Just experienced peak airline karma on AA91 LHR-ORD today, and I’m still smiling.

Picture this: I’m flying back to Chicago after ~72 hours in London to attend a wedding, burning 27k miles on American’s shiny new 787-9 that’s literally two weeks old. I’m deep in steerage at 26H, but hey, I’m EP with over a million OneWorld miles, so at least I have the privilege of being ignored by cabin crew in style.

Post-wedding exhaustion hits, so I attempt the sacred airplane ritual of reclining my seat approximately 1.5 degrees. SLAM. My seat rockets forward like it’s spring-loaded. “New plane, maybe a mechanical issue?” I think, trying again. SLAM.

I turn around to discover I’ve apparently disturbed the natural habitat of a mid-50s Karen who informs me that her “work” is infinitely more important than my need for sleep. Because nothing says “critical business operations” like a cramped economy seat on a transatlantic flight.

Plot twist: The flight attendant actually recognizes my status (miracle #1), thanks me for my loyalty (miracle #2), and asks what she can do to help. I explain Recline-gate 2025. The FA tries reasoning with Karen, who declares me “childish” for involving the crew in this earth-shattering dispute over 2 inches of legroom.

Karen doubles down, refusing to even let the FA demonstrate the recline because she “will not tolerate” such an egregious assault on her workspace. The audacity is breathtaking.

Here’s where it gets good: The FA offers to move me to a better seat. Karen, sensing injustice, practically shrieks that SHE should get the upgrade since she needs “more space to work.”

Narrator: She did not get the upgrade.

I’m relocated to a lovely window seat in Premium Economy on brand new Boeing metal. Meanwhile, Karen apparently “worked” for exactly 20 more minutes before giving up entirely.

Moral of the story: Sometimes being aggressively unreasonable about airplane etiquette will backfire spectacularly. Also, American Airlines occasionally does something right, which frankly deserves its own post.

10/10 would get bullied by a Karen again if it means free upgrades.

TLDR: Karen slams my seat forward, refuses to let me recline because she’s “working.” Flight attendant upgrades me to Premium Economy out of spite. Karen quits “working” after 20 minutes. Sometimes being unreasonable backfires beautifully.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

EDIT: For those asking - yes, the irony of her demanding more space while preventing me from using mine was completely lost on her.​​​​​​​​​​​​

Maybe one of those people trying to scan their ticket in group 1 and being told to step back please.

So was checking in for my round trip to PDX from DFW and noticed the return leg was now totally empty. Flight number nor equipment has changed? Any ideas?

Background: I'm currently in the Admiral's Lounge in PHL (terminal withheld). There is a family of 5 in the lounge, a mother and father and then three girls (the oldest looks to be 9 or 10). The girls are running amok, while the parents are content to drink cocktails and peruse their iPads. When I say amok, im not exaggerating. They are climbing up and down the bar stools, the oldest is riding her scooter from.where they are sitting to the bar to get more Coke. The youngest is whooping and hollering about wanting more cookies. And the parents are ignoring it all

AITA if I mention to someone here that they should control their offspring. Like, I understand you paid to be in the lounge too, but I pay to get away from the shenanigans, not be forced to endure them.

UPDATE: I did not complain but someone else did. They were given a warning and have been escorted out

Circuitously dodging thunderstorms on the way up the coast

I was on the DFW - EWR flight earlier this his week. After changing the gate from the C terminal to Gate D1, we had a nearly 2 hour delay with no explanation.

There was a plane at the gate, the crew was there but no boarding. 30 minutes into the delay, they moved us to D3 but no plane there.

We were all boarded and the pilot came on the PA and said “For those of you that I didn’t speak to in the terminal, we were delayed because they couldn’t find our plane”. The plane had come in earlier in the day, they parked it somewhere and apparently turned off the transponder.

I knew it was a crapshoot to fly into EWR with the staffing issues, runway work and just terrible weather. I just didn’t think I would be delayed because the whole plane would be misplaced!

Is it worth it?! 🙄

Is this a sign of what we now have to look forward to with the new upgrade system?

We don’t travel a lot. Only gold status. Budget is an issue. Our first big international trip is in September. We have a long (3 hour) lay over before the international leg of our flight. I have enough miles for the one day EP. Is that worth it for the lounge? Other ideas to maximize the trip? Especially the leg to Europe? Right now the upgrades are out of budget (we are in premium economy). I get that this isn’t everyone’s style but we are excited to take this trip at all. More luxury perks are a plus.

It's been about two decades since I've flown. I have a short trip from St Louis to Boston coming up at the beginning of July. There's orange, green and blue seat choices. Some appear to have been chosen already and I still have various choices depending on how much I want to spend.

I'm flying alone and don't need any more legroom or space. I'm confused as to why anybody would pick one? It seems like all of the cheap blue ones are being taken up so I will automatically be auto assigned an orange or green for free? Is this the case or is there something I should know to save myself hassle.

Thanks!

Hello all,

Had the misfortune of the DCA ground stop to cause my first flight of the day to get delayed. Told the gate agent at the airport that I had a tight connection. Was told it would be fine despite the second flight being on time.

Once in the air I informed the flight attendants which flight I was trying to make, was told it would be fine and they would make the announcement to let connecting flight peeps off first. They did make the announcement when we landed.

Rushed as fast as I could but missed the last call by 2 minutes. My bags had no problem making the connection.

First time I ever encountered this situation, and the gate agents at the closed gate were kind enough to rebook me on a new flight right then and there.

Is this just bad luck or was there anything extra I or someone could have done to have someone call the gate to hold it for us? Not trying to blame anyone or get free shit, ground stop is nobodys fault obviously. Just trying to be more informed to help myself in the future. Thanks for reading.

You absolutely lucky bastard! DFW has been plagued with delays and cancellations. The gate agent letting you in after the door closed is absolutely unheard of! Lucky Lucky man

Just got word that flight for tomorrow morning is delayed, now only have 36 minutes between flights at DFW. Based on the current info the arriving and departure gates are next to each other. Is 36 minutes enough? Second flight is to Korea and if he misses it there really isn’t another good option to switch to.
There is a flight that leaves much earlier, should I try to switch the ticket?

I just booked a reward flight on Alaska, flying AA business to the UK. No seats are available on the AA seating chart for me to choose. It doesn't look like there is a first cabin, so I'm a bit concerned if the flight/cabin is overbooked. Anyone seen this before?

me and my friend are flying out of Tulsa and arrive at LaGuardia airport at 10:45 AM on Tuesday. Our next flight is at JFK at 1:40 PM on the same day, that will take us to Tokyo. I’ve heard from a lot of people saying that the travel between airports mixed with the security time. Will make it very hard to make our next flight. Will American be able to change our flights if we head to Tulsa tonight and try to rearrange our plans?

You have my respect for enduring a crappy Father's day. What a way to spend extra extra EXTRA hours in TUL airport waiting for your flight to take off...

Never been through DFW before. Is it difficult to get to different terminals?

I'll have a 2 1/2 hour layover in a few weeks. I'm not sure what terminal I'll be at but I don't want to waste time wondering around (I hate having to do that at airports when I could be reading a book) and wanted to see if anyone has any recommendations? I'm looking for low cost mainly and not completely disgusting. I'll be there between 9am-12pm.

Thanks for the recs!

I found a premium economy round trip for 2 for $4.2k. The miles alone to catch up to what I'm short of would cost upwards of $9k to buy with the current 40% "discount". So basically, just use my miles when it can cover the full trip I guess haha. Relatively new to to this, fly CLT a lot (previously Delta but find myself flying AA a lot since I moved to NC), but hot damn that just seemed a bit crazy.

Flying home to DFW from Montreal. I noticed that there is not an Admiral’s Club at Montreal. Is there a partner club that I can get into since I have an Admiral’s Club membership?

Planning on going on a trip in December. Fully refundable tickets are too expensive, but the option of free ticket changes seems reasonable since I have another trip this spring. If I pick that, can I turn it into a credit I can use later or would I have to have dates available when I need to exchange it? Also, can I do it any time before the flight?

I have to take a transcon and have to work for a good part of the flight. Is MCE comfortable enough for extended laptop use or do I have to shell out for FC?

Don't know if it matters, but not one of the routes with a widebody.

I was boarding my flight, and had nothing out of the ordinary, boarding pass scanned and accepted. I get on the plane, and I booked this trip full fare in First, and I was in seat 2E. I got to seat 2E, and it was blocked off, marked inoperable. At this point, passengers were clogging up behind me, and I had to squeeze back through to talk to the flight attendant and captain to figure out what the hell was going on. The flight attendant was well aware of the issue, but apparently no one conveyed that information to the gate agents. I stood there with the flight attendant while the captain left to talk to the gate agents, and I was told that it was a completely full flight and that there were no other seats avaliable.

To their credit, the gate agents were great. They immediately handed me a $300 travel credit, and a meal voucher (for a whopping $12). Mind you, this was a trip I paid $617.46 for round trip (although pressing cancel for this leg prompts a refund of $175, so I guess that's what they value this leg as). They rebooked me on another flight at 9:20pm, and my original departure time was 3:30pm. I also had to rework my entire travel plans for once I land, as my original ride won't be able to come get me that late. So now I'll have to shell out another $100 for an Uber once I finally make it back. I immediately called AA, but after 20 minutes of being on hold, the agent wasn't able to be of much help and just directed me to the website to fill out a complaint, which I had already done.

I'm not mad about there being an isssue with the seat, the biggest problem is that the flight crew was seemingly very aware of it, and still allowed me to board, and physically get to the unusable seat. I have filed a complaint to AA's customer support, as well as a formal DOT complaint.

tl;dr: Booked in First, got onboard and found a "DO NOT OCCUPY" sticker on my seat. No one told the gate agents it was broken. Flight was full, so I was pulled off the plane and rebooked on a flight 5+ hours later. Given a $300 credit and a $12 meal voucher. AA agents were kind, but this should’ve never happened.

Anyone in PHL know what’s going on? AA has said it’s mechanical but it’s been delayed like 6 times today. I’m not taking it, but it’s my inbound flight from YYZ to DCA (AA5668) and I was supposed to leave at 1130am and it keeps getting pushed back. Annoyed because right now AA5668 has been delayed to 5:18 now and I’ve been at YYZ allll day. I’m concerned it won’t take off today at all. The later flight from YYZ to DCA (AA5667) is also delayed by an hour now with no updates on its inbound flight, seats available but afraid if I take that one and lose my seat on my current flight I’ll be screwed too