If you are planning a mongering trip to Peru, I urge you do not, repeat...do NOT fly American Airlines for your connecting flight to South America. If possible try and get a direct flight without using connecting flights which may involve using American Airlines. Always fly Tasca or Lan Airlines. If you think Airwest is bad, try flying American Airlines. They really suck. When flying from LAX, I missed my flight through no fault of my own. (I was actually at the airport five hours early-yes, five hours) and was told the check-in counter wasn´t open yet.

Under NO circumstances can I ever recommend anyone to ever fly American Airlines. They are absolutely shit. They are worse than US Airways, who still owes me a free flight. They are worse than Air West, they are worse than Singapore Airlines. They are real motherfuckers who are piss poor in customer service. Don´t ever fly American Airlines, is that clear? No, I wasn't late getting to the airport, I was actually early, and from what I was told, I was in fact too early. They told me at American Airlines that I..yes, I was TOO late to board their plane!!!

When I finally got to the check-in counter (frantically looking at my watch, knowing I wasn´t going to make my flight on time because of the unexpected long lines, I said, "Ma´am, I was here just before 9:00 this morning, even though my flight isn´t until 1:45 pm, and it was closed then so I came back when the check in counters were finally opened." I was told, "Too bad, you missed you´re flight, sir" she continued... "That´s your problem if you weren´t in the line at the proper time not ours." (gasp!!) I said, "What!!! You fucking what???" This is outrageous, I thought. This is absurd. How can this be? I was there on time, way before time and I was told to come back when they opened the counters. I had to explain to them that this is an outrage, as I was where I was supposed to be at the right time and when I returned to the ticket counter to check in, there were five hundred people all scrambling to catch their flights and only four people working the check-in counters. Yes, no joke-only four.

All this happened to me before, when I flew to Mexico, actually to Arizona on US Airways, which I believe are sister airline companies. Anyway, their customer serivice is going to get a real nast "fuck you" e-mail from me when I return to the USA. I flew to Miami later that night and caught a flight the following evening in Miami, (which meant I was forced to hang out at an airport all fucking day) and catch a flight that evening with Lan Airlines who did nothing but apologize up and down for American Airlines´fuck up.

Lan Airlines were so apologetic for American Airlines incompetency in me missing my flight that they even compensated me on the next available flight to Lima, and get this...THEY EVEN WOULDN´T CHARGE ME A PENALTY FEE!! Go figure. Because they know, and everyone knows, American Airlines and US Airways are the "trailer trash" of the airline industry. Lan Airways is up there with Cathay Pacific. Superb customer service and totally comfortable with a small movie screen in front of every seat.

One thing I cannot get out of my mind is upon my return to the check in counter when trying to catch my scheduled flight is watching what looked like a stampede of humans, all trying to get to the check-in counter to catch their flights on time. Me included. The problem was, you´ve got about eight hundred people, probably more, all trying to make their flights on time and only four people working the check-in counters at American Ailines. When I landed in Miamai, Florida, Lan Airlines were so aplogetic for American Airlines´ fuck up that they were determined to assist me in getting on the next available flight without further delay. I urge every monger, if you´re going to fly to South America and need a connecting flight, try and avoid American Airlines and US Airways, if you can. American Airlines sucks. Their customer service is horrible.

Greetings from Lima, Peru and happy mongering.

Regards,

Master Bates.

MB,

your observations are dead on: AA -
Lan + [Excellent airline, good service, helpful station personnel]
BTY, LAN runs many specials for Peru destinations for anyone going to other cities beside Lima.

An inside joke with other airline personnel regarding AA, they are known as "The Sky Nazis"!

Couldn't diasgree more. AA is my carrier of choice when I make my trips from Europe to Brasil and usually fly 70-100k miles p.a. on them. Never had a problem getting on the flight or with the service onboard.

LAN is a good airline in the air but not so good on the ground particularly when things go wrong.

Anyway MB enjoy TASCA [sic] Airlines on your next flight to Peru. ;)

Next time your around an airport ask someone "in the business" what references are used regarding American Airlines. NONE of the other carriers have a reputation or nickname like that, and there are reasons for it.
The standard disclaimer: YMMV [perhaps you are one of the fortunate few]
In any case, good flying and safe trips!

Have to agree AA sucks big time. But surely they have a similar nickname for United?

I'll agree, AA gargles diarhea. They just changed my upcoming trip to Medellin without asking me, then tried to charge me for the difference.

I was scheduled to go via Miami both ways with same day connections, but they decided I should spend the night in Miami and being that the fare is being "re-booked" at a date closer to departure, I need to pay the difference in fares.

What the Fuck?!?

I think that anyone who travels to South America with any frequency should consider flying American and quickly getting Platinum status. I've been Platinum for years and I have never run into any real problems. I'm sure they treat their Platinum members better and it is so easy to become Platinum if you travel that far often. Look into the Platinum Challenge. One round trip to Brazil will do it for most travelers.

Never had a problem with American. I am executive patinum for the past 5 years. Yes the 8 VIPS are nice, but recently had to fly coach to brazil, was not that bad. Took my ambien and arrived in good shape. With all due respect to Masterbates, I think American is about the same as all of these airlines at this time. I really do not expect much more than a safe flight and everything else is just a nice surprise.

Defender,

you are one of the few that realizes what a flight should be: Safety, schedule,comfort, and service.
That is actually written in *=^^#** airlines manual...
Obviously all have come to expect more, but the fact is an aircraft is NOT a flying bar, resturant, or Barko Lounger. And flight attendants [once young and hot, not any more]are there to save your ass, not kiss it.
Anything more is just a bonus, and probably a lucky one at that.

Never had a problem with AA either. I am Platinum, always fly at least in a comfortable emergency row seat, get double miles (an award ticket from the US to Brazil is only 40K off season), plus I can use the Airport lounges overseas (I can't in the US because I am not Executive Platinum). On a few occassions when they were overbooked on their flights to Brazil got moved to business class.

Ok, they are bare bones and charge for every little thing but for South America they have fantastic coverage. I just buy my little goodies before I board the plane, and try to get my travel plans as buttoned down as I can. Not sure they are all that different from most domestic US based airlines. Delta now charges a $50 fuel surcharge for award travel...AA does not yet.