This weekend I flew AA (Eagle) home to Chicago for the Naperville Triathlon.
I haven't flown AA in 7 years since I've been over on Team UA for such a while. And of course, I've gotten tired of UA's games; ZERO trust of them to get me where I need to go, on time and drama free.
BDL-ORD on AA's ERDs....yeah it's a little jet, but I did enjoy that A-row all by myself.
Things on AA I enjoyed:
- No nonsense, no drama; check-in was easy and fast at BDL. The boarding passes are well laid out and easy to read making finding the imporant info very quick.
- Gate staff were fast, friendly and professional.
NO gate scrum at BDL or ORD (cuz Eagle jets are smaller?)
- We left right on time, something I have NOT done on UA since Jan. 2012. In fact, we arrived at ORD 30min early.
- Valet carry-on luggage was handled quickly and I was on my way. Checked luggage was out on the carousel in less than 10min.
- ORD back to BDL, we were delayed 40min. due to horrible weather where the aircraft was coming from.
- ORD T3! I really really enjoyed T3 over T1. T1 always seems congested with nowhere to sit and nowhere to eat. T3 was BUSY this weekend but it didn't feel packed or loud like T1. Lots of character to that terminal and I think a few nicer places to eat. Concourse G in the rotunda was pretty cool, got to hang out in the urban garden in seclusion before my flight on the 2nd floor (shhhh!!!! don't tell anyone it's up there)
- Interaction with the AA.com mobile site and app, I was able to manage my flight status and delay pretty easily.
- ORD skycap at T3, even though it required a Lincoln handshake, I was checked in with my bag checked in less than 5min. The line inside DID NOT MOVE.
- AA/Eagle terminals and gates and planes just seemed classier. The boarding passes were on nice card stock, and THEY CAME WITH BLUE AA ENVELOPES! I didn't know anyone still did that. (Is that why they're bankrupt?)
- Eagle on-board snacks: The snacks were only $4.00 and decently tasty. I had the cheese and crackers which came with crackers, "cheese product", shortbread cookie and Craisins. I was satisfied for my late night flight. Better sized and better priced than UA's snack boxes.
- Eagle in general. Even though I may be sanctioned to RJ flying on AA, I'm glad it's with Eagle. It's basically AA, and not "some 3rd party airline "dba" with another airline's name painted on their plane.
Thinks I Disliked about AA:
- The check-in line at ORD was quite old school. I needed to check my bag and the counter had just a few agents attending. No hybrid layout with computer screens. All staff/manaual. The check-in line did not move. Either their system is inefficent (UA point here) or people in front of me just had tons of issues. IDK, I left the line for sky cap.
- Priority AAccess did not allow me in, even though I have the P-AA access with the Citi credit card. A red coat told me that's only for Security and Boarding.
You know what? That's fine. Keep it that way. UA has destroyed the experience for Elites.......and I'm not Elite so no skin off my teeth. I'm just a credit card scrum.
IN SUMMARY:
I'm glad to be on AA now. It reminded me a lot of what the UA experience used to be back in 2011 and earlier. AA seems to run a nice, no-nonsense ship with most flights on time. The staff were all friendly and professional and I never felt like I was "bothering" any of them (like at UA as of late).
Hopefully they'll come back to good health and compete a little more at BDL. I'd love to get some mainline to Chicago from here. But....Eagle is nice for now.
I'm glad to be back on Team American
