Gone Flying

I have dealt with gate agents from almost every airline (except Alaska or Hawaiian) across the US, AA agents are positively the worst I have dealt with, by a mile. In the past 5 years, maybe 5% of my GA interactions have been with AA agents, and they make up about half of all my negative experiences. I’m not saying they are the only bad gate agents out there or they are all awful, but I rarely have had positive interactions with them, while most my interactions with agents from every other airline have been good.

A few of the ones that stick out to me are:

-refusing to check me in for the jump seat on my own metal (happened twice, had to get dispatch to list me as an ACM on the release)

-refusing to check me in for the jump seat (D6U) on an AA flight 1.5 prior because “I need to figure out how to do it myself” (mind you, I was listed correctly, she just would not check me in)

-not to me but I watched it happen, GA refused to list an offline pilot for the JS, he finds another GA that will and as that gate agent is listing the pilot, the original gate agent, who is standing right there, closes the flight early right before the listing is complete just so that pilot won’t be able to take the flight.

Ive also witnessed AA agents close out flights with customers running down the hall and get to a few feet from the gate and the agent closes the flight early. (Intentionally)


giving pilots a hard time seemed to be SOP, like I’ve never seen before in any other operation. My friends who stayed based in ORD and DFW had plenty more horror stories than I did, but I only spent a couple months in an AA base.

bababouey

sorry for how you’re treated, it’s unacceptable but it’s not something the company cares about. Every time I deadhead or nonrev, I’m shocked about how our agents treat our customers. We come in last in every possible metric and it’s nothing but a punch line around here, nobody really cares that we suck.

Gone Flying

For the most part it worked out, I was just surprised at the pushback to the term “hAAte agent” and was trying to convey why people feel this way.

once I’ve gotten past the GAs, crews have treated me well, and for that I thank you all.

magnus0322

The sad part is that the legacy US Air agents are awesome. You won't receive that kind of treatment from them. But DFW MIA ORD LGA have been some of my worst experiences nonreving or JS. I know this so whenever I encounter a legacy AA agent I always make sure to look out for JS and nonrevs because if they're there my plane and my JS better be full.

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Gone Flying

thats interesting that it is a LAA thing, glad it’s not everywhere. When traveling AA I’m usually in ORD,DFW, or MIA so that explains my experience. Hopefully they treat you guys better.

thanks for pre flighting the jumpseat, always good to see that

-Cheers

Armyguy

Is the issue between listing as a AAC (seat in the back) or D6U (Jumpseat)? I have no idea what rpa pilots have to do to list but when I list for SWA I have to choose between cabin or Jumpseat and I just pick jumpseat and if there are seats in the back I get a seat. How does it work for RPA pilots listing on AA?

We have a few issues with a js over here at AA: no access to cabin js, no second 737 js, and any eagle fdj trumps an AA pilot even if not there metal but a fellow eagle flight (psa fdj get priority on envoy over AA). Guess we will just add this AAC issue to the list

Gone Flying

When you list on SWA you pick cockpit, the cabin listing is for FAs, not us. Still when you list on SWA you can ONLY list as a jump seater. Unless you or someone you know works there you cannot non rev on them. With AAC you must choose, do I list as a non rev, or do I list for the JS. As I understand, AAC FDJ would have fixed this. From what I remember, you could list AAC on jet net, but a JS listing was done separately on myidtravel

Armyguy

Not true. On myid I have the following choices: R2 standby or pilot communing listing.

Gone Flying

I believe R2 standby is a zed fare, am I mixing that up?

and even if so, I did forget about zeds. but I was not thinking them the same as non rev, but they could be seen that way.

Armyguy

Heck, idk. Just trying to understand the issue better and why someone wouldn't list D6U. I see the rpa pilots side of things but I also see the other side but to be honest I dont ride the js much and I hate to see everyone all fired up over something that rarely happens