American Airlines Delay Handling: Why So, So, So Terrible?!?!?

Folks, I’ve had quite the travel day on American. I’d like to think that I’m understanding of the complexity of airline operations, of how maintenance delays can happen, and of how unpredictable they can be.

But I think my travel experience today perfectly sums up what’s wrong with American. It’s not the lack of TVs on planes, but rather it’s just how customer unfriendly the airline is, and the extent to which employees either just truly don’t give a crap, or aren’t empowered to care, partly due to the carrier’s lackluster technology. Let me explain, and this doesn’t even account for my rude check-in experience…

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How many American flights can have maintenance delays?!

I was scheduled to fly American from New York LaGuardia (LGA) to Miami (MIA) at 10:40AM this morning, on flight AA1937. In retrospect, I should’ve probably walked, or taken Amtrak, or flown through Newark, or asked the Qataris for a plane, as I’m sure they would’ve all gotten me home faster.

As usual, I checked the flight status prior to leaving my hotel, including monitoring the inbound aircraft. While my flight was showing as being on time, I noticed that the inbound aircraft was showing a rolling delay, due to aircraft maintenance (according to the flight status notes in ExpertFlyer — interestingly, these notes were later updated to indicate it was for weather, but that’s a different topic).

Fortunately American swapped in another aircraft, which decreased the delay from around two hours to one hour. Okay great, an hour delay isn’t a huge deal (not that a two hour delay would’ve been a huge deal either). So I headed down to the departure gate for the delayed departure time.

“For those traveling to Miami, the captain has asked us to hold off on boarding, as there’s a maintenance issue. That’s for those traveling to Miami on flight 2039.”

I was worried at first, but whew, that wasn’t my flight, but rather the flight scheduled 50 minutes later, at 11:30AM, just a few gates down. Literally a minute later, there was another announcement. “For those traveling to Miami on flight 1937, there’s a maintenance issue with the aircraft, and we don’t have an update on when the flight will depart.”

At the same time, it was announced that the other flight departing from this part of the terminal, flight 4379 to Nashville, also had a maintenance issue, which prevented boarding. Like, what on earth is going on here?!

Long story short, both flights to Miami ended up being delayed indefinitely, as both aircraft had to be taken out of service due to maintenance. Okay, I don’t fault American for that, but it’s mighty strange when two aircraft that just landed are both taken out of service for maintenance, no? I’m not trying to be a conspiracy theorist, or anything, but I’m just saying that I should’ve probably bought a lottery ticket.

Fortunately for the people on the 11:30AM flight, they ended up being assigned another aircraft after some time, and were only delayed by a little over two hours. Grrr, those special people.

The flight I was on, on the other hand…

The problem with my seven hour American delay

Let me cut to the chase. My flight ended up being delayed by around seven hours.

Delays happen, and I’m probably the most patient customer you could possibly have with an extended delay, because I understand that being angry or yelling at people doesn’t fix the problem any faster. My issue with the delay was twofold — the service, and how bad American’s technology is.

Let’s start with service. There were (at least) two sets of gate agents working over the course of the delay, and they were all horrid:

• There was no “we’re sorry about the delay and please see us at the gate if you have any questions,” but instead we got condescending announcements about how we shouldn’t ask them any questions because they don’t know anything, and to call American or use the American app to rebook (as if there were any rebooking options, lol)
• Over five hours into the delay, the lovely Admirals Club ladies had phoned the gate, and were informed the plane would be back in service at 4PM; so I headed down to the gate then and approached the gate agents, and they just couldn’t have been ruder, claimed that wasn’t true, and said they knew nothing
• When I asked the gate agents about my checked bag (since I was rebooked on another flight and then rebooked on the original one), they refused to even check what the status of my bag was, claiming they don’t have access to any bag information
• When boarding did finally start (way later), there wasn’t an apology from anyone about the delay, but just tone deaf announcements off a script about “thanks for choosing American Airlines, because you are why we fly”

Let me be clear, of course I understand that employees aren’t at fault for the delays. But when literally not a single gate agent, flight attendant, or pilot, even acknowledges the delay and thanks passengers for their patience, you can’t help but feel a little disappointed.

I also understand that they lack information about when a flight will depart, but contrast this to the communication at the gate on my last delayed Delta flight. How hard it is to say something like “while we don’t have any information on when the flight will depart, feel free to see us at the gate if you have any questions, as we’re more than happy to help?”

Then there’s just American’s generally awful tech, which only gets worse when there are delays. Like, the plane was fully taken out of service. So why constantly push the delay by a matter of minutes, and show a departure time that’s imminent, when there’s clearly a zero percent chance of that being realistic?

I could write a 3,000 word post about the number of tech failure during this delay, but I’ll just stop by saying it was terrible, and American needs to take a look at what the competition is doing.

Credit to Rhina, the American Admirals Club AAngel

As longtime OMAAT readers know, I’m not an American hater, or anything. I want the airline to succeed (they’re my hometown airline), they just suck at doing so, and can’t help but get in their own way. American has some great employees. The issue is that they go above and beyond because they take pride in everything they do in life, and not because it’s any part of the company’s culture.

So I want to give a shoutout to and share my thanks for Rhina, working the customer service desk in the Admirals Club at LaGuardia. Several of us passengers were essentially “trauma bonding” (as one lady described it to me) over the delay, and how awful the airline handled it. But we all agreed that the ladies in the Admirals Club, and especially Rhina, were fabulous.

They did absolutely everything they could. The issue is that it’s like trying to stop the Titanic from sinking with a shovel, while other people are taking sledgehammers to make bigger holes. Their hard work and kindness is undone by the people working at the gates, and the technology is of absolutely no assistance to them.

But Rhina couldn’t have been lovelier. She was so helpful during the delay, and even came and sought me out when she realized there was another flight she could rebook me on, after it apparently looked like the original flight was canceled (not to toot my own horn, but she told me “when I saw that it looked like the flight was canceled, I wanted to make sure I could help you, because you’e been so nice all along”). 😉

Though go figure that literally two minutes after she rebooked me, it was announced in the lounge that the original flight was boarding, and then she immediately rebooked me again. But then when we got to the gate, it was announced that the flight wasn’t actually boarding. That partly gets at how bad American is at communicating.

That’s the funny thing about flying American. It was a day where I dealt with the rudest check-in agents and rudest gate agents I’ve had in years, and then you interact with such a lovely person in the Admirals Club.

Then you get on the plane, and have more bad service. The flight attendant greeted passengers as if we personally offended her. We’re now approaching Miami, and you want to guess how often the flight attendant has come through the cabin to offer drinks in first class? Once. I haven’t seen her in around 90 minutes. I hope she’s still onboard, or else we’re under FAA minimums!

By the way, due to the delay, they didn’t end up catering meals. A supervisor did briefly board the aircraft (the only professional employee I saw outside the Admirals Club today), and she said that all first class passengers will receive an email from American with compensation for that issue. What do we think the odds are that actually happens?

Bottom line

I wasn’t expecting to have a 14-hour door-to-door journey flying from New York to Miami, but that’s exactly what my travel day looked like. Delays happen, but what’s so frustrating is how it was handled.

You end up dealing with a seven hour delay, and despite that, are treated like you’re an inconvenience for flying with the airline. The only exception is the ladies at the customer service desk in the Admirals Club, who do their best (the supervisor who briefly boarded the aircraft was nice enough as well, but where was a supervisor for the seven hours leading up to that point?!?).

American recently appointed a new Chief Customer Officer, and she really seems to be trying. She has her work cut out for her, and I hope she’s able to address the absolutely lackluster state of service on American.

I don’t care about TVs on domestic flights, I just want to be treated like I’m not an inconvenience, especially when things go wrong. Is that too much to ask for?