West Coast,
sounds like you are a little green on this topic by stating the OBVIOUS ( docs ready and big smile for the Fo). No dude there is always a problem with those folks.
You see USUALLY in a working envirorment 85 % of people are courteous and occasionally 15 % are not so cooperative. Well I think AA employees are trying to revert that formula.
But I don' t fault them, just look at their management then you' ll understand.
If you jumpseat on UAL or SWA pay close attention and you' ll see the difference.
Is the CALIBER my friend.Is the caliber.

damn i miss those TWA folks..

Green is a reletive term.
However the way a jumpseater approaches for a free ride shouldn't be any different if he's a crusty Captain who started off the panel of an Electra or a "green" new hire in the right seat of a Beech 1900. Some forget that and see it as a right and not a privledge. As I was a helo bubba and exiting the military at the wrong time I spent a number of years at a regionals. Doing the LAX to SBP milk run. A UA 747 skipper on his way home stuck his head up front and said "I got the actual, I'll be back" He sat his ass down, we didn't say a word to him. Who generated that atmosphere?


"But I don' t fault them, just look at their management then you' ll understand.
If you jumpseat on UAL or SWA pay close attention and you' ll see the difference"

I suspect I have a helluva a better insight in to SWA than most.


"No dude there is always a problem with those folks"

Every single one of them huh? Even if I was "green", at the percentage rates you quote I should have run in to some of these Nazi's by now.

I have never had a problem with AA, nor has any of my friends who use them, some exclusively.

Is there even just a teeny weenie little part of you asking "could it be me?"