Prove Me Wrong: American Airlines is the worst domestic airline

[Gil Bang 25843]

Today AA announced the closure of the SFO base, effective next year.  A lot of employees are gonna be fucked, particularly pilots and FA's.   No idea if the mechanics and the rest will lose their jobs. 

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

2 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

Today AA announced the closure of the SFO base, effective next year.  A lot of employees are gonna be fucked, particularly pilots and FA's.   No idea if the mechanics and the rest will lose their jobs. 

It’s a flight attendant base.

[DalTxHornFan 3074]

10 minutes ago, Bobby_Batronic said:

It’s a flight attendant base.

Man, what does a bed at a SFO FA crash pad cost?  Probably a good move by AA.

[Guest]

A couple of weeks ago, I had a United flight (technically Mesa) with the last leg from IAH to AUS. It was a day when we had a number of storms around. Departed IAH on time, and just ahead of a thunderstorm. Was actually surprised we got out of there.

Sitting on the flight for about 30 minutes, I realize that I haven't felt the plane start to descend. Look out the window and see the fracking sites dotting the ground. Wait a second. That's not between Houston and Austin. That's more of a south of I-10 thing. Look up the flight on my phone and see that we're circling between a bit north of Corpus Christi. 

Soon after the pilot comes on, says there is a storm that's been sitting over the airport and not moving. Now the plane has to divert to Corpus to refuel. The 30-minute flight (you take off on a 30 minute flight without knowing if you can land at the destination?!) took more than 4 hours. But we did get offered a bag of pretzels and some water, so a wash I guess?

[Guest]

16 hours ago, Bobby_Batronic said:

It’s a flight attendant base.

AKA a Cunt Base

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

18 hours ago, Porterhouse said:

AKA a Cunt Base

SFO FA Base? Probably not very cunty at all.

[Gil Bang 25843]

7 hours ago, Bobby_Batronic said:

SFO FA Base? Probably not very cunty at all.

I'd venture less than 50% female.

[Your Mom 4774]

On 9/15/2022 at 10:48 AM, FirstTimeCaller said:

The 30-minute flight (you take off on a 30 minute flight without knowing if you can land at the destination?!)

If you carry too much fuel you’ll be too heavy for landing. The max landing weight is lower than the max takeoff weight. You have to burn the majority that you takeoff with most of the time. So you generally take enough to get to destination, plus the alternate, plus a little bit in reserve, but not too much.   

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

If the forecast weather or conditional language therein meets the departure requirements then you go. 
 

Carrying extra fuel is inefficient. Yes, this time it didn’t work out, but on the whole it does. 

[Gil Bang 25843]

 

[Guest]

29 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:

 

First of all, the guy isn’t ever gonna fly again. Second, the flight attendant no doubt provoked him. Third, there was some puff that tweeted this was the most frightening thing he’d ever seen. Grab your balls man. 

[Gil Bang 25843]

27 minutes ago, Porterhouse said:

First of all, the guy isn’t ever gonna fly again. Second, the flight attendant no doubt provoked him. Third, there was some puff that tweeted this was the most frightening thing he’d ever seen. Grab your balls man. 

4th, the passenger, provoked or not, is a cheap-shotting pussy and should be put on the no-fly list for every single airline. 

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:

4th, the passenger, provoked or not, is a cheap-shotting pussy and should be put on the no-fly list for every single airline. 

That goes without saying, but glad you’re on that wall for us. 

[Gil Bang 25843]

A 33-year-old Westminster man was charged Thursday, Sept. 22 with punching a flight attendant in the back of the head during a flight from Mexico to Los Angeles on Wednesday, authorities said.

Alexander Tung Cuu Le could face a possible maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison if convicted as charged of interference with flight crew members and attendants, Ciaran McEvoy, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

Le was scheduled to make his first court appearance in Downtown Los Angeles Thursday, McEvoy said, where he may enter a plea to the charge.

The attack, aboard American Airlines Flight 377 from San Jose del Cabo, was caught on video by a passenger, who provided it to KTLA. It shows the passenger rushing a flight attendant and hitting him in the back of the head after the attendant had turned and began walking away.

 

Several passengers witnessed the assault and helped to pin Le down near the back of the airplane following the attack, McEvoy said. Le’s hands and legs were cuffed and flight attendants had to use seatbelt extenders to keep him restrained to a seat.

The episode began about 20 minutes after takeoff, when Le left his seat as flight attendants were doing food and beverage service. He allegedly grabbed one of the attendants by the left shoulder and asked for coffee, McEvoy said. He then grabbed both of the attendant’s shoulders from behind and walked to the front of the airplane after the attendant turned around in a defensive posture.

Later, Le took a seat near a wall dividing the first-class cabin from the main cabin, McEvoy said. A different flight attendant asked Le to return to his seat, but Le allegedly stood up in a fighting posture with closed fists.

Le took a swing, but missed, McEvoy said. When the flight attendant turned to report Le’s behavior to the pilot, Le rushed the attendant and threw another punch.

He was taken into custody after the aircraft landed at LAX.

[52-80 19047]

All im saying is, if youre gonna pay to throw a punch, you better get your moneys worth…

[Js1 84994]

15 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

The episode began about 20 minutes after takeoff, when Le left his seat as flight attendants were doing food and beverage service. He allegedly grabbed one of the attendants by the left shoulder and asked for coffee, McEvoy said. He then grabbed both of the attendant’s shoulders from behind and walked to the front of the airplane after the attendant turned around in a defensive posture.

Later, Le took a seat near a wall dividing the first-class cabin from the main cabin, McEvoy said. A different flight attendant asked Le to return to his seat, but Le allegedly stood up in a fighting posture with closed fists.

Le took a swing, but missed, McEvoy said. When the flight attendant turned to report Le’s behavior to the pilot, Le rushed the attendant and threw another punch.

Hey Rex, where was he provoked first by the FA? “No doubt” huh?

[gernblansten 3172]

16 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

He allegedly grabbed one of the attendants by the left shoulder and asked for coffee, McEvoy said. He then grabbed both of the attendant’s shoulders from behind and walked to the front of the airplane after the attendant turned around in a defensive posture.

[Shaggy3.0 1695]

Hopefully the male passengers did the right thing before the flight landed.  I hope that asshat left the plane with a puffy face and black eye.  Fuck that guy.

[Guest]

18 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

A 33-year-old Westminster man was charged Thursday, Sept. 22 with punching a flight attendant in the back of the head during a flight from Mexico to Los Angeles on Wednesday, authorities said.

Alexander Tung Cuu Le could face a possible maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison if convicted as charged of interference with flight crew members and attendants, Ciaran McEvoy, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

Le was scheduled to make his first court appearance in Downtown Los Angeles Thursday, McEvoy said, where he may enter a plea to the charge.

The attack, aboard American Airlines Flight 377 from San Jose del Cabo, was caught on video by a passenger, who provided it to KTLA. It shows the passenger rushing a flight attendant and hitting him in the back of the head after the attendant had turned and began walking away.

 

Several passengers witnessed the assault and helped to pin Le down near the back of the airplane following the attack, McEvoy said. Le’s hands and legs were cuffed and flight attendants had to use seatbelt extenders to keep him restrained to a seat.

The episode began about 20 minutes after takeoff, when Le left his seat as flight attendants were doing food and beverage service. He allegedly grabbed one of the attendants by the left shoulder and asked for coffee, McEvoy said. He then grabbed both of the attendant’s shoulders from behind and walked to the front of the airplane after the attendant turned around in a defensive posture.

Later, Le took a seat near a wall dividing the first-class cabin from the main cabin, McEvoy said. A different flight attendant asked Le to return to his seat, but Le allegedly stood up in a fighting posture with closed fists.

Le took a swing, but missed, McEvoy said. When the flight attendant turned to report Le’s behavior to the pilot, Le rushed the attendant and threw another punch.

He was taken into custody after the aircraft landed at LAX.

Bang Ding Ow

3 hours ago, Js1 said:

Hey Rex, where was he provoked first by the FA? “No doubt” huh?

Actually my experiences on AA - very few and far between in recent years - have been more positive. But that group of FAs are the worst in the air and will certainly provoke stuff. I’m guessing, but it’s an educated guess. Maybe he was just crazier than a shithouse rat. 

1 hour ago, Shaggy3.0 said:

Hopefully the male passengers did the right thing before the flight landed.  I hope that asshat left the plane with a puffy face and black eye.  Fuck that guy.

They did. It was in the video and in the article. 

[EuroHorn 3204]

 

[NeverMarryAStripper 21780]

[DaysOff 7785]

Yeah. Eastern recycled all the surviving galley equipment from the crash, and the ghosts of crew members would show up on flights with the equipment.

[BearSchlong 8072]

DFW has been such a shitshow today. First weather, then no pilot, then need more gas to fly around the weather that just pushed through. Question for you pros who sit up front, is the “more gas” a pilot or dispatch initiated situation, or is it a function of IBM Weather Channel AI Algorithms?

All I know is I’ve been sitting on this RJ145 for 2 hours, at E24B.

This morning in Baton Rouge there was a ground stop at DFW so they let us off the plane for breakfast.

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

2 hours ago, BearSchlong said:

is the “more gas” a pilot or dispatch initiated situation

Yes.  
 

The pilot can request more, dispatch can add more within their discretion and dispatch may have to add more to account for routing and minimum legal fuel requirements. 

[BearSchlong 8072]

Follow up: when we pushed back, we were 32nd in line, pilot said he was asking for an expedite otherwise we would be in line for 50 minutes and we ended up getting in front of about 20 planes.

Then the weirdest thing happened on the threshold; pilot went to takeoff power for about 5 seconds, then to idle, then turned off the runway at the first turnoff, circled back to the threshold, then took off normally.

I’m assuming the expedite had to do with needing the equipment at the destination to reduce disruptions to subsequent flights, right? Because we jumped most of the line.

What are the conditions that would have caused the aborted takeoff?

[DaysOff 7785]

ATC initiated abort? A systems malfunction abort would/should cause a longer delay to run checklists and coordinate with maintenance control and dispatch instead of blasting right off again. Cutting the line could have been because your departure fix/direction was open and other departures had to wait out the weather because their's was closed. Doubtful that numbnuts asking for an "expidite" had anything to do with it although my airline has an ATC desk at headquarters to bang the monkey. Moving up certain departures over others that they deem more important for the operation.

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

I’m sure ATC decided to move your plane out of the way to get another out to make time or departure procedure gate requirements. That happens a fair amount. 
 

Likewise, you probably jumped in line because other departure gates were closed or the ATC desk mentioned above negotiated a better time. 

[Gil Bang 25843]

Just flew 3 segments on AA.  All on-time, all nice crews, all smooth.   Order a bud light, FA says "10 bucks", hand her my CC with a five spot, she pockets the 5, returns my card, and hands me another bud light.   

 

 

[Newdoc 3429]

On 11/4/2022 at 7:32 PM, Gil Bang said:

Just flew 3 segments on AA.  All on-time, all nice crews, all smooth.   Order a bud light, FA says "10 bucks", hand her my CC with a five spot, she pockets the 5, returns my card, and hands me another bud light.   

 

Had a pretty good international flight on AA recently. Crew really friendly for the most part. Passengers behaved as well. Felt like a flight from 15 years ago.

[Newdoc 3429]

On 10/30/2022 at 3:14 PM, BearSchlong said:

What are the conditions that would have caused the aborted takeoff?

Pilot left their sunglasses on the jetway.

[Gil Bang 25843]

Of course my plane was broken on MIA-LAX today.  4+ hours later, we left on another plane.

Once we got in the air, flight was great.  Premium Economy on 787 is pretty solid. 

[Guest]

On 11/4/2022 at 7:32 PM, Gil Bang said:

Just flew 3 segments on AA.  All on-time, all nice crews, all smooth.   Order a bud light, FA says "10 bucks", hand her my CC with a five spot, she pockets the 5, returns my card, and hands me another bud light.   

 

 

The Life & Times of Gil Bang

[Chewbacca 7665]

On 11/5/2022 at 9:01 PM, Newdoc said:

Had a pretty good international flight on AA recently. Crew really friendly for the most part. Passengers behaved as well. Felt like a flight from 15 years ago.

I hope we have the same experience.  Flying DEN-LHR (and then on to Edinburgh) in a week.  Not sure if it's AA or BA that we're flying on, though.  Probably BA but I don't know for sure.

[Js1 84994]

Hoping for same in 2 weeks. Flying AA from IAH to MIA to CDG and then back from LHR to IAH (BA from COP to LHR)

Edited November 11, 2022 by Js1

[royiv 9124]

6 hours ago, Chewbacca said:

I hope we have the same experience.  Flying DEN-LHR (and then on to Edinburgh) in a week.  Not sure if it's AA or BA that we're flying on, though.  Probably BA but I don't know for sure.

Definitely BA if it's a non-stop from DEN to LHR.

[Chopper 17055]

 

AA pilot on a JFK-LHR flight made an incorrect turn and taxi'd across the runway where a Delta 737 was taking off. Flight control tower saw it just in time and the Delta pilot was able to slam on the brakes and avoid a collision. Over 300 ppl on the AA flight, more than 200 on the Delta.

[Chewbacca 7665]

United is reaching SWA levels on their pre-boarding.  Flew DEN-AUS last week and was in group 1 for boarding.  By the time they were done with pre-boarding, probably 40-50 people were already on the plane on both flights.  I got the last first class overhead spot, so the people behind me were fucked on that because 2/3 of the early boarders had 2 big bags each.  It's ridiculous.  Apparently everyone who flies on United has pre-board status these days.

[HamsterHookah 112]

49 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

United is reaching SWA levels on their pre-boarding.  Flew DEN-AUS last week and was in group 1 for boarding.  By the time they were done with pre-boarding, probably 40-50 people were already on the plane on both flights.  I got the last first class overhead spot, so the people behind me were fucked on that because 2/3 of the early boarders had 2 big bags each.  It's ridiculous.  Apparently everyone who flies on United has pre-board status these days.

If it's anything like American, that will expire soon.

I'm actually in a mild depression about losing my Executive Platinum come March--they kept extending it for me since 2020 but finally put a halt on it.

[royiv 9124]

On 1/31/2023 at 3:15 PM, Chewbacca said:

United is reaching SWA levels on their pre-boarding.  Flew DEN-AUS last week and was in group 1 for boarding.  By the time they were done with pre-boarding, probably 40-50 people were already on the plane on both flights.  I got the last first class overhead spot, so the people behind me were fucked on that because 2/3 of the early boarders had 2 big bags each.  It's ridiculous.  Apparently everyone who flies on United has pre-board status these days.

It really is ridiculous. My wife is 1K and even with her boarding before Group 1, we're like the 30th people on board when we travel together. I fly American primarily and they handle boarding so much better than United. Also don't get me started on the dog food they serve in first class on United. I'm not looking for gourmet, I would settle for edible.

[Chewbacca 7665]

28 minutes ago, royiv said:

It really is ridiculous. My wife is 1K and even with her boarding before Group 1, we're like the 30th people on board when we travel together. I fly American primarily and they handle boarding so much better than United. Also don't get me started on the dog food they serve in first class on United. I'm not looking for gourmet, I would settle for edible.

You get food on United First?  I got a Stroopwaffle and some booze.

[royiv 9124]

2 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

You get food on United First?  I got a Stroopwaffle and some booze.

I think meals are served on all flights blocked 2.5 hours or more. We average a weekend trip every other week or so and they're always longer than that. Any shorter and we just drive, fly JSX or use Vonlane.

[Chewbacca 7665]

5 minutes ago, royiv said:

I think meals are served on all flights blocked 2.5 hours or more. We average a weekend trip every other week or so and they're always longer than that. Any shorter and we just drive, fly JSX or use Vonlane.

JSX looks interesting.  How is it in practice?  

[royiv 9124]

1 minute ago, Chewbacca said:

JSX looks interesting.  How is it in practice?  

Bad ass. Arrive at the airport 15-20 minutes before departure. No TSA hassle. At least two rounds of free booze even on a 45 minute flight. In an Uber 10 minutes after arrival. All the flight attendants and pilots are super friendly. My only wish is that they flew to more destinations from Houston.

[Chewbacca 7665]

56 minutes ago, royiv said:

Bad ass. Arrive at the airport 15-20 minutes before departure. No TSA hassle. At least two rounds of free booze even on a 45 minute flight. In an Uber 10 minutes after arrival. All the flight attendants and pilots are super friendly. My only wish is that they flew to more destinations from Houston.

Yeah, from Boulder (45 min from me) I can only go to 3 or 4 places.  Might be fun to try it out on a Vegas flight, though.

[Chewbacca 7665]

Shit, just priced out a JSX Vegas trip for 2 and it's only a $1k round trip?  That's quite a bit cheaper than domestic first.  How tight do they pack you in?

[royiv 9124]

29 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

Shit, just priced out a JSX Vegas trip for 2 and it's only a $1k round trip?  That's quite a bit cheaper than domestic first.  How tight do they pack you in?

Super comfortable. 30 people max on a plane designed for 50 passengers.

[Sam Lin 3539]

7 hours ago, royiv said:

Also don't get me started on the dog food they serve in first class on United. I'm not looking for gourmet, I would settle for edible.

Putting this here for posterity. Thanks United.

[Js1 84994]

[BehoId, The Underminer! 11667]

Currently on a United flight headed back to the gate because they couldn’t get the left engine started.  Uh hello?! You have TWO engines!

[Chewbacca 7665]

15 hours ago, Sam Lin said:

Putting this here for posterity. Thanks United.

What the fuck is that yellow blob?  I'm assuming the bottom left is beans?