Originally Posted by
Ned123USA
I guess I have 2 questions:
1) Does AA have a history of mechanical problems?
2) Should I ask for and recieve some sort of compensation - not for the emergency landing, but for AA jerking us around for 4 1/2 hours while they tried to fix the first plane? If so what is the best way to go about asking for and recieving comp?
Welcome to FlyerTalk,
Ned123USA!
Sorry to hear about your experience. I'm sure that everyone here is glad to hear that you landed safely. Having been in an emergency landing with smoke in the cockpit, I know it can be a hair-raising experience. Emergencies can, of course, occur on any airline. AA's fleet of MD80s is, indeed, aging, but are subject to frequent, regular safety inspections (see the bottom of
this page) and, since they still make up a large portion of the AA fleet, many of us here fly on them frequently without a second thought.
To your second question, you may actually receive compensation proactively from AA. (See our
Compensation thread and wiki page). You can, of course, also choose to request compensation explicitly by emailing Customer Relations at AA.com. Take a look at the last few pages of the Compensation thread to get an idea of what you might ask for in this instance; you might be able to get miles or a dollar-denominated voucher. You might also include your compliments to the crew in your message.
Again, glad you made it in safely and hope that you will stick around to take advantage of the many resources in this forum!