I was on flight AA 56 Miami to LHR on Sunday and I can honestly say it was the worst long haul flight I have taken in over 20 years of flying.
To begin with: an hour delay for maintenance on arrival in MIA followed by two subsequent delays of 30 mins each. Upon boarding we were informed there would be a further delay of 90 mins as they were waiting for a relief Co-pilot to be flown in from Tampa - total delay time 4 hrs!
In that 2 hrs on the ground not a single sign of any steward whatsoever, no water handed out… nothing!
Upon takeoff we had frankly 2.5 hrs of heavy turbulence at 37k feet as opposed to usual 40k feet on similar carriers & routes - it was as if the Pilot had made the decision to put this crate through as much pain as possible!!
The food… frankly dreadful once served up after around 3 hrs!!
The complementary WiFi on the plane… not working
Entertainment… partially working, nothing else other than movies!
Availability of stewards… non-existent and certainly lacking in numbers compared to other carriers
They say vote with your feet, well I certainly will be, it was a truly dreadful flying experience compared to Emirates, Qatar, KLM, Singapore… even BA who’s standards have significantly dropped in recent times but alas have the control of a ridiculous number of slots at LHR!