[cortney]

Ok, so I will start out by saying that as a flight attendant I know delays happen and when they do there is NOTHING you can do about it. It is what it is. However AA needs to learn HOW to handle them better.

my mom and I flew from ohare to miami on 5/10..aircraft change..no problem, worked to my benefit and was upgraded to first class (used 500 mile upgrade points) since it was a larger aircraft. left only 20 minutes late arrived into mia on time. and AWESOME service by the agents to fix EVERYBODYS seats AND board the plane.

we flew miami-ohare on 5/14. They plane came in about 10 minutes late, no biggie, however it came in late due to a mechanical problem. (again, no biggie, these things happen, things break down). they boarded the aircraft...we sat there and sat there and sat there. (boarded around 3:15, 3:25pm departure) around 3:45 the captain came on and said there were 2 minor mechanical problems and maintence just has to sign off on the paper work and will only be about 15 more minutes. around 4:30 we were STILL on the plane and not knowing what the heck was going on. Another passenger asked the flight attendant, and she must have told the captain that passengers want to know something (good for her!) around 4:45 we recieved another update that it should only be about another 10 minutes. we finally closed the door and pushed back around 5pm. as we taxied i saw the skies getting dark (gotta love the floridian weather this time of year ) we sat there because now we have to get a new flight plan to take us around the storm (no problem, i dont need my life in danger) we finally took off around 5:30pm...only 2 hours late. All these mechanical problems on a BRAND spanking new 737..3 mechanical problems in 1 day.

My point of this being that delays happen, and thats fine...better safe than sorry. HOWEVER, KEEP YOUR PASSENGERS UPDATED!!!! I dont care if were delayed, just tell me what the hell is going on!! where i work, we wont board the plane if we know there is a mechanical problem, and we make an announcement every 30minutes AT LEAST!!!