American Airlines - AAL > Reviews > Mixed experiences with AA

Author's product rating:   

Food Quality	Good
Customer Service	Friendly and attentive
Punctuality	Satisfactory
Space	Fairly Comfortable
Value for Money	Satisfactory

Advantages:	comfortable, good food
Disadvantages:	headset rental on some journeys, no frequent flier miles on some legs of the trip

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I flew on AA from Heathrow to JFK then onwards to Barbados and then the return (BGI-JFK-LHR) with a 1 week stopover in New York on both legs of the journey. My experiences were very mixed.

On the first leg (LHR-JFK) I found the seating to be rather close . . . closer than usual for a trans-atlantic flight. There were no individual monitors in the backs of seats but we were provided with free headsets and the food was of good enough quality. The service was also good and the staff friendly.

The second leg of my journey (JFK-BGI) was not as good. The service was below that of my first leg of the journey. You were asked to pay US$5 for headset rental. The food was reasonably good again.

The BGI-JFK leg was a bit inconvenient as when I booked I wasn't allowed tobook a direct flight from BGI-JFK. I was told by my UK travel agent that this was not an option and I had to instead change planes in Puerto Rico. Why this was so, I'm not sure as they are daily direct flights from Barbados to New York by AA. Again one was expected to pay $5 for headset rental and the food was ok.

The final leg was by far the best leg of the journey as I had the luxury of monitors in the back of the seat infront of me. That way I could choose from a selection of viewing options. The headphones were again FREE and there were games that you could play using your monitor. This helped to make the time go faster . . .

One query I had though was with frequent flier miles. I was told that I was unable to collect miles for the trans-alantic part of my journey. This didn't seem fair as that was the longest part of the trip.

In summary, AA is a good airline and I would definitely use them again. However, I couldn't help wonder why on the Caribbean legs of the journey, the headsets were being rented at a $5 charge when they were free on the transatlantic leg . .. and why service on those leg was also not as good.