Thursday, July 19, 2012

God bless American (Airlines that is)

I never thought I'd write a blog in praise of airlines these days, but I can't say enough good things about American Airlines last night. I used miiles to upgrade to business class and the service and food was wonderful. We chatted with the cabin crew. But we were delayed leaving San Francisco because of storms on the East Coast (and I see from friends'  posts that they had hail in NYC). When we were put in a holding pattern over Kennedy we really felt that we were not going to make our connection. It was definitely the last flight out for the night at 11 p.m. so we were wondering what on earth would happen to us. A night in the airport--not so attractive.

Anyway we finally landed at 10.45. We reached out gate at 10.50. Then one of the cabin crew, a lovely English woman called Kathy, ran ahead to the other gate to let them know we were coming and to keep the door open for us. Another flight attendant ran beside us, directing us down one concourse, down an escalator, under a runway, up and escalator and along another concourse. From gate 40 to gate 3.
We heard the time announced as eleven while we were still on a travelator and pretty much gave up. But then there was an American gate agent beckoning us. "Come on. You can make it," she called, and we did.
What's more our bags made it too and were first off the flight this morning.

And American business class from JFK to Heathrow--fabulous. Seats that fully reclined into beds, comforters, soft pillows, little bags of goodies like hand cream and such pleasant people. I don't know if the bankruptsy has made them more aware of customer service but every single one of the American people we encountered was outstanding.

And an interesting side note:Heathrow was empty. We got through immigration and customs in 10 minutes.
What if they gave an Olympics and nobody came?

Off for some sleep.
Rhys

3 comments:

  1. Wow, I am impressed with American Airlines!

    Enjoy your trip. I hope there is a good turn out for the Olympics!

    Cathy AJ

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  2. I think it's the biz class that did it. I've always found the service 100X better when I upgrade. In economy you are treated like a plebian. In biz class, an aristocrat. The flight attendent to passenger ratio is also much more favorable so they have fewer passengers to attend to.

    Glad you made it! The last time I went through Heathrow immigration the line was ridiculous and we arrived quite early in the a.m. You are lucky!

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  3. Ah, business class. Any time you can upgrade or have an extra $2000 that you don't know what to do with, that 's the way to go.

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