American just can’t seem to figure out if it wants to compete with Delta and United or with Spirit and Frontier.
While Delta and United are making improvements to the product, American has no plans on restoring seatback entertainment or adding back to the stingy legroom on their 737s.
One of the big advantages of a major carrier is that they will rebook you on another airline, but several years ago American stopped booking non-top tier elites onto other airlines, even when the delay was their fault.
Despite being an American top-tier elite, I’ve still had horrendous experiences flying American. In January 2020 we encountered multiple baggage fiascos on American to Nassau that were only narrowly avoided thanks to my status.
In February 2021 after a flight to Maui was cancelled due to maintenance, American told me to book a hotel and they would reimburse me. They later refused as they said it was a weather related cancellation, but relented when I shared the video clip of their agent saying it was due to maintenance and that they would pay for hotels. However they refused to pay for related expenses, though Chase covered those thanks to booking on my Sapphire Card.
A week after accepting $5.8 billion from taxpayers, American went and increased their baggage fees.
And now American has made their contract of carriage worse than ever.
- American now says its only obligation when there is a delayed cancelled flight is to refund what you pay, they no longer have to actually get you to where you’re going.
- American reiterates that it won’t rebook you on other airline flights when you miss a connection due to American’s fault.
- American will only pay for a hotel stay when you get a voucher from American for the hotel or other expenses.
2. If AA "or our airline partner fails to operate or delays your arrival more than 4 hours, our sole obligation is to refund the remaining ticket value and any optional fees according to our involuntary refunds policy."
So, AA may strand you on the day of travel. pic.twitter.com/NQ86vzEz5j
— JT Genter (@JTGenter) September 5, 2021
5. Even worse, AA then emphasizes in the next section that if "you book your own arrangements without written authorization from American Airlines, you're responsible to pay for your hotel, meals and other expenses". pic.twitter.com/J8rymzYbXq
— JT Genter (@JTGenter) September 5, 2021
But hey, at least we bailed the airlines out with no strings attached. š
In the meantime, American goes even further down my list of preferred airlines.
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39 Comments On "American’s Irregular Operations Policies Just Keep Getting Worse"
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Spirit 2.0
Seems to be their aspiration. Their operational performance certainly gives Spirit a run for their money.
With only 3 major airlines and limited capacity, itās not like a consumer product where you can switch to another brand.
The airline mergers of the 2000s-2010s really devastated consumer choice and competition.
But still, there are options on most routes.
There are options, however schedule and price are important factors. The emergence of ULCCs and LCCs demonstrates that price is the most important factor when someone is choosing a flight. Not all seats on the same flight are priced equally like bottles of ketchup so, very few will choose Delta or United if the fare is significantly higher than Americanās. Thatās why as much as we would like to avoid American, in practice it just doesnāt happen.
True, but if American has a $300 fare and United has a $330 fare, I’d gladly pay a premium at this point for United. American is just a mess!
The masses may take whatever is cheapest, but if you know you know.
That being said you are correct. If the fare is significantly higher, I’d fly American and roll the dice. I’ve just been burned so many times by them that it’s nuts. It’s a shame there aren’t more options.
For $20-$30, I agree with you. So what is your price point at which you decide not to pay a premium for a ābetterā carrier?
Usually there are more factors than just money, such as timing, connections, plane types, etc.
But all else being equal, I’d probably pay an extra 20% or so at this point.
The problem Iāve noticed with Delta is that their cheapest fare on nearly every route is Basic Economy whereas thatās not always the case with AA or UA. Unless they compete with a lower cost carrier on that route, often it will be a regular economy seat.
So fly United?
That’s a brilliant opening line. But could you quote Delta and United policy on rebooking to other carriers, just so we have it available if needed?
United is the most generous about booking on other carriers. Delta prefers not to book on American though.
JetBlue/Southwest/Spirit/Frontier won’t book on other carriers.
I can confirm that, a family member was just rebooked on another airline by United
They are not to bad lately
Nice.
Major reason to book United.
So, nothing published? Up to any given gate agent on any given day? Didn’t they used to have interline agreements? I would think some bank would see this as an opportunity to add a feature to a credit card, rather than some of the worthless stuff they now offer. “If your flight is canceled, we’ll pay the difference for a ticket on another flight.” Maybe limit it to twice a year.
Time to call it what it isā¦ American Airlines is a organized criminal operation that just happens to also fly planes. Delta is the only airlines that even remotely resembles a legit airline anymoreā¦ sad.
Truthfully, United has been looking better than Delta for the past year or so. It’s torture to reach Delta on the phone and they have had several operational meltdowns. But Delta is clearly better than everyone else.
JetBlue has gone way downhill and Southwest’s operations are also a mess.
also, Delta has a virus variant named after them…
I tried reaching United for a few weeks and every time it took about an hour & halve until they answered the phone.
Ironically an agent told me that they only offer a callback option when the wait is NOT to long
Is that for new tickets or retroactively for tickets previously purchased?
American will try to say it’s retroactive, though the DOT would not be happy with that.
How that work on award ticket? Please donāt say they are going to credit me 12,500 miles and leave me stranded last minute with no ticket.
Tilech Hasnah Bkleiossaha
Yes, they now have the right to do that per their updated contract of carriage.
Of course you are still free to file a complaint with the DOT and see what they think about this.
If itās in the contract of carriage when you purchase your ticket, doesnāt that mean that you have agreed to be bound by the CoC? In that case, what would be the basis of your complaint to the DOT?
Airlines can’t make rules in their CoC that violate DOT policy. Similar to the DOT striking down no refund policies for cancelled flights last year.
Not getting someone to their final destination is probably violating DOT policy.
Can AA claim a weather delay on a specific flight, when the weather issue was not on the route that was on the passenger’s itinerary, but rather where the plane was originating? I am asking specifically in regards to reimbursing a hotel, since AA is claiming they are not required since there was weather issue where the plane was originating from, but that they still consider this a weather delay.
AA lies about weather issues even when the pilot says it’s mechanical and corrects the agent to tell them it’s mechanical, but they still file it as weather in the system.
And I have all of that on video.
So they can say anything they want. File a DOT complaint if you’re unhappy with them.
As an employee, I can confirm that this happens
Good to know and will try to avoid AA.
I called them to change a flight this May, the est wait time to call back was 4 hours. I had to call them again in July for my return flight due to a visa thing, the turnaround time was 17 hours(seriously?!
I thought oh well, they must be getting a lot of bookings lately, or they are understaffed. After talking to my friend who had worked there and just quit, it turns out to be the latter case.
I recently had an awful experience with them flying CLT-CLE. Brake sensor needed replaced, so we had to deplane. A “20 minute fix” took 3 hours,and then they decided to tell us that there was a gate change and new plane. Both planes were filthy. Garbage in seatbacks, white chalky substance over some of the seats.
We need another major airline to start a hub in Charlotte š AA is all i really have on non-stop routes
Unfortunately, at some of the smaller regional airports, there aren’t much choices. For me, Hartford is 30 minutes away. Boston is 90 minutes with no easy way to get there (the local town has blocked train service to Boston), and NYC is 3 hours by train. So AA is it for many, many routes-mostly domestic or local international-Caribbean or Mexico. Those policies are horrific, so I book my ticket with my AMEX Platinum to hopefully cover most travel delay issues.
I am curious you said luckily chase reimbursed you for other things, what did chase reimburse you for?
Uber and food.
Thanks, good to know. Do you need receipts or do they give you a certain amount per day?
when flying American can i use my British airways mileage program to receive the miles for the flight? what has better opportunities for miles redemption- American airlines or British airways? meaning when I fly domestically should I give American airlines my American mileage number or my British airways mileage number? also are they equally valuable?
It’s about time for US airline consumer protection laws.
The unilateral “contracts of carriage” are horrendous and obligate the airlines to almost nothing!
Unfortunately when searching for award saver space beggars can’t be choosers.
So basically they’re making themselves very unattractive at a time when air travel is far from its peak. What’s the business sense in that?