TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin AA--oh no... MAX 8!!!

Just checking my flights for May next year, and it says

"Your flight changed
Please check back soon to see what changed. "

Really?

EDIT--OH H*LL NO!! There were two flights leaving from Miami to SXM just two hours apart, and now they have cancelled my flight, which was the later flight and supposedly I am now on the 737 MAX 8. Great..

Now that is really weird - even for AA!

Did you see my edit? Now I'm supposed to be on the freaking MAX 8!!!!

Plenty of time for that to change again.

I guess, but I figure they will probably be flying the d*mn thing by next spring. If I could book Jet Blue now, I might consider cancelling, but I can't book them yet. We got a really good price for the AA though, so Jet Blue will probably end up being more when they open booking.

I will happily fly on the 737 Max 8 when it is finally back in the air - it will be the most thoroughly vetted plane in the sky! I do know many folks who are swearing that they won't get on one - ever. To each his own but that seems to me to be a gut reaction, not a rational one. But again, everyone has their own personal comfort level.

I would be more concerned that my booking indicating a Max 8 before they are back in service might get canceled.

I agree. It will probably be one of the safest planes in the air.

I specifically did NOT want to fly on this plane and I still don't.

I’m with you, Prairie Girl. Our April trip is Max8 part of the trip. I spoke to AA expressing concern and basically, they acknowledge people are concerned but also maintain IF the plane isn’t safe, they will make changes long before any flights are airborne. Given some of the crazy changes AA has made over the years, that truly worries me more than the concern of flying a Max8 at that point in time.

The Max 8 is still not certified to fly, so it's pretty silly to be scheduling flights on it. I suspect that is actually just a place holder for now, honestly.

But yes, that plan is going to be very vetted before anyone puts paying passengers on it again!

Carol - JetBlue schedule extension is coming 9/29 and should cover your dates.

Sorry, still not happy about it. I specifically didn't book the plane with the Max 8. Will see how it goes from here.

Agree, the Max is going through a “gauntlet of whatiffers” that will make it a great airplane.

I Wouldn't hesitate going forward.

Anybody fly a DC-10 after 1979 chicago ohare crash?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_Flight_191

A 727 after the 1965 rash of crashes?

On August 16, 1965 United Air Lines Flight 389 plunged into Lake Michigan while descending for landing at O’Hare. On November 8, 1965, American Airlines Flight 383, crashed during its approach to Greater Cincinnati airport, killing 62 of 66 passengers and crew on board. Three days later, United Air Lines Flight 227 crashed on landing at Salt Lake City International Airport, killing 43 of 91 aboard. And on February 4, 1966, an All Nippon Airways 727 crashed into the sea on approach to Haneda Airport at Tokyo.

Loved the DC10 and 727.

eightzerobits--thanks. I may look at Jet Blue.

Oh, and by the way, I looked again this morning and my reservation still says "Check back later to see what has changed", but they are showing the equipment and the time as the Max 8. But it shows my original seats, but NO other seats available on the whole plane (for a flight in May), and the actual Max 8 flight shows my 'seats' as available, so obviously I don't have any seat assignment (which isn't a big thing considering it's next May). I didn't like the time on the Max 8 flight because it means we have to get up in the middle of the night to get to Miami. and of course there's the Max 8 thing. I will see what happens when Jet Blue becomes available. Jet Blue flight will probably leave about the same time as the new AA flight, based on the schedule they are showing for April. I doubt I will get anything from AA by when Jet Blue becomes available, so we'll see.

Great article about the Max 8 in The NY Times Magazine this week. Worth reading.

Link?

I read it too... assuming this is the same one. Very interesting. Interesting to read the analysis and see how the media has sensationalized only one aspect, without taking the whole into account. ...and in doing so lead us all to believe the plane was airodynamically flawed - which it is NOT. Not saying that the drive to extend type ratings was good, but it is interesting to see the differences between Pilot centered design (Boeing), vs automation on the flight deck (Airbus).

Here's the link:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/18/magazine/boeing-737-max-crashes.html

Thank you for that link.

Great article.....thanks for posting.

It drives me crazy that they ever put the Max 8 in schedules AT ALL. You'd think they'd either schedule other aircraft or bring some recently retired planes out of mothballs, rather than schedule grounded planes and inconvenience thousands of people when they don't fly. AA used to be a great airline, but that has not been the case in many years. Awful.

Airbus has its own share of issue.. Now on certian 320neo's passengers are being told to remain seated so that the plane does not tip backwards as the cargo hold is unloaded.. This is while on the ground but they have another issue that is causing the last row to be kept empty.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/heathe...eight-on-the-airbus-320neo/#4ef0edb13f74

It is not just Boeing planes you should worry about.

I disagree that AA is awful, I think since the merger with US Air where they certainly had some issues they have improved a lot. Next to flying Alaska Airlines which is who I mostly fly with they are my second choice. I flew over 100k miles domestic (including Caribbean) miles in 2018, will be about that number here in 2019. Alaska takes pretty good care of me, American has a decent first class and their premium economy is decent and the service is not bad. Delta, First Class seems more compact and the flight attendants are not as pleasant as Alaska or American. I have not flown Delta in coach in a few years and have not flown United recently. At one time or another I have had status with all four of these airlines and they have all had their issues along the way.

Yes American has an issue with the Max 8, but that is not their fault when they were working to update their fleet. I like the progress that they have made and if it wasn't for Alaska expanding their routes I would go back to AA over Delta or United.

I agree with you on Alaska being number one for comfort and customer service. So far AA has been good to us. Just got notification of changes to our May flight to sxm. Our original flight was from SEA to Philly then to sxm. Changed to sea to CLT then sxm getting in 20 min later. I originally wanted the CLT connection but it was 300 more per FC ticket. Now I have the flight I wanted for a lower price. Thanks AA.

Overall, I have been pretty satisfied with my flights on AA. BTW, my reservation is still saying "Check back later to see what has changed".

I agree with Todd about AA. Yes, schedules change. But if I need to change because I don't like their new routing, I just call. They have always been pleasant and helpful. I like flying AA.

They all have had their issues but AA is at a peak of issues the last several months. So many employees have had their biz trips “ nightmared”. I fly on 4 AA flights this week. Ive always done well with them, lets see how they do. Will be touching both dfw and clt for connections.

when we booked our AA flight a couple of months ago via Miami for December, we chose the earlier departing/arriving flight even though it was showing as a MAX8...my concern wasn't so much flying on the MAX8, but what would AA do with our reservation if they weren't able to fly that aircraft by December...well, a few weeks ago we got a notification our flight changed, and luckily the only thing that changed was the aircraft, now flying on a 738...so it seems to be working out for us

We have had flight changes on every major airline but it always seems to get worked out. Only time it was a cluster was right after Irma and that was to be expected with the limited flights to and from SXM.

In my situation, I wanted the later flight, which was also NOT the Max 8, so I wanted the later flight for two reasons. As of now for May next year, they cancelled the later flight and kept the Max 8 flight, but my reservation is still showing the 'something has changed, check back later to see what has changed'.

I will have no qualms flying on the MAX when it goes back into service for all of the reasons already stated. As for AA, I received an email this morning, notifying us that our flight next year from Charlotte to SXM had been changed, so we now arrive home an hour and a half later on our return. Not as good of a connection, but good enough. I didn't bother to check the aircraft type.
We have flown AA several times a year, for many years, all over the world, and I have nothing bad to say about the airline. They have always emailed us with any changes, and have been very accommodating. There were problems with the 777 aircraft in the beginning as well, and we have flown in that aircraft all over the world. Granted, no 777 has ever crashed, I get that.
I would be much more worried about your trip TO the airport, if you are in an automobile. Your odds traveling in an automobile are MUCH worse than flying in any airplane.

CHEERS!

There have been a few 777's go down although most were caused by pilot errors, pilots going nutty or nutty Russians shooting them down.

http://www.airsafe.com/events/models/b777.htm

Sadly that brings back a memory of a couple that was heading to SXM and took a limo from their house I think in the PHL area to fly to SXM and died in a crash on their way. I am pretty sure the post were all on this site. Live each day, and get in your vacations while you can.
T

Yes, we knew the couple, they were from NJ. We met them one year at Grand Case Beach Club, they came to GC every year in October. I saw the accident in the newspaper and could not believe it. It was a shock to read something like this in the news. As Todd says, "live each day", enjoy today as no one knows what tomorrow may bring.

Yep, that's how we live!

Thanks for the airsafe post I_AM_CDN!!!

Hopefully, in 8 months, they will fix the software problems in the 737 Max.

Looks like Southwest won't start max8 untill Feb or March. And that could get extended. When AA changed my flight from SEA the Philly to SEA to CLT I all most requested MIA but that flight to SXM is a Max8 so stuck with CLT to SXM. Just didn't want to risk another change. But my current one could change again anyway.

Yeah, I am NOT happy with the Max 8 situation and I don't like the time either, because the flight I originally booked on was two hours later, which is a lot easier for us because we drive 3.5 hours there. My flight is still showing that wacky "check back later to see what has changed". I'm not going to worry about it for another month or two, see what shakes out.

I hear you. When AA changed our flight to go through CLT they changed it to a 12:15am departure out of SEA where we originally had a 10:05pm out of SEA to Philly. After a conversation with a supervisor they put us on the 10:05pm flight to CLT which was the one I originally wanted but was 300 more per person First Class than the Philly one I booked. Am very happy with this change. No extra charges either.