Recent +ve experience AA - cancellations + Main Cabin Extra + and Business/First

[ejd711]

So I got my Platinum status on AA through the Plat Challenge and have been crediting to AA for a while, but January was the first time I actually flew AA. To be honest, I had fairly low expectations of what the experience would be like.

First, I had flights out of JFK as the blizzard in early January happened. Flights were cancelled at 3 hours out just before I was about to leave for the airport. Calling the Platinum desk via Skype, I was pleased to have a hold time less than 5 minutes on a day when pretty much all flights out of NYC plus half of the North East of the U.S.A. were cancelled. I was re-booked on flights that evening - also cancelled this time 5 hours out. Again, a wait of less than 5 minutes on the phone. Rebooked for the following day through a different route, though one segement was in Economy then the second in Business from previously confirmed SWU. All in all, platinum desk were pretty great in this process.

Fly LGA-DFW in on the 330 in Main Cabin Extra. I must say, I was pretty impressed. Leg room was great. I am 5'6" and I think I had about 6 inches space between my knees and the seat in front. Seat is just as wide as normal economy but just felt way more like a premium economy without the recline. All in all if you have to fly AA economy and can get these seats it's a good choice. No food service but you could purchase food.

Second flight I had Business DFW - CUN. Seat was comfy. Don't think there was any IFE but didn't really pay too much attention. Food was pretty good. I got lucky with a vegetarian dish given they didn't have options to select vegetarian meals.

I also flew GUA - MIA - LGA booked into First/Business instant upgrade fare. Was pleasantly surprised to have my check in take less than 5 minutes whilst my friends travelling Delta took over an hour to check in. The first class probably helped, but it still would have been significantly quicker even in the standard queue. Again, same seats and service as previous flight. I missed my connection due to long immigration lines in MIA. Got offered a flight one hour later in economy or 5 hours later in first. Due to plans for that evening I went for the shortest layover, and was pleased to find that I ended up in 1A upgraded.

I was only credited for the economy MIA-LGA despite booking 1st so I need to remember to do a application for ORC but did get to fly in First.

I also had a QF redemption in economy JFK-LHR and managed to get the FF number changed so I could pick seats online (front row of economy). I tried my luck for an upgrade based on my platinum status (haha long shot i know), but business wasn't full so it was worth a try. No way to the upgrade, but the flight was so empty (Business ~60% full, economy like 40% full if that) I actually had 5 middle seats to lie down across. Glad I didn't fly this flight full but

All in all, possibly from having very low expectations, I was reasonably impressed with the service AA provided I must say particularly in the rebooking. Having had a vaguely horrendous experience with a cancelled domestic Virgin Australia flight recently which included being on hold to Virgin for 60 minutes at 2am and then 45 to fix my issue made this seem great in comparison. I suspect having status helps.

Anyway, just thought that my experience maybe might interest some people here.

 

[kempvet]

I assume that you didn't qualify for AC entry, unless you bought a pass, is this the case? That seems to be a long time waiting at the airports without lounge access. It gets even better with EXP, when bad weather canceled my flight in the NE USA some time ago, they simply re routed my flight and bumped a Y passenger off the already fully booked flight they arranged for me.

 

[adrian]

In general, I find the AA service to be exceptional in the case of a delay or cancellation. I can't think of a time when they haven't accommodated me on the next available flight when I have been stuck in customs, or had some other reason to miss my flight. But 2 occasions really come to mind, where they helped me out when I was completely at fault:

I was flying LHR-HKG-SYD on a AA award ticket, CX flights. At the HKG connection, I fell asleep in the lounge and was offloaded from my flight to SYD. (I was only on a seat in the lounge near the gate, you think someone from CX could have tapped me on the shoulder). When I woke up and realised I had missed the boarding, CX would do anything (understandably). Anyway, 5 minutes on the phone to EXP desk, and I was booked on the next available CX flight home that evening, even though there was no award inventory available.

On another occasion, my partner and I were travelling JFK-FCO (Rome) on a cheap AA ticket, with EVIP upgrades to business. We were connecting in FCO to a CX J flight to HKG. This was on a completely separate ticket, issued by CX. The original connection time was 3 or 4hrs, so I thought that was enough buffer in case the AA flight was late, and so I took the risk. On arrival at JFK, we were told that the AA flight from JFK was going to be hours late in departing, meaning that we would miss our connection. But the AAngels at JFK checkin rebooked us onto a Delta flight in business, at AA's expense, so that we could make the connection.

They get my loyalty...