American Airlines review by Katie 2014-07-19

The baggage claim was the most unpleasant aspect of the entire trip (both going to and returning from Brazil). I have never seen such a disregard for the belongings of others! My husband and I bought our suitcases two weeks before our flight and after ONE roundtrip they are filthy, have huge dents, a piece of a handle was chipped off from one suitcase and there was a hole in another. As if that wasn't enough, our belongings inside the damaged suitcases suffered even more severely. I bought eight ceramic bowls in Brazil and only TWO came through intact. Most of the others were not simply cracked, but a collection of tiny pieces. I am not sure how this could have happened because all of the dishes were heavily wrapped with bubble wrap, newspaper and cardboard, placed in the center of the suitcases with thick material buffers on all sides. I was also transporting a doll house inside of a cardboard box and when we picked it up in the baggage claim an entire side was ripped open and the box was soaked! It is a wonder that all of the pieces made it, and if they had been made out of something other than plastic they probably would've been ruined. My last grievance with American, in regards to the care of their customers belongings, is that our luggage was missing at our final destinations BOTH times (when we arrived in Brazil and when we returned to our home in the States). The first time our luggage was mislabeled (not entirely sure how, as there were only two other people in line when we were checking in). We were told at the gate that this had been fixed and all was well. Upon our arrival in Brazil, however, the bag could not be located at all. We finally suggested that they look for the bag under the original incorrect label and it turns out that the label was never fixed at all and instead had been sent to Springfield Missouri. It took American two days just to verify that the bag in Missouri was our bag. In the end, it took 5 days to get our bag. Needless to say, we were less than thrilled to have a bag missing on our return flight as well. American Airlines is in a pretty sad state if this is what they consider customer service. The price of airline tickets is expensive as is, but knowing that your luggage will be mistreated and that half of it will not make it in one piece only makes things worse. Given our recent experience with American Airlines and their 'customer support', we will never fly with this airline again. EDITORS COMMENT: Most baggage handlers are employed by the airport not by the airline