American Airlines pales to Air Jamaica's (memory)

Nightmare on AA2370

So recently my journey of conquering international markets as head of Jamaicangyal.com lead me to Miami for 2 days. I was so elated that finally the entrepreneurial wheels of the bus was going round and round. I got up early as I hate rushing and long lines, I was checked in on Flight AA2370 by 6:30 am, I headed to the lounge to have breakfast and read my newspapers, the flight time was suppose to be 7:58 am.

The call for specific rows began and guess what? It seemed it was my lucky day I was randomly selected for security check, did that, found my seat, waited for the my fellow passengers to be seated. I realized immediately that the plane was unbearably hot! I started to fan, I began to fiddle with the AC thingamajig, my two neighbors on the left and right began to do the same. I called up one of the flight attendants and suggested that they serve water to the passengers. Right after the pilot made an announcement that the technicians will begin working on the AC so we will be a "little" delayed. A long time after he came back and told us we had to deboard the plane, we had to take all our belongings with us and go back to the waiting area sha la la.

Long and short of the story the flight left Jamaica at 12:15 pm one may ask "what's the big deal?" flights gets delayed all the time right? Bear with me... When we got back on the flight it was still hot I was fanning from Kingston to Miami, which made me mad and to top it off I lost 3 hours for nothing! Finally the straw that broke the camels back was the landing! Can I tell you! When the plane landed it "Boomed about 3 times" I felt the pancakes and orange juice I had for breakfast come right up my throat.

Alas the nightmare flight ended! There was not one single degeh degeh solitary clap, for none Jamaicans reading this, it is part of our culture when there is a smooth to perfect landing the entire plane claps which is 99% of the time on Air Jamaica. I turned to the guy on my left and said "this is not Air Jamaica so what were we expecting?"

Air Jamaica

Yes, I am old enough to remember what luxury flying on a budget felt like, I never flied first class as coach was offered the same service. The women who served you could all enter a Miss World Pageant and win, the wide authentic smiles and welcome you received, one that said "welcome you are in good hands". The food.. PUPA JESUS... Proper Proper food and finally the landing, our pilots were superb, you had to look outside and see the tarmac to realize that you arrived.

Constructive Criticism

There are basic things that can be done to try to measure up to our national flight memories:

1. Pre-flight Quality Check- assign an agent to pre-check cabin temperature and other fixtures
2. Smoother Deboarding Protocol- if your agent finds that anything is off that will become a discomfort for passengers dont board the plane, fix it then you board.
3. Customer Service- the needs of passengers must be anticipated at all times, take initiative (I would be happy to train your agents on warm Jamaican hospitality, as we are service leaders)
4. Pilot Landing- Benchmark/collaborate with old Air Jamaica Pilots to do a refresher course on smooth landing, if not for international locations then Jamaica alone will suffice.
5. Hire Customer Experience Director- to monitor, evaluate and recommend strategies to better customer experience (I would be happy to help)

Even though I traveled coach, I made a choice to travel with American Airlines because I though it would get me into Miami early for my meeting, I am used to delays but it is the crisis management and overall flying experience that will make me think twice in travelling with AA again.

Walk good,

Cornelia Walters-Jones