American Airlines is Truly Awful Except For Its Generous Loyalty Program

In May, I wrote about a bad experience with American Airlines (more here). Some readers agreed with me, while others defended the airline and called me elitist, entitled, and worse. My skin is pretty thick. But, I’m not the only one taking issue with the airline. Passengers and my fellow BoardingArea bloggers have recently been sounding off on why flying American is bad, yet its loyalty program seems to be one of the best (for redeeming partner airline awards).

Live from seat 20F on AA5139. Glad that I wore my raincoat for this flight. Absolutely ridiculous @AmericanAir Time to retire this aircraft – no one wants to pay $$$ just to travel in this type of condition! pic.twitter.com/Db5xMaOPmd

— Just call me B (@JustcallmeBK) June 25, 2023

This passenger had to deal with so much water dripping over her seat that she was happy she wore a raincoat.

@AmericanAir disappointed by your 1st class lunch on #1580 to SFO; this is the same chicken option since pre-COVID with one notable exception – today’s version was served raw / pink on inside and Simpsons yellow on outside 😟. If you are going to double down on this menu, make… pic.twitter.com/EVInObo20R

— Laura Edell (@Laura_E_Edell) June 25, 2023

This passenger was served raw chicken with a nice yellow, Simpsons-esque tint.

Take a guess what this is.. @AmericanAir served this on a flight.

If you guess what this is, you win a prize.

🤢🤢🤢🤢 pic.twitter.com/pWIyNRNETs

— Baller Alert 🚨 (@balleralert) June 21, 2023

I guess raw chicken is still better than this unidentified pile of garbage served in First Class.

currently in-flight on an @AmericanAir flight from ORD-PDX and this is probably one of the worst ones I’ve been on this year out of the 20 total flights
-missing overhead compartment in our row of Business class
-other side’s compartment is taped up
-dirty stained tray table pic.twitter.com/X8ljpWhxV9

— my flop era🕺🏻🪩 (@hello_itsnotbi) June 22, 2023

Overhead bins are missing on some planes.

when your flight attendants laughed along with the passengers about the missing overhead compartment and took a pic of too on their phones, you should be kinda embarrassed by it 💩

— my flop era🕺🏻🪩 (@hello_itsnotbi) June 22, 2023

And, the flight attendants find it so ridiculous that they laugh and take pictures.

I’ve been waiting for 27 hours to take a flight from JFK to EZE. American Airlines is completely disrespectful with their passengers. Just a $12 voucher for a 27 hours delay. No hotel, and no transportation. I hope we leave by 11pm as they are saying now. pic.twitter.com/VxZAEJJED5

— Milagros (@mmilalanesa) June 27, 2023

Another is facing a 27-hour delay to Buenos Aires and was given a $12 voucher. Ben at One Mile at a Time documented similar frustrations with American’s disastrous handling of his husband’s recent flight.

American Airline delayed flights for more than 14 hours and it’s keep going without explanations…everyone is frustrated. What is even going on? #americanairlines #JFK #airlines #CustomerService #flights pic.twitter.com/XtSqOKvxde

— Qi (@Qi_w_iQ) June 26, 2023

Here’s another tweet around delays. Weather was horrible in the northeast yesterday, but it seems American bit off more than they could chew and did not have crew in place to cover all of its flights.

AMERICAN AIRLINES @AmericanAir
The Unfriendly Skies pic.twitter.com/2cvUMi1mxQ

— MichaelRapaport (@MichaelRapaport) June 25, 2023

Comedian Michael Rapaport had some colorful, NSFW words for American after they dumped him in Fort Meyers instead of Miami due to “not having enough gas.” American apparently also didn’t apologize.

@phil.stringer

18-hour delay turned this flight into a private party! ✈️🥳 Watch how the amazing crew and I made the most of it! #americanairlines #flightattendant #airplanetiktok #privateparty #FlightFun #delayedflight #fyp #viral

♬ Makeba – Jain

One passenger was delayed 18 hours. Other passengers gave up or found other flights. This left TikTok user @phil.stringer with his own private plane (since he was the only remaining passenger).

I guess the bright side to all of this is that American still has a good loyalty program if you want to redeem for partner flights. You can earn Loyalty Points through shopping and other activities. It’s possible to gain status and earn enough miles for premium seats on partner flights without ever having to step foot on one of American’s planes. That means you can fly Japan Airlines or Qatar Airways without ever having to be rained on in the cabin or served raw chicken.

Frequent Miler details why AAdvantage is his favorite loyalty program, but how long will it be before this is devalued? If it’s too good, you know it will be getting cut.

Anthony’s Take: I stand by my assessment of American Airlines. The latest posts, tweets, videos, etc. show that the airline has not properly invested, has poor customer service, and has scheduled too many flights this summer. I’ll stick with Delta and some United flights to fill in the gaps.