American Airlines review by Conrad

***THIS IS A REVIEW I SUBMITTED TO AMERICAN AIRLINES ON THEIR FACEBOOK PAGE I had a bad experience with your airline yesterday. I was scheduled to fly back from Mexico City to Dallas at 12:35 PM on flight 1526. I woke up at 2:45 AM to find I had received a text message from you guys indicating flight 1526 had been cancelled and you were working on getting me rebooked on another flight. Thirteen minutes later at 2:58 AM I received another message indicating I had been rebooked on flight 1066 at 6 AM. Given the busy holiday season that did not give me much time to get to the airport and have enough time to get through the long lines once I got there. I followed the link to confirm my flight and found that flight 1066 had been delayed to 11:09 AM. That gave me a sigh of relief. So I confirmed my new flight. Once I got the digital boarding pass on my phone I noticed the flight time was still 6 AM! I had to scramble to get ready and leave to make it on time. I then received another text message 20 minutes later indicating that flight 1066 which was originally scheduled to leave at 6 AM but then delayed to 11:09 AM but maybe was not delayed after all according to the boarding pass you sent me was indeed CANCELLED. I called your customer service center in Mexico City. I waited for 10 minutes on hold to talk to someone. It was 3:30 AM. A rep named Alex got on the phone and as I began explaining my situation he hung up on me and I was directed to some automated message asking me to rate my experience with the service I had on the call which never actually began. I called back and waited another 15 minutes to finally talk to someone. This time another rep answered, a woman, who tried her best to help me. She rebooked me on an Aeromexico flight scheduled for 8:40 AM. She advised me that was the only flight available through their partner airlines and the only other option for an American Airlines flight would at the earliest be December 30th. I decided to take the 8:40 AM flight. She advised me to get there at least 3 hours early because of the long lines. Do you really think it is reasonable to send people a text message at the very last minute giving them an option for a flight that departs 6 hours earlier? Essentially you were saying "oh just kidding the flight departs at 11:09. Ah no just kidding again it still departs at 6 AM. Oh remember when we said that flight was delayed until 11:09? Well it's now been altogether cancelled and you don't have any options until December 30th." That's after I moved at breakneck speed to get dressed at 3 am to figure out what the hell was going on. The nerve of you people. You charge $700 bucks to cram people like sardines into what more or less amounts to be a tin can. Seats are getting smaller and people are getting larger. How is it reasonable that you guys are so damn greedy you just try your best to stuff a few more seats in the same space every year? This ordeal doesn't even include my experience flying TO Mexico back on December 19th (flight number 2350). I was so miserable the entire flight. I had no room to move my legs and I'm not a big guy. I weigh about 150, I am a runner so having my legs in a position where my knees are constantly rubbing up against the back seat of the passenger in front of me is torture. It's pure torture. Being in the middle seat I had absolutely no elbow room at all whatsoever. I felt sorry for the guy next to me who was 6'3 and about 220lbs. He was very miserable. Is it any wonder that incidents of air rage have escalated over recent years? When you put so many people into tight and cramped conditions you are setting up a powder keg ready to explode. Again I really want a straight answer. How can your CEO and other higher ups who make millions in salaries sleep well at night selling miserable experiences to people? How can you charge exorbitant prices for flights-$600 up to thousands of dollars for a seat, nickel & dime your customers on luggage fees, attempt to extort more money from passengers during the check in process for upgrades to get a few more inches leg space in business class and be so arrogant about it? Once passengers have boarded the plane you guys act like your customers are so fortunate that you even give them the privilege of spending such extravagant prices for seats. It's almost like paying someone to torture you while the torturer treats you as if you are lucky to have the opportunity. I'll tell you one other thing. In contrast my flight back on Aeromexico was 1000 times better. They don't try to pack everyone in like sardines. I actually had leg room to stretch my legs out fully and yes I only had an economy seat. They also provide a decent sandwich for lunch and their stewardesses are actually very helpful. They don't employ old maid rude beast hog flight attendants-past their prime- like your company does. That leads me to another observation. On my flight 2350 to Mexico your flight attendants did not have enough customs forms to distribute to passengers. How is that possible? You are charging an arm and a leg for a flight and can't even provide the simple convenience of supplying ALL of the necessary customs forms so that your passengers can at least have one less thing to be stressed about when going through customs in a foreign country? Your flight attendants actually are very cavalier about this issue. I have seen that demonstrated on past flights when customers ask for these forms before landing and your flight attendants act as if it is not their concern. I'll end by saying this. During yesterday's ordeal I was sick with a fever and lot's of congestion. I didn't need to be jolted out of bed at 2:45 in the morning with your disorganized text messages, bad customer service and general chaos. I won't even go into the over 2 million plus advantage miles my Dad racked up with your company over a 23 plus year period from the 1970's to the 1990's when he gave your greedy company so many of his hard earned dollars only to have his advantage miles stripped of him. When it's too expensive for your bottom line to have customers, loyal customers, with so many advantage miles you just take them away. Your greedy executives just love fleecing people who want nothing more than to see their families over the holidays. My family has flown on American Airlines on countless trips not just back and forth from Mexico and the U.S. but all over Europe as well when I was young. This however is the straw that breaks the camel's back. I will NEVER fly American Airlines again. I am going to let everybody know about my experience-no social media platforms will be spared. Social Media is a great thing! I hope people come to their senses and stop flying American Airlines. Maybe that will force your company to come to their senses.