Bernieboy

Will be flying cattle class on American airlines for first time to New york this summer from London.are they a good airline,good service etc,cheers

Bernieboy

They must be shit mate,nobody seems to have used them,not even Americans

Englishmum

I was with my friend Julie today, who is from London. A couple of days ago her brother and his two teenage daughters flew from LHR to JFK on AA (in economy) and were not at all impressed with the attitude of the crew or the comfort of the flight....food was awful and not much of it. One daughter is a vegetarian and ordered a special meal - which they didn't have onboard. The row in front of them had the last of the breakfast waffles so she was given an omelette with meat in it. The flight attendant said "you'll just have to scrape the meat off"...

BTW.....on all US airlines they do charge for beer, wine and spirits (approx $6 for a tiny glass). Virgin and BA don't.

Bernieboy

Ah a voice in the wilderness,cheers for that,sounds mmmm exciting.I hope they dont find out how much i hate the average yank

AmerLisa

Then why are you coming to the US?

Bernieboy

Ha ha thought i might get someone to finally answer if i wrote that,nah i think yer all lovely

penguinsix

Legacy carrier. Really depends on which aircraft you end up on. One that is 10 years old and showing signs of wear and tear, or one that is new and quite modern and clean. Some AA first class, mainly on short hops, is little more than a glorified economy. Some are a bit better.

Plus side is that they are part of One World, so if you fly First on American you can get Tier Points for British Airways. I often do 'mileage runs' in First on AA to keep status with BA.

traceym

Anyone who is old enough to remember Dan Air will smile when I say somehow they remind me of them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bernieboy

Thanks people,although my friend has 'given' me the flight using her points i have a funny feeling tis not going to be a good experience

meauxna

They've been my preferred airline for years and years.
I suppose it will be what you make of it.

And yes, I've gone everywhere on those stupid miles. I have tickets now that I can't use! But you're not getting them, Bernie!

Hey, you have nice friends.

hobbes79

I've used them a lot due to having a lot of miles.

They are pretty poor compared to the likes of BA and Virgin for transatlantic.

Antiquated entertainment on the older planes and poor and charging for drinks just bugs me. Plus I flew the 7 hour or so flight from Dallas to Hawaii, and since they classed it as domestic they even charged for food.

After layoffs years ago, the first in last out policy was used.

As a colleague of mine's joke often went, "on AA, when they ask the elderly and infirm to board first, that's when the crew get on".

Bada boom!

HoosierDaddy

Great experience so far - you've already made a helluva saving!

Bernieboy

I do indeed and she lives on Madison ave so i'll be roughing it

scrubbedexpat097

I have used them once and I couldn't fault them, but.....


The flight was from Gatwick to Dallas. It was one of the first flights after everything came to a halt for 9/11. Just before we started to pull out we stopped and almost 3/4 of the passengers got off (they were US serviceman and their plans were changed at the last minute). So after waiting on the plane for about an hour while their luggage was removed we were served drinks and snacks and just about everyone had 3 seats to themselves for the flight back to Dallas

I'm sure that's really of no importance to you but I thought I'd share

GeoffM

Me, my wife, and 2-year old son flew on them last October, LHR-ORD-FTW and MCO-ORD-LHR. We paid for a seat for our son but the person in front complained of kicking his bad back (despite the fact he couldn't even reach the seat in front...) so we complied with the stewardess's request (read: instruction) to move such that he sat on the wife's lap while I sat in the seat in front. That lasted most of the LHR-ORD flight until we hit turbulence and I decided *I* would be the one to decide that he was safer strapped into his own seat, and sod the person in front who was surprisingly agile at leaping over seats despite a bad back. Afterwards I wrote a letter of complaint, along with due praise for other parts of the flights, requested the difference between a lap child fare and seated fare - and got the refund!

Check-in at MCO (Orlando) would have taken well over an hour had I not bended the truth slightly with a self-check-in kiosk (no queues for those). I explained what I'd done to the lady at bag drop and she said not to worry about it. I forget the question now but it wasn't exactly appropriate for a 2-year old anyway.

The rest of the flights were uneventful - nothing great, nothing bad. Much of a muchness. Food reasonably good. IFE ok. Not a patch on some Asian airlines but no worse than BA... in fact, probably better since you might actually get to your destination.

Bags are charged domestically but if your domestic flight connects to/from an international flight then the first bag is no extra charge. Exceptions apply.