American Airlines no longer an option to book through Flight Ease

[Hlitner]

9 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

Their domestic premium is not worth flying, ditto Delta’s first level premium. I am trying Delta’s next level premium next month hoping for a better experience.  Totally different topic but seat sizes need to be reviewed once again by the FAA, they are getting closer but worse the seats are getting thinner. 

You won't get much argument from me or most folks about the lousy trend in airline seats...especially in economy.  The FAA has mostly stayed out of the fray only dealing with safety (not comfort).   I am a long-time proponent of personal responsibility.  Before we book a flght, we look at the assigned hardware (type  of aircraft) and check the seating situation on both the airline's site and other sites (such as seatguru).  If we are not happy with the seat situation, we do not book that airline or flight.  For us it means that some airlines, such as Frontier, do not get any of our business.  

 

We often fly Business Class on longer foreign flights.  In those situations, our preference is usually for non-US airlines since we have found that many foreign carriers have better seating, better service, better lounges, and better food then we get on some of the US carriers.  Look at the various surveys of the best airlines in the world and you will generally not find any US airlines in the top 10.  

 

We do have an upcoming flight on United (not an airline we have ever liked) because we want to try out their Polaris Class...not to mention they have opened a big Polaris lounge at IAD.  But for another flight from the east coast to Japan, we avoided all the US airlines and booked Turkish Air (one of our favorite Business Class airlines) which not only saves us money, but gets us a few day stop-over in Istanbul.  We would have considered Delta (their Delta One seats are quite nice) but their prices were about double what we pay Turkish Air, and Turkish Air does have better food/service in Business.

 

Hank

[Mary229]

5 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

Turkish Air does have better food/service in Business

Turkish air seems to be the up and comer in the international world as Jet Blue is doing domestically.   Airlines come and go and they come and go in rankings and satisfaction.  I posted a worldwide customer service ranking earlier in this thread.  It took into account luggage losses, on time performance, etc… as well as customer sentiment.  I was stunned to see the big 3 leading in that particular survey. 
 

I live in  hub city of American and that suppresses the market.  I have learned if it is more than 5 hours to fly Business class. 

[0106]

 

27 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

Before we book a flght, we look at the assigned hardware (type  of aircraft) and check the seating situation on both the airline's site and other sites (such as seatguru).

Good advice but SeatGuru stopped publishing or updating blog posts as of March 2020, with the last seat map update published on March 16, 2020.

 

I recommend using AeroLopa "LOPA" stands for Location of Passenger Accommodations and is a document that airlines prepare for each cabin layout. AeroLopa gives travelers an exact to-scale layout of the interior of each aircraft type.  AeroLopa gives details like the seat pitch, seat manufacturer and type, Wi-Fi provider and in-flight entertainment details. Others prefer the site Seat Maps.

[Gsel]

@Mary229 I only had to evacuate one airplane in my career, but I would hate to have to do it now. Too many people packed in a much too small space! I would not even consider being a flight attendant now, they have a tough job with not enough pay. 

[Mary229]

3 minutes ago, Gsel said:

@Mary229 I only had to evacuate one airplane in my career, but I would hate to have to do it now. Too many people packed in a much too small space! I would not even consider being a flight attendant now, they have a tough job with not enough pay. 

They are much too close.  They complain about passenger behavior but my goodness, there are just too many people in the space given.  

[CNSJ]

23 hours ago, sambamama said:

Give me JetBlue entertainment any day!!

We just flew JetBlue from US East Coast to Amsterdam.  Great flight both ways.  

Large screens on backs of seats in coach.  As a bonus, we had an empty seat between us both ways!

 

 

[Mary229]

13 hours ago, CNSJ said:

We just flew JetBlue from US East Coast to Amsterdam.  Great flight both ways.  

Large screens on backs of seats in coach.  As a bonus, we had an empty seat between us both ways!

 

 

I just signed up for Jet Blue’s program.  They don’t have much of a presence in my market but hope to try them one day. 

[Haljo1935]

14 hours ago, CNSJ said:

We just flew JetBlue from US East Coast to Amsterdam.  Great flight both ways.  

Large screens on backs of seats in coach.  As a bonus, we had an empty seat between us both ways!

 

 

I hope your first stop after deplaning was to buy a lottery 🎟 🎫 

Edited Saturday at 03:48 PM by Haljo1935
Typo

[CNSJ]

I used the "no one wants to pay more for a middle seat" rule/philosophy/gamble on Jet Blue.  If it's 3 across, I pay for extra legroom seats in same row, aisle and window.  Few people will pay extra to get middle seat.  Airlines fill the extra legroom seats last when assigning seats to basic economy ticketed folks.  If flight 100% full, they will put someone there, and I'll offer them choice of aisle or window to sit next DW.  If they really want middle - they can have it. 

 

Coach on an Airbus A330 or Boeing 767 has seats with only two, which is actually my preferred route.

 

 

[terrydtx]

15 hours ago, CNSJ said:

We just flew JetBlue from US East Coast to Amsterdam.  Great flight both ways.  

Large screens on backs of seats in coach.  As a bonus, we had an empty seat between us both ways!

 

 

We have JetBlue service from San Antonio connecting in Boston then to London or Amsterdam. Every time we looked at their Mint or Lay Flat Seats online, they were showing sold out even 8 to 9 months out. We only fly BC overseas so it seems like JetBlue will not work for us. Their website eclipses HAL's as not being user friendly. LOL

Edited Saturday at 04:59 PM by terrydtx