SiempreBCNJFK

Stockholm syndrome. I'm in NYC now where it's much better served by DL and UA (at EWR) but I continue to for AA for the simple fact I have status and how things get better.

nachosdelux

Some of us that pay for 1st class care about different things:

1. schedule/direct routing
2. service/product/IRROPS recovery
3. price

I want to get there on schedule, in the shortest time, in reasonable comfort. I would rather fly non-stop and forgo the lounges.

When I fly coach, it is usually on Southwest or Delta, which are both far superior to AA, IMO

PHL

Pretty sure business award tix from USA to Europe are 57,500 each way, not roundtrip. Some routes, it's not hard to get that. I flew JFK-MXP, 777 business class at the sAAver 57.5K redemption rate last August and booked it only 2 weeks in advance. So they are there for the taking, if you catch the moon and stars lined up just right. I do agree that DL fliers aren't so lucky in this metric.

enviroian

Hub and work captive.

6P&E

Ratings may give some indication of travelers' experiences, but it's often a crap shoot. AA has given me unsolicited miles and apology when my PEK-DFW flight was delayed by only 4 hours. And another time, going the other direction, I missed my DFW connection due to mechanical and they were initially pretty unhelpful; I had to keep pushing. Same airline, two different reactions.

DL, at the top of the list , has done nothing but disappoint me. Rude agents misquoting fare rules to me (DL customer service did ultimately say I was correct in the interpretation, but I had cancelled the reservation at that point and gone with AA), changing my J class seat two weeks after I booked, calling it a seat duplication??, running out of meals in J... first world problems sure, but still why would want to book them again?

golfingboy

While Spirit is the one being polarized in this thread I think the more telling piece from this table is that Skywest was ranked higher than AA in the previous three years.

A regional airline with employees who are paid a lot less than the employees at AA, an airline who is stuck with generally inferior soft product as dictated by their customers (i.e. AA, UA, AS, and DL), an operator who has less control in the decision making process when flights are proactively canceled (i.e. mainline flights have more priority), etc.

And yet they did better than AA. I think this is more embarrassing IMHO, but of course for click bait reasons its better for USA Today to use NK as Skywest has very little brand recognition with the flying public.

dgparent

I actually stopped flying AA, I could easily make EXP this year as I am at 50 segments and over 7K spend but my new project is about 1 hour from BUF. Both times I have gone onsite my departing flight has been late making it impossible to make my connection in CLT resulting in a overnight stay. Now I am just driving and taking the mileage, I get home at 11 PM vs the next day with AA because of delays. I lose the 4 segments but I would rather just be home.

Herb687

No one is hub captive. I haven't seen a single airline hub that doesn't have tons of flights operated by carriers other than the dominant one. Your argument is especially weak in the case of QDF. If your location is correct you live just about equidistant from TWO major airline hubs.

Speaking of Spirit, they are growing at DFW. They now have nonstop service in several of my regular O&Ds. I haven't flown them yet but as someone who generally buys first on flights > 900 miles, I will seriously consider flying NK and paying for a Big Front Seat when the schedule and fare make sense.

As I posted in another thread, when AA lifetime elites who actually buy F start considering NK, something is seriously wrong.

MCI777

I am an AA PLAT Pro and a DL Plat. Some observations:

1. DL employees seem overall more happy than AA employees. Not saying ALL AA employees are bad but I run into surly employees more often when I fly AA.
2. AA has a slightly better upgrade % for me on the routes I fly. I'm 87% w/ AA this year (13/15) and 83% w/DL (35/42). But I've flown way more DL segments (15 AA segments vs 42 on DL)
3. DL has more comfortable planes on average. I enjoy that a good number of DL planes still have seat back video.
4. DL Regional Jets (CRJ-700/900 and ERJ175) have ovens in the galley so a hot meal option is served on DL in F on these aircraft. No ovens on AA regional jets.
5. SkyClub is better than Admirals Club in most cases although I find Admirals Club employees can work magic in IRROPS.
6. DL is WAYYYYYYY better during IRROPS. They actually keep passengers up to date and proactively back up elites if they even think there might be a misconnect.
7. The AAdvantage is only slightly better than SkyPesos when it comes to redeeming.
8. SDC (Same Day Confirm ) on DL actually works where on AA, I've never found a flight that I was actually able to SDC to.

Antarius

SDFC on AA is useless. They used to allow you to change your point of connection, but now that is gone too.

DataPlumber

You can blame those that abused it as a loophole to gain more EQS and EQM based on absurd routings.

SFO777

Yes, because millions did this every day.
It's just another in an endless string of short-sighted decisions that AA management thought would make us want to keep coming back, again and again. Now they have an airline that can't even make money from its core business.

DataPlumber

javabytes

As others have said, there is no opinion in this ranking... it's all statistics-driven. EXPs like you and I are a small part of the flying public.

I, too, enjoy the upgrade percentages and (for the time being) the mileage redemption opportunities on AA as being the best among the big 3... but if I was a non-status flyer, AA planes are (on average) not the ones I would want to fly on when considering things like seat pitch and width, IFE and power, etc. Even with Oasis, it's still better sitting up front than in the back if you're getting it for free, but if my upgrade % drops then there are other economy or E+ seats I'd rather sit in. And if I'm paying for the front cabin, you bet I'm also looking at schedule and product.

beachmouse

The bulk of my flying is short haul segments, and I've come to really appreciate this with DL- love that I can rebook right from the app when I'm going to blow a connection from yet another Southeastern summertime weather system. I also have a hard time getting too excited about upgrades on flight segments that at 1:30 or less from wheels up to wheels down. I mean I won't turn one down if offered but I put a higher value on predictability and consistency than upgrades, and I feel like DL screws up at a lower rate and actually empowers front line employees to fix most problems when they do happen.

DL does well on baggage on time numbers because, like Alaska, they've got a system in place to create financial incentive to get it right. My home airport uses contract ramp workers and hiring has not kept up with passenger count growth, so I've collected my share of '20 minutes or 2500 miles' service recovery gestures from DL from the form on my phone's web browser for yet another 23 minutes to bag scan event before I've even left airport property.