Originally Posted by
royalflight
It has been many years since I last travelled American, so I decided to try it again flying first class from LAS to PHX last Saturday the 26th on flight 538. I am from Canada so I paid $251.00 (Canadian). This is only a one hour flight but as I prefer the service and amenities traditionally offered in first class, I decided to pay the difference. Big mistake! On practically any other airline you would have entrance to the first-class lounge. But on AA, sorry not for domestic first-class. After take off the captain announced they were expecting turbulence therefore beverage service would be suspended. What! a little bit of rough air and nothing to eat and drink? For the most part the one hour flight was smooth just the occasional bit of rough air. Do you think first-class should have some sort of in-flight entertainment? Sorry not on AA. When I complained to the FA she stated that all the TV screens were removed and unless you had your own electronic device (which I did not) you were out of luck. Arriving in PHX was there any priority given to first class for luggage arrival? Once again AA's little first class joke. your bag will be one of the last off.
So to recap: No first class lounge, no beverage (other than water before we took off). Nothing to eat, not even a bag of peanuts. No in-flight entertainment, and no priority baggage service. I did have a nice leather first-class type seat, but that was hardly worth the price. If AA could not provide any service on an overpriced one hour flight, I would hate to think what a five hour transcontinental flight would be like. "Good evening sir I hope you will enjoy your one glass of water in our deluxe first class cabin."
It is interesting to note that my sister who frequently flies Southwest on the PHX to LAS route always receives a beverage and something to eat (paid for of course) regardless of any turbulence. Looking at the massive check-in lines at SW that airline is not an option, nor is AA for me at anytime in the future.
Welcome to flying US airlines.
The service is terrible, the product is marginal, and there really isn't much differentiation between F and a good Y seat on an hour long flight. Definitely an important lesson for the future.
With that noted, I've been on many shorter flights where the flight crew have told the cabin crew to remain seated for the entire flight, 100% of those were on US airlines, and every time the turbulence that was so concerning was light to moderate and lasted for about 10 minutes allowing the cabin crew 60 minutes of galley chit chat time without having to offer any kind of service. Sometimes I think they work together on this to provide as little as possible.
It's a stark contrast to other airlines across the world where cabin crew are only seated when there is actual hazardous turbulence present or reported. I'm not sure if it's because of the liability culture in the United States or what, but this is a very recurring issue with US airlines. It ties right in with the cockpit never extinguishing the seat belt sign half the time also.