I was a passenger aboard an airplane for a 10 hour flight that departed at least one hour and 39 minutes late. The airplane had 2 fewer lavatories than what was shown on the seat map. All passengers in the economy class cabin were served a single cup of water for breakfast after hours with no food or beverages since the first meal service.
Guess with which airline all of this — and much more — occurred.
Delayed 10 Hour Flight. 2 Fewer Lavatories. A Cup of Water For Breakfast. Guess Which Airline.
When we arrived at the gate at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to board the Boeing 787 “Dreamliner” airplane to Buenos Aires, the overhead monitors displayed that the flight was to depart on time — but the flight was continuously delayed several times up to at least 99 minutes later than the originally scheduled time of departure.
While we were waiting out the delay of the flight, members of the flight crew were gathered in a huddle behind where I was seated at the gate. The information kept changing but was rarely accurate — especially when the departure time had passed but was still being displayed on the overhead monitor. The aforementioned delays were never accurately displayed at the gate; and announcements were minimal at best. This lack of process was confusing to both customers and employees of the airline. Had we been given more accurate information, we could have spent more time in the airport lounge instead of at the gate.
During the delay, several passengers — not I — asked employees of the airline about vouchers for meals. One of them replied that “We are not allowed to discuss vouchers until a delay of three hours or cancellation of the flight.”
Once the passengers were finally aboard the airplane, one of the members of the flight crew was overheard as congratulating herself to her colleagues for enduring the first day of her fast. A fellow crew member asked if she was eating protein, to which she responded “No, it’s a three-day water-only fast; and I have made it 25 hours.” I do not understand how someone could be at their best — especially in a job which faces customers — while in the middle of fasting and only drinking water for three days.
According to the seat map of the airplane, two lavatories were located near the rear of the aircraft — but when we approached our seats in the second to last row of the airplane, a member of the flight crew was busy applying blue tape on a white piece of paper over the handles of the doors to both lavatories in the rear of the economy class cabin and informing passengers that both lavatories were out of service.
One placard on the door read “NOT A LAVATORY CREW ONLY”; so I suppose those lavatories were only for their use, which seemed illogical and nonsensical to me. Perhaps I simply have never noticed that placard before; but I do not recall seeing it in my past travels.
Pillows and blankets were wrapped in plastic and awaited passengers on each seat, which had little padding and became increasingly uncomfortable during the later part of the flight. The leg room was barely adequate.
I had mixed feelings about the seats in the second to last row aboard the Boeing 787 “Dreamliner” airplane: I liked that the row was only two seats across instead of three seats…
…and I liked the space between the window seat and the wall of the airplane which created an area for extra storage of items — but I did not like that the wall was too far away on which I could lean my head to attempt to get some sleep during this overnight flight.
Under each monitor on the back of each seat was both a Universal Serial Bus Type A port and a Universal Serial Bus Type C port — as well as two jacks for headphones or earbuds.
Illuminated electrical outlets and were available under the seats in front of passengers.
Thankfully, the air vents in the overhead control unit were adjustable — but despite my unsuccessful attempts, the lights were not aimed properly, as seen in the following series of photographs.
The meal service followed not long after the airplane was in the air. The first course was a small package of pretzels. The choice of meals was either chicken or vegetarian pasta. I imagined that the vegetarian pasta could probably have tomato sauce and vegetables, which sounded great and would hit the spot.
The Farfalle Tetrazzini consisted of large bowtie pasta in a buttery creamy cheesy sauce with peas. The dish contained way too much dairy for me to consume. A roll, a salad of lettuce and sliced tomato with shredded cheese, a packet of Vibi Mediterranean extra virgin olive oil 70 percent and balsamic vinegar of Modena dressing, a small packet of two Acacia Gourmet cream crackers, a wrapped pat of butter, and a packet of brownies with chocolate chips came with the meal.
In a rare blunder, I neglected to take a photograph of my meal unwrapped; but it was a forgettable bland meal of chicken with balsamic carrots and couscous. Both meals came with the same aforementioned accompaniments.
During the meal service, a passenger was frantically waving his hand with a roll in it to catch the attention of a member of the flight crew and complain that the roll was cold. She snatched it out of his hand and plopped it on the tray of a different passenger, whose roll was given to him. Fortunately, the rolls were wrapped in plastic.
After collecting the refuse from the meal service, the members of the flight crew were never seen again until 25 minutes prior to landing, when they quickly served cups of water for breakfast. Moderate turbulence was apparently to blame — according to one member of the flight crew who clearly had an attitude issue — which did briefly occur 90 minutes prior to landing…
…but the turbulence was completely predictable. The flight map showed that the airplane was going to cross over the Andes mountain range near La Serena in Chile — and turbulence often occurs when traversing across the peaks of mountains.
Although portions of the flight did experience moderate turbulence, it did not occur for the entire duration of the flight. In fact, the Fasten Seat Belt sign was deactivated during portions of the flight…
…but members of the flight crew never emerged during those periods of time — not even to distribute water despite the importance of regular hydration during the flight.
During the flight, I went to the rear galley to see what snacks were being offered. A member of the flight crew informed me that no snacks or beverages were being offered for self service because “there was not enough of a demand for them”, as passengers are usually sleeping anyway.
In all the years that I have traveled globally, I do not recall a time when no one wanted something on which to munch during a long overnight flight. In fact — more often than not — supplies of certain snacks or drinks were usually depleted well before the conclusion of the flight.
The member of the flight crew did eventually scrounge up three small packages of pretzels for me — but despite this rare act of customer service, I did not buy the story of not enough demand for snacks during an overnight flight.
Instead of tending to passengers, members of the flight crew stayed in the rear galley chatting away so loudly that they helped to drown out the cries and screams during most of the flight of a child who was seated across the aisle. Moreover, the curtain which separated the galley from the remainder of the airplane was left wide open for the duration of the flight after the meal service — so the bright illumination of the galley spilled over into the darkness of the passenger cabin.
The airplane finally landed in Buenos Aires. I was actually glad to get off of the airplane. Instead of feeling refreshed and energetic, I felt lethargic and tired.
Final Boarding Call
If American Airlines is supposedly improving its product and service to be more premium, it has a very long way to go, in my opinion. I felt dissatisfied and ignored through most of the experience.
Many questions needed to be answered about this particular flight — including:
- What was the reason for the delay of the flight, which was never explained?
- Why were the two lavatories in the rear of the aircraft reserved for only the members of the flight crew?
- Why was no apology given for not serving breakfast during a flight of ten hours?
With perhaps a couple of exceptions, the members of the flight crew seemed indifferent to the needs of the passengers. The service was abysmal in the rare moments when any service at all was available from these flight attendants. One person who was seated in the business class cabin told me that the service was only marginally better there at best and was very disappointed in both the product and the service.
What was a person who had only been drinking water doing working aboard an airplane for a flight of greater than ten hours?
The airline — which should be of no surprise — is American Airlines, with whom I had an experience earlier the same year that involved an eleven hour delay; an overnight diversion; and more on my way to Australia.
I could not believe the statement I read on the in-flight entertainment screen:
Who We Are
Our purpose is to care for people on life’s journey. Focused on creating a world-class customer experience, we’ve renewed our fleet and offer thousands of flights daily to over 350 destinations.
Based on this experience and previous experiences with American Airlines, this statement is simply not true.
I realize that the main goal was to get passengers from Point A to Point B safely, which American Airlines did eventually accomplish — but then again, so does every other airline in the world on a daily basis.
The members of the flight crew had no idea how to perform customer service that day…
…or perhaps the internal turmoil of flight attendants of the airline having issued a vote of no confidence in Robert Isom — who is the current chief executive officer of the airline — might likely be the root of the operational issues at the airline that I personally have been experiencing…
All photographs ©2025 by Brian Cohen.
