I am asking a question for a relative who needs to book a flight to Las Vegas and AW is offering a great roundtrip deal from JFK. It's been 5 years since I've flown them and my experience was a comedy of errors. I did a search and found old posts. Has anyone flown them recently and have they made improvements to their safety record, on time schedules, etc.? Does anyone know if their fleet is old? Thank you.

See the airlines forum - I just posted of my recent experience with AW there and you can judge for yourself.

Andrew

I flew America West from MSP to Mazatlan last February without anything significant to report. The seats seemed unusually small to me, but service, baggage handling were both fine, and all 4 flights were on time.

I fly with them frequently because of the nonstop schedules where I live. In my experience out of 15 or so flights they have only been on time about 3-4 times over the years. They are never, ever, on time. Other than that they are fine. And they don't offer meal service on just about every long haul flight.

Did a round trip from Dulles to San Diego with plane changes in Phoenix in April. First three segments were on time, but we had an hour delay in Phoenix heading east while a leak in a galley sink was repaired.
Checking in was a breeze at both Dulles and San Diego. I would fly them again.

My experience with AW has been fine in the last 2 years. I had a bad experience probably 4 years ago, but then tried them again for flights from SFO to Baltimore, Ft. Lauderdale (anything to avoid Miami!)Phoenix, Tucson and will be using FF miles with one of their partners- Hawaiin. The on-time experience has been quite positive.
I probably wouldn't eat airline food again (after flying AA from St. Thomas to JFK-Horrible) and much prefer to bring my own. They are flying Airbuses on all of my routes-newer planes I think. Checking in has been faster than any airline IME.I'd go with them!
R5

I've been flying America West for many years now and have NEVER had a bad experience with them. In fact, there have been several times where the agents have gone out of their way to help us (without a fee) with last minute emergencies that prevented us from flying on the day scheduled. Their on-time stats from the past few years have been excellent and near the top/at the top of the industry. I, personally, don't miss the meal service. I would much rather pay less for my flight and bring on the food of my choice. Great service, great fares, friendly and courteous employees, generally on-time arrivals... I love America West!

And I'll never fly America West again, if I can help it, after my experience last June. I don't like being lied to by flight attendants.

I could have saved $100+ flying them in July but chose to fly Continental instead on about the same route.

Andrew

I believe just about everyone on this forum has a "favorite" and "least favorite" airline based on one or two observations. While I generally prefer Continental or USAirways because of the mileage programs they offer, I'll fly any of them because airline travel has indeed become a commodity. You run the risk of a crummy flight on any/all carriers so I don't worry about "which one" as much as most people seem to!