I have to remember to avoid buying tickets to Boston on American in future.  Flights on regular American Airlines are generally fine.  But the "regional carrier," American Eagle, is so sorely lacking in the service area, and has so few flights anyway...well, let's just take you through our journey to Boston this weekend.

Friday afternoon we left for the airport around 2:30 for our 5:00 flight.  Plenty of time.  When we checked in, the flight was listed as being 20 minutes late.  No problem.  We get through security and customs (American customs is in Toronto, since so many people fly to the States from here) - the officer had been stationed in the Philippines maybe 15 or so years ago so he asked us a lot of silly and entertaining questions.  Then we get to the gate.

I called my mom to let her know we're delayed, and that we might be delayed more because the gate agent wasn't able to tell me that our plane was on its way.

A little time passes.  I check the monitors, and our flight is listed as on time, which I know is a lie, but I figure that indicates it won't be a huge delay.

In a few minutes, completely out of the blue since the display at the gate has no indication of our flight at all, an announcement is made that our new estimated departure time is 8:00.  Our flight is coming from La Guardia and they have a ground stop.  Weather is not their fault.  Bad customer service - like not telling us that as soon as they knew it - is their fault.

I call home again.  Have dinner and then come get us.

Not long after that, our flight is out and out cancelled.  There are no more flights that night.

Joey and I take off at a run for the ticket counter.  He stands in one line and I stand in the other, to maximize our chances of getting rebooked before everyone else takes all the seats.  We both get on the phone - Joey to the airline, me to my parents.  My dad tells me we've been automatically rebooked on the 6:30am flight.  Ouch, but sure, OK.  I ask a nice woman to hold my place in line and run over and tell Joey this, but we decide to stay in the lines so we can confirm this.  He wins, and we go over and yes, confirm that we will have to get up at 3:30 in the morning, but we'll get to Boston a little bit after 8am.  Our luggage will come up at the international connections carousel over there.  Fine.  I call Dad and he says he'll come pick us up in the morning.

We wait a while, and eventually our suitcase does come up.

We go get some dinner and buy some presents for Joey's uncle's and cousin's birthdays.  We go home.  We sleep a little.  We get up and go back to the airport.

I am not good after three hours' sleep.  Get me five and I am OK.  But if I wake up after three, I have a sour stomach and a headache until I sleep again.  Luckily, the plane boards on time and I fall asleep without too much delay.

I am awakened by the captain announcing that due to fog in Boston we will be landing in Hartford, in twenty minutes.

Again, weather not their fault.

We land.  No one can tell us when the weather is going to improve.  No one can tell us what the airline will do if the plane is going to be extremely delayed.  They can tell us not to use a lot of toilet paper because the plane will not be serviced, no matter how long we are sitting there.  They do let some people off, who plan to rent cars or take buses or whatnot, and Joey and I debate doing the same.  And then someone who is not on our actual flight crew demands that no one else leave the plane because she is just too busy to deal with us.  So we are now stuck on a plane with a never-to-be-serviced toilet and very little food on the tarmac in Hartford.

I tell my dad, who is already at the airport in Boston waiting for us, to go home, that we will take a cab whenever we eventually get there.

There's no news, and there's no news, and then suddenly we have to prepare for takeoff RIGHT NOW.  And forty mintues later we are on the ground in Boston.

Fifteen hours after we were scheduled to do so.  We are cranky, exhausted, smelly. 

Now, if this were all, we might say, well, it was the weather.  We might take American Eagle again if it were cheaper than Air Canada, which it generally isn't, or if the schedule were better than Air Canada for our purposes, which sometimes it is.  But there are so few flights, we now know if one is cancelled we'll likely have to wait overnight to get on another.  And the planes are smaller, and much more cramped, and they only stock food for eight people whereas Air Canada has a wide variety of snacks, which is good if you are stuck for a long time (you have to pay extra for it on both airlines, but still).  And on American Eagle, you are basically thrown onto the plane by the dregs of the American customer service staff.  They announce bad news as if it were a price check in the supermarket.  There is one attendant on the plane so he or she is always harried.  It's always a mediocre or less experience even if nothing goes wrong.

Whenever possible, they'll be avoided.  "Please do not use too much toilet paper because we need to have a usable bathroom on board, in case we're here for the long haul" is not what I want to hear when I was supposed to be at my destination last night.