Is American Airlines a Good Airline? - NerdWallet (2024)

FAQs

Is American Airlines a Good Airline? - NerdWallet? ›

Overall, it's not a bad program. NerdWallet also compared airline loyalty programs to find the best program for frequent fliers. We rated the American Airlines program 2.8 out of 5. Alaska, Hawaiian, JetBlue and Southwest all ranked higher, while United received the same score.

Winner for most options: American

American flies to more destinations on its own metal, but Delta is part of a bigger airline alliance, so it has a larger network of international destinations.

American Airlines is a major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the largest airline in the world when measured by fleet size, scheduled passengers carried, and revenue passenger mile.

The Wall Street Journal ranked Delta Airlines as its best airline in the United States for 2022.

In its list of the 20 overall safest airlines for 2023, U.S. based airlines which made the cut include Alaska Airlines in eighth place, Hawaiian Airlines in 12th, United Airlines in 14th, American Airlines in 19th and Delta Air Lines in 20th, according to Airlineratings.com.

American Airlines is a American carrier. Frequent travelers give the airline an average rating of 7.2/10. This is below the general average . Over the last 12 months the rating has been trending upwards.

In fact, American outranked United on most metrics in our 2023 Best-Of Awards analysis of major domestic carriers. But United has a few things going for it, including its credit card perks, more legroom in economy plus and the luxurious Polaris class.

United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines are the top ranked airlines based on 2020 domestic market share. Delta operates out of Atlanta, and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Delta's hub, sees the most passenger traffic in the United States.

Which airline has the most cancellations? ›

American Airlines has canceled the most flights among major U.S. carriers with more than 19,000 cancellations, according to Reuters, followed by Southwest Airlines with more than 17,000 cancellations. Delta Air Lines had the fewest cancellations with only about 10,000 canceled flights.

Staffing Shortages. Airlines struggled to meet demand in 2022 as demand for flights ticked up from the pandemic doldrums of 2020 and 2021. During the first six months of 2022, 3.2% of U.S. flights were canceled and 24% were delayed, according to information released by the Department of Transportation.

The most reliable airline of 2022

That makes Hawaiian Airlines our most reliable airline for 2022 in a landslide. Delta takes second place overall with a No. 2 finish in half of the performance metrics. Alaska finishes in third place due to a strong on-time percentage and low cancellation rate.

Delta Air Lines is the largest by revenue, assets value and market capitalization. American Airlines Group is the largest by number of employees.

Then it won again for three years in a row: 2019, 2020 and 2021. A number of U.S. carriers also made the top 20 list. Alaska Airlines came in first among the U.S. carriers, followed by Hawaiian Airlines, United, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines.

The onboard product

Delta brands its extra-legroom economy as Comfort+ while American sets it as Main Cabin Extra. Seat pitch is pretty standard at about 34-36 inches on both American and Delta.

Free entertainment

On most flights, you can stream our free library of movies, music, TV shows and more to your phone, tablet or laptop. All entertainment is available to watch everywhere on Wi-Fi-equipped American Airlines flights.

Although both American Airlines and United offer excellent seats in their premium cabins, Delta's suites outclass the others with ultimate privacy. You'll experience the best domestic first class seats on popular transcontinental routes such as New York to Los Angeles or San Francisco.

What is a weakness of American Airlines? ›

American Airlines' weaknesses

AAL's rising debt levels combined with low margins and unit revenues are a cause of concern. Low-cost carriers have been aggressively capturing market share. Its international segment still remains weak. It's overly dependent on low fuel prices.

Inside the numbers

Last December, American came in second for its on-time arrival rates at 73.7%. For the entire year, the oneworld carrier ranked fourth for on-time arrivals at 77.1%, with 1.7 million operations scheduled, according to The Dallas Morning News. The airline serves 350 destinations in 50 countries.

American Airlines is Certified as a 3-Star Airline for the quality of its airport and onboard product and staff service. Product rating includes seats, amenities, food & beverages, IFE, cleanliness etc, and service rating is for both cabin staff and ground staff.

American Airlines 4-Star COVID-19 Airline Safety Rating.

The bottom line

In the competition of JetBlue versus American Airlines, there's a clear winner: American, which wins on almost every metric. But if being comfy in the air is important to you, then maybe JetBlue is worth it.

The 5-Star Airline Rating recognises those airlines providing very high standards of Airport and Onboard Product, together with consistent and high standards of staff service across both the airport and onboard service environments.

According to AirlineRatings.com Editor-in-Chief Geoffrey Thomas, the airlines that have achieved the double seven-star for safety and product in alphabetical order are: Air New Zealand, Asiana Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, Emirates, Etihad Airways, EVA Air from Taiwan, Korean Air, Qantas Airways, Royal Jordanian, ...

American Airlines Group

AMR Corporation

Summary: LaGuardia Airport (LGA) in New York City has the highest cancellation rate in the country for 2022: 6.42% - up from 2.15% in 2021.

According to aviation intelligence company FlightAware's data for 2022, the most canceled flights happen on Fridays, which has an average of 826 cancellations each week across the country, while the least are on Tuesdays, which has significantly less with 321 cancellations on average.

Does American Airlines have a bad reputation? ›

The second least reliable airline in the U.S. is American Airlines, with 2.39 percent of their flights canceled, 18.07 percent of them delayed, and an average delay lasting 61 minutes. Their safety rating is 10/10 and their customer rating is 3/10.

With its industry reeling, the Fort Worth–based airline giant is quietly betting that diminished competition will keep passengers coming—even as they grumble about the carrier's poor service, late arrivals, and the jam-packing of its flights amid the pandemic.

Why is American canceling flights? There are plenty of reasons why flights can be canceled, which vary in terms of whether or not the airline itself is responsible. Typical scenarios include inclement weather, mechanical delays and staffing issues that range from air traffic control to pilots to flight attendants.

But some airlines performed much worse than others, with budget operator Frontier Airlines drawing the most complaints, followed by rivals Spirit and JetBlue. Frontier attracted 20 complaints for every 100,000 passengers in 2022, according to DOT data analyzed by the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG).

AA 2022 On-Time Performance Details

This flight has an on-time performance of 72%. Statistically, when taking into consideration sample size, standard deviation, and mean, this flight is on-time more often than 34% of other flights.

U.S. travelers report that American Airlines is the most unreliable airline in the world when measured by the total flight problems and reported complaints in 2022.

JetBlue scores at the top for the best airlines with comfortable economy seats. Passengers will enjoy an above-average seat pitch of 32-34” and a seat size of 17.8 – 18.4”. Not to mention, JetBlue is one of only two domestic airlines in the U.S. that offers free WiFi to passengers.

Qatar Airways ranked at the top of Skytrax's list. The carrier's chief executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, stated in a press release that Qatar Airways' goal when it was created in 1993 was always to be named the best airline.

ATLANTA — The people at Delta Air Lines have another reason to celebrate after it was named the best airline of 2023. Personal finance company WalletHub released a new study that compared the nine largest U.S. airlines, plus two regional carriers.” Of all the airlines, Delta came out as the No. 1.

What plane does American Airlines use the most? ›

Over 80% of American's aircraft are narrow-bodies, mainly Airbus A320 family and the Boeing 737 family. It is the largest A320 family aircraft operator in the world, as well as the largest operator of the A319 and A321 variants.

1. Delta Air Lines. What is this? Delta Air Lines is one of the world's largest airlines, with around 750 planes.

Let Good Take Flight − Let Good Take Flight − American Airlines.

After a challenging year of recovery and operational rebuilding led by its employees, Delta Air Lines was named the Top U.S. Airline of 2022 by the Wall Street Journal in its annual airline scorecard rankings released Wednesday.

The onboard product

Delta brands its extra-legroom economy as Comfort+ while American sets it as Main Cabin Extra. Seat pitch is pretty standard at about 34-36 inches on both American and Delta.

However, on both Delta and American, the 3-3 configuration is far more common. Seat pitch is pretty standard at about 30 inches on both American and Delta. Do note, however, that some economy class seats that are in the exit rows have more legroom.

American Airlines is considered to be a safe airline and has excellent mileage redemption options. It offers flights to many destinations worldwide and has a variety of ticket types for travelers of all budgets. Before booking a ticket, be sure to join the AAdvantage loyalty program for added benefits.

The quality of Delta's in-flight and airport experience, expanding network of destinations and reputation for reliability lifted it to the number one ranking on Conde Nast Traveler's 2022 Readers Choice Awards for Best Airlines in the U.S.

Air Asia has the shortest seat pitch in economy, at 29 inches. Forty years ago, seat pitch was 31 to 35 inches. Seat width was approximately 18.5 inches. Today it's 17 to 17.5 inches.

Which airline has the widest seats in economy? ›

Emirates. Emirates serves 12 cities in the U.S. with nonstop flights to Dubai (and some unique routes, such as New York to Milan). On Emirates, economy seats on the double-decker Airbus A380 measure in at 18-inches wide, one of the widest economy seats around.

Even though there are no weight limits for fat passengers, there are normally three basic requirements for flying while overweight: Passengers must be able to sit with both armrests down. Passengers must be able to buckle their seatbelts.

JetBlue scores at the top for the best airlines with comfortable economy seats. Passengers will enjoy an above-average seat pitch of 32-34” and a seat size of 17.8 – 18.4”. Not to mention, JetBlue is one of only two domestic airlines in the U.S. that offers free WiFi to passengers.

In fact, American outranked United on most metrics in our 2023 Best-Of Awards analysis of major domestic carriers. But United has a few things going for it, including its credit card perks, more legroom in economy plus and the luxurious Polaris class.