Seasoned flyer here and beside myself in disbelief with AA.
I have to say that all of the employees I dealt with were great. My issue is with the operations of check in process.
In 2003 and 2004 I flew over 106,000 miles on this airline. What the hell happened to this company?
I couldn't check in online. Called and there were 5 aisle seats (as well as others) but they told me the airport had control of the seating and I couldn't obtain a seat even if I wanted to pay for the premium one. I had to get my seat when I check in.
Get to check in and they tell me I have to get my seat at the gate. Get to the gate and nobody is there. Wait 20 minutes and the gate attendant (who was very nice) walks up and turns everything on and tells me the flight is full and she cannot assign me a seat. I told her that I called yesterday and their were 5 aisle seats available. She said there aren't any seats available at all and she was going to be calling for volunteers to give up their seats and take a later flight.
She said she would call people up to assign seats.
What a completely inefficient and painful process.
Why do they make it soooo painful to use their airline?
Take a lesson from Southwest and think about the customer experience and cater your operations for them.