In all my travels in 2012, I was lucky not to have anything stolen from my checked in luggage. The run of luck was broken when I was passing through Miami from Nassau, the Bahamas to San Juan, Puerta Rico. The TSA lock was forced open and was therefore damaged, but fortunately nothing was taken from the case. According to ABC news, Miami ranks as #1 on the list of top 20 airports for TSA theft. There you have it.
It was difficult to avoid American Airlines when flying with British Airways, since these two airlines are part of the so-called One World Alliance. From the time I started to travel with them in 2009-10 when I was working at Kansas, I have come to regard them as inefficient, impolite and worst of all, arrogant. This time, I used AA between Nassau and Puerto Rico, and between Puerto Rico and London Heathrow. These are code shared flights with British Airways, but the services are operated on a shoe string in comparison with those of British Airways.
When I departed from San Jan, I queued for 45 minutes to check in my luggage. It took the AA staff 45 minutes to check in just 3 customers. There were three check in staff and very quickly it dwindled to one. The staff took forever to process one customer, quite baffling really, considering that most passengers had only one case to check in.
The second problem came when the check in staff at Puerto Rico declined to accept my complaint that my luggage was forced open between Nassau and Puerto Rico. I had to raise the complaint at London because my ticket was issued there. Then of course at London Heathrow, they would have nothing to do with the damage that had occurred outside of their jurisdiction. Ahem.
There were many things unsatisfactory with American Airlines. Here's my rating and the reasons why:
Service: 1 out of 10.
"You wanna any drink?" the flight attendant scowled. Even a hot meal at the Salvation Army could be more friendly than this. And the check in desk at Puerto Rico sucks.
Food: 0 out of 10.
The worst culprit was a piece of Dairylea processed cheese with a hardened bread roll. Not that I eat any of these but the sight of them depressed the appetite. The worst croissant for breakfast ever: hard and tasteless.
Facilities: minus 5 out of 10. The TVs in the centre of the cabin were left on during the overnight Transatlantic flight, making it difficult to have a shut-eye. Absolutely no overnight bag offered by airlines such as British Airways or Virgin Atlantic. As I said, everything on a shoe string.
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| American Airlines planes at Miami, USA |
When I departed from San Jan, I queued for 45 minutes to check in my luggage. It took the AA staff 45 minutes to check in just 3 customers. There were three check in staff and very quickly it dwindled to one. The staff took forever to process one customer, quite baffling really, considering that most passengers had only one case to check in.
The second problem came when the check in staff at Puerto Rico declined to accept my complaint that my luggage was forced open between Nassau and Puerto Rico. I had to raise the complaint at London because my ticket was issued there. Then of course at London Heathrow, they would have nothing to do with the damage that had occurred outside of their jurisdiction. Ahem.
There were many things unsatisfactory with American Airlines. Here's my rating and the reasons why:
Service: 1 out of 10.
"You wanna any drink?" the flight attendant scowled. Even a hot meal at the Salvation Army could be more friendly than this. And the check in desk at Puerto Rico sucks.
Food: 0 out of 10.
The worst culprit was a piece of Dairylea processed cheese with a hardened bread roll. Not that I eat any of these but the sight of them depressed the appetite. The worst croissant for breakfast ever: hard and tasteless.
Facilities: minus 5 out of 10. The TVs in the centre of the cabin were left on during the overnight Transatlantic flight, making it difficult to have a shut-eye. Absolutely no overnight bag offered by airlines such as British Airways or Virgin Atlantic. As I said, everything on a shoe string.
