Thoughts on american Airlines...

[arubabob]

Originally Posted by Andrea J.

we fly american tampa or orlando thru miami and then on to aruba.

we find the flights ok and the connection easy.
miami airport is big but they do have the train/shuttle thing that runs frequently

the flights running on time or not are weather related.

our august fight was delayed (30 min) due to weather from wherever the miami flight originated from. our december flight was on time.

best bet is to do the earlier miami to aruba flight.

my chief complaint with the miami airport are the prices at some of the food places AND lack of elec outlets near seating/gate areas.




air tran is also our other option and we have found them good too.

We have flown AA from Tulsa on every trip to Aruba. Our main problem with them is that we cant connect with the morning flight from here so we are always on the flight that arrives at night. AA has scheduled that flight to leave MIA anytime between 5:30pm and 8:00pm over the last 15 years. It has left late many times but usually it is because they are waiting for passengers that are on a delayed connection. It is nice that they do that even though we get there even later. The pilots tend to be able to make up about 15 minutes in the air on those occasions.

[Traceyd14]

Just flew AA on Jan 31 DCA-MIA-AUA and then yesterday AUA-MIA-DCA. We were on time everywhere - flight crews were nice - even handled an incident with a cell phone user in a professional and impressive manner, and not to mention the prices were great. We always fly early when possible to avoid delays and to have options in case we do end up with a missed connection. Our checked bag did miss the connection on our way to Aruba but they made an annoucement on the flight upon arrival for us to see the gate attendant who explained what happened up front without leaving us standing around the baggage claim waiting. Our bag was delivered promptly upon arrival of the later flight. The flights back were ecven fairly empty - husband and I got a row to ourselves each way. I am guessing it was because we took the earlier flights back on a Tuesday - but the roomy flight was the only thing good about coming home.
A note about MIA - our connections were about an hour apart and I am a very slow walker. We had no problem making it from Gate 8 to Gate 40 something with a stop at the duty free store. We used the skytrain in Terminal D, it's quick.

[Andrea J.]

isn't it nice having a whole row to yourself???

[Traceyd14]

It was very nice Andrea! I've never been on a flight that wasn't packed full in the last few years. We were considering upgrading to 1st class just to take a little sting out of the trip home, but the ticket agent in Aruba told us not to bother because the flight was pretty empty. Just another shining example of the great customer service there!