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American Airlines
On my recent California trip, I flew American! It was a so-so trip, by which I mean some of the trip was good,other parts were really below standard. On my departure from Chicago, the flight was in a turbulent airstream right off the bat. As I may have mentioned I hate to fly, but.....You do what you gotta do to save time. Turbulence was really bad, the plane was bopping and weaving and I was freaking out. After about 5-10 minutes of doing the bop and weave the pilot was granted permission to move out of the turbulence into a milder airstream. I was very thankful for that. My oldest grandchild accompanied me to California, her first flight and none of it bothered her at all. I couldn't believe that a child was braver than I was. But her strength and trust in the airplane made me much calmer. The rest of the trip was smooth. The problem I found with the airline was no TV, no movie, no radio headset on board the plane. What did they think I was going to do for 4 hours? I was prepared to read my Bill O'Reilly book, but seriously! 4 hours is a long time to be in the air without news of the outside world. I hated it! It dragged on forever. They (American) really needs to use a more updated plane for those long flights.
They did have one nice feature I thought which was the headrest moved on each end to hold your head in the center of the seat. Good thinking, maybe so many people won't be leaning their head over onto the next passengers shoulders when they sleep. Great Ideal....?
The flights home, yes I said flights, because they always route you through their home base. I flew to Dallas TX. Then on to Chicago. Does this make sense to anyone?
The flight as far as flying was great the pilots were on their toes and moved immediately out of a turbulent airstream as soon as we hit it. The heat on the plane was extremely high, I could not sleep - it was an overnight flight 12:30AM-2:30AM. It was very uncomfortable and I was unable to breathe it seemed for a long time. I also felt that the seats were extremely close together front and back, there was no room whatsoever to move. It was the most cramped plane I have ever flown in. The funny part is as I entered the plane there was a sign that said "more room in coach seats", that was laughable. The second flight Dallas to Chicago was very cool(temperature wise) and I slept like a baby. I have never had any trouble with security at the airports and again, no trouble. They have always been great, the few times I have flown since 911.
I have even gone through security as many as 3 times for the same flight, because I am a smoker and I hate waiting. So I would run out and smoke and go through again.
Fast Courteous and Professional. That is appreciated I am sure by people like me who can't resist the urge for one last smoke before boarding.
Every plane I've taken since 911 has left early and arrived early to my destination. This was more of the same. The last time I went to California in Feb 2005 I flew Frontier Airlines. I loved them completely. But this time tickets were cheaper on American. Which by the way my ticket before taxes was 140.00 on American. I purchased it in Dec 2004. But other people on my plane paid as much as 1040.00 for their tickets. Is that not a scam? I would not want to be sitting next to someone who paid that when they hear what I paid. No discounts or anything just simply an internet purchase directly from American. So other than some crabby lazy people in the LAX airport, my experience would be rated a 7. Not great but good!
Tommorrow the spa story!
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