
What has happened to my favorite airline? For some reason, I have not flown American Airlines in a while. For this trip to Miami I decided to fly with AA since the rates were one of the cheapest.
After I arrived at SFO, I found out why. Because they are not charging you upfront for your bags. I forgot they charge $25 per carry-on. So that adds an extra $50 to the price of the ticket. That's what I get for falling into their cheap price scam. Remember, you always pay in the end people.
I am not sure what is happening with their bottom line, but they are obviously squeezing every penny. Now I am on a budget but when I am on vacation I like amenities and convenience. Vacation is all about arriving and getting away from it all. When I am home I pinch pennies and and save resources. When I am on vacation, I want the little luxuries. I was so pissed when I checked my bags and the little flashing $25 due- insert credit card message came up. I never had this issue with South West.
So of course I paid the fee and entered the plane after I got my wonderful dose of radiation from the new body scanners. (That's a entire blog right there...) As I entered the plane, I felt like I had gone back in time to when I took my first flight... The plane was just that old. My seat smelled like someones toddler had peed all over it, however I was lucky that there was no one assigned to the middle seat and I moved.
My flight was 5 hours and not one snack to be found, unless you paid. They did provide plenty of drinks but not even a peanut or a pretzel... Again SW and JetBlue wins.
I hope AA is treating their employees good because I am not seeing a bright future for my former favorite airline... Employees might want to get resumes out to the other airlines asap.
I am sure I am late on this observation, but I was too busy trying to survive myself. But what happened? Is it the gas prices? Is it globalization? I don't know. But it does not take Stevie Wonder see that they are in trouble. Hopefully, they can turn things around.