I recently returned from flying American Airlines business class round trip to Jamaica to revisit the Hilton Rose Hall All Inclusive resort. First and foremost, the reason I flew AA was because they were cheap comparaed to burning award points on Delta (about 90,000+ points less per person). That said, there is a reAAson that AA is so cheap — because, gosh, they are so bad and this “free agency” thing does not mean you will get an amazing experience just booking first class with another airline. Let me share with you my experience.
My wife hates—I mean hates—getting up at “dark-30” to get on a flight. She would rather stay overnight than get up early. Well, for our flights down to Montego Bay, Jamaica, there was a connection via Dallas-Ft. Worth (DFW) that resulted in an afternoon flight, then an overnight flight, and a lunch flight the next day. Perfect! We had a chance to visit Hard Eight BBQ, and we had an IHG card free-night cert about to expire anyway, so we used it for the overnight.
The flight down to DFW with the AA regional partner was interesting. The only pre-departure beverage offered for our 5 PM flight was water. Then, when it came to snacks, the only option was a “breakfast basket,” and the flight attendant was keen to point out, “You just never know what you are going to get or if you are going to get anything.” Swell. At least the service was good, and it was a great start to the trip.
We arrived early in Dallas. But then, due to the overnight, we had to claim our bags. Those bags took over 45 minutes to come out — and there were only 5 checked bags on the entire flight. We asked if there was any way to check our bags for the next day’s flight but were told the system will not allow that (not surprised and really fine with it – just was curious).
Dinner was great, but sadly, the Holiday Inn near Hard Eight has discontinued shuttling guests to and from Hard Eight as it has for years.
We’re on our lunchtime flight down to Jamaica the next day.
After a pleasant breakfast in the Centurion DFW, including a massage, thanks to our The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, we boarded on time. No pre-departure beverage as offered (I am seeing a pAAtern with AA). I wanted a glass of water and a senior flight attendant rolled her eyes at me (a first class passenger) for requesting a cup of water. I know on-time departures are all-important to AA but they had plenty of time as the flight had nearly 100 seats open so a VERY light flight.
One nice thing AA does is a pre-meal service of hot-ish nuts and drinks before lunch. The flight attendants did their jobs but not much else. Let me illustrate.
We pre-ordered the beef short rib. It was dull and unremarkable and nothing compared to the similar meal that Delta offers. Plus we did not get any bread or was the butter for something else? After lunch, the flight attendants did this:
They, as I have come to expect from AeroMexico flight attendants, pulled the curtain and hid up front for a long time ignoring the first class cabin. After a long wait, I pushed the call button, and the flight attendant was kind enough to service the cabin as we were not the only ones wanting something. Also, while I can not confirm this, it seemed like (due to conversations) that two off-duty AA flight attendants were seated in the front row and spent much of the flight with their feet on the wall – yuck. I can, however, confirm they were liberally provided with a number of beers! Now the return.
This round, my wife and I paid the 2x$5 fee to make sure we could at least get into what still remains one of the saddest Priority Pass lounges in the system. The fast track security was nice but at 1PM on a Thursday there were no lines anywhere to speak of so we could have skipped it. Same goes for getting into the lounge.
While service has picked up, the food offerings have been scaled back and were meh, including a surprise chicken bone in my jerk chicken roll. At least we had a place to sit (upstairs) away from the crowds. Our AA return flight made the ride down look opulent by comparison.
The preflight service for this flight was water or OJ – at least there was something this time, I guess. But then that was that. Once up in the air, the lead flight attendant showed from her phone the meal choices to those who had not pre-ordered and when she came to our row simply barked “pre-order: what do you want to drink?” and was gone. After quite a long wait, meal service began and it was all on one tray:
This crew seemed not to want to be friendly or helpful. The warm nuts were sorta-kinda warm and served at the same time as the meal. We were given a tiny splash of wine and had chosen the chicken burritos this time and they were equally as uninspiring as the short ribs on the way down. When my wife, after finishing her meal, asked for a refill on her wine the flight attendant seemed upset at the request. OK, then…
Our final flight home from Charlotte to South Bend just put the cherry on top of my AA experience. Our lead flight attendant was late arriving and thus delaying boarding and the flight. AA regionals all but force you to gate-check your roll-aboard bag even if they fit (ours do fit and fit on the way down just fine). The rude attendant said, “Our rules do not allow roll-aboard bags.” To that, I answered, “I promise it will fit,” but I was not allowed to even try. Please do keep in mind the flight attendants roll aboard was welcomed onboard as well as a pilot traveling in coach also had his roll aboard welcomed onboard but a premium passenger – no way – not gonna happen! Oh, and the only snacks offered were pretzels for this flight. Sigh…
The one thing that the flight attends did, at boarding, during the flight (for what felt like 15 minutes or more) as well as just before landing was a VERY long speech like the one below:
Bottom line: this free agency thing has saved me a bunch of points flying AA vs. Delta first class but my gosh: what a contrast in just about everything from the attitude of the flight attendants (both mainline and regional) to the quality of the seats and lack of seat back entertainment to the clear difference in food quality truly shows that while AA is much cheaper than Delta in spending rewards points – you do get what you pAAy for. – René
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This is not surprising. Although I don’t fly DL much, I am UA 1K. Also AAExPlat. Being based in Dallas it is hard to avoid AA. Although UA is far from a paragon of stellar service, their treatment of 1K pax is noticeably better than my experience as AAExPlat. And the onboard service is woeful on AA. On one early morning DFW-GSP there was no coffee. And a F lav was out of service on YUL-DFW. I’ll be taking AC to YUL from now on.
@DFW Steve – Wow – that is quite a statement! Thanks.
United is the only legacy U.S. airline actively trying to get better. Delta is becoming American and American is going toward Spirit and Allegiant. I don’t include JetBlue and Alaska because they’re niche airlines.
Free agency = “The Devil you know versus the Devil you don’t.”
Many of us Delta loyalists are starting to re-appreciate the Delta difference.
@Harry – Don’t even get me started on the all but worthless AA APP!
Pretty much par for the course with American. I prefer to fly Spirit’s Big Front Seat where at least with my Gold status they give me a free drink/snack (and it’s cheaper than AA… though out of CLT, frequently you can get an upgrade for $65 on AA to most places on the east coast).
Regarding the roller bags… welcome to flying on American Eagle operated by PSA Airlines. This is not the discretion of the crew…. PSA has some particular FAA inspectors assigned to its certificate who have a different interpretation of carry-on bags and enforce some very stringent literal/verbatim language from the maintenance program from the manufacturer of the overhead bins, namely the weight that they are certified to hold. Thus, on PSA even though a roller bag will fit, they aren’t allowed to take them in the cabin basically unless the weight is known (presumably the crew knows the weight of their bags and ensures compliance, in their eyes). Yes, funny that the exact same plane operated by SkyWest somehow can take roller bags, but PSA cannot. Welcome to the wonderful world of the FAA where individuals still wield a lot of power.
Being a free agent myself I agree. Out of LAX AA isn’t even close to being the cheapest and the product isn’t there for the price. I’ve defaulted to DL because of the skyclub access but even now I’m noticing DL Y is the same price of AS F which is nuts. So I started to book more AS flights. Their miles are harder to come by so that was another incentive to book them.
@United EF – Thanks for feedback. I have to say that if AA wants to keep those who have defected from Delta… they have a LONG way to go or everyone will just return.
I read all of the comments. Quick question for all Delta elites. Are you sticking to Delta after 2025 and if so, keeping your Delta cards? I made to Platinum for 2025, but if the economy doesn’t improve, there’s no way I will get there in 2026. Going free agent, I think, with the AMEX Platinum. What is everyone else doing? Rene, you mentioned your Amex business allowed you to get a massage at the Centurion, does this offer apply to the personal platinum as well? I don’t really need all of the features of the business, as my company has only one employee: me. Lol. Why would you have the business over the personal? Anything to do with travel? Thanks a bunch.
@Mel – Either card get you in and massage free. I am holding my Amex Biz Platinum because I get enough value for the fee but I may switch to the Personal if a good offer comes along and I don’t get the pop-up that I can not get the new card offer (it happens more than you may think). Then dump old and go new card for a year.
I really dislike American Airlines. They have lost my luggage more times than I can count and have had bery few flights with a friendly flight attendant. I will pay more on another airline rather than fly on them.
Did AA once in 15 years to get to MIL’s early am funeral. In charlotte they refused to let me on with my roller bad that owuld fit in the overhead bins. It was not a full flight and we were in FC!! The bag sat on the tarmac in the rain then when i got it back-it somehow had gotten run over as black grease marks on it and one of the wheels did not work… AA said in an email that they were not responsible… I said if you had let me keep my roller bag with me this would not have happened..They did NOT care!! Not going on AA again.. Back-up is United tho as a none status-it is NO fun.
@Mel – I am PM with Delta, I will increase my time frame with my roll-over MQM’s probably in Nov or Dec after I see where I am with the new program. I am NOT going free agency like Rene because I have had similar experiences as Rene in the past. I am flying with AA TPA-DFW for the eclipse in April and booked Award tickets so that I could burn some of my miles with AA, that would draw me down to 18k left. I habitually do this once every 18 months so that I don’t loose the miles with AA from over a decade ago. That being said, Rene’s experience is all telling, what you get with those Sky pesos is what you want in your travel, the miles are less with AA but you get what you pay for. I have a Delta Reserve card that I use for most of my spending and based on previous history, I will qualify for PM in the future and unlimited SkyClub visits.
Pro Tip: if you need water, request water “to take a pill” while making the hand gesture associated with taking a pill. NBD. Trust me, they don’t come by to check.
@cr – It is sad you need a “hack” to get a cup of water in 1st class on AA! 🙁
You don’t. That’s just silly. Just ask.
@Kristyn – I did just ask. I got any eye roll from the FA. Maybe the pill hack will avoid the AA FA attitude for a premium passenger?
I had a bad experience on AA on a flight from DFW to HNL. Shortly after takeoff, the flight attendants disappeared to the closed curtain area. I am in my 80s so I need to get up some on such a long flight. I was standing close to curtain area and another passenger came up and we were talking very quietly when the curtain was jerked open and the flight attendant said she didn’t want us talking because they were trying to sleep! I had over a million miles I was trying to use! Sure left a bad bad impression!
AA flight attendants don’t see a need to provide much more than 1.1% of effort as Corporate has shown that’s all they are worth.
@E – So 1st class passengers are not worthy of more that 1%?
I feel just the opposite. Delta is overhyped and UA lacks any sort of standardized product. I’m very happy with AA service(incl food),pricing and network/alliances
@Greg – Oh Delta is not perfect and can be hit and miss as to FA quality in 2023/2024 but they are not consistently bad as the 4 AA domestic and regional flights I just too and have seen in the past as well. But hey they are cheap on points so there is that!
You people just need not travel! With your high expectations. You are not in a fine dining restaurant. You are in a metal tube and we don’t have an executive chef cooking your meals on the aircraft. You do not know how catering works especially for destinations that do not cater going back. It’s easy for you to talk crap. Warm ish nuts? Like wow, the world is going to end. Sick of entitled pompous passengers.
@Nothappywithyou – Thank for you for your first comment on the blog. My guess is you do not normally book and pay for premium travel (perhaps you are an AA FA)? When and if you do I would think you would want a premium experience you paid and booked?
BTW quality (even amazing) food in a metal tube is done every day. As an example: https://eyeoftheflyer.com/2014/07/22/lufthansa-1st-class-sweden-brand-new-amazing-boeing-747-8-1st-class-seating-experience-part-5/
In March I had a flight home from Wisconsin to California, with a stop in Minneapolis. However, Minneapolis had a snow storm. I was confirmed in first class with an upgrade certificate.
While waiting at the gate, it became apparent that I would not make my connection. The gate agent did a great job taking care of me. He rebooked me though Detroit and Seattle, and kept me in first class all the way. I was pretty happy with the way they took care of me. I figured I would end up in coach stuck in the middle with all the other people being rebooked.. I was even offered all available meal choices from Detroit to Seattle, and had a great box meal on the 700 mile flight out of Seattle. I was a bit disappointed that I did not get to try the Thai green curry chicken thighs for the first time that I had preordered for the original flight, but the braised meatballs offered on the DTW-to-SEA were great.
I’ll be a free agent in 2026 with lifetime gold status, but I expect I will still be flying Delta most of the time.