In some ways I quite like AA. The product is consistent, which is to say consistently poor. Some of the planes are knackered; some of the crew are even more knackered (although some are excellent). But it is all fairly predictable and that at least counts for something.
Or so I thought...
The very short flight was due to leave at 1640. I arrived at JFK quite early (1445) and dropped my bag off. Security was fine (I have priority status) and I wandered to the gate. T8 is good by US standards, and excellent for JFK (probably the best). As boarding time approached, the AA staff-member at the gate announced that due to bad weather the crew had not arrived -- and were still on the ground in Baltimore. This came as a shock. An hour passed, and they still had not taken off. Eventually we were told to go away and come back at 1830 -- and we were given a $12 food voucher, which was enough for a sandwich and a bottle of water. This was handled very well.
However, by this stage people were understandably quite irritated. You would think, at a hub, that an alternative crew could be provided. Still, I waited patiently and worked on some papers. At 1830 the beleaguered staffer announced that the crew had now taken off from Baltimore, and we were told to expect a 1945 departure. Since I'd been at JFK for some 5 hours by this point (to catch a 40-minute flight) I was getting quite weary.
At 1945, having been told the Baltimore flight had landed and the crew were en route to the gate, we were then suddenly told that they had gone out of hours, and so we would have a new crew. And a new plane. And a new gate. And new seat assignents. So we all trekked off to the other concourse, which is a looooong walk in T8, and we formed a huge queue trailing down the walkway waiting in line to receive our new seat assignments. I felt very sorry for two single mums, each travelling with two very young children -- it must be a nightmare dealing with such a long delay.
Naturally, at the new gate there were no staff whatsoever -- in fact, just a rather lost-looking pilot, wandering around looking confused. Eventually, the poor staffer from the first gate turned up and proceeded to start reissuing boarding passes. Some people were very angry by now, and there were some heated exchanges. I was pretty relaxed -- my evening was ruined but I wasn't that bothered. Until, that is, a guy in the queue asked me whether I thought our bags would make it to the new plane, and then I started to worry -- my schedule the following day was very tight, and I would have no smart clothes and no time to sort it all out if my bag were lost.
So in the end I was assigned a new seat and I sat down at the gate to await boarding, whereupon things got interesting. Until this point, one (poor) staffer had been left to handle the gate for this flight for some 6 hours. He had done as good a job as anyone could possibly do in the circumstances -- he had kept us up to date and his apologies were clearly genuine. But suddenly other AA staff appeared, including a rather official-looking older woman in a smart suit, who was clearly a manager. It turned out that there was a very tight time-limit for the despatch of the new plane, presumably because the new crew were at the limits of their hours too...
I have never seen a 757 board so quickly! -- it took about ten minutes, including priority boarding (which is quite instructive!), and people were (literally) running to their seats and the crew were throwing the bins shut, whilst the manageress-type looked anxiously at her watch and provided a countdown on the PA. (I kid you not: "We have 8 minutes; please take your seats.") The doors were slammed shut, a van (literally) skidded to a halt outside and ground staff ran out and got the aircraft away in record time -- at 2030.
What about the flight? It was quick and easy. Refreshments were half-heartedly offered. The taxi at JFK was brisk, for a change, and the flight took about 40 minutes. We landed in Boston and glimpsed the weary passengers who had been awaiting the return sector, before heading to baggage reclaim where (thank goodness) my case appeared, although an elderly couple did try to make off with it...
The AA staff were apologetic, and the captain made a point of apologising at some length, and in some ways it was interesting to see that they can get their act together when they really have to. But all in all, this wasn't a great experience and the 757 itself was like a time capsule. I think that next time I do this route it will be on DL or perhaps the miserable Acela...
Last edited by at240 on 20 Sep 2012, 10:19, edited 1 time in total.
Did you push them onto the baggage carousel so someone else could claim them 
