As my boyfriend and I planned to buy tickets back to New York, I persuaded him to buy from American Airlines. The prices were decent and I remember all the staff being helpful and kind on the flight. I was comfortable for the whole eight-hour flight to California, so I wanted to be comfortable back as well. So we bought two tickets and started packing.
The day we left we had to wait for a ride to the airport. Time kept going by and I knew that we had to leave or we would miss the flight. Sure enough, when we got there it was too late for us to check in and get to our flight. We went up to the desk to get help and figure out another way for us to get back to New York. The man who we were talking to said that he could give us tickets on a 10pm flight with a connection in Philadelphia. Our original connection was supposed to be in Charlotte so the change in connecting flights would cost $75 each. We needed to get home so we bought it.
Now we had a nine and a half hour wait in the airport. We sat on a bench in our terminal in LAX until we could check our bags. We headed up to security after that and as we stood in line the machine began malfunctioning. After standing there another 20 minutes while they rebooted it, I was already sick of traveling. We got some food and drinks and found our way to our gate. We were supposed to start boarding at 9:30 so when the time came we decided to get closer to the line to board. We stood there for a while and then the announcement came that the plane would be delayed at least an hour while they waited for the crew to get there. Annoyed, we went back to our seat and waited again.
Two hours later they announced it was time to board. We shuffled on the plane and found our seats. We sat there and after everyone was boarded the plane was still standing still for about 20 minutes. The pilot announced that the ground crew was taking their time getting to us for takeoff. Our plane that was supposed to leave at 10 and we finally took off at 1 am.
We missed our first connecting flight but luckily they had already set us up on another. That flight was already boarding when we arrived and was across the large airport. We ran and somehow made it before they stopped boarding. That plane was tiny and cramped (much like the picture below) and if the ride from Philly to Albany had been more than an hour I would've gone nuts. The stewardess handed out drinks and made us give them back before most of us had even had the chance to drink half.
When I landed in Albany I could've kissed the ground there. It was the worst travelling experience that my boyfriend or I had encountered and we will not be flying American Airlines again.