American Airlines Reviews 3,128

One of the worst travel experiences I’ve ever had.

My flight from Philadelphia to Buffalo (AA4588) was cancelled after hours on the plane, and I was traveling with my mother who had emergency surgery just one week prior.

We were left overnight at the airport with no practical help. The only hotel offered was 13–17 miles away, with transportation costing over $150, which was not realistic given her condition.

The most frustrating part was being told to wait for standby boarding the next morning. I followed instructions, yet other passengers checked in separately and were boarded, while my mother and Ifirst on the listwere left behind.

There was a clear lack of communication, coordination, and empathy from staff, including management. The only positive was one Spanish-speaking agent who truly helped us.

This experience was exhausting, stressful, and unacceptableespecially when traveling with a medical passenger.

Half the plane was boarded and they bumped us. We were in line to board and they said your group cant get on this plane due to weight. What a joke, tickets were bought months in advance. They overbooked and our group gets bumped. Might not even get out today. Never again will I fly american!

Delays galore, stuck in the plane on the runway.

UPDATE for 03/2026!
American Airlines are literally taking your money for flights and canceling the ticket right before the flight so you cannot check in. I’ve called over a dozen times to be caught in a game of who to speak to next about my refund. Lost a job opportunity and as of today showed proof that the flight was cancelled 3 hours before the flight when I went to check, job lost and everything. No Refund! Don’t let them scam you!

I wasted hours on a chat and emailed customer relations. I needed to add an advantage number BEFORE cancelling a flight and the chat agent instead added the number AFTER creating 6 month vs 1 year for the trip credit booking deadline. It was their fault and I can’t get anyone to fix it! I’m a platinum member and customer relations simply thanked me for my feedback. Impossible to get a real human to take care of resolving their error.

had a horrible with American Airlines flying from JFK to Memphis through CLT. Flight out of JFK delayed for hours missed connection at CLT no available flights from CLT to memphis for 24 hours.

tried every way possible to contact American called, used app, texted and spoke to employees @ the gate and their so called “help” desk at JFK the most common response i received from these efforts was that they couldn’t help me and was directed to one of the other options. Finally the 4 th person i spoke to at the help desk got me seats on a flight from CLT to MEM 24 hours after my original flight

still no offers of any type of accommodation or assistance in with a hotel. we had flown to JFK from Rome on a different airline so we had already been traveling for almost 24 hours at this point

side note the first person i spoke to at help desk didn’t have her glasses on so she couldn’t read my boarding pass and was having a lot of trouble seeing her screen the second person at the help desk was very obviously texting friends on her phone and not really listening to me and she was wearing a mask which made it almost impossible for me to understand her

i’m finally home after spending lots of money i wasn’t planning on and missing 2 extra days of work

BTW i just found out for sure the delays were not due to the weather but due to poor maintenance on by American Airlines

Please always choose United or Delta to go through US, never again American Airlines, will never choose to make same mistake again. I travel a lot and often, use different airlines. Perhaps that is why I have been treated the way I was. If I had been a member of AA, I could have received a different treatment.
I am really frustrated with the time waste over AA customer service that seems to have double standards. I do not understand how people in front of line got meal vouchers, or hotel accommodations (before the system got overwhelmed), and I didn't, and was told by you "it is not a standard" instead in case over 30h+ layover caused by airline. Perhaps, it was a courtesy at the airport, but then I do not understand why AA agents said to collect receipts, you could have just saved us time, patience, and nerves. However, they did mentioned that because they knew the crew was timing out and they acted accordingly until somebody covered the whole misunderstanding with "weather". All the airlines in such situation give away meal and hotel vouchers and reimburse you fully for such a cancellations.
I do not appreciate companies and businesses operating on double standards and treating customers differently in same case situations. Nobody escalated my problem for real, nobody investigated my case, I was only bounced back from one agent to another with no executive power, and kept being repeated over and over same "weather" thing like "I cannot get it"; it is very rude to be treated like this by any customer service, and I though AA had better standards, but unfortunately, no; at the same time I feel relief I will never deal with American Airlines again choosing United or Delta over AA in any future flight through US. Definitely will spread the news amongst people I know, saving them from unnecessary stress served by American Airlines customer service. It is a pity the miscommunication between AA agents leads to poor transfer choices, flying customers to airport with complete chaos, total lack of control and then covering flights cancellations with "weather" when "crew timing out" is really the case. Very sad story, hope it works for their business to keep losing passengers like this, it wouldn't work well in the world of business I am used to.

I am a frequent traveler and find American Airlines Customer Service the absolute worst of all airlines. I am currently stuck in Merida Mexico airport for two days. American Airlines keep rebooking me for same flight combination of Merida-Miami, Miami-Pittsburgh. The first flight keeps delaying daily for 3 to 4 hours which would make me miss second flight. They keep telling me that if I rebook for next day I am guaranteed a flight from Mia-Pit but not if I take first flight to Miami and on second day I take the Mia-Pit flight. Where is the logic in that? Asking American Airlines check-in counter and Customer Service Staff on cause for delay , I was told it was not weather related and that it was related to maintenance crew in Miami and American Airlines not having enough employees. This is not the first time I have encountered Customer Service issues. Furthermore, American Airlines Customer service has no empathy and hang up the phone when a problem us presented instead of escalating to pursue a solution.

Delays and cancellations are now the norm with this airline. What used to be a great airline 15 years ago is now bottom tier. Extremely disappointing customer service and unreliability. I would never fly this airline if I didn’t live in their hub city.

On March 16th, my nephew was supposed to land at Lex Kentucky at 11:15 EDT. He landed at 3am & I had to pick him up. I also had a 1030am flight from Lex Kentucky to O'Hare on the 17th. Im 65 yrs old with a spinal cord injury. At O'Hare airport you chose NOT to bring in more planes & crews to get your customers to their destinations. Because you didn't want to spend the money, due to your greedy owners. So, instead you delayed my flight to Boston # 4409 six times & 6 hrs later from going to 5 different gates was unnecessary & pathetic. Im in extreme pain do to your choices. Also my bag was either stolen or taken by an employee who didn't bother to ask the guy it was next to if it was his. I have to buy new clothes- $750, keys to my apt $80.00, lost hygiene kit $65.00 & 12 hours of extreme pain- $25,000 & whatever else I needed for my 17 day stay in Kentucky taking care of my 86 year old mother in law. My bag was taken at terminal 3 gate L4 at OHare. No one at customer service would assist me & were vary rude, that pissed me off. Your other gate keepers kept lying to us about where the plane was & when it would land REPEATEDLY ! That's unacceptable!
Now, you owe me money for my bag $80., lost items & even if found, I have to replace them. I reported to the Chicago Police & have a case # & the report. Officer Sanders was very helpful. So, has of right now you owe me $1,080. How would you like to pay me ? Im also an Advantage Member, not that its helped. I have 1 more flight with you on the 29th. If you haven't replaced my belongings by then ? Its to court we go. And you will look like what your company is...HEARTLESS! & Without mercy. My name is Phil Collins 617-780-1680. I aspect to hear from you shortly. Whoever is in charge of hiring needs to be fired ASAP.

Flights are constantly delayed and chaotic. There are never updates, and they never get you where you need to be on time. We have lost thousands of dollars in reservations on multiple flights, and their response is “oh well”. Absolutely despise this company.

I’d give them zero stars if I could. I’ll never fly them again after this bait and switch they pulled. I went to check into my flight form ORF to LGA. I got an offer to upgrade to 1st class for cheaper than checking 2 bags. So I took the offer so I didn’t have to pay for my bags. They got the money immediately from me for the upgrade and I got a seat in economy with better leg room. No free bags and no first class. Talk about bait and switch.

I think I'd have a better experience flying on a carrier pigeon then on American. I travel for work weekly and I needed a new airline that flew internationally, so I left Southwest and switched to American because I lived in San Antonio and that was a good hub city in DFW. Let me tell you, in the last 6 months of weekly flights I've had two on time flights, two! This is dozens upon dozens of flights through DFW delayed or canceled. How can they possibly call themselves a major carrier when they can barely carry anything, at least on time. What a pathetic excuse for an airline.... Third world at best. Get a new CEO, fix your delays and cancellations, and above all focus on your passengers getting where they need to go in a timely manner. Sincerely, business traveler spending $150K plus per year looking for a new airline....

Flying in from Montana, our next flight out of Dallas was cancelled mid flight. They canceled 69 flights with all passengers needing to rebook once we all got to terminal C. We waited 6.5 hours in line to speak to someone who only told us they’re not reimbursing the cancelled flight, nor giving any hotel vouchers because it wasn’t their fault! They didn’t rebook us and left us high and dry. We couldn’t get another flight for 2 days and had to travel 39 min outside Dallas to get a hotel. This company shouldn’t exist. Simply the worst service I’ve ever experienced.

Horrible experience. Flight got cancelled last minute and had no notification. Went through dropping off our car, TSA, then got to the gate just to find out it was cancelled with no notice. There were no flights for the day and had to go home unsatisfied. Do NOT book with American Airlines even if it’s cheaper.
Cheaper < quality

By far the WORST airline i’ve ever flown with. Sat in the airport for a total of 10 hours, all of which I spent trying to get my flight rebooked due to it getting canceled and then waiting to get my checked luggage so that i can leave the airport. Astoundingly inefficient, uncoordinated, and unprofessional.

A huge thank you to Customer Service Representative Robert out of North Carolina who helped us change and improve our flights returning back from Guatemala. He did an amazing job figuring out the different flights and scenarios, and he was a tremendous help! I've been traveling for over 45 years and have flown with American Airlines on a bunch of different occasions, but the customer service experience this time was outstanding, hence the positive review. So thank you.

The flight was delayed and the way they treat carry on is stupid. Why name it carry on when you're going to take it away and throw it to the luggage compartment?

Beware of checking bags with American Airlines. I had a nearly brand-new suitcase that had only been used once before this trip, and it came back damaged. The TSA lock, zipper were broken, and the plastic ripped where you can see it was pried open. when I received the bag the zipper had been pulled all the way down to the bottom.

I contacted Customs, and they confirmed they did not search my bag since I never received a notice of inspection. I then reported this to American Airlines, but their central baggage specialist claimed the damage was due to “normal wear and tear.” That explanation doesn’t make sense when the locking mechanism was broken and the zippers were repositioned to the bottom of the bag.

If luggage were simply tossed around during handling, the zipper would likely only break at the lock—not be fully moved down the track. On top of that, one of the foot studs on the bottom of the suitcase was also broken off. My luggage was completely intact when I checked it.

It’s frustrating that their decision was based only on the three photos they allow you to submit with the claim. This suitcase was basically new and had only been used once prior to this trip.

Based on this experience, I strongly recommend keeping your luggage with you in the cabin if possible. I’ve flown with other airlines before and never had this issue.