So, for complicate reasons, i decided to fly American, rather than a European airline, to fly to Italy.
i wasn’t able to check in online. I had to do it at the airport. (There are minor differences between my name on my driver’s license and on my passport, and they “know” that my name is as it is on the driver’s license.)
they lost my seat reservations. So I’m in an expensive seat on a redeye that is an inch narrower than every other seat and have no place to put my stuff. (It’s a bulkhead. I never book bulkheads. I need access to random things during the flight.)
“We have no record of you selecting seats”. Yes, i see that. That’s your failing.
They have no seat back entertainment. Seriously?
Because it’s a **** bulkhead, that’s also no place to put my laptop.
They also wanted to to check my small suitcase all the way through to Italy because the first, 55 minute leg, was over full and there wasn’t room for baggage. I frantically moved my pills and toothbrush and underwear to my personal item. I want even at the back of the line, they ran out of baggage space about half way through boarding.
(I ended up begging and was allowed to jam my suitcase on top of someone else’s small thing.)
Anyway, i fly a lot. This is the worst flight I’ve had in ages. And it’s not the ultra-budget seats or anything.
I feel your pain, AA screwed me multiple times, and one gate agent tried mansplaining things to my wife. He only had one arm and I damn near tore the other one off and beat him with it.
I haven’t flown AA in years and won’t unless I absolutely have to.
Oh, and it’s a 787. Those have a nice feature that they can dim the windows and let you see out without a lot of glare for those who didn’t want to look out.
But my seat only barely has a window and they’ve made it a weird green color, which kinda ruins the view.
I made it as far as Barcelona. My final leg is with a partner. It’s a short flight. I just hope i don’t run out of fumes before i make it to Chiusi, (last leg by train) which is my destination.
The Barcelona airport is nice, in a very generic “large European airport” way. The staff speak more English than i have any right to expect, and everyone I’ve interacted with has been pleasant and helpful.
The saving grace of that flight was that the grossly overpriced middle seat of my row was empty. So i could lean into it to attempt to sleep. And my seatmate was very pleasant, and then disappeared into a movie. It turned out they did have entertainment. They had a very gimmicky and annoying interface (she struggled with it) but there were some movies.
My parents fly American b/c they fly too much and have whatever AA calls premier status, which is convenient for them. Plus they live next to a hub. Personally, there is no way I would fly on them by choice.
Most luxurious flight international I ever had was on Air Canada from SFO to Rome, with a pause in Toronto during SARS. Had my own row, with maybe 40 people on a double aisle plane.
My worst experience was in a connecting flight from Miami to the Bahamas, when they let us onto the plane only to throw us out because they gave our seats to someone else without telling us. Our incoming flight was delayed and they didn’t think we’d be able to transfer in time (we’ve had much tighter connections in the past). In hindsight we should have let ourselves be dragged off the plane like that United passenger but I was job searching at the time so didn’t want to risk a criminal record. One of the gate agents was apologetic, but the other one got into it with my wife, saying stuff like, “Why don’t you just be nice like your husband.”
I wish I could just avoid American completely but sometimes they are the most economical option, especially when I see my father in SoCal.
they are the worst. I just booked with them to London next month though bc there were no better options 
But they don’t fly to Europe.