I find WN crew seem to do this sort of schtick all the time. Usually gets a combination of laughs and groans.

The difference is that at WN it’s a joke and at AA it’s sadly quite accurate. FA was realistically just staying what everyone was thinking.

I hope you get the refund, but remember if you paid with a CC then contest the charge.

If course it's not usually mediocre. Usually it's downright terrible.

Actually I consider your experience to be terrible; you are being generous classifying it as mediocre.

An airline (or any business) offers what it offers. Choose accordingly. There is a reason I have 0 AA flights this year. I know what I'm going to get if I spend my money with AA, so I don't. I was never one of those kids who felt the need to put my hand on the hot stove to see if it hurt.

I have never seen a WN crew passionately, wholeheartedly attack their own employer. I can't say the same for AA, UA, NW, US.

I flew DUB-PHL (and onwards to LAX). The only good part was I did not check in until I go to the airport and ended up scoring MCE aisle seat on basic economy fare.

Service was below average. I was sleeping for the first meal service. For the one just before landing, I had my tray down and the FA just walked past me and the passenger in my next seat. Anyway, just under an hour to go and I did not bother flagging the FA down. Minutes later when the drinks cart rolled down, I asked for coffee and I got tea. Ummm, whatever. When the passenger next to me flagged an FA down and asked for a cold sandwich the FA first asked "is that second round". When the passenger clarified she hadn't gotten one, FA said "on well you should waved your hands in my face". Going for great indeed.

I just decided to stuff my face in PHL terminal and slept pretty the much whole flight.

That was seriously said by a FA? That's incredibly unprofessional for someone being literally the face of the airline directly interacting with the customer.

In any event I honestly feel like this past year I had noticeably better cabin service on domestic flights than international. With that said, the only international I did on AA was MIA-GIG and back, both of which depart at like ~10pm local time. So service is pretty much take off -> get 'em fed -> get 'em to bed.

I do remember the flight back up from Rio and one of the FA's coming through the cabin for dinner service just shouting "COMER?? COMER??" ("Eat?? Eat??") Like c'mon, gotta at least be able to put together or memorize a complete sentence.