[Cathy Mulholland]

Our experience with American Airlines was so bad it was surreal. After we bought non-refundable first class tickets for a roundtrip to New Orleans, AA cancelled our return flight to Philadelphia more than a month before we were due to leave. The only remaining flight from New Orleans on the date of our departure left five hours later than the midday flight we had booked. Having no choice (remember "nonrefundable tickets?), we were resigned to waiting until 6:30 PM. When we arrived at the New Orleans airport, AA had a midday flight. AA representatives said there were seats available, but we had to pay an additional $700 to get on a midday flight! It was AA which had cancelled our midday flight, but they wanted to squeeze $700 from us for a similar flight! We wrote to the FAA and DOT but the response was "airlines can do whatever they want". It would be hard to beat worse customer service.