry one was snatched from him and checked in without his consent. He tried to get his laptop out of the bag and the lady would not give his bag back to him and threatened to have him thrown off of the plane if he did not go sit down. I was on the phone with him during this time so I heard the entire conversation! This is unacceptable and I will be taking ANY and ALL actions needed to see that I am compensated for this inconvenience and injustice. Her name was CARMEN ** (Dallas-Fort Worth Cargo Chief for AA). She was VERY RUDE and could've handled that situation better being that she is supposed to be a professional.

My younger brother had a HORRIBLE experience and was a FIRST TIME FLYER! She belittled him and when he found a spot for his bag up top, she refused to let him place it there. Even the flight attendant tried to tell her to calm down! Someone as disrespectful as she was to my brother should not have contact with customers. This is ridiculous and because of this experience my brother nor myself will NEVER fly with AA. I will be sharing this horrible experience with my family and friends. He also had LOOSE BATTERIES in his carry-on and told CARMEN ** and she disregarded the FAA's warning to leave batteries in carry-ons and still proceeded on checking in his bag. That was a safety hazard to everyone on the flight. Also to add to the whole experience, his bag was lost. I am furious with the service provided by American Airlines.

I found out my flight was delayed from Phoenix to JFK from 430 pm to 630 pm which means I would miss my connecting flight from Phoenix to San Jose CA. I went to 3 different AA ticketing counters at 3 different gates and NO ONE was willing to help me. I was told to use the help phones set up in front of Gate 38. After spending nearly half an hour on the phone with AA staff they explained to me all flights were completely booked and there is no way to get me into San Jose that evening as scheduled. I explained to the woman over the phone I have an early morning wedding to attend Saturday and it's absolutely crucial I be in San Jose CA or the neighboring airports (SFO) by that evening. She placed me on hold and after speaking to a Supervisor states she has placed me on a JetBlue flight leaving JFK at 633 pm arriving in San Jose CA 10 pm that evening. I was thrilled and thanked her a million times for salvaging my weekend.

She told me to go directly to the JetBlue terminal to get my confirmation. The JetBlue and American Airlines terminals are nowhere nearby and require an air train. As I boarded the air train to the JetBlue terminal someone from AA staff called my cell phone and told me there has been a mistake and that I need to return to AA ticketing counter to receive a paper ticket for JetBlue before I can board that flight. So I re-boarded the air train back to AA terminal only to find a long wait in line. I politely asked the AA staff may I quickly speak to someone I may miss my flight and she laughed in my face saying everyone else is almost going to miss their flight too. Not much of a compliment for the airline if you ask me.

So I waited in line for my turn and once I did see a ticketing agent the woman in line helping me whispered something in her ear and the ticketing agent began giving me dirty looks. I have never been treated like a second class citizen before and was completely disgusted by their behavior. As I explained to her that AA staff over the phone told me I had been re-booked on another Jetblue flight she laughed in my face and said that's not possible and called all the other staff at the ticketing desk over to her computer to make a mockery of me. No one could believe I had been placed on a Jetblue flight. After some laughs and snarky comments, the ticketing agent gave me some printed boarding passes, looked me in the eye and said "you can try this but it may not work".

I asked "what is my other option?" She says "you can try to for the original flight you were on to Phoenix but you will have to stay overnight there". I asked if American Airlines will be comping my overnight stay since I don't know anyone in Phoenix and the ticketing agent said "No, we cannot comp you." At that moment I decided to take my chances and try for the Jetblue flight which was direct to San Jose CA and would allow me to attend the wedding the next morning that was the purpose of my travel. So I rushed back on the air train to Jetblue terminal to have them tell me the American Airlines print out is not valid. So I called AA via phone for help and they told me I absolutely cannot get on the Jetblue flight.

I would like to know why no one from AA told me this before which could have saved me a lot of unnecessary stress, frustration and running back and forth between terminals. The woman over the phone told me to rush back to AA ticketing counter in hopes of getting on the original Phoenix flight which I was booked for departing at 630 pm.

So I rushed back to AA ticketing agency and while waiting in line AGAIN I showed AA staff my original boarding pass and asked if I could use that to board the plane to Phoenix. The woman from AA staff took my boarding pass and brought me a new one and told me to hurry through security since the flight leaves in 30 minutes. I ran to security and they scanned my pass only to tell me the name on the boarding pass does not match my ID. I was given someone else boarding pass by the name of Amit **! I was speechless! In my many years of travel I have never had a ticketing agent issue me someone else boarding pass. I thought to myself is this some sort of joke?

I returned to the AA ticketing counter and was told to wait in line AGAIN. I told them my flight is leaving in 20 mins and that I have been given the wrong boarding pass. Well that caught the attention of AA staff by the name of Michelle. As she tried to fix my ticket she told me to try my original boarding pass that I had printed out at home and see if that works through security. She states I should run to the gate while she fixes my ticket on her end. So then I went through security AGAIN and once I got to the gate they scanned my boarding pass only to find it doesn't work! Now I'm in tears. I am tired, stressed and emotionally frazzled from all the back and forth between terminals. I told them to call Michelle downstairs at the ticketing counter and she can explain my ticket is valid. The AA staff at the gate tells me no one by name of Michelle has called them. Once again I'm shocked. Now I'm crying outside the gate.

Just as the gate is about to close its doors an AA staff gentleman comes out and says "hurry come with me". He says "board the plane and take any empty seat you find". So now I'm on the 630 pm plane to Phoenix I grabbed a seat and just as I'm about to place my carry-on luggage overhead some other AA staff member yells at me and says "Ma'am you have to get off the plane. Your ticket is not valid!" Let me say I have never been so humiliated in my entire life. I was escorted off the plane. If my ticket wasn't valid then why did AA staff let me on the plane in the first place? This trip was nothing but a nightmare. I had to return to the AA ticketing counter only to be helped by the same RUDE woman who helped me before and gave me dirty looks.

Her and Michelle finally placed me on a flight leaving from JFK to LAX at 8 pm (Flight#293) arriving in LAX at 1125 pm with an overnight layover in LAX and then a LAX flight at 900 am Saturday morning to SFO arriving 1030 am (flight#5947). I told them I would miss part of the wedding but they didn't seem to care. They also didn't seem to care that I had nowhere to stay near LAX and was told American Airlines cannot comp me for the inconvenience I had to experience due to AA incompetent staff. I had to scramble to find friends in town in LA with whom I can stay overnight with while in LA.

Long story short, I finally made it to LA and the following morning Saturday Jan 16, 2016 the flight to SFO (Flight#5947) was also delayed by nearly two hours. At one point they had all passengers board the plane and sit in the dark on a hot plane while having maintenance work done to the aircraft. Are you kidding me? Isn't maintenance done while passengers are NOT on board in case something were to happen? Is American Airlines OK with placing its passengers at risk while they are on board a plane in need of maintenance? Sounds like a potential lawsuit waiting to happen. In summary, I would like to thank American Airlines for ruining my weekend because I did miss the wedding I had planned to attend which was the entire purpose of my trip.

I called their support team before I took my new flight on the 29th, and I was told by a representative that I could request a refund, but I needed to complete my changed flight first. And so I did. I called on February 1st, after completing my flight like I was instructed to do. The representative on the phone told me I was unable to receive a refund because I had taken the flight. I have since contacted American Airlines' Customer Relations team and explained my situation, and am currently waiting for a response.

If American Airlines can redeem themselves, I will change my rating. But in the meantime, I feel that two stars is generous, and I give them two stars only because the flights themselves were very good. Also - I am an AAdvantage member and credit card holder. If this is how they treat their members, I can only imagine how non-account holders are treated.

The AA person said for sure it would be on the next day morning flight and they could bring it to us, however, we can come to pick it up but call first. They gave me a phone # that no one ever answered after 5 calls, so we went to the airport again to find that again NO. LUGGAGE !! Now they checked and they told us it will be on the next flight in the pm. Again back to the airport for the 3 time and finally there it was our LUGGAGE after 2 days and 4 trips to the airport and $200 in taxi. When we tried to get something for our troubles we were told to call AA where we were told we have to call customer service, call them and were told it has to be done online. No one can help unless we go online.

This is not a service. I would use ever again!! Not one person in Chile ever said sorry or tried to compensate for the inconvenience. They said "we cannot do a thing and you should call AA customer service, we're just here to help". Really help with what I don't know. At this point I've not heard anything from AA customer service but I can tell you you will not see me on AA anytime soon. I used to fly AA to California and back to NY 8 to 9 times a year, I wouldn't take them anywhere with this service. I feel they're saying, "thank you for the monies, we got you there, so stop complaining," Fly someone who cares but DO NOT FLY AA. PS the headset didn't work and 2 of the seats did recline, but they were sorry.

However when I tried to go through security at JFK, they pointed out that the boarding card given to me at BHX was incorrect. On it the passenger name someone called "Marilyn **" & it shows that the trip is from Raleigh to JFK - not from JFK to Raleigh. So it had 2 errors. I have that boarding card and can scan and send if necessary. This was very embarrassing as it looked like I was trying to travel on another person's card. I went to get the card re-issued & it also had "SSSS".

Now they wanted to see if my computer would start. Unfortunately it was out of battery, so it did not. (Note that normally I would not even have to take the computer out of the bag let alone show them that it starts). TSA asked me to check-in the computer, which I did at the cost of $92. After that I went through a humiliating series of pat downs & searches in a private room. When I got my computer back the screen was broken. I tried to file a complaint with the AA office at RDU, but they said they do not cover computers. So the incompetence of AA & their negligence cost me $92 + $50 for a new screen. I sent a message to their customer service & got just a standard response apologizing for the trouble they caused. News is that AA had record profits. Well I know how. By screwing their customers.

My wife said she needs to be with our son as soon as possible. She was told by the lady at the computer to "ZIP IT" (Really???????) Zip it! I'm glad I wasn't there, we would still be trying to figure out how to get home, but she finally got to board the plane and got seated with my son that has a problem with bending one of his legs due to an accident years ago and the seat they were in the back of the seat in front of him was pressing on his knee, so my wife asked if they could be moved to a better leg room seat (Also keep in mind the plane was only half full). After about 10 minutes they were escorted off the plane by the airport police for being argumentative!?!? They had to catch the next day plane to home because of this. I have close to a half of million miles built up for American Airlines and I'm going to give them to someone I don't like and NEVER fly American Airlines again!

The next point was that on the original flight I had paid extra (50 pounds for each the outbound and the inbound flight) for seats. I assumed this would be refunded since I would no longer be sitting in these seats and in fact - it was likely someone else would pay for the same seats. However, this is not the policy of American Airlines and I've lost this money. I'm not at all as concerned about the actual money as I am about the fact that this is ethically wrong.

It's exactly like this - selling me a dress, which I later return in perfect condition and it's then sold full price to someone else. But it's your policy that I don't receive any refund, even though you can resell the thing I've handed back to you. In other words, they have sold the same exact thing twice. This is criminal in my mind and I'm not sure how it's even legal. This is not the policy on other airlines, and it is fundamentally and ethically wrong to do. I live in the UK and fly frequently back to the states, but I will never - ever - fly on American Airlines again.

In the end I ended up booking as well as incurring the cost of two tickets full fare to get my mother and sister home to Newfoundland. Needless to say, I was quite frustrated with both the airline and Expedia. I sent several requests to American Airlines requesting a refund even asking if I could use the return fare towards a recent flight I took from the US to Canada the return fare. I got a polite reply that I could not. Because of this experience my mother and sister has refused to fly again, therefore, I am requesting a full refund of the unused portion of the fare which is a total of $842.53.

Had to fight with the ground crew and phone assistance to get a flight next morning instead of one two days away or the next night because their system is a mess. We had to incur in extra costs for a taxi (30$) and AA won't pay it back. They did give us 7$ each for food (ooooh! don't be so generous), and a hotel night 20 miles away (in Milwaukee!), and a transport voucher we were only able to use from the airport to the hotel but not back due to operation hours of the hotel van.

The full story: we board already like half an hour late and we wait patiently inside the plane like another hour. They say they are having problems, the pilot has called in sick, then make us get out. After some more time waiting, they make us board again and wait inside the plane again. Guess what! They say the flight is officially cancelled! They say by the loudspeaker that the pilot or copilot called in sick, and the person they requested to fill in for him also called in sick. That was like 2-3 hours after the official initial boarding time.

After all that time, they gave us a card with a phone number and put 2 persons to try to put the 100 people of our plane on other flights. We don't have an American phone, meaning the call would be expensive including listening to phone wait music for 20 minutes. So at last, like one hour later, it's our turn to get another flight. It's already late in the night.

The lady is a little rude and offers us another flight next day at 20:00. We (2 persons) accept grudgingly, but surprisingly, five seconds later, a family of 5 is offered a flight with the same destination the next morning at 10:00 or so! We complain (for us, we are happy about the family getting their flight), they say that the software just gives away routes as they come available. Next, discovering there are payphones there (they still exist!), we call the service. And after some attempts, we do manage to get a flight next day at 07:00. What on earth was the girl on ground looking into when she gave us a flight that would make us lose one day and miss an expensive show in NY?

Anyway, it is true that they gave us 7$ each to have breakfast (which for an airport is, well, quite limited), and were giving people 12$ vouchers for lunch (again, a little limited for the airport, you would have to have a sandwich). And they gave us a night at a hotel 20 miles away when there are like a hundred hotels around O'Hare airport. So, we take the hotel minivan, already like at 0:30, end sleeping like 3 hours (have to be at the airport at 5-5:30, leave at 4:30), and we had to pay a taxi (32$) back to the airport!.

As a surprise, our luggage was waiting for us at Newark with lots of other baggage on the open and almost unattended. It was a good day to take away any luggage you wanted. Anyway, after 3 hours of sleep, you can guess we slept for half of the show we had in NY. AA won't even pay for the taxi from the hotel to the airport (they gave us a voucher for hotel transport, but hotel transport wasn't available at 4:30 in the morning), or at least give a proper reason for not having a pilot for a regular flight.

I received zero empathy from the employee, who stated that if I refused I could simply take another flight. He became really nasty when I stated that the airline was being dishonest in promising, in writing, something that it felt free to withdraw from customers at the very last minute. I don't understand the principle of promising something at the time of the purchase, then removing this offer with no prior notice, and no compensation. The on-board allowance should be seen as a contractual obligation.

Then, my gate was changed 5 times over 6 hrs total; ultimately the flight was delayed by 2 hours, then 2.5, then 3, then 3.5, and so on, because for some reason the airline couldn't locate attendants at one of their hub airports. We had a pilot at the gate for most of this time until the attendants finally dragged their ** up to the gate (they were all standing chit-chatting and looking at the phones out in the main area of the terminal for at least 5-10 mins before approaching the gate, as observed by, well, EVERYONE) 10 minutes after the pilot hit his maximum allowable time under FAA rules. So now they are looking for a pilot... Then the attendants all walk away.

A full flight with nearly 90 standby passengers (due to earlier cancellations) was made to wait an additional 2 hours before AA finally got their ** together and cancelled the flight at around 12:00 am. I spent 9 hrs running around the airport to gate after gate, only to be screwed out of a flight because management couldn't direct their people effectively.

Then, despite most passengers being rebooked for a standby flight 3 full days later, they would not release our checked baggage to us! I ended up renting a car and driving to my destination, only to have to continue straight to the airport and search for my bags with hundreds, if not thousands, of others who apparently had met a similar fate. Renting a car for one-way interstate travel is not cheap.

At no point in all of this nightmare did AA representatives make any attempt to share information with the waiting passengers (I don't believe management was supplying it to them so not really their fault), make any offer of hotel or meal compensation, or make any attempt to address specific concerns like retrieving baggage, baby needs like diapers, and reuniting separated families. There will certainly be no offer of compensation for my rental car and 14 hrs of highway time, a hotel for the night, fuel costs, and extended fees for airport parking due to their failure to conduct their business successfully. I even met a man on the rental car bus at the destination that had been a victim of DFW personnel and cancellations as well! It was crazy how similar our experiences had been in just how awful and inept AA had performed.

Complete, utter, disastrous, ** experience. I will never fly AA again for as long as I live because of this incredibly bad experience (as well as previous poor experiences with them), which includes screwing up my honeymoon in 2013 in a similar fashion, where we almost arrived too late (12 hrs after expected) to keep our transport and hotel reservation. Hate you AA.

However because my flight returned in July, it appeared I would be in Spain where I do not have legal residence or a visa for longer than the allowed 90-day visa-free travel period. When I arrived at the airport and attempted to check in, I was told by an attendant at the electronic kiosk to speak to a representative at the desk so she could review my travel documents. While I waited, I realized what the problem was. I realized they needed to see a Spanish visa which I did not have or definitive proof that I would not be staying in Spain.

Unfortunately, neither representative 1 nor Representative 2 nor the Mystery Supervisor with whom Representative 2 spoke in the back accepted my Belgian ID, proof of booked hotel accommodations in Biarritz, France for our road trip home, a car service appointment in Brussels scheduled for the following week, my car's Belgian registration, nor proof that I lived and worked in Brussels as definitive proof that I would NOT be staying in Spain. According to Representative 2, Mystery Supervisor would only accept booked travel rental car, train tickets, airline reservation as proof. This means that because I would be driving MY OWN CAR, I would not be able to prove I was leaving Spain. Following this episode, I was taken to another desk to try to rebook my return flight for a day in April (which I will surely miss).

The problem is, American Airlines cannot knowingly allow someone on a flight that has a return that violates visa rules or pay a fine. More on this below but for the moment it meant that I needed to change my return flight to a date that did not exceed 90 days. I was escorted to a desk to do so with Julie but too much time had passed and it was becoming clear that I would not make my flight. So instead of rebooking the return, I would now have to rebook both legs. This final episode itself took nearly two hours. The $959 option, I initially rejected but after being offered options up to $10,000 and waiting through a closed-door meeting between Representative 3 and Mystery Supervisor, I accepted this one. Having booked the flight, stood on my feet for nearly three hours and having the airport nearly empty, I asked to speak to a supervisor. After waiting for 20 minutes, I left.

Complaint 1. Naturally, my first complaint is related to the policy that did not allow me on the plane and how it was executed. While I understand that American Airlines should take precautions to comply with such migration policies, I was never fully given a chance to present my case to a supervisor or anyone who knew anything about the policy. I should mention here that I am a political reporter in Brussels where I am an immigrant so I understand these issues better than most. It was clear from the beginning that I understood this question much, much better than anyone I dealt with throughout the day. Representative 1 and Representative 2 were clearly untrained in this area yet I was allowed no recourse. As I mentioned above I was able to furnish plenty of proof that I was leaving Spain for Belgium but for the ignorance of the representatives on the floor that day, I was forced to miss my flight and pay more to do it.

Complaint 2a. My second complaint is related to the way I was treated throughout. At no point did I feel that anyone was trying to help me resolve this issue. There was never any sense of urgency. All three AA representatives even walked slow. At one point I believed Representative 2 sympathized but thanks to Representative 3's very unprofessional gossip I later learned she was new and was covering her own hide. Representative 3's behavior was particularly frustrating. Upon arrival at her desk to rebook my flight, she spoke to Representative 2 aggressively and to me dismissively. She made us wait several minutes while they completed what seemed to be a training exercise. Speaking with me she giggled on several occasions when I expressed exasperation and at one point asked "Do you really NEED to go?" at which point I reminded her she was holding my Belgian ID card.

Complaint 2b. My second complaint regarding how I was treated is related to compensation. I was neither offered accommodation for the inconvenience meaning that no one I encountered ever considered that the matter was a disputable nor was my flight rebooked at no cost. Ultimately, I had to pay $959. That is $659 for the difference between the flight I had then missed and $300 for the change fee. I was also told that there would be no opportunities to lodge a complaint until I returned and then only online. This is unacceptable.

Conclusion. To sum up, there are several elements to be addressed in this complaint. They are all related but all equally distinct. There was the policy that prevented me from boarding my plane, how it was executed, the poor customer service, and the lack of compensation. Unless resolved quickly and with great professionalism, I will not be flying with American Airlines in the future even if the difference in cost is enormous. I am not worried about this because AA does not tend to be the most affordable anyway. This then can hopefully be considered an unhappy fluke, one that I will not have to worry about in the future. In fact, I was tempted to forego rebooking my ticket in favor of another airline but in the moment, this was not a risk I was willing to take. We will see tomorrow when I return for my new flight whether I was wrong.

The rationale for AA's very disproportionate attempt at compensation has been stated as a result of policies related to unpredictable and limiting weather factors. We can understand why such policies exist. We agree that accounting for weather is a nearly impossible task, and that it would be onerous for any company to fully compensate customers when disaster strikes. However, the weather had nearly no influence on our experiences. Airline operations did. A full account of each incident has been captured below, for your documentation, awareness and future consideration. May it lead to analysis and improvement of current state operations.

We also realize there is no tangible blame to place on any individual representative of AA, and do not have the intention of retaliating, punishing or otherwise insulting anyone. No one we've talked to ought to be "blamed" or held responsible. And yet, as an observer of the organizational systems at play, in our experience it is apparent that there are a great many disconnects within the airline. Individuals seems to have neither the autonomy, information, attitude, nor connections with other departments to enable any sense of meaningful customer care or engagement whatsoever. Those dynamics are absolutely things that a corporation can and ethically ought to take responsibility for, or risk the loss of customers and face eventual and costly obsolescence.

Mid 2015: Happily made the decision to return to a beloved destination and add a new destination: Guatemala and Belize for the holidays. Excellent. Searched for itinerary via Travelocity. Excellent! American has an itinerary that works great for us. Very excited. Dec 26, 2015: Flew out from PDX to DFW on a flight operated by Alaska. We love them! Everything always runs smoothly, the people are friendly and responsive. We are so glad American chose to partner with Alaska. Good move, American. Smooth flight and on time.

Arrived at gate. Recall a slight delay in boarding. Sat on plane for quite some time until it was announced that American was waiting on pilots to arrive from Montego Bay. Sat and waited. And waited. And waited. Flight attendant onboard said something to the effect of "Oh, they're always late coming out of Montego Bay." Okay, a known issue with no contingency during peak travel season? This doesn't bode well. Finally Pilots are here. But apparently luggage hadn't been put on the plane yet while we were waiting. Hmm. Okay. By now the weather is getting to be dicey. Pilots say "Sorry for the delay, we're going to have to wait a little longer now, until the luggage ramp can be brought over." Waited another 30 minutes. We didn't even check any bags, by the way. But of course we want our fellow passengers to have their luggage.

Finally, luggage cleared. Excellent, we're on our way! Or so we thought. Pilot announces some moments later "Sorry, folks, the delays have caused a crew legality issue. We're not going to be able to conduct this flight. The flight has been cancelled. See a gate agent to be re-booked." Great. Flight cancelled not because of weather, but because of poor planning. All this after having sat in the plane waiting for a total of 2.5 hours already. Still Dec. 26... Handed a card as we disembarked to call a number for rebooking. Called while standing in a line of a couple hundred people. Agent by phone found an alternative flight for us. Made our way to a new gate for a new, non-direct flight, now several hours late for our arrival in Guatemala.

Boarded. Sat in plane for about 30 minutes and it was announced "This flight and all flights out of DFW have been cancelled." Oh no! What are we going to do now? We would definitely have been landing in Guatemala City by now, if not for a delayed flight crew, then a crew legality issue. Now we're stuck in DFW with thousands of other people who have no flights because of these operational delays bumping us into further issues. Despite tornados in DFW, root cause of our heartache was a late and overworked crew. Still Dec. 26. Called AA again for rebooking yet again. "Ok" they said, "we can get you on a United flight tomorrow but it leaves at 6:30 am." Ok, we thought. Guess we have no other choice.

Paid peak timing rates for an Uber ride to the closest hotel that wasn't already full to get a few hours of sleep. Felt sorry for others, especially people with families. What a nightmare. Cost to us so far: $310 for Uber and hotel near DFW + no show fee for our original hotel in Guatemala + no show fee for shuttle transfer from Guatemala City to Antigua. Not to mention about 12 hours of our time and energy. Slept about 3.5 hours before we had to get up and get back to the airport by 5 am.

Dec 27: Feeling terrible but eager to get out of this place. Went to United counter to check in and go back through security. Waited an hour in line, fretting about getting through security and making the boarding time. Finally our turn. "I'm sorry, we don't have tickets for you" they said. Seriously? "American may have put in a request but we were not able to accept it." So, we got up at 4 am for no reason? Why didn't American call, send an email, send a text, anything to say that we did not have tickets and to help us make other arrangements? Why did an airline we weren't even customers for have to tell us what was going on? Really frustrated and angry by this point. And P.S. these missteps had nothing to do with weather, but a lack of simple courtesy and coordination.

Ok. Now what? Found an American counter. Waited in line. Waited in line. Waited in line. Representative was kind at least, but her solution hardly reassuring. "Here's what we can do," she said. Then she proceeded to describe how around 11:30 am I could hop a flight to Miami and wait there until the NEXT DAY to get a flight to Guatemala City. My husband would have to take a separate flight after noon to Tampa, then get a connecting flight to Miami, then take a different flight from me to Guatemala City. That sounded like a nightmare to us. What if one of us gets delayed or stranded somewhere different than the other? What if only one of us makes it to Guatemala City? But there were no other options. "If I were you, this is what I would do" said the AA rep. So we did. What other choice was there? None, or so we were told.

Sat down for some subpar airport breakfast before parting ways. Our gates were nowhere near each other. I said to my husband, "Since my flight is first, why don't you come with me? Let's ask the person there if you can get on that flight as a standby. Then we might at least get to Miami together." He agreed, then we both wondered why the representative hadn't recommended that. It only came to our minds after a phone call to my mother in law describing our predicament. She mentioned that sometimes she has been able to get on standby flights.

Went to my gate. Agent looked in the computer. Within 5 minutes he was able to get my husband on my same flight. What the heck? "Something must have just opened up," he said. Imagine if we hadn't thought of this solution on our own and had just relied on the "expertise" of the airline? Who knows what could have happened? Checking for standby options seems like such a simple suggestion that would have really helped us out. Okay, phew. At least we can get to Miami together. We will have to waste more money on food and lodging, and we'll be another night late getting to our destination, but it's either that or cancel the trip and go home, and that would be even more costly and disappointing.

DFW to Miami worked out okay. We were about to leave the Miami airport to find a hotel for the night when we thought, what if we could standby on a flight going to Guatemala tonight? So we did. We went to an AA agent and asked about flights to Guatemala. She said "you can try." So we did. Went to the gate. Got on standby. Waited. What do you know? We got on! And so did 3 other people who were on standby. Again, what if we had relied on the "expertise" of the airline? We would have spent more money in Miami, lost yet another day, and lost yet another reservation at our destination. A simple recommendation to try standby is all it would have taken.

After (guess what?) a 2 hour delay to the flight we boarded for Guatemala City. Unfortunately our night 2 reservation in Guatemala was at a location several hours from the airport and across a lake navigable by boat only. That's why we had booked night 1 in a middle destination. Despite our own problem solving saving us the loss of 2 nights there, we'd still have to give up 1 night because we'd never get to the last boat of the day in time. So, we booked a hotel closer to the airport.

Let's tally costs now. $310 from Dec 26, plus fresh booking in Antigua to spent Dec. 27 night, plus 1 night peak season cancellation at Lake Atitlan, plus now a taxi from the airport in Guatemala. We're up to $585. It would have been even more if we had listened to the advice of the airline and waited to leave Miami until Dec. 28. And let's not forget that on Dec. 27 we spent a total of 6 new hours at the airport. 4 of them completely unnecessary, and unnecessarily up at 4 am.

Dec 27- Jan 2: Tried to recuperate and get over what had just happened. Didn't have enough time in any particular region to do what we originally planned, but made the most of the trip. Thank goodness Guatemala has some magic in it. But there was a taint to the experience, certainly. Even though they had nothing to do with these mess-ups, Travelocity, our booking agent, was kind enough to give us a $100 credit for lost lodging. Now that's customer service. I am loyal to them for life! This was not their problem to solve, but they care about us. Jan 3: Time to move on to the next leg of our journey. Belize! Looking forward to some jungle and beach time before heading back to work. We saved all year for these couple of weeks of kicking back. Spent our last night in Guatemala City in order to catch our 6:15 am flight to Belize with ease. Except we didn't. Here entered the next set of utterly ridiculous issues.

American had booked us via Avianca for the following: Guatemala City to San Salvador to Belize city. All paid for and confirmed at the same time as when booked originally. Then American would operate our return flights from Belize back to the States some days later. Went to the Avianca counter to check in. They pulled up our information and looked puzzled. We waited while their brows furrowed and they talked in hushed voices. Finally, "I'm sorry. This is an American issue. You will have to go to their counter. For you, Christy, we have only a ticket for you to get to San Salvador, and for you, Leland, we have nothing." What? Nothing? It's all right here on my receipt. Two tickets. All booked at the same time months ago. Seriously?

We went over to the American counter and waited for an hour. When it was our turn, they said, "I'm sorry, there is not much we can do. There are reservations but no tickets. We will see if we can get you on a flight that leaves at 9 am. You need to call this number. Please step aside while you talk so we can help other customers." What an utter disappointment. More problems with American? Are we on some kind of blacklist? What's going on? And how does one have a reservation but no ticket when one has paid for airfare? This makes no sense. We called the number. Luckily we could speak in English to the local phone rep in Guatemala. So far we'd been doing our best and feeling good that we can speak some Spanish. Even in English what they said made no sense to us. "There's a reservation but no ticket. I am working on that now."

We waited on the phone while they "worked on it" for over 2 HOURS. I am not even sure what was happening. Only acutely aware that there was no way they were going to get us on the 9 am flight now. No chance. Too much time was passing. I brought this up. "What's going on? I am really worried we are going to miss our new flight." The rep said they would work on something else for a next flight. "It's true", he admitted, "too much time has passed." More holding. Then the call disconnected. UGH. We have to start over? I should also mention that the staff in Guatemala City had a weird accusatory tone. "Can you please tell me what happened? Why did you cancel your tickets?" I didn't! American did! We didn't cancel anything. We just showed up for our flight like our itinerary and receipt say to. "Well we don't understand why this has happened," they said. Good. Neither do I. I am just a paying customer.

I had to interrupt the line and ask them to redial the phone reps. New helper. Started over. "Okay, I am working on it." Stood waiting on the phone while they "worked on it" for ANOTHER 2 HOURS standing, at the side of the counter helpless. Finally the rep said "I have been trying to call Avianca but they are not answering. Then I asked the representative at the counter if he could go over there and contact Avianca in person but he says he needs to help other customers. Is there any chance you could go to Avianca? Tell them I need them to release your ticket so I can rebook it." What? This makes no sense. Why doesn't American have control of their own tickets? Avianca can't help us now, they aren't even involved and they sent us here. But ok... I agreed to go to the Avianca counter and pass on the request. One of 5 counter reps couldn't step away to deal with this directly?

At the Avianca counter, after waiting 20 minutes in line. "American gave me this ticket number. They would like you to please release it so that they can rebook me on a new flight." Avianca: "What? I can't do anything. This flight already left and I can't make any changes. We have nothing. It's not ticketed. There's nothing I can do." I almost burst into tears. I repeated the request in Spanish and in English. "This is what they said needs to happen or they can't rebook me," I said. She looked again. Then asked a colleague. "No, there's nothing I can do." Back to American where the person on the phone was waiting for me. I relayed what had happened. They said again they couldn't do anything until that ticket was released. "I tried," I said. "This is what they told me."

Try to imagine how we felt. Standing there for approaching 5 hours standing on foot, no help, nothing making sense, already having lived a nightmare with American just one week prior and all the while being treated as though somehow we'd messed up our own tickets and that we were getting in the way of their other work. No one taking a minute out to give us any personal attention except the poor phone person, who I could barely hear. Extremely frustrating. We asked to talk to a supervisor at the counter and were told all kinds of things. "He'll be here at 9." Then later, "Oh, he's down at the gate." Needless to say we never once, in all of our ordeal with American got to speak to a supervisor nor were we offered any upgrades, nor were we compensated for any of these costs. We felt handed off time and time again.

Still Jan 3. Sat on the phone for another 30 minutes or so. Yep, we've been here 5 hours since 5 am. Finally the rep offered a couple of options: Stay another night in Guatemala City and fly out to Belize on Jan 4, or Fly to Miami and stay overnight and fly to Belize, landing about an hour later than the Guatemala to Belize flight. We opted for Miami in a desperate hope that we might get more help there. The desk agents in Guatemala seemed to have no power whatsoever to modify tickets, and the standing at the phone was barely a solution. So, we flew to Miami. Last week when we desk hopped we seemed to get some small help.

Still Jan 3. Wow, we just spent an entire other day in an airport, only have to be delayed another night to get where we want to go. By the way, the wifi at the Guatemala City airport doesn't work. Neither do our phones. Stayed a night in Miami, called twice to confirm we were ticketed for the next day. Asked for upgrades, asked for any kind of support and compensation. Nothing. Only confirmation that we had a flight on Jan 4.

Jan 4. Finally. Out of Miami to Belize. No flights to try standby for this time. We asked. We even asked if American would be willing to book us onto another airline in order for us not to have to waste another day. Nope. "That's not our policy," the phone rep in the US said. So, we lost another day. Oh yeah, and two more hours when the flight from Miami to Belize was delayed. Guess what? It's not my policy to pay $2000 for airline tickets to be jerked around and forced into even more costs, all while being ignored and abused.

Let's tally costs again. $585 from the past week's ordeal. Now another overnight in Miami and a no show hotel reservation (still peak season) in Belize at a place we'd splurged on plus all these lost hours. I think we're up around 40+ lost hours at this point. Plus a monetary loss of $925. Not a single upgrade, no help with hotels, not even a free bag of pretzels on a plane.

Jan 9. Time to go home. Dreading it. Hoping there are no further problems. We can't afford them. We already had to drastically alter our experiences while on "vacation" because we lost 3+ days at airports and about a thousand dollars. I work for a living. 40 hours worth of my time goes for some $. Thank God that the worst we suffered getting home was a 45 minute delay in Dallas while we waited for 25 passengers to get through customs to make the flight. Glad to see when it's more than 2 people that American can find it's lukewarm heart to help them out.

So perhaps in reading through this you can understand why a $100 voucher to do more business with American within a year's time feels insulting. Through all this we exercised extreme patience and got very little in return for our courtesy to your employees. We had been willing to give the company a chance to make it right, to try again if they were willing to recognize the stress of all this and win us back - that doesn't seem to be at all a priority for the organization, however. We asked several times for help to get things back on track. The only responses were "that's policy" or "that's another department" or "there's nothing I can do about that." Most hurtful is this making of excuses for this saga of screw-ups by saying it was "the weather."

Now that I've taken the time to write out this account, I hope it will serve as beta for other customers considering American. People trust airlines. They rely on them and they pay a premium to airlines at the same time, to get where they need to go. I only hope that our experience can help people have a clearer picture of what they are risking when they place their trust in American. If the absolute worst should happen and your whole world is turned upside down, don't worry folks. American will give you a hundred bucks to have more soul-sucking experiences with them at the helm again in the future.

The flight attendant accused me of jumping down my (her) throat. They let my daughter stay seated with the harness until a few minutes before take off when finally another flight attendant told us the pilot would not take off with the device strapped to the seat. We had been in transit for over 20 hours, so in desperation my wife held our daughter during takeoff. It's the only way she'd stay secure without the strap. We believe the flight attendants and pilot are poorly trained, poor in customer service, and endangered our child.

Since I didn't authorize anyone to use my account, I called AA Customer Service immediately to report that my account had been hacked. I spent 2 hours with a rep on the phone, going through all my account activity and we found out that almost 400k miles had been stolen from my account in the past 8 months. The rep took all notes and told me that the situation would be resolved within 10 business days.

After 10 business days, I called to follow up and they stated that not had been done yet. I kept making follow up calls for almost 2 months. Finally, on January 3rd, I tried to access my AAdvantage account and I found out that my account had been suspended. I received an email from their corporate security department stating that I violated AAdvantage terms and conditions by selling my miles! I just paid $1799 to boost my elite status from Platinum to Executive Platinum and 2 days later, they suspended my account, blocked my miles and benefits.

I replied to their inappropriate email explaining what happened and 3 days later, I still have not heard from anyone. I called their Customer Service and they treated me like a criminal, saying that there was nothing that they can do to help me and they can't even investigate my issue to another supervisor or someone else. I feel ripped off, abused and extremely disrespected.

What made it seem more obvious to me is that they didn't re-book on another airline and the later flight they booked me on was also barely full. I understand that they have to make money but if you can't book a full flight after pushing the flight back several hours, why even offer that leg? AA is certainly engaging in a realm that is above their means and they just continue to use bait-and-switch tactics for the benefit of their own bottom line. CEO Doug Parker should be ashamed of his business of looking out for himself and collecting huge bonuses for this type of service. This is certainly not the way Robert Crandall was, who I had the pleasure of meeting - he was genuine and the company was well-respected and prospered under his guise.

Then we had a layover in Dallas. Our gate has been changed, we quickly located the right gate, but decided to check with attendant at the gate. Again, not even a response "Hello". When I asked if that is the right gate for our flight, she looked at us as if we annoying the hell out of her, nodded then just turned around and went to sit in the chair! So unprofessional!!! I cannot comprehend how little these people cared about their jobs! Planes and flight attendants were pleasant.

They told me they would not reverse the charge and said I could dispute it with CITI once the charge was on my credit card. I did that, gave them the details and circumstances and waited. On Dec 5th, I noted that they had decided to charge me anyway and a subsequent letter was sent saying that the amount was non-refundable. I called American, Aadvantage, and Citi and was told "no, no, no". I cancelled the card so they've lost that business. And I will not pay the amount so I will probably suffer a credit rating loss. Thanks American. You have bad business practices. Done with you.

The reality was that it was past 8:00 p.m. in the evening, we did not know when we would be getting back to MSP, did not have our luggage, and had two children who were tired and hungry. So, who really was inconvenienced?? Wilma finally booked us on flight AA 234 to O'Hare that evening and flight AA 3151 to MSP the next morning. We had a very important appointment the next day (12/06) in MN @ 9:45 and Wilma assured us that this was the best option for us so that we would make it to our appointment. She assured us that both flights were confirmed so we made our way to the gate. After landing at O'Hare around 12:30 a.m. and spending the night in the airport we were notified by the ticketing agent (Blake-Lead Agent) before boarding flight 3151 that only two of our seats were confirmed and two were standby. He also informed me that the flight was already oversold and that it was very unlikely that all four of us would make it on.

As you can imagined I was extremely upset because I was told that our seats were confirmed to MSP by your ticketing agent in Miami (Wilma). If I would have known that the seats were not confirmed I would have rented a car and drove the 6 hours from Chicago to MSP so that we could have made it to our appointment. In the end, two of us had to wait until the 10:00 flight to MSP. Because flight 3151 was overbooked the agent was offering $350 vouchers for people to wait until the next flight. The way I see it the minimum AA can do is uphold your end of the bargain since I was told I had 4 confirmed seats but had to give up 2 because the flight was overbooked. I should have been offered at the very least $350 for 2 of my tickets. I only fly a few times a year now, much less than in the past, but I can't recall a more inconvenient and unaccommodating experience as this.

I found the pilot's remarks ironic when we were finally descending into MSP past 11:00 a.m. the day after I originally should have arrived, AA realizes you have a choice who you fly with! Considering these events and the lack of customer care that we experienced, AA will be my last choice for air travel moving forward. This complaint was sent to AA via email on 12/10 and I have yet to get any response back besides the automated email indicating that AA has received my email. I have also tried calling but was told that AA is very busy and the expecting a response back so soon is unreasonable!!!

When I went to check bags at counter and check in I am an AA card holder. And as a perk I receive free checked bags for all parties On My Reservation. This is the key wording: linked, tied, added to is not ON the reservation. As I found out $25.00 later I was charged for the 2nd bag. Not happy. I went to the gate where they offered to check bags for free to final destination. Go Figure! When I returned home I called the credit card company. I stated "you advertise this perk. It's false advertisement. I was charged for a bag."

They forwarded me to Amanda at AA. I pleaded my case gave all the facts and she was unsympathetic. It was my reservation. I used my miles. My son used his. 2 separate reservations. No exceptions. If I would have taken the bag to the gate it would have been FREE! I'm disputing the charge and probably will cancel the card. If it's a policy you can't put 2 people on same reservation using miles then there should be an exception for the credit card perk. Otherwise you'll pay for something that should be entitled to. Not happy!

Take a look at this lunch item for example. No catsup, no mustard, no mayo, no lettuce, no tomato, just a .50 cent sandwich as part of your three (3) meals provided in coach for an international flight. What was the alternative you ask? How about a nice cup of ramen noodles instead? I dare you to try the food that you procure and serve your coach passengers. Seated among many Asian passengers, I could not only see the looks on their faces, but hear their comments regarding your meals. Please try any Asian or Arab airline to see the difference before they buy your routes AA.

So now I am turning around to fly back to Texas because I have a parent ill. Anyways I had to change my date of departure from Jan 14th to Jan 18th because the parent took a turn for the worse. I understood that booking a one way flight from Dallas to Seattle would be cheaper at $99 than the $200 change fee so I did that. I had flight insurance but there was no guarantee that the claim would go through.

During the course of booking my flight through my credit union (I did this to use rewards points and it made my flight cheaper which was good) it showed that seat 14C was available so I booked it, then I went online and booked my wife's seat in 14E so I could sit next to her and even paid the extra $60.00, not knowing that American would screw me and move me back to 29E... nice!

During my booking through the credit union they never told me that seat was more expensive. Anyways, I called American and ask them since my seat was moved from 14B to 29E, could the airlines move my wife's seat 14 to 28 or 29 and I could recoup the $58.00 fee. Of course the agent tells me my wife could move but American will keep my $58.00 because it is nonrefundable! You guys look for anyway to scam a customer don't you. I know one thing. I will just keep flying Alaska. At least if you feel like you're getting screwed over, the agents and flight staff are still nice to you and don't huff and puff when you ask for a stinking glass of water!

I had to go back to the website, pretend I was buying tickets, and finally found the "hold" button which is in the far right corner on the last page AFTER all information has been selected and inputted. There is nothing before this which gives any hint of their policy anywhere that I could find during the reservation process. In fact, you must dig very deeply to find anything anywhere on their website which alludes to this policy.

Despite speaking with a representative as well as her supervisor (Kathy), with my husband on the line as well, we were flatly refused any alteration to their rules. We are now in the process of disputing the charges with our credit card. We will never, ever fly American Airlines. Buyer beware. Do your homework and read ConsumerAffairs reviews BEFORE making any type of booking with any airline.

The stewardess (initials are E.G. P) came over the public address system: "Tell me you didn't move into the exit aisle. Go back to your seat." I hadn't asked her again to move, because she was so rude the first time, and, as I said, they are usually fine with this as long as there are empty seats in the exit aisle (There were three on this flight.) I went back to my seat immediately.

As I made my way back, the same stewardess continued berating me over the PA: "That would be a $10,000 fine, and I don't want to pay it." I am a quiet, reserved person--not a difficult person--a teacher of 28 years’ experience. When she wasn't chewing me out, she was going back and forth with a woman in the first seat where the stewardesses spend most of their time near the cockpit at their galley. I suspect this stewardess was under the influence of something -- either that, or has serious emotional problems. I was always polite, and never raised my voice or used language.

She then proceeded to follow me to my seat in the airport lobby and harass me, saying that she was angry that I took a photo of her. This is still a free country and if I wish to document poor customer service with my phone, using photos and video, I have the legal right to do so. Gate agent "J" then proceeded to take a photo of me (I suppose it was an attempt to make me angry, but it failed). Shortly thereafter, another American Airlines gate agent with the initial "E" tried to intimidate me by saying that if I did not delete the evidence (photos/video) from my phone, that she would "call the police to have me arrested". "E" then picked up the phone and proceeded to dial a number in an attempt to intimidate me. I refused to delete the evidence. "E" also refused to return my ticket (isn't that also illegal???) saying that because I refused to delete evidence of their poor customer service, I would be barred from flying on any of their aircraft in the future.

I then left the gate and returned with BOTH a TSA agent and a police officer who spoke with the gate agents regarding their inappropriate behavior. I have never encountered such egregious, foul behavior from airline personnel in my entire life. I would also like to mention that I have two witnesses who observed this encounter and I have the actual names of both gate agents along with photos/video. I will be making a formal complaint to the Department of Transportation and the FAA regarding this ordeal and I will be informing everyone I know about this experience.

Our connecting flight had, of course, departed on time at 1:50 PM. After departing the plane, we're greeted by an agent who hands us boarding passes for the next flight from Philadelphia to Laguardia, departing at 7:30 PM, and sends us on our way without explanation. Disappointed, but accepting, we sat around the Philadelphia airport for the next four hours until the flight info for our Philadelphia to Laguardia flight came up on the screen at the assigned gate. Where we discovered that we were not in fact on the flight, but were on standby.

Not only were we on standby, we were 17th and 18th on the list with zero chance of actually making the 7:30 flight. Our new boarding passes said nothing about us being on standby, nor were we ever offered an explanation or information by any agent of American Airlines. Had we simply been told we were on standby, we could have left Philadelphia at 2:00 PM, taken a bus, and been home already. Instead we find ourselves still in Philadelphia at 6:00 PM with no chance of American Airlines being able to get us home that night. In fact, as we discovered later, there was no chance of them getting us hope in any reasonable time as we later learned that every American flight from Philadelphia to Laguardia was booked through the 31st.

I got into the line for customer service at 6:00 PM while my girlfriend attempted to call American Airlines. At 6:40 PM I had made it about halfway through the line, by which time my girlfriend had managed to cancel the last leg of our flight on the phone. I was at least given a refund of the last leg of my flight, which is the least American Airlines could do. I mean, literally, it is the least they could possibly do, and god knows they'd probably do less if they could have.

As we leave the airport, we stop by the American Airlines baggage office to get my checked bag. There, I was informed that my bag had been loaded on our 1:50 PM connecting flight to Laguardia. I expressed my doubt of that seeing as how our incoming flight landed after our connecting flight left, but the agents insisted that "two systems" indicated my checked bag had been loaded on that flight to Laguardia. Accepting that I was just going to have to deal with getting my bag back later, we left and took a bus back to New York.

That went fairly uneventfully, aside from the two attempts to contact American Airlines regarding the location of my baggage. Both times resulted in 30+ minute hold times, leading us to simply give up on actually figuring out where my bag was that night. My baggage had, of course, not actually violated the laws of physics or travelled back in time in order to be loaded onto a flight that departed earlier than my incoming flight left.

Here is where American Airlines pervasive incompetence finally worked slightly in my favor, as my baggage was in fact loaded on the 7:30 PM flight to Laguardia. It happened to only be moderately inconvenient for me as I live near enough Laguardia that it only wasted an hour and a half of my time on a day I could spare it. But American Airlines didn't know that at the time, nor did they at any point attempt to contact me with regards to what I wanted them to do with my bag. They also made no attempt to inform me of the location of my bag despite the fact that they shipped it to Laguardia knowing that I was not going there myself. The only way I found out about my bag was looking it up online the next day. This entire experience was easily preventable at multiple stages if American had shown the slightest interest in actually helping their customers. Instead, I'm left without answers to a great many questions.

1. Why are American Airlines gate agents providing misinformation (either through malice or incompetence) to their passengers? If we knew we would be unable to make our connecting flight while we were still in Dayton, we would have had flexibility in rescheduling. Instead we were given misinformation and misled into believing we had a chance of making our connecting flight.

2. Why is American Airlines taking passengers to intermediate locations when they know full well they have no capability of getting those passengers to their final destinations? Before we ever got on the plane in Dayton, American should have known we would not be getting to Laguardia that day, but they sent us on our way anyway.

3. Why is American Airlines rescheduling passengers without their input? They should have been forthcoming and honest about what they had done and worked with their passengers to determine the best course of action instead of sending them on their way without any information, allowing them to believe that they were rescheduled on a later flight.

4. Why is American Airlines rescheduling passengers on flights with 27-deep standby lists? (We were #18, but there were even more people behind us on the list). They clearly knew that their passengers were not going to make their rescheduled flights. They knew that all flights were booked for the next several days. And yet they did not make the slightest attempt to work with their customers to help them to their destinations.

5. Why is American Airlines sending baggage of cancelled passengers on flights without any input from the passengers? Again, it happened to work out ok in this particular scenario, but only due to sheer luck on American Airlines' part. They clearly had no idea what was actually going on with my bag at any point, where it was, or where it should be going.

It's not like any one person screwed up here. It indicates a pervasive and systemic incompetence in American Airlines' processes and employees. No one knows what's going on. No one knows what they should be doing. No one actually tries to help the passengers. Once they have their passengers' money, the passengers are burdens and American will do as little as possible to actually help their passengers. They'll send them to airports they'll never be able to get out of. They'll pretend to reschedule their passengers on flights they know they'll never make. They won't tell their passengers what's going on. They won't work with their passengers to help them reach their destination.

I understand delays and cancellations happen. If I had been stuck in Philadelphia for 5 hours but made it home on the 7:30 PM flight I would have grumbled a bit but accepted it. If I had been told what was going on at 2:00 PM I would have cancelled my flight and taken a bus then and grumbled a bit but accepted it. If I had to reschedule my flight from Dayton I would have grumbled a bit but accepted it. If it were an isolated screw up, I would have grumbled a bit but accepted it. Instead, I'm met with a litany of failures on American Airlines part to provide anything nearing reasonable behavior. You know what, this isn't just unreasonable behavior. It's unethical.

Furthermore, this isn't the first time I've had issues with American Airlines. The last two times I've travelled American (in fact, every single time I've flown American), I've been met with non-weather related issues. While they were not as bad as the most recent flight, it just reinforces this pattern of consistent failure with American Airlines.

So the end result of all this is that I'm just done with American Airlines. I'm tired of their mistakes that they make no efforts to fix. I'm tired of giving them money for a service when they have proven time and time again that they are completely incapable of providing the service they promise. Every experience I have ever heard with American Airlines has been miserable. Every time I think they couldn't possibly make my life any worse, they surprise me. And I'm done with it.

Now 2 days later, another wait of 1 hour and 38 minutes to speak with someone, resulted in them telling me they have passed our luggage onto a company called "Same day delivery" and closed the file. They had no contact info or tracking info for that company, and suggested I find it myself online. I called the only entry of that name on the Internet, only to be told they are not the right company, and they have had 5 calls like mine today. I have no way to track our bags now and they have washed their hands of it. I have never experienced such poor service - no service - and lack of accountability. Beware when arranging your next trip. They are useless.

At 3:30 PM the AA service assistant told us that there is no pilot for this flight and we must wait until they find a pilot and the crew somewhere in the US! Finally, they announced that the crew with the pilot will arrive at 6:30 PM. At 6:30 PM, they told us that the pilot is at the Customs so we will leave at 7 PM. They started boarding at 7:20 PM. After 30 min in the airplane, they announced that the pilot does not have the authorization to fly to Boston. Therefore, we must leave the airplane and come back the day after, at 7:30 AM, and also they will not pay the hotel. When we came out of the airplane, the AA assistants were gone so we couldn't ask what to do with our boarding card.

We decided to go to the main AA office at Gate 20 to get a refund. The AA assistants there told us that they cannot refund our tickets! We have to ask online the refund. We asked to speak to a supervisor who told us the same thing. No refund and no voucher...nothing. Just complain online! But on your website it is stipulate in Options for Requesting a Refund: "It's easy to request a refund online. In addition you can request a refund in person at any American Airlines Airport Ticket Office located within the airports that American serves." I am very very shocked to see how AA employees are lying and did not help us at all! Furthermore we have lost our hotel booking for the amount of 900 US!

Three trips to airport in Ft. Myers did not make me happy and worried the whole night and next day worrying they would not encounter another issue. To say I was dissatisfied is being nice!!! I'm sure you will be hearing from many people on that flight 499 Ft. Myers to Philly to Providence since there were many unhappy people. Most of your personnel were nice but there were some that were pretty nasty to make matters worse. While you had the best price, I will be forewarned and pay the extra on another airline to get the service that we used to get from US Air and American... A very unhappy mother, grandmother and customer!

AA cancelled their original return flight to FL, supposedly because of bad weather in Dallas where was their connection flight, when they had 4 flights going to the same location the same day. How is that because of weather? They re-scheduled them for the next day, and surprise surprise, it got cancelled also. They were not capable of finding them any connection checking about 4 different states and hours. They gave them another date for flying, which probably will present problems as well. As I mentioned, my parents visit once a year, and they try to visit their other kids in the same trip, which in this case will probably not happen since they continue cancelling flights because of "weather".

On top of not helping at all, the personnel at the local airport in Albuquerque is extremely rude. The line was extremely long, only for AA. Delta, Southwest and all other airlines were going absolutely smoothly even though some of them were going to the same location where the weather was so terrible for AA. At the airport they only had 4 people taking care of a line of probably almost 100 people, with about 6 computers free. Obviously customer service is not their strong suit. When I finally got to talk with someone the employee was very rude, his answers were short and harsh, and when I told him that with this experience we probably would not use AA anymore but I'm sure he did not care. He just said "NO" and confirm he did not care, and gave me a low laugh.. I told him he didn't have good customer service and he just smiled mocking me and said "Thank you!!" among other sarcastic smiles, and despective sounds.

His attitude was extremely rude and if I was thinking of not using AA before, DENNIS AT THE ALBUQUERQUE AIRPORT, BADGE NUMBER ** made me be sure of it. I started to think he was discriminating against Hispanics and people of color since he did the same to my parents the day before when they were trying to re-schedule the first cancelled flight and he was very rude also with a black person who was speaking with him before us. But the people from first class, he attended them very nicely. These people are the face of your airline, you should hire people who has customer service attitude. Since I am sure it is one of the main requirements of their job. Other people were having very similar or even worse problems.

Some of them having their tickets cancelled, not the flight, without receiving a call or anything at all to ask them about a cancellation or even informed. Flights were oversold with more than 40 people on standby for one single flight, how is that even possible? How can you oversell that many seats when you know there is no space in the airplane? It's amazing the things AA do just to make money. I believe the flights may be cancelled on purpose just to sell our tickets to someone who is willing to pay more, because if it was a weather problem NOT ONE flight would be getting to the destination, but there were 4 going to it that day! Unbelievable!

My family has used AA many times, but you can be absolutely sure we are not using your airline anymore, even if I have to pay double the price you charge, and I will absolutely let anyone know of the latest terrible experience with American airlines. I am not making your pockets bigger and have you discriminating me and my family and treating me the way you did. We, the customers, pay your salaries. You should consider that and have a better management for your company and hire the appropriate people for the job.

Unbelievable, American Airlines only gave me less than 30 minutes to wait the long leaving line and transfer from terminal A to Terminal C. Why American Airlines can't communicate with the connecting flight to wait for a second? To be honest, it really sucks! I only slept 3 hrs for a whole night and have to wait for another 6 hrs at the DFW airport. Now it completely changed my plans and make me very upset and tired. My next flight is 4230 from CMH to DCA. When I arrive at Dayton around 7:00pm, I have no time to take a rest and drive to Columbus to take the fight in the early morning. Can you imagine my situation?

What makes me more angry is the attitude of the flight attendant on the Flight 2555 on Dec. 29th from Reno to Dallas. The woman is absolutely racist. She didn't provide any explains or helps. She even on purpose skip me and my mom to say a "Thank you, goodbye" when she talked to every other passengers when we got off of the plane. She was very unfriendly to us for no reasons. She is too bad!

This past summer I was flying to New Orleans and American Airlines cancelled my flight without any proper notification. After I was on the phone for several hours with them, the customer service representative "booked" me on a flight for the day after my original travel day. Fine, I was able to work with that. But after never getting my confirmation and several more hours on the phone with American Airlines, I find out the representative I spoke to never booked me on the appropriate flight and I had to change my flight once again. After I submitted a complaint, American Airlines sent me that generic apology they send everyone and a $200 voucher.

So then I decide to use the voucher to travel during the holiday season. At the start of my trip, I got to the American Airlines terminal and walk into a disaster. There was no structured line at the check in kiosks and the employees were doing nothing to organize the mayhem. At least a third of the kiosks were broken as well (remember, this is around Christmas, which is obviously a very busy travel time). Eventually, I make it to my destination. (I'll also mention that American Airlines planes are disgusting. My seat had a lot of crumbs on the chair and the aisle looked like it hadn't been cleaned between flights.)

My next problem was that about an hour before I was about to head to the airport to catch a flight back home 2 days after Christmas, my parents called me to tell me that they looked at the status of my flight and it was cancelled. So yet again, American Airlines cancelled my flight and did not even bother to call or email me. My fiance, who was also traveling with me, did not get a notification either. We called AA and had to wait 2 hours on the phone before speaking to a human being to figure out our trip back home. Eventually, we got placed on the flight for the next day, which meant that the both of us would be missing a day of work.

We finally got on the flight back home the next day. Once again, the seats were filthy. (I'm really not nitpicky at all. I get it, these seats get dirty. But it looks like they didn't even bother to clean up any extra trash or food wastes left behind.) We had also paid extra for premium seats since my fiance is very tall and needs that extra legroom. These seats were no bigger than the rest of the plane though.

The last straw was when we got back home to Philadelphia and found out that AA lost our luggage. We did not see our checked bag (full of Christmas gifts) come out on the carousel, but we did notice the employees were carelessly grabbing all the bags on the carousel and piling them on each other. We searched every pile and asked several employees about our bag. Every single employee just told us to go look for our bags in the mess they created. One went as far as to say, "Can you see with your eyes? Ok then look for your bags". Absolutely unprofessional.

It really does take a lot for me to completely cross a company off my list like that (and even more for me to write a bad yelp review), but I've already had two horrible experiences in a row with AA and not a single good experience with them to make up for it. I will not be flying with them ever again, no matter how many vouchers they throw my way, and I highly recommend no one flies with them. Tl;dr aka the short version: American airlines has already cancelled two of my flights without notifying me, lost my luggage and the employees were completely apathetic, and their flights are very uncomfortable and unclean.

The next morning he again inquired about what his options were to reach his base. He was informed that he could take a flight to Arkansas and from there he could take a flight to CO. He got on the flight. When he reached AK, no one knew anything about this. My son was also informed that his flight information had been lost. He was told in AK that it would be 3 days before a flight to CO would be available and then he would be in standby. He is now farther away from his base than what he was in TX. He decided to rent a car and drive to his base in CO from AK.

He would have been better off staying in TX, but he trusted the information he was given from the airline. He was misinformed and because of this error his inconvenience of a canceled flight had grown to an enormous frustration! He was not reimbursed for his return flight - he was not reimbursed for the car rental. Based on the fact that the airline gave him incorrect information - making matters worse, I feel that this is the LEAST they could do.

She was left stranded there without any accommodation. The agent was very rude & not even considered a pregnant woman's concerns. My wife asked for any flights to nearest airport to Baltimore & she was told it's available on Tuesday (2 days later). When I checked online, there were tickets available on Monday as well, but the agent miscommunicated intentionally and told no seats are available until Tuesday, & she need to wait for 2 days to board her next flight. That is absolutely ridiculous how these AA people doesn't care about customers' concern.

I would have not mind so much if my wife was a normal person, but in this situation leaving her stranded with no choice is what shows American Airlines' attitude. I would never ever book any flight with them again in my life. I'm writing this review hoping somebody in airlines' higher management reads this review & help make customer service better, & consider humanity factor & not always business.

On arrival, I was informed that my flight the next morning has also been cancelled. And now I can depart until Dec 30. Where should I go for the next 3-4 days? American does not care. It is not their problem. And when I asked for a refund, all they said was that I need to put in a request. This is a highway robbery. They take my money and now they have put me in this situation without providing any resolution. If I want to get back home, I need to take matters into my own hands. I either drive or take a train. I have lost all trust in American Airlines.

With no apology and saying there was nothing else she could do, we missed our connecting flights, our hotel/travel arrangements, and our money's worth. We walked to another counter where we expressed our concerns and received immediate assistance. In the entire terminal at Boston Logan International Airport, I am certain there is more than 1 wheelchair at the ready, and it doesn't take 45 minutes to get one either. What baffles me is that this woman had the audacity to discriminate a certified handicapped person. It was then I had truly felt American Airlines was un-American in the most upsetting way. Incompetent workers with bad attitudes like Teresa are the reason why AA is going downhill. American Airlines has lost another disappointed customer, and hopefully, more will follow suit.

Two of these times my ride has been at the airport telling me not a cloud in the sky with absolutely clear weather report in both Charlotte and Greenville. I'm not 100 percent certain they are crying wolf to save a few dollars, but it is very plausible. Someone save us. P.S. This time they couldn't even find me a flight to my destination tomorrow (PGV), and I am redirected to new bern - still no recompense from AA - can't wait to pay for a 50 mile cab ride on top of this. Merry Christmas.

When we were getting ready to take off, something went wrong with the steering thing on the wing. So we had to sit there and wait for it to get fixed. We made it to Charlotte, NC at 10:29 p.m. The connecting flight was still there so we rushed to make our flight 2039 to Minneapolis, MN. We had to run the whole airport terminals from terminal E to terminal C. When I get to the gate, the plane is just leaving. I go to ticketing along with thousands of other people from my flight and from many others just to be told that I will have to wait until December 24th at 2:50 p.m. for another flight home. No upgrades, no hotel, no food vouchers, and nothing with me for clothes or anything because it's all in my checked luggage that no one knows where it is. Yet the AA app I have on my phone tracks my luggage to NC and nowhere else.

Thousands of people are here right now on Christmas Eve stuck, hungry, thirsty, dirty, and tired. Lots with little children. American Airlines could care less if we are ok. They got their money from us. That's all they care. They are rude and uncaring people! I want my money reimbursed and believe me when I say that I will go to every major newspaper and every major news station and let the world know not to spend their hard earned money on such an awful airline! I might just contact some lawyers and sue them for all the distress I am going through.

I called again, put myself on the list again to speak with someone. 20 min later someone calls to tell me that if I wanted to change my flight to earlier in the day that it will cost me $200! The earlier flight ticket is only $136! The woman told me that I would need to cancel my flight & eat $108 and buy the new ticket for $136. American Airlines you are smoking crack! I am never giving you any more of my money so I will deal with the later flight. Never again American Airlines. You just lost a solid customer. Do better!

A week after we booked our flight to Portland, we called reservations to ask about your regulations for flying with a service animal. I quote, "We don't know if we are going to fly with her, but since this would be a new experience for us, we need to know what your policy is." I was then told that someone from your special services department will call us before the flight. That never occurred, so a day and a half before the flight I called the special service department and asked them what was needed to fly with our service dog. They told me we needed a letter from a doctor telling them why we needed to fly with a service dog. Obviously, since I had to call them because of their lack of follow through, there wasn't enough time to add the dog to the flight. I then told them, "I hope we still have our seats because we WON'T be traveling with our dog." Their reply was this: "Don't worry, your seats are still there. Nothing has changed."

That was the afternoon of Halloween, Saturday, October 31. On Sunday at check-in time (11:25 AM), Richard ** (the other passenger) tried several times to check in on the American Airlines site on our computer. It kept telling him that he would have to check in at the airport. This is where the barrage number of phone calls to American Airlines (eight to be exact, not counting two previous calls to inquire about service animals) became a circus act and outrageous waste of time for two and a half hours on Sunday, November 1, one day before our trip.

The first call placed to American Airlines after our original reservations were made, came a couple of weeks ago. We talked to a reservation employee and asked for information on flying with a service dog. She said, "I can't help you, but I'll send a note to the service accommodation department and they will call you." Needless to say, that never occurred, so on Saturday, October 31, I called them back. See notes above. They were specifically told that we were keeping our original seats since they hadn't told us the procedures or policies ahead of time and that we would not be taking the dog on the flight. When we could not check in today and receive our boarding pass online, we called American Airlines immediately. This is where the lack of customer service continues. No one could help us. We ended up calling back eight times during a span of two and a half hours.

During that time, we spoke to three rude reservation employees, and three worthless supervisors. The names we were able to retrieve are as follows: Raymond (employee), Christine (worthless supervisor), Kate (employee for a 45 minute hold before she disconnected us), Dawn (an employee), Pamela ** (a worthless supervisor), and lastly, Carol, who identified herself as the supervisor of 'special services,' who was not only rude, confusing, belittling, and someone who kept putting us on hold and saying, "I can't check you in. You need to check in at the airport and receive a boarding pass at that time on Monday, November 2). She kept trying to hang up on us and refused to fix things until I told her we were going to talk with administration and her supervisor, (which she said did not exist).

Finally, she placed us on an additional hold and came back to say she had fixed it for us. We asked her to wait a few seconds so that Richard could pull up the boarding pass on the computer, and she continued her rudeness saying, "I'm not going to wait," and hung up. After two and a half hours of desperately trying to figure out what went wrong and why we could not get a boarding pass, she could not wait five seconds for Richard to verify that the problem was fixed.

We were able to receive the boarding pass. Not only were we stressed to the max, but we hadn't even had time to pack or do anything during that waste of time to get ready for the trip. This is not the way to run a business. Out of eight people, there was no one who understood the problem and wanted to take the time to make it right. We are leaving Monday, as planned to fly to Portland, but I'm hoping you read through this intricate email which I'm rushing so that I can finish packing for the trip. The employees at American ruined our day and our faith in American Airlines. We expect not only compensation for this nightmarish experience, but also an understanding that you will train your employees on excellent customer service. I'd think you'd be as horrified about their behavior as we were. I'm sure you don't want to base your reputation on what happened to us. I look forward to your response.

Luckily enough the outbound flight on Sunday Dec 6 2015 was uneventful but again there was outstanding customer service either. My return flight on Saturday December 12, 2015 from Atlanta, GA was a fiasco! To start out I did not have a seat on the return flight so I PAID A TOTAL OF $51.85 for the premium coach seats. When It was getting close for flight 1473 to board, the Atlanta American Airlines Gate Agents took it upon themselves to decide that everyone that was booked on flight 1473 was not important nor did they have a life that they need to take care of or continue on with, and bumped us off the flight as to accommodate the delayed passengers on the polar express flight. Those coach premium seat funds have yet to be returned to my credit card.

It was announced that the Polar Express flight that was leaving ATL to DFW had some sort of a chip in the propeller or something to that effect and instead of letting them wait the two or so hours and arriving to their final destination a little tardy your employees chose to bump everyone off of flight 1473 and reaccommodate them. Because of their choice I would disconnect with my flight 1497 from DFW to RNO. After waiting in line LITERALLY two and a half hours to get a new flight booked which by the way was scheduled for the next day (Sunday 12/13/2015 ATL to RNO via PHX). I had to wait another 40 minutes to get my hotel set up because the room wasn't showing up in the system?!?! Inexcusable, wasting my time in such a fashion!!!

American Airlines December 20, 2015.

Sunday December 13 2015, there was an issue with my boarding pass when I tried to get onto flight 413. The boarding pass wasn't valid, I explained what happened the day before and she quickly fixed the problem and just put me into First Class at the last minute. I arrived into Phoenix, AZ with no further problems. I was then scheduled to connect with AA flight 5597 seat 1D. When I went to board the flight I presented my ticket and AGAIN the machine beeped and blinked red. The gate agent stated that I was booked in the wrong seat and gave me a ticket for the back of the plane. I went across to the customer service desk and complained. How can I have a boarding ticket with a seat number on it and that seat be taken by someone else??? The AA Customer Service Agent more less stated "I don't know" and there was nothing he could do.

I then asked for the AA Consumer Affairs phone number and or address and his response was you can get that information from the AA website. THERE AGAIN IS ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF AMERICAN AIRLINES WORLD CLASS CUSTOMER SERVICE. Since I was getting absolutely NOWHERE with the customer service agents I turned around and waited to board my flight. At that time, it was announced that the flight was cancelled due to the weather in Reno, Nevada. So needless to say I had to get rebooked again. I never got back to Reno, Nevada until Monday December 14, 2015. Losing a day of work.

Obviously, weather is not something that American Airlines can control; but, if my original flight would have been left alone, I would have arrived into Reno as scheduled 12/12/15. Because of the decision made by your staff on Saturday 12/12/2015 the situation snowballed into a series of stressful events ending up with me missing a day of work. I am a nurse, so my missing a day of work directly affects patient care

The website that allows us to track our lost luggage says the bag has been located in Honolulu and is being forwarded to LAX. However, every time we ring up their help desk, the consultant does not have any information to add and says they are sending a message to LAX and Honolulu. I do not believe the website, as they cannot give any details of where the bag is. We are travelling to New York next and still no word on our luggage.

I will never / ever fly American or use Orbitz again. if South West does not charge why do the other airlines get by with charging so much. THEY TOLD ME IT WAS BECAUSE I CHOSE THE CHEAPER FARE. This is so stupid. I will walk before I ever use American again. Cut up my American advantage card. THERE IS NO ADVANTAGE TO AMERICAN AIRLINES OR ORBITZ.

When I arrived at DC I went to customer Service. No Help--There were six people there and none would listen. Told to use website and email to Corporate my complaint. I did and I requested a phone call/contact number. American WILL NOT supply or respond. I am continuing my effort and will be contacting Corporate some way. I will get to a person because I do believe that there actually is a human that will help. I have all names of agents who were rude. To top all of this all the flight attendants made a comment of how the employees hate this merger, and that customer service as well as kind employee treatment is non-existent. It's just a shame. Meanwhile I paid full freight and received less.

I never said that he had to go by military rules but if someone is fighting for this country why not give them that respect to address them by rank, civilian or not. It's a respect thing. Our conversation ended in me crying. I was already emotional. Haven't seen my family in a year and I have someone who is being rude to me and I don't even know his first name. I just felt so disrespected as a mother, as a soldier, as a human being. I deserve so much better than the service I got. I hope and pray that you all just consider people's feelings. We're all just trying to get home to our families at the end of the day. NO ONE made me raise my right hand to defend this Country from terrorists, both foreign and domestic. And NO ONE made them sign up for that job title so don't take it out on someone. The fact that you don't like your job is not my fault. Why be so mean?

Finally we (my niece and I) were told that they could get us to Charlotte but not to Memphis (our destination) so we did disembark and went to 'the desk'. There was confusion, lack of information not thought that some passengers may need assistance. I went home as that all they could do was find us flights that would get us to Memphis until 10 hours or so later. I asked for a refund and they could not tell me if I would get one, nor give me any info (even email me) that the flight had been 'delayed' for so long (they refused to say cancelled). Worst experience with flights ever!

My own experience began about 8 am on Tuesday, November 24, after my son and I boarded AA flight 1814 from Providence, RI, to Charlotte, NC, with an eventual destination of Savannah, GA, to visit relatives for Thanksgiving. Due to a major mechanical failure in the hydraulic system, we had to deplane and begin seeking alternatives, but there were only two women at the podium trying to help over a hundred passengers. And nobody could provide reliable information about when the problem would be solved, or whether there would be another plane brought in as a replacement.

The estimated departure time on the board changed from 9 am to 10:30 am to 1 pm to 2 pm to 3 pm and finally to 4:30 pm. After about half an hour waiting in line with little movement, I gave up and called AA Customer Service, which assured me that the flight would take off soon and moved my connecting flight back a few hours to accommodate the delay. That connection had to be changed again and again that morning and afternoon.

I was about to despair and had begun seeking a local hotel room at 4:30 pm when the desk clerks urged us to board the plane quickly, as it had to take off by 5:04pm or be cancelled, saying we should "take a seat, any seat." Thinking the hydraulic system had not been adequately repaired, my son said, "Dad, we could die," as we walked down the jetway. Sharing his very legitimate concern, I asked the head flight attendant if I could speak with the pilot about the plane's safety, as he was the only one who would know for sure.

She told me to take a seat and he would get to me, so we took two of the many empty seats in first class so that he could find us easily and we could easily leave the plane if we felt uncomfortable flying. But she flew into a rage almost immediately, ordering us to get out of those seats or she would call the airport police. We complied but apparently the police were called to the podium.

About 10-15 minutes later, this attendant came down the aisle, counting the number of passengers on board. Upon overhearing a comment I made about her to my son, she again flew into a rage, leaned over him and shouted several times directly into my face, "Are we going to have a problem, or are you going to shut your mouth?" Although I said I would comply, she nevertheless ordered us off the plane, despite the fact that we posed no threat whatsoever to passenger safety. It was solely a matter of her emotional overreaction.

When we deplaned, there were three police officers waiting who interviewed me about the incident. I told them it was mainly a matter of a flight attendant's grossly emotional overreactions, not any threat we had posed to the flight or its passengers. They seemed to accept this account, filed no charges, and helped us find hotel accommodations. We flew out the next day on another airline, reaching our final destination about a day later than we had planned and having spent an extra $235 for meals and lodgings in Providence.

In summary, my son and I suffered a day's delay in reaching our destination because of American Airlines' equipment failure, slow process of correcting the problem, not providing a replacement plane, inability to provide reliable information on which to revise our travel plans and enough staff to implement changes, and the emotional overreaction of an irate AA flight attendant abusing her authority, plus the humiliation of this attendant shouting in my face, essentially telling me to shut up in front of my son and other passengers and threatening me with police arrest.

I filed a complaint with AA and cancelled payment for the flight tickets through my credit-card provider, Chase VISA, and was given credits for the two flights by AA, but have not been compensated for the extra $235 paid for meals and lodgings, nor given any compensation for the day's delay or being humiliated by its employee.

This was by far my WORST experience in half a century of flying. Nothing else even comes close. And a brief perusal of the online literature indicated that this was not an isolated incident. Indeed, in about a month before our case, at least two other passengers had been ordered off planes by abusive AA flight attendants when they posed no safety threats. Combined with what I read on this Consumer Affairs site, it leads me to the conclusion stated above that a CULTURE OF CUSTOMER ABUSE has taken hold at American Airlines. My sincere recommendation: Avoid American Airlines if at all possible.

She then turned to the check in desk and said she would find someone to help, because the people from the other airline were trying to catch her attention as well. She was complaining and said "Servicemen don't miss their flights", my brother responded with "show a little respect to the military". She said "oh I do". As his younger sister an anger boiled to hear someone be so disrespectful not only to my brother but to insult the military. Because of people like him we live in a free country. They risk their lives everyday and she couldn't wait just a few more minutes to help. Not even but not be disrespectful and to calmly find someone else to help.

My parents were there as well and it hurt them to see how rude she was. She didn't have to be insubordinate, he was paying for the ticket, so it's not like it was free. It was impertinent not only for my brother but to the family in general. To witness how he was treated, as a family we were worried he wouldn't be able to make it on time back to his base. After being able to be with his family just for Thanksgiving. We are disappointed he had to travel with American Airlines. Yes he is in the military, but he's also human. Respect those who serve the country we live. This happened at Fort Lauderdale airport Fl.

On arrival at Philadelphia we had very little time to get our connecting flight to Newark on flight US4920 as we had to collect our baggage from arrivals and then change terminal. I am amazed that this happened as in the Uk bags are picked up at final destination and custom clearance done then. We understand immigration port for eye and finger prints but for taking bags to another conveyor belt I am lost at as there were no custom officers at the terminal that we saw anyway. To date I have not received a satisfactory response to complaint I submitted, being told thank you for feedback is wholly not acceptable..

09th November 2015. For our flight home we arrived San Francisco Airport. Arrived at designated time with plenty to spare. Went to your automated machined and collected boarding passes and checked in our bags, for flight US403 with a connection flight at Philadelphia back to Manchester UK on flight US734 only to be told that we could not fly on flight, as not enough transfer time, due to the first flight being delayed 2.5 hours. We presume due to the rain that had happened earlier that morning as no one was able to inform me of what had caused the delay.

We had an American Airline employee then point us in the general direction to your customer service desk and told "go speak with them and rearrange your flights." So now not only have we no flight but we have to go and sort out our new flights. Yet again a great customer service approach. When we reached to desk the supervisor by the name of Marcelo ** gave us various options for getting back to UK. First stay in San Francisco and book into hotel, fly to Chicago and book into hotel due to time it would arrive, fly to JFK and book into hotel same problem or fly to Philadelphia and book into hotel. Whilst deciding what we would do he handed us a pink slip saying ring the number and sort out a room, as it was not American Airlines policy to source rooms.

Bearing in mind we had no phones my wife asked how we could do it and he pointed to pay phones and said "use them, then come back and let us know" so they could try and sort our flight out. I inquired at this point about using another carrier and he was adamant that was not possible or allowed, which I find absolutely disgusting. I also pointed out to the gentleman that my wife had a preexisting heart condition called Stress-induced cardiomyopathy and also that we had an autistic adult at home and needed to be back to sort out him moving, into his own home on our return, which when we contacted him to inform him that we would not be returning for another 24 hours, he went into a meltdown (which we are still picking up the pieces from at the current time).

Yet again American Airline customer care was zero. Instead all he said to my wife and I was there nothing they could do, and with us being delayed it also meant my wife couldnt open her business on time so she also lost trade. We had to pay out of our pocket to book hotel and food, due to delays and missed connections. In UK the airline companies actually give you more help with moving and sourcing hotels for you.

We arrived at airport on Morning of 10th November to check bags to only be passed along various desks again and treated in a fashion I dont think was conducive again to your airline image. We finally got our bags checked and proceeded to gate 58b as per our ticket, for the flight to Chicago at 10:35 flight number AA 1145. If I had not inquired at desk to confirm check in we would have missed boarding as the actually gate was 57 whilst close to each other no announcements were being made.

I approached the desk clerk at 57 by the name of Jessica and asked if I was at right desk as our boarding pass clearly stated gate 58b. She again was very abrupt on the point of being extremely rude asking what my question was. I explained I wanted to confirm I was at the right gate, to which she replied whats my question, so I politely asked if we would have sufficient time to meet our connection. Again a very abrupt reply of "you have 60 mins to get to gate." When we land, I asked what would happen if flight was delayed. She yet again just came out with "its not going to be delayed" as it was outside. My wife and myself must either be extremely unlucky or have higher standards of manners than that of all your staff we have come across, as all seem to be very rude and inconsiderate. We even saw them treat other passengers with the same blunt responses.

Our final flight home from Chicago was also eventful with my wife being splashed with water from the drinks trolley and the cabin crew member just said not to worry we not going to Kansas nor going to wizard of Oz which I thought was totally not the right approach. And yet again when I visited the rest rooms at the back of the flight 2 rows of seats had been laid out as beds I presume for cabin crew as blankets and quilts had been laid out and a crew member was asleep, which did raise concerns with me. Should anything of happened in flight your cabin crews would not be fully alert to help and assist passengers. All in all I would say the service your airline has provided us is not one of an acceptable standard. I have also resulted in trying to speak to someone via your Facebook page but again just pointed to the same sites I have already used.

Saying that we came across an excellent ambassador Susan ** for your company who explained a lot of things and she even tried to get us on another carrier. But she found it funny that when she rang and asked about it she was treated with replies like "I dont know how to do this as Im not used to this system only us airways system," or "no its not within airline policy" when it clearly is within policy to swap people to other carriers. I have submitted 3 complaints now ahead of this letter and have had no replies from you apart from the standard automatic reply saying you have received my email. With having no other means to contact the airline other than email its beyond belief.

19th November 2015. At long last I received a reply from your online customer care service last night 18th November 2015, which to be honest I have found rather insulting and belittling, after admitting liability for us missing our flights due flight disruption was caused by flight crew availability. It would be ideal to have trained crews standing by and ready for all flights. Unfortunately, that is not a feasible option at all times. For this we have been offered the sum of a $200 voucher for use on American Airlines or Envoy for both my wife and I without actually finding out if we plan on returning back to the USA as we live in the United Kingdom. And the voucher we have been told (is only valid for 12 months) and has already been sent out to us with first seeing if this was acceptable.

As for having to pay for a hotel and overnight expenses we have been told to "submit a copy of your receipt for review and consideration of reimbursement under our contracted rate" whatever that means. No offer of compensation has been made at all apart from the vouchers, which quite honestly will not be of any use to us as our next holiday will probably be to Australia to visit family.

I try to contact AA and they have no way for you to talk to anyone in person for this matter. You must email refunds and wait for them to answer. I have twice and have not even gotten a confirmation email that my inquiry has been received. (VERY unprofessional) I got hold of a ticket agent and they have confirmed I will not be allowed to talk with anyone in person and will have to wait for the email to be answered. I do not even know if they received it through their website - again no confirmation. I am in the process of trying to dispute the charges through my credit card company as I have no idea if I will ever be contacted. It will be United Airlines next trip. They have lost tens of thousands of dollars in business. Whatever happened to personal service?

I asked my daughter not to sign until I had a chance to speak to someone at AA. She would arrive at her airport destination at 1:57 a.m. tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, she would have to wait another 7 1/2 hours for her first connecting flight, take the last flight, wait 5 hours, and then take a several hour bus ride. (She had to miss the first bus ride, and we had to purchase another bus ticket, $34.) I asked if they would feed her since she would have to hang around airports for 12 more hours, and they refused. A supervisor in Dallas I spoke with was defensive and rude. Flying with American Airlines has been a terrible experience and I do not recommend them.

Second incident was parents weekend. My husband and I reached DFW and drive down to Waco. My other child (16 y.o.) took a later flight to avoid missing school. That plane "died" at pushback and had to be towed back to gate and deplaned. Another 2 hour delay resulted in a missed connection to Waco, the late flight to Waco that night. The airlines refused to give my son a hotel room because he is under 18 (even though he has a credit card). Instead they gave a $12 dinner voucher and $7 for breakfast and a night in the airport on a bench! Really??! Is that the way you treat a first class passenger???

Needless to say, we drove from Waco that night to pick him up which put us back in Waco at 2am! Ridiculous! These were all mechanical issues too! I did receive a refund for the Dallas-Waco flight of $129! Not nearly enough considering our time spent in the car driving back and forth from Waco to Dallas or the gas. This was our family weekend at Baylor! I did not want to spent it driving or I would have drove from KC instead of flying.

So third incident was fall break. When leaving KC to return to Waco, the flight again was delayed -- mechanical issues again -- which resulted in another missed Waco flight. This one resulted in my child sitting in the airport for 5 HOURS as stand by for the last Waco flight of the night! Instead of getting back to school at 6pm, she got in at 1130pm.

And this brings me to today -- November 29. Again, a delayed flight leaving KC with a missed connecting flight with the last flight sold out. Of course it's sold out, it's Thanksgiving weekend!! So this time we got smart, and got a car service to take her from DFW to Baylor since all the shuttles were sold out too. Again thanks to American Airlines and their mechanical issues. I'm going to try to get a refund for that canceled fight. Unfortunately, we don't have many options for first flight to Dallas either. It's Southwest or American. I've never cared for Southwest's open seating policy or the fact that there is no first class but I will be rethinking that unless American is able to make this right!

When we went to board, I gave my card to the hostess and it wouldn't scan, so she asked me to step to one side and called a supervisor, passed her the card and said it needed re-printing. I told my family to board without me and I'd see them on the plane. While other people were boarding, the supervisor came back and asked for my passport, which I handed over, and she went back to the desk. After everyone else had boarded, another supervisor came and asked me to go to the desk. When I got there, he explained that I was in coach class, so I corrected him, told him about my insurance company paying for the seat etc etc. He stated that my seat was no longer available but I could go in coach.

When I asked what had happened to my seat, he asked how I acquired my boarding card, insinuating that I'd acquired it by unscrupulous means. I explained again what had happened and said that if anything went wrong with my foot, my insurance would be void and would AA take responsibility, which he denied. I phoned my insurance company, they confirmed the booking of the seat and asked to speak with him, but he wouldn't take the phone. By now he was pressuring me to either get on the plane or fly next day.

I told him my family were on the plane and I wanted to consult with them, so he sent a hostess to get my wife. While waiting for my wife, he kept saying I'd to get on the plane. When my wife came, we discussed the available solutions, and decided that if there could be 3 seats together, I'd get on the plane (it was now less than 5 minutes to closing the gate and he kept threatening to close it even though my children were on the plane without my wife). As we got on the plane the doors were shut, I took my seats, buckled up and waited.

90 minutes later, we were still sat there - technical difficulties refuelling. When a ground staff member came on board to tell us we could get off to stretch our legs, I got off the plane and asked him for a hotel room for my family and me. After explaining why (I was considerably uncomfortable) he booked one, explained where to get the shuttle etc and re-booked our seats on the next flight - 24hrs later. He then gave us our boarding cards, except mine was 1 seat in coach. When I asked why mine wasn't in business class, he said "because that was where I had been sat." I explained the situation again and he said that there weren't any business class seats available, to which I suggested he should look again and he "managed to find one" (as if one had magically appeared).

So we got the shuttle to the hotel (it was approx 11.45pm by now) and when we walked into the reception area, it was full of bikers. There was a biker convention on that weekend!!! (Bikers = hells angels.) We stopped the night there, listening to the shouting and swearing etc, returned to the airport the next day and caught our flight home.

I then filled an online form in, stating all the above and 2 days later I got a phone call. I thought it was pretty good customer service, how wrong could I be. Firstly I was accused of not being at the gate on-time, hence no business class seat, then, because I had "agreed" to take a coach class seat, I wasn't due to compensation. I wasn't due to compensation for sitting on the plane for 90 minutes and when I explained about the hotel, she didn't seem that concerned. Eventually she offered 3 x $200 vouchers and 1 x $250 the extra $50 to cover expenses, which amounted to $97. I told her that I was insulted by this offer, but I'd consult my family and email her back. Apparently, they don't accept incoming calls!!! I emailed back the next day and awaited another phone call. 4 days later, still no phone call, so I took to Twitter, and via Twitter, I was assured I would be contacted.

Day 5 no phone call but assured by Twitter that I'd receive a call. Day 6 no phone call but assured by Twitter that I'd receive a call. Day 7 no phone call, but I had received 4 x $250 vouchers, no apology letter, in fact no letter at all, just the vouchers, so I started to state how bad their customer service is. This resulted in Twitter passing on my case number to customer relations and I received a call. Apparently, they couldn't offer any more because of all the above and she stated that AA didn't have to give us accommodation. I asked for my call to be escalated and she said she'd see what she could do. 45 minutes later, I received another call, same agent who stated that her manager was there for admin purposes only!!! And that if I didn't want the vouchers, I could give them away etc. In other words, it's all I'm getting.

I asked her how often they overbook business class, and after a long silence, she said that they don't and that there must have been a glitch. How unlucky am!!! (Sarcasm.) I've since sent an email stating the above, to the AA board of directors including CEO and VP. I've had a read receipt, saying they've been opened but no reply as yet. I've got to say that they have the worst staff and customer service team ever. Period. If you need convincing after reading the reviews on this site, read their Twitter feed. There are people complaining every hour. For a company that made $950 million profit, they have the worst customer service. Or as I put it on Twitter, the best at being the worst. As others have said, don't fly AA, the extra money to fly with someone else is more than worth it. I've only given it 1 star because I have to give it something.

Flight was fine, except for the following: New business class seat requires passenger to "rock butt forward" per attendant instructions, to engage the seat back and leg extension. Ours did not function at all and most passengers found the methodology of extending the seat confusing and unsatisfactory. Food choice was limited. Shrimp/polenta vs. meat/pasta entrees. We were in the first business class line of seats, the meat/pasta choice was gone after Seats 3A and B were offered the choice. However, there was meat/pasta choices available for the business class crew and others. I know, because I saw them eating the specific entree. Cabin crew, made sure that their ID's were hidden by either their apron or the uniform jacket. Obviously, they did not want their name identified by passengers.

On landing, AA staff caused passengers to move twice from carousel #8 to #3 (Alaska airlines) to #8 because their representative misread the luggage carousel information. This is truly a disaster airline that provides no value to its passenger only aggravation and poor service. Even the warm bread buns were rationed at one per person.

American Airlines customer service doesn't have a phone number, you can only contact them by mail (how convenient). They told my husband the only "compensation" they can give us, is some miles with them (not even enough to one way ticket to go somewhere) and they told us that they didn't even had to give us an hotel room for the night we were forced to stay in Charlotte because of their mechanical issues. We lost one day of vacation (A full work day for each of us). We lost one night in a 4 stars hotel in the Caribbean and one day of included meals. We were customers, we flight within the US and to South America every year, but I will be changing airlines for sure after this.

all I could see was the irony of how the airlines wanted to be treated, and how they treat their customers. I got the impression that Mr Parker is the type of guy that says "Do as I say, not as I do". All we can do as consumers is not give our business to the people that screw us, the only way they will change is if they are hit in the wallet.

Nov. 3, 2015, my daughter arrives at Munich airport 8am, which is 3 am EST. AA has NO personnel in Munich. Code Share, with British Air, they have no record of my daughter's res. American airlines has no one to assist at the airport. She is forced to buy new flight $2000.00 one way. Turns out Oct 24 is in the middle of software merge/US Airways. Finally, I receive a call from AA Customer Relations , she admits the AA res was not accepted by British Air, however no one told us, the consumer. Further, AA profited from their lack of customer contact, we originally paid $1700 for ticket, then + $2000.00 for return flight.

After several emails via their template on AA website. Finally received a call from American Airlines CR agent, she politely told me she could not refund our overcharge. she understood, but could do nothing to make us whole, even though American Airlines profited hugely from American Airlines error. I asked her if she has ever refunded money to a customer, and she said never. This tells me much. A customer relations agent has never refunded anything to a customer.

After several complaints logged at AA's website rejected I received a call this evening from someone in customer services offering me a $100 compensation for the inconvenience. While I appreciate this is a positive movement from AA given the rigid, no-can-do responses I've been receiving all day it still doesn't address the issue I've been highlighting. I was told by one of AA's representatives that I should take a cab at 3.30 am to St Louis airport to catch the flight I was rebooked on, and that the fare would be refunded by AA.

When I asked the person that called me tonight what else I should have done when I was told this she refused to answer the question. I asked several times (and I have witnesses to this) but she simply would not give me an answer. Clearly AA have accepted responsibility by offering a partial payment so why not just do the right thing and refund me what the representative committed to?

I'm at a complete loss as to the attitude of AA. I'm one of many millions of customers (and a loyal one at that having a 2 million mile status) that simply followed the instructions given. If the representative made an error it's not my problem it's AA's. So why don't they look after their customers and treat me as they would want to be treated? I think their approach is cheap, unaccommodating and more than anything, unethical. And to have been subjected to the robotic dialogue I received tonight was demeaning and disrespectful. I won't be giving up on this as it's now a matter of principle. #davidandgolioath