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(Times Union)   CEO of American Airlines acknowledges the carrier has had a "few rough weeks". Unfortunately they've come right on the heels of a few rough years   ( timesunion.com) divider line
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    More: Fail, American Airlines, airlines, on-time performance  
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448 clicks; posted to Business » on 10 Oct 2012 at 3:13 AM (5 years ago)   |   Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook   more»



19 Comments     (+0 »)
 
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ladyfortuna
2012-10-10 02:17:46 AM  
I flew American when I went to England in 2000. Then I flew again with them in I think 2005. What a rapid spiral down the toilet...

/scones, jam and cream, oh my!
//horrible fruit cup the second time. Oh. My.
 
AverageAmericanGuy [TotalFark]
2012-10-10 05:13:12 AM  
Lately I've been really loving Korean Airlines. Great food. Great service. A short stopover in Incheon to fill up on bulgogi. Plus, it's usually cheaper than either Delta or United.

I totally recommend it.

Sometimes you might get shot down by the North Koreans, but YOLO.
 
KrispyKritter
2012-10-10 06:31:21 AM  
i recall an article on Fark warning of what may came as some domestic airlines began having maintenance performed at third world shiat hole locations. don't recall if any specific airlines were mentioned by name.

/for me it's north by Northwest
//running maniacally through a field
///in black and white terror
 
enry [TotalFark] [BareFark]
2012-10-10 06:50:51 AM  
Boarding a JetBlue flight in 10 minutes, getting a kick...

/if SW or JetBlue don't fly there, it's not worth flying to, at least in the US
//For the record, Boston Logan still has the nudiescopes
 
Generation_D
2012-10-10 08:04:54 AM  
Was on American a few months ago. All the seats were bolted on, but it was without a doubt the crappiest flight, both in terms of quality of the surroundings (dirty everything, trash on the floor when I sat down, nothing looked like it had been wiped down lately) to the people surrounding me (fat bubba mc fatterson next to me, his inbred family several rows back, all eating fried chicken they brought on. He even offered me his leftovers! And was being nice!) .. ugh .. looks like Southwest's fatties-pay-double rule shoved all the 300+ ers onto American, where they make flight time meal time.

no no 1000 times no never again die in a fire American you're terrible. Southwest, Alaska, and if needed United-nental.
 
Tillmaster
2012-10-10 08:23:53 AM  
I've endured more than 1.5 million miles on American. Horrible airline.
 
digistil
2012-10-10 08:40:02 AM  
Say what you will about how poorly AA is run, but they will have all of their seats bolted to the floor by this coming weekend. Let the executive that could find ways to spend their multi-million dollar bonus AND ensure seats were bolted to the floor of all aircraft, throw the first stone.

Link
 
Howie Spankowitz
2012-10-10 09:14:25 AM  
I concur with the AA bashing. I just had the misfortune of flying to Madrid from L.A. and then turning around and flying to Kauai on AA. That's about 34 hours on AA over a 3 week span. Dirty planes. Seats less comfortable than sitting in a plastic folding chair. Terrible food. Horrible entertainment options (thank god for Season 2 of Downton Abbey on my iPad), and with one notable exception, crabby flight attendants. Lop on the outrageous fees for EVERYTHING (in flight food, extra bags, in flight internet), and it's a recipe for a face-stabbingly horrid travel experience.

Having flown Air New Zealand, Virgin Atlantic and other excellent international carriers, I simply can't understand why American, or the other U.S. carriers, can't figure out how to provide a decent customer experience and turn a profit. AA is the worst of the bunch.
 
Regular Chumpington
2012-10-10 10:04:35 AM  
Don't remember when I last flew AA - it was in the last five years, but it was a definite "NEVER AGAIN" experience. The inside hadn't been cleaned since the early days of Clinton's first term.

Which is a shame because I don't recall it having been so awful back in the day.

Now: Southwest, Virgin, Hawaiian and Singapore are the preferred carriers.
 
Generation_D
2012-10-10 10:11:09 AM  

Regular Chumpington: Don't remember when I last flew AA - it was in the last five years, but it was a definite "NEVER AGAIN" experience. The inside hadn't been cleaned since the early days of Clinton's first term.

Which is a shame because I don't recall it having been so awful back in the day.

Now: Southwest, Virgin, Hawaiian and Singapore are the preferred carriers.


I'm old enough to remember in the 1980s, American was one of the industry leaders. They wrote the book on the newer route management methods, hub and spoke, limiting everything to 500 mi or less and being on time more as a result. This was just coming out of deregulation. American was probably the most reliable airline circa mid 1980s.

Then Southwest got going, and while I'm not a big airline geek from those days, looks to me like Southwest absolutely ate American's lunch and took their money too. Same general footprint, same general business model, but Southwest runs a tighter ship with better planes (all Boeing, American hung onto the MD80s then bought into airbusses... just junkier/more flimsy looking inside, plus the MD80s are LOUD and always will be in the back half of the plane)

Anyway. American looks like it can't even keep its people happy now, so this big dysfunctional once great family is probably going to die, which seems fitting.
 
moothemagiccow
2012-10-10 10:12:38 AM  
Never had any problems flying American.
 
pute kisses like a man
2012-10-10 10:18:03 AM  

moothemagiccow: Never had any problems flying American.


i agree. american has always been a great for me. and I fly a lot.

/ but, i'm biased. my dad was an aa pilot. been flying standby since before i can walk. i hardly even know what it's like to fly with a ticket. to actually expect to get on the flight? inconceivable!
// although, i've also flown many other airlines, because there used to be a lot of reciprocity between airlines back in the day. not so much today. american was always nicer.
 
Generation_D
2012-10-10 10:45:55 AM  

pute kisses like a man: moothemagiccow: Never had any problems flying American.

i agree. american has always been a great for me. and I fly a lot.

/ but, i'm biased. my dad was an aa pilot. been flying standby since before i can walk. i hardly even know what it's like to fly with a ticket. to actually expect to get on the flight? inconceivable!
// although, i've also flown many other airlines, because there used to be a lot of reciprocity between airlines back in the day. not so much today. american was always nicer.


I'm truly sorry that they are how they are now, but any company that has deliberate slowdowns so unions can screw senior management is just not something I want to be a part of. Dysfunctional family circus.
 
ohknaks
2012-10-10 11:46:56 AM  
I've flown AA for the past five years for work. I'm done. They treat their frequent fliers pretty damn well, but this is it for me. In the last month I've had to cancel an international vacation that I had planned for a year, and I've had 9 delayed or cancelled flights. Coming home on Friday, the pilot lost the paperwork to my first flight. Thus, corporate had to fax him a copy, which resulted in an hour delay. On the second flight, the pilot claimed the aluminum skin of the 2 year old 737 we were on was rusting. A 2 hour delay for maintenance to tell him to get back to work.

I've also had delays due to the pilot finding a dent in the landing gear door, forcing a one armed maintenance guy to replace it and a 3 hour delay. A non-working smoke detector in one of the bathrooms forcing an hour delay so maintenance could find a sign to put on the door. 4 morning flights that the crews just decided not to show up for, cancelling the flight. The last time that happened I was on a 7AM flight and AA rebooked me on a 10PM flight. Awesome.

Thankfully it looks like Alaska will match my status. I'll have to put up with their 15 minute credit card pitch every flight, but at least they'll generally get where they're going (computer problems in pdx aside).
 
ohknaks
2012-10-10 11:54:25 AM  

Generation_D: I'm truly sorry that they are how they are now, but any company that has deliberate slowdowns so unions can screw senior management is just not something I want to be a part of. Dysfunctional family circus.


It's worse than just that. AA corporate simply doesn't care either. Customer service won't do much of anything for you. They've also taken so much capacity out of the system that one cancelled flight screws every other flight on that route for 2 days. Running 99% full is great when your planes actually take off, but when you have to rebook 120 people, there's nowhere to put them.

It's gotten to the point that they've stopped responding to customer complaints entirely. Great way to run an airline. The entire reason I kept flying with them through bankruptcy and all of their associated BS was that their customer service genuinely tried to help you when you had a problem. Since this pilot strike though? Nothing.
 
kab
2012-10-10 01:03:57 PM  
That's what you get for treating customers like cattle.

/if there isn't an ocean in the way, you're better off driving
 
pag1107
2012-10-11 10:16:43 AM  
You know, when acquisition by US Airways might actually improve the product, it's just time to call it quits.
 
Soymilk
2012-10-11 04:08:20 PM  

AverageAmericanGuy: Lately I've been really loving Korean Airlines. Great food. Great service. A short stopover in Incheon to fill up on bulgogi. Plus, it's usually cheaper than either Delta or United.

I totally recommend it.

Sometimes you might get shot down by the North Koreans, but YOLO.


My favorite international airlines are Singapore, China Airlines (not the commie one, the Taiwanese one), and Malaysia. Food is great, service is wonderful. Why can they pull it off and AA can't?
 
AverageAmericanGuy [TotalFark]
2012-10-11 07:02:40 PM  

Soymilk: AverageAmericanGuy: Lately I've been really loving Korean Airlines. Great food. Great service. A short stopover in Incheon to fill up on bulgogi. Plus, it's usually cheaper than either Delta or United.

I totally recommend it.

Sometimes you might get shot down by the North Koreans, but YOLO.

My favorite international airlines are Singapore, China Airlines (not the commie one, the Taiwanese one), and Malaysia. Food is great, service is wonderful. Why can they pull it off and AA can't?


Asians
 
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