American airlines have budget friendly international flights and I love how they partnered with Japan Airlines!! The food in economy was average, staff are somewhat okay. And also, they have the most accessible customer service hotline. They are easy to reach or contact if you have changes regarding with your travels.

We just returned from vacation and we are amazed at how terrible the stewardess’s, service, support, website and communication are with AA. We upgraded our seats on the first leg of our journey only to find they had changed the plane therefore our seating upgrade wouldn’t be honored. I asked the stewardess about our upgrade and she told us of the change in planes and it was our problem to deal with and walked away. Then on our return trip our flight was delayed, thus causing us to miss our connecting flight. AA did give us food vouchers (fast food only) and put us up in a hotel. However, we had to stand in the cold for 1 1/2 hours waiting for the shuttle service ride to the hotel then a 20 minute wait to register. We finally made it to our room after 11:00pm that night. We found the entire ordeal with AA Terrible at best and will not use AA again.... Their website isn’t user friendly at all and the main thing you get from it is a revolving sales pitch for, credit cards, wine, buying miles, upgrading to first class, etc...

STAY AWAY from AA !!!

The only reason I am leaving a 5 star review is for the AA desk worker named Kiran. When my passport was left on my layover flight in Miami, and I needed it for my following flight in 13 hours, she was the only worker that listened to me. Not only did she help track it down, but helped me through the process for the 6 hours I was waiting in the airport since 4am. I was very stressed and scared, and Kiran was the ONLY one who would hear my struggle and help me out. She went up and beyond to make sure I got back my passport and ensured that I was able to get to my flight with no other issues. She is a 5 star worker for this company.

American Eagle (SkyWest) Flight 3044
DFW-ASE
10:50 am-12:26 pm
Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ) 700

My wife and I recently took a flight on American Eagle from Dallas to Aspen, Colorado, after connecting from Philadelphia. We both found this flight to be very uncomfortable on an old plane, which was not helped by the fact that it was completely full.

The flight boarded right on time, and flight attendants handed out hand sanitizer wipes as we boarded, but no cookies or water like on longer flights. Since we were on a smaller regional jet, we had to valet check our carry-ons at the gate, to be delivered to us as we disembarked in Aspen.

I don’t think anyone is a fan of cramped regional jets, and this one felt particularly grim. At least we didn’t have to sit with anyone else, since it’s a 2x2 seating layout, but our row was toward the very back of the plane and felt really cramped, partially because that row was missing a window, and partially because the legroom and seat width are very tight on this aircraft. The plane just felt old, dirty, and small, and I was not excited to spend 2.5 hours on it, which is somewhat long for a regional flight.

The clientele on the flight was mostly all vacationers like ourselves, and was heavy on groups of loud, obnoxious college students who were taking ski trips. I don’t mind the excitement, but I did mind that these groups were very lax about wearing masks properly, especially as we first boarded the flight. I did appreciate that one of the flight attendants confronted a passenger in the row in front of us who wasn’t wearing his mask properly, and offered him a new mask if he wasn’t able to get his current one to fit over his nose and mouth.

We left the gate in Dallas right on time, but quickly got delayed before take off, since it had just started snowing (really just minimal flurries), which caused the airport to require us to get de-iced before takeoff. We were one of the very first planes to get to the de-icing pad that morning, so we didn’t have to wait to begin the process, but it still took almost half an hour to complete. After that, we took off immediately and were on our way. We ended up still making it to Aspen about 5 minutes early, despite the extra time on the ground at DFW.

Wifi was supposed to be available on the flight, but I could not get my phone to connect to it at all. There was otherwise no service or any amenities provided on the flight at all. It was very bare bones.

When we landed, the flight attendants instructed everyone to stay in their seats after the seatbelt sign was turned off so that passengers could de-plane row-by-row and not clog the aisles. Everyone did actually follow this, so I was glad we had a civilized process of disembarking the aircraft. By the time we disembarked, which is directly onto the tarmac at the very small Aspen Airport, our carry-ons that had been valet checked were already on a cart waiting for us.

Additional frustration came after that, when we went inside to baggage claim to collect our checked bags. While we were waiting for bags to start coming out, I happened to check the luggage tracking feature on the AA app, and noticed that it said our bags had not been loaded onto our flight in Dallas. It turned out that our bags didn’t make it from our first flight to this one, which was surprising, since they had been priority tagged in Philadelphia that morning. We had also arrived in Dallas early on our first flight, giving plenty of time for the bags to be transferred. It turned out that our bags were loaded onto the next flight to Aspen, which was about two hours behind us. I’m not sure what the reason for the delay was, but it was annoying not to have our luggage make it to Aspen with us.

We stopped at the AA baggage counter once we realized our luggage was missing, and the employee there was very nice. He apologized for our bags not making it, and said that is a relatively common occurrence for flights into Aspen. He immediately filed a delayed baggage claim and said that the airline could have the bags sent directly to our hotel. However, once we said where we’re staying, he said that our hotel usually comes to pick-up delayed bags for guests more quickly than the airline would deliver them, and he said he would call the hotel on our behalf and let them know. The bags did ultimately make it about two hours late on the next flight, and our hotel picked them up for us, so we had them by that evening.

Overall, this flight from Dallas to Aspen was not the best, on a really tight, uncomfortable regional jet, and it added extra frustration that our luggage didn’t get loaded onto the plane with us. It was also the fullest flight we’ve been on since the start of the pandemic, and we didn’t love being in such crowded quarters, especially since many of the younger passengers around us were not taking the Covid precautions seriously.

American Airlines Flight 872
PHL-DFW
6:45-9:42 am
Airbus A321S

My wife and I recently took this morning flight from Philadelphia to Dallas/Fort Worth before connecting onto an American Eagle flight to Aspen. This was actually a very good flight that felt a bit more normal than some other flights we’ve taken during the pandemic, at least based on the service in first class.

We were originally booked in economy for all legs of this trip, but when checking in for the flight online the day before, we were offered a paid upgrade to first class for the Philadelphia to Dallas leg for $95 per person. I thought this was a little pricey, but I was eager to have extra space and a guaranteed private row for the two of us, so I decided to pay for the upgrade.

We arrived at PHL about an hour before the scheduled 6:45 am departure and had no wait or difficulty when checking our bags using the self-tagging kiosks in the Terminal B/C priority check-in area. The Terminal C security checkpoint, which was previously for pre-check only and is usually our preferred option, had been closed for other flights we’ve taken during the pandemic. This time, I saw that the Terminal C checkpoint was open again and figured we’d use it, even though our flight was from Terminal B. However, it unfortunately appears that they have opened this checkpoint to everyone and it’s no longer for pre-check only. They had lines for both regular screening and pre-check at Terminal C, which slightly slowed things down as compared to past trips. Regardless, we were still through security quickly and off to the gate for boarding.

The flight must have started boarding early, since we arrived at the gate right on time for the scheduled boarding and had missed Group 1–they were already boarding Group 4. During boarding, the flight attendants handed out the now standard bags that include hand sanitizer wipes, a small bottle of water, and Biscoff cookies.

We settled into our seats and appreciated that this is one of the better A321s, which includes power outlets at each seat and individual seatback TVs. This is unlike the legacy-US Airways A321s we usually have on flights from Philadelphia, which have basically no amenities at all.

We left the gate 10 minutes early and took off very quickly. Shortly after we were in the air, the first class flight attendant came around and took our drink orders. I was pleasantly surprised that drinks were offered, since I know most service has been cut or severely limited during the pandemic on AA flights. The flight attendant was very nice and addressed everyone by name while taking orders, before coming back shortly with the mimosas we had requested. After that, he came back and offered everyone in first class a choice of two pre-packaged Zoe’s Kitchen meals, either a turkey and swiss breakfast sandwich or strawberry yogurt with blueberries and granola. We had one of each and were happy with the food. It was basic but good enough, and we were just glad that food of any type was offered. Since the flight was over three hours, I think a second round of drinks would have been nice, but this was not offered. However, I do think if we had asked the flight attendant for another drink, he would have been happy to get it.

Wifi was available on the flight, with several items offered for free, including a variety of movies, tv shows, and Apple Music to stream, along with lots of entertainment and a flight map with flight connection information on the seatback TVs.

The flight attendants did make several of the standard announcements about required mask wearing during the flight, and I didn’t see any non-compliance from passengers.

We made it to our gate in Dallas about 15 minutes early, giving plenty of time to take the Skylink train from Terminal C to Terminal E for our next flight.

Overall, this flight from PHL-DFW was very nice, with good service from American. The plane was clean with comfortable, large seats and good service in first class, so we were very satisfied with the experience.