rberk

Not good.

It was in Y. I had hoped to upgrade, but given availability, I pretty much gave up on that idea even before QR switched me over to AA, so I just accepted that I had to spend 12 hours in AA economy (or not go, which wasn’t an option).

Throughout, I felt like OW emerald status was barely acknowledged, which contrasts with QR, where they fawn over me to the point that it is sometimes almost embarrassing.

I checked in at the priority check-in at JFK, which was the only one I saw - I guess regular check-in was somewhere else. I felt no particular need to go looking for it. Check-in was OK, although I found it odd that when I asked about lounge access, the check-in person told me that that didn’t come with economy, even though I had handed him my QR platinum card (which is actually made of metal!) with my passport, and had to ask for it back when he failed to return it.

Well, whatever, I went to the lounge and they admitted me. The lounge was pretty mediocre (partly because it was about to close), with passengers competing for whatever food/drink was leftover. In fairness, it really wasn’t any worse (maybe even better?) than QR’s default economy-but-status lounge at my home airport, and I’m guessing this was the exact same lounge I would have gotten even if the flight had remained QR instead of AA.

The boarding process was like a WWF smack down. A few hours before check-in, I had received an email informing me that my seat assignment had been changed from X to X (yes, the same seat), but my boarding pass had no seat on it. The flight was at gate 14, but the check-in people had taken over the desk for gate 16 as well. Gate agents were screaming at each other and at the passengers, issuing conflicting instructions, and berating passengers for not following all of the conflicting instructions, which is impossible, because, well, they conflict.

I stood in front of the desk at 14 to ask what I should do. I think I turned invisible again, because they just ignored me for the longest time. Eventually I turned visible again, and after checking my passport, vaccine documentation, and declaration form for my final destination (all of which had been already been checked at the check-in), they told me to sit down and wait until my name was called. Eventually, they did call my name (and one other), saying we should go to 16. Which I did. They then asked why I am bothering them, I said, the announcement said I should go to gate 16. They looked at my boarding pass and said to sit down and wait until I was called to gate 14.

At some point, I managed to step in some extremely sticky wad of some unknown substance in the boarding area, and it took a considerable amount of time and effort to detoxify my shoe.

Eventually, nearly everyone (maybe everyone else) had boarded. They still hadn’t called me to gate 14, although the gate agents were typing furiously on their computers. What they were doing, i
do not know. I would have been perfectly happy if they left without me and put me on the next QR flight, but I figured if I just sat there until they closed the door, they would claim it was all my fault. So I stood up and loitered near the corner of the gate 14 desk. Although she did her best to ignore me, she eventually found my presence sufficiently annoying that she asked what I wanted. I said I was told to wait until I was called, and handed her my boarding pass. After a small amount of typing, she let out a very loud exclamation of surprise and confusion over whatever it was she was seeing on her computer screen. After pausing for a few seconds, she resumed typing, printed out a new boarding pass, and told me to board. The seat assignment was the same as the one from the email.

So I boarded close to last, or maybe last. Storing my things took some effort, but I managed it. I was in a window seat, with quite a large individual in the middle, and someone else in the aisle. I didn’t measure, but my perception was that the legroom was less than on QR. While seated, with all the flight preparations underway, they called my name (and another name) again, and asked us to identify ourselves to the crew. I was really, really hoping they were going to kick me off the flight, but no such luck. I rang the call bell, someone came, and I identified myself. The crew member said I had to show my passport (...?), which was now in the overhead, while I was imprisoned in the window seat of the block of three, barely able to move. I tried to explain to the crew member where my passport was, but he got on his radio and talked to someone, and they decided they didn’t need to see my passport after all.

The flight was about 20 minutes late, which bothered me slightly, not because I had a tight connection (I didn’t), but because it meant 20 more minutes imprisoned in this seat.

The first meal was highly mediocre, although I don’t know that it’s really any worse than what any of the other US airlines would have offered. I had pasta, but barely ate it. I do not think I had any drink (not sure I was even offered, but maybe I was asleep). The person in the aisle seat had his meal well before the other two of us; I am not sure whether that is because it was a special order, or because he had status (although I had OW emerald status).

This meal remained on my tray for almost the entire 12 hour duration of the flight. Its presence on my tray table may be why the flight attendant decided to move on to the next row, completely ignoring me, after providing food for the aisle and middle seat passengers. I was tempted to ring the call button, despite knowing that this is a very dangerous thing to do on a US airline. But, I decided, since I have a long stopover in DOH, I’ll just eat in the lounge. Eventually, they came and cleared the trays, but no one asked why I had the remains of pasta when everyone else had the remains of breakfast. Perhaps getting skipped on the second meal is a OW emerald benefit.

Upon arrival at DOH, there was almost no one going through security, but a huge crushing mass of humanity at the transfer desk across the aisle from security. Maybe there was some problem issuing them their connecting boarding passes from New York? I am not sure. The flight was late, but not extremely so.

So I went and bought some tequila at duty free, where someone from my flight decided that standing in the queue was optional for him. Then I went to al Mourjan, sat in the restaurant, and had a very pleasant meal with an abundant quantity of wine, courtesy of Mr Ali, and tried to forget about AA.

So the two things that really struck me were (1) the barely concealed disgust and contempt some of the ground staff in particular seemed to have for passengers, and (2) apart from lounge access, having OW emerald status seemed pretty much the same as not having OW emerald status.