I've recently started a new position with a company which requires me to regularly travel to DFW.. I've been making this trip on United YEG-DEN-DFW, but, due to a missed connection, United purchased me a trip on American..
I won't elaborate too much on my experience, but, just wanted to say that, the grass is very much greener on our side of the fence.. The staff were the rudest I've ever experienced on an airline, and the aircraft (MD-80) was in embarrassing condition.
I honestly don't think I'll ever talk poorly about AC ever again.
American... If you're reading this, this was my first ever flight on your airline. I highly suggest you talk to your CSA's about acknowledging that people are actually standing in your lines and a simple "Can I help you" instead of "What's your last name, oh wait, I have to go to another gate" goes a long way!
I could not believe how many PAX on my flight were discussing the condition of this aircraft. First off, there was garbage in every seat pocket I could see. The floor appeared to have never been vacuumed. The staff looked absolutely exhausted and boarder line criminal..
Sorry for this rant, just wanted everyone to know how great AC/United is compared to my experience on AA
OTH, I could tell you stories about my United experiences that would REALLY upset even you (they certainly upset me enough to NEVER fly United again).
That story would make your AA experience look like "the best airline experience you ever had" compared to my United one.
To each his own (alliance, that is). Enjoy United.
Grass is greener at AA for me. Hence the allegiance to that airline on my part.
July 2008: AA flight STL-ORD with a connection from ORD to ALB is cancelled. AC calls me on the way to the airport (STL AC gets a huge thumbs up - they are fantastic) and informs me my flight's cancelled, but not to worry because I've been rebooked and to just go to the United check in desk upon arrival. Get to STL, go to United desk, attempt check in and they go 'we can't possibly accommodate you on this flight, you'll have to go back to the American check in'. Ooookay. Thankfully STL isn't too big, so I go back to American counter agent who types away, prints something out and tells me to give it to United ticket agent and if they have any trouble they should just call her and she'll set them straight. Back to United. United agent scowls when she sees me again and loudly informs me that SHE CANNOT ACCOMODATE ME ON THIS FLIGHT. I hand her printed information, she glares at it, glares at me, then gets on the phone and continues to glare at everything around her. Eventually hangs up, prints out a boarding pass, slams it down on the desk. I put up my bag to be checked (downgrade from F to Y, by the way, but I was later compensated for it), agent angrily informs me that it's $15 (or 25 or whatever United charges, I can't remember) to check bag. I thought about arguing that point but decided it probably wasn't worth it. Pull out credit card, she says 'no credit cards' and since I don't carry cash, a check it had to be. Finally I went on my way....
I don't remember much of the flight, but since AA booked me on United all the way through to ALB I do remember the HORRIBLE experience of being on a Dash-88 (that name might be off, it had a propeller and about two and a half seats and no a/c - UGH) from ORD to ALB. Yuck. Longest flight ever, dirty, cramped, and SO HOT. Plus our flight attendant looked like he was about 12 years old. It was strange.
My experiences with AA and the AC will keep me at AA for long to come. This wasn't my first off-color journey with United, but it does pound another nail in their coffin.
OTH, I could tell you stories about my United experiences that would REALLY upset even you (they certainly upset me enough to NEVER fly United again).
That story would make your AA experience look like "the best airline experience you ever had" compared to my United one.
To each his own (alliance, that is). Enjoy United.
Just to be clear- you're taking one, count 'em one, experience and using it to judge the service of the airline as a whole, and then comparing this to considerably more experiences on another alliance? I guess one could say that this was a "100% case", one who didn't know anything about statistics, that is
(Mind you, I'm not defending the actions or saying that they didn't happen, but creating a rant or comparison based on a single event is not particularly well-informed, but thanks for whin...er...sharing.)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Paulchili
OTH, I could tell you stories about my United experiences that would REALLY upset even you (they certainly upset me enough to NEVER fly United again).
That story would make your AA experience look like "the best airline experience you ever had" compared to my United one.
To each his own (alliance, that is). Enjoy United.
Same here. Despite living in Chicago, I've successfully avoided UA for over 30 years, and have had nothing but good experience with AA (yes, that includes the experience of being stuck in NYC during last year's MD-80 fiasco - the way AA handled the aftermath was truly gratifying).
just wanted everyone to know how great AC/United is compared to my experience on AA
I fly equally in 3 alliance systems. I have no major compalints of one over the next, I have to make use of what is availabale. My experience does not agree with yours as I have found OW to be the most favorable when I put the whole package together. Maybe standing in line is one of your least desirable attributes to describe, but I find it the same across all carriers.
Yes, AA has one of the oldest fleets. However, generally the a/c are kept clean, except the A300s (which if the OP really wants to see a run down a/c) and I have found that the MD80s generally have a cleaner and more spruced up look. But the a/cs are often on tight turns (usually 40 to 45 minutes for MD80s) so by the end of the days the cabins are taking a beating, particularly if flights are running late and there is not ample time enough for the cleaners to do their jobs properly.
Most of AA ground and crew are top notch but the GAs are often overwhelmed albeit that is not an excuse for being rude. To judge by one flight experience is a little extreme.
The reality of this business now is high utilization of a/cs, which means dirtier planes as the day wears on.
Just to be clear- you're taking one, count 'em one, experience and using it to judge the service of the airline as a whole, and then comparing this to considerably more experiences on another alliance? I guess one could say that this was a "100% case", one who didn't know anything about statistics, that is
(Mind you, I'm not defending the actions or saying that they didn't happen, but creating a rant or comparison based on a single event is not particularly well-informed, but thanks for whin...er...sharing.)
Actually it would be sort of amusing to have consolidated "first impressions" thread for AA composed entirely of frequent fliers (ie who have some context) recounting their first ever experience with the airline. Some major breadth of opinion I suspect. And the best part would be that there'd just be one thread to contain all this vital breaking news.
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Actually it would be sort of amusing to have consolidated "first impressions" thread for AA composed entirely of frequent fliers (ie who have some context) recounting their first ever experience with the airline. Some major breadth of opinion I suspect. And the best part would be that there'd just be one thread to contain all this vital breaking news.
That would be amusing. We have two just yesterday, one loved, one hated (sort of Siskel-Ebert thing). Practically, it may not work since folkd from other boards might not know it was here to find...even the "I hate it" thread seems to have started elsewhere and been moved. But, I agree that it would be interesting to see all of the first time experiences in one place.
On a recent flight from DFW-DEN, Mrs Oneant and I were in 3E/F, and boarded only to find our seats, and the floor in front of our seats, a complete mess. Crumbs, nut remnants, etc, were scattered everywhere. We had to brush off our seats just to sit down.
It looked like the floor of the goat pen at a petting zoo. I didn't see any actual goat droppings, so that leads me to believe that either: a) there were no goats, only disgusting people and an inept/nonexistent cleaning crew, or b) they only had time to pick up part of the mess before boarding, due to the time requirements to deplane a herd of goats, and they chose the goat droppings over the crumbs (I might have made the same judgement call).
If this would have been my first experience with AA, I would have been very disappointed and would probably only fly with AA in the future out of pure necessity (a bit like I do with Southwest now). First impressions are the most important.
But take it from those of us with more experience with AA--especially those with vastly more experience than I'll ever have (i.e. brp, et al)--what you experienced was a one-off and is in no way indicative of the airline overall.
At least you still have UA and the *A to fall back on. Safe travels.
I've recently started a new position with a company which requires me to regularly travel to DFW.. I've been making this trip on United YEG-DEN-DFW, but, due to a missed connection, United purchased me a trip on American..
I won't elaborate too much on my experience, but, just wanted to say that, the grass is very much greener on our side of the fence.. The staff were the rudest I've ever experienced on an airline, and the aircraft (MD-80) was in embarrassing condition.
I honestly don't think I'll ever talk poorly about AC ever again.
American... If you're reading this, this was my first ever flight on your airline. I highly suggest you talk to your CSA's about acknowledging that people are actually standing in your lines and a simple "Can I help you" instead of "What's your last name, oh wait, I have to go to another gate" goes a long way!
I could not believe how many PAX on my flight were discussing the condition of this aircraft. First off, there was garbage in every seat pocket I could see. The floor appeared to have never been vacuumed. The staff looked absolutely exhausted and boarder line criminal..
Sorry for this rant, just wanted everyone to know how great AC/United is compared to my experience on AA
American does have a disdain for passengers they suspect possess bad grammatical skills.
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It's a tough situation that they're placed in sometimes.
Clearly the folks sitting there were pigs. I don't blame the airline for that- pigs are pigs. Having had a number of delays because they're "cleaning the plan," I've found myself wondering if they really didn't need to clean so well. This is particularly true with a late inbound and a tight turn. They're not good at turns to begin with (I actually really like WN for this- very, very efficient).
So, would I want to take a delay so that the area can be cleaned more completely from the result of the pig passengers, or would I prefer to be closer to ontime, and deal with some mess? If I have a connection, I want to leave, If not, maybe 20 minutes are OK.
It does make the airline ook bad, but sometimes they're in a tough situation not of their making. It's easy to say "I want to be ontime AND I want the plane to be clean." But that combination is not always possible.
Meh... All domestic US airlines are basically the same... Only differences I see are some don't have seat assignments (Southwest) and others charge for standby (Delta)... But really, they are all hit and miss, none of them stand out above the rest...
No need for further discussion... "Case Closed"... I mean... "I rest my case"...
