Post if your American flight to port was on time

I am struggling with what to do with my flight for my cruise in a couple of weeks. We are booked on American and they already changed both flights. We are considering skipping the flight and just driving. I have read so many negatives and I am looking for some positive feedback.

We had no problems flying international with American on the 12th and returning the 23rd of Sept. On time and super service

I am struggling with what to do with my flight for my cruise in a couple of weeks. We are booked on American and they already changed both flights. We are considering skipping the flight and just driving. I have read so many negatives and I am looking for some positive feedback.

Did you book to fly to ship on day of cruise? If so, did they change it to a later time? If so, you can call then to have it changed to the day before.

We have flown on AA many many times - just a few times for us did we suffer delays, time change but they do not stop us from flying on AA again. ALL airlines are like that, not just AA.

When we changed our cruise we called AA last week to change one leg to the day before and they changed it at no cost.

We've been on time or early about 98% of the time, and we fly international a lot - many times across the pond.

P.S. Have a great cruise to Bermuda - we won't be here when you get here - we'll be in Europe boarding Epic.

Did you book to fly to ship on day of cruise? If so, did they change it to a later time? If so, you can call then to have it changed to the day before.

 

We have flown on AA many many times - just a few times for us did we suffer delays, time change but they do not stop us from flying on AA again. ALL airlines are like that, not just AA.

 

When we changed our cruise we called AA last week to change one leg to the day before and they changed it at no cost.

 

We've been on time or early about 98% of the time, and we fly international a lot - many times across the pond.

 

P.S. Have a great cruise to Bermuda - we won't be here when you get here - we'll be in Europe boarding Epic.

OP is concerned because AA is currently having alot of cancellations, schedule changes, and delays because of their financial problems.

OP is concerned because AA is currently having alot of cancellations, schedule changes, and delays because of their financial problems.

They are having delays and cancellations because of their pilots. AA had 62 cancellations yesterday, in contrast, Southwest had 24. I am not sure why you would not take your flights and drive just becaue you have had a schedule change. I have a flight on UA for Dec that I booked two days ago, and it's already had one schedule change. All airlines adjust schedules. However, AA's frequent cancellations would concern me more. Just keep watching your reservation for changes.

AA states:

The recent disruptions are primarily due to the significant increase in maintenance write-ups by our pilots, many right at the time of departure," the statement read.

These "disruptions" led to 547 delays today. On a normal day, the airline sees about 100 delays.

The airline added that pilots are calling in sick 20 percent more than normal, which "impacts the availability of reserve pilots, which can ultimately lead to cancellations

Last two weekends I had an issue. MCI-DFW-DCA met a 6 hour ridiculous delay, but after an hour and a half I got off and was rerouted MCI-ORD-DCA and arrived only an hour late. The following Friday was set to fly DCA-DFW-MCI, but DFW-MCI was cancelled several days prior. AA gave me the offer of staying the night in Washington DC or Dallas on their dime. Not a hard decision on a Friday night ;)

I had an upcoming MCI-DFW-BWI roundtrip in a couple weeks but decided to just cancel it and re-book on a nonstop Frontier flight MCI-DCA. I can't trust AA right now, despite my huge loyalty to them.

Then again I wasn't going to port for a cruise so maybe you don't care ;)

Although a lot of AA flights are being delayed or cancelled, the vast majority are not. I'm not an apologist for AA or their union but the media as usual, is sensationalizing the issue. They are also confusing 3 separate issues (as are many people in other threads on this board).

First the AA pilot slowdown will probably be resolved soon and quickly, just like the NFL referee situation or other pilot slowdowns in the past. If I were traveling in the next week, or had a "day of the cruise" flight, or was flying on a conso ticket I'd be concerned. Your travel is a few weeks out (but definitely be watching) and hopefully you're flying the day before, didn't buy through the cruiseline, and have trip insurance.

The second thing is AA and other airlines are changing their schedules for fall/ winter. Economic weakness is lingering, and airlines are "rebalancing" their flights and aircraft away from low-yield routes to more lucrative routes. AA has been criticized in the business press for not reducing capacity during the past few years. They are catching up to other airlines so it's worst at AA right now. Schedule changes at all airlines usually happen well in advance but sometimes you won't be notified. It's always good to recheck your schedule every few days, but the chance of a deliberate schedule change in your 2-week window is very low.

The third issue is schedule changes caused by a merger or AA's bankruptcy situation changing for the worse or better. This would happen long after you're home from your cruise.

Hope this puts you at ease...we are flying AA in November and my friend asked if we should rebook on another airline. My answer was "no"...the slowdown will be old history, merger approval by the government and BK court will take months, so the most likely issue is a schedule change. That's an issue with all airlines nowadays.

Others may have differing or more expert opinions, but that's my take as a fairly frequent traveler (usually AA) and knowing what happens "under the hood" at the airlines.

Well....wouldn't you know we were not taking a cruise, but a couple of weeks ago our AA flight to Tampa arrived 28 minutes EARLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Although a lot of AA flights are being delayed or cancelled, the vast majority are not. I'm not an apologist for AA or their union but the media as usual, is sensationalizing the issue. They are also confusing 3 separate issues (as are many people in other threads on this board).

 

First the AA pilot slowdown will probably be resolved soon and quickly, just like the NFL referee situation or other pilot slowdowns in the past. If I were traveling in the next week, or had a "day of the cruise" flight, or was flying on a conso ticket I'd be concerned. Your travel is a few weeks out (but definitely be watching) and hopefully you're flying the day before, didn't buy through the cruiseline, and have trip insurance.

 

The second thing is AA and other airlines are changing their schedules for fall/ winter. Economic weakness is lingering, and airlines are "rebalancing" their flights and aircraft away from low-yield routes to more lucrative routes. AA has been criticized in the business press for not reducing capacity during the past few years. They are catching up to other airlines so it's worst at AA right now. Schedule changes at all airlines usually happen well in advance but sometimes you won't be notified. It's always good to recheck your schedule every few days, but the chance of a deliberate schedule change in your 2-week window is very low.

 

The third issue is schedule changes caused by a merger or AA's bankruptcy situation changing for the worse or better. This would happen long after you're home from your cruise.

 

Hope this puts you at ease...we are flying AA in November and my friend asked if we should rebook on another airline. My answer was "no"...the slowdown will be old history, merger approval by the government and BK court will take months, so the most likely issue is a schedule change. That's an issue with all airlines nowadays.

 

Others may have differing or more expert opinions, but that's my take as a fairly frequent traveler (usually AA) and knowing what happens "under the hood" at the airlines.

Kenish, we are sooo hoping you are correct. We are flying overseas, overnight to meet a cruise the "day of"....in all of our cruises have never done this, but had no options due to our work arrangements....now this silly Pilot's shenanigans going on at AA......very high stress for us.

Have been watching our connectors every day....so far it is still doable, even with the daily delays...but much more delay and we will miss connecting flight and thus our cruise.

Booked these flight back in December when they opened. There is not much alternative as we have talked to AA and can get on a different routed flight to either Heathrow or Madrid, but the connectors from there on to Barcelona are filled.....please keep your fingers crossed for us!! (BTW, we do have travel insurance too, but don't want to miss ANY of our cruise ports).

I am struggling with what to do with my flight for my cruise in a couple of weeks. We are booked on American and they already changed both flights. We are considering skipping the flight and just driving. I have read so many negatives and I am looking for some positive feedback.

We just got off of the Oasis a couple of weeks ago. We always fly in the day before, but the plane got there on time. The problem was on the return flight. AA cancelled our original flight from FLL. Changed it to 7:05am. There was NO way that we could catch that flight out, so we ended up staying overnight in Chicago at OUR expense and flew back on Sunday AM.

Joe<-----Don't think that I'll fly AA for a while. :o