Yes, that is correct. If you have a small child, and you are wondering what airline to go with for a trip, American Airlines is not the way to go. My husband and I traveled from Boston to Texas for a family wedding last weekend with our precious little Pigpen, and couldn't be more appalled by the way American Airlines was running these days.
Maybe Boston Logan is just an unfortunate location to depart from, but as soon as we walked to the American Airline ticket counter, it just felt unfortunate. The people were not helpful, and there were not enough of them. Well, not enough of them present in their job meaning there were two ladies talking behind the counter about their insurance election with the company. Talking loud enough for the passengers to understand that they were not working on a ticket for someone, but on some personal business for one of the gate agents. Not good. Not good at all when you are trying to check in and get through security with all of your parent paraphernalia. Once their conversation seized, we were able to get our question answered about the bags. You have to pay $20 to check a bag which is a ridiculous rip off, and you have to pay before your bag even gets tagged or seen by an agent. Our question was......do we have to pay for the car seat too? Do you select two checked bags or one? If we select the car seat or wheelchair option it immediately tells you to go and wait in the, "you will never make your flight line". We are savvy travelers, so we know better than to do what the stupid check in screen tells you, so we stood our ground and waited to ask an agent.
She told us to only mark one bag, and that she would check our car seat through to San Antonio for free. Things were looking up, but not for long. We boarded the plane, and sat down in our tiny seats. The rows on American are soooo close together. We were both thanking the mile Gods that my husband had enough miles to get us three seats instead of just two. We both knew that keeping Pigpen from kicking the seat in front of him was going to be a damn miracle, so if you are ever on a flight sitting in front of some brat kicking your seat......don't blame the kid or the parents.....blame American Airlines for making the seats too damn close together.
So, after we boarded in our group number.....not priority boarding for families.....yeah that's right, the lady told me that they stopped family boarding years ago because there were just too many families flying these days. I looked around and saw one other baby, and wanted to slap her across the face as I told her that Southwest, Jet Blue, Northwest, and Delta all had some sort of priority for families, but I just smiled and walked away.
We were on the plane, and Pigpen and I were looking out the window at all of the trucks and planes, and we saw the bag trailer pull up and start loading bags onto the plane. This is when my blood boiled. I was shocked and speechless when I saw Pigpens Pristine khaki colored Britax car seat riding on the conveyor belt with no bag around it!!!!!! It was just riding up there with it's straps loose and cover open to germs and dirt. I wanted to scream!!!! I have never flown on an airline that doesn't bag your car seat. A car seat is for a baby, and babies are susceptible to germs and are at higher risk of dying from things like the flu, and not to mention the damn swine flu! They charged me $20 to take my belongings with me on the plane, and then didn't even have the decency to spare a few cents for a plastic bag for my car seat!!!!!! I hate them!
Once we arrived in Chicago we followed the signs to our gate; our gate was located in Hades! It was about 80 degrees in the gate area, and there were not nearly enough seats to accommodate the plane load, so I was forced to sit on a small food table and think light thoughts as I considered how humiliating it would be if the damn thing broke. I scarfed down a sandwich as my husband chased Pigpen through the airport. I just love those people who see your baby running around with a big smile on his face, and the only thing they can say is, "tire him out". Why don't they just say that they hope they don't have to sit next to us. Rude! Anyway, of course our flight was delayed, so we had to wait way longer than planned and watch Pigpen get way passed his limit. We finally decided to put him in his stroller and jiggle him to sleep. He fussed and then fell asleep. He hadn't been asleep five minutes when the gate agent came on the intercom to say something important and entirely garbled to all people wanted to gate check a stroller. Having not understood one thing he said, I rolled my sleeping baby angel up to him to get my gate check tag, and was horrified to learn that he wanted to take my stroller right then and there. Pigpen was sleeping and we still had about 15 minutes in Hades before we were even going to board. Not good! Me and another mother unloaded all of our shit from our strollers and reluctantly handed them over to the stupid man who obviously didn't have children. Some businessmen gave me a, "that guys is a stupid ass" look as they asked me if I needed help. I thanked them and said no as I hoisted my sleepy baby over one shoulder and his stuffed pig, alligator, blanket, and jacket over the other.
Upon arrival in San Antonio, I got my stroller back at the gate with one less stroller clip on it, which meant I would have to carry my diaper bag to baggage claim since they broke them off. Awesome!
On the way back, we went through Dallas, and still experienced walking through nice part of the airport only to get to the shitty American terminals. We passed by this fabulous little play area that was right up Pigpens ally, but could only stop to play for about 3 minutes since we had to huff it to the crap terminal and wait there for bad service and shitty treatment. This time, I didn't have to relinquish my stroller until I was boarding, but I did get to watch some old hag take it and literally throw it down a metal shoot to who knows where. I doubt it landed softly on a crash mat! I was speechless along with my husband. The people behind us were just as shocked, and one of the girls said, "oh my gosh, she just threw your belongings down that thing like they were nothing!" I wanted to grab the old hag and throw her down the shoot so she could see what my poor little Bob had just experienced. It's times like these when you are reminded of how much you spent on something, and how pissed off it makes you when other people treat it like it was a piece of trash......what a bitch!
Then, we boarded our flight to a bunch of bitchy flight attendants with big fat asses! The one with the biggest ass was the nastiest! We sat down in our seats, and decided to change Pigpen out of his PJs and into normal clothes. I was going to change his diaper before we did this, so I headed for the bathroom at the back of the plane. Our seats were more than halfway back, so most of the people in the back had already taken their seats at this point. The big booty ho saw me coming down the isle with my child in one arm, and diaper supplies in the other. She asked me if I was going to change his diaper, and I replied with a yes. She then turned around curtly and said well let me just see. She headed to the bathroom, so I followed her; she opened the door, and then said to me in the most nasty way, "well there is no changing table in these back here, you are going to have to go up to the front.....that is what i was checking on, I knew there wasn't." I just smiled and said, "okay, thank you." In my head, I said, "bitch, do I look clarevoent, or like I am from a planet where reading minds is one of the five senses; all you had to do was tell me to wait while you checked for a changing table." After that, there was no chance of getting the forward cabin, so we changed him in the seat.....it was just tinkle, and that lady's bitchy attitude made it acceptable behavior from us.
After that, the other bitchy McBitcherson got on the intercom and explained the snack situation to everyone like we were a bunch of half witted morons. She was so horribly condescending and awful when she was explaining the cheese and cracker option. She wanted everyone to know that it only had one piece of cheese in it, and that there were only four crackers accompanied by a very small box of raisins, and an even smaller bag of nuts. She should have just said that she didn't want to hear bitching and complaining from people who purchased these. She then went on to say that the only liquor to be served was a very small bottle of vodka for 6, and she enunciated again, SIX dollars. After that she condescendingly reminded everyone that they only take credit cards, NO CASH!!! She was awful!
The whole experience was like that from the bad service, rude people, and the crappy planes. It made us realize how much better Southwest and Jet Blue are. American is off of our list of options from now on! They only fly in the unfriendly skies!
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