Last week I wrote that replacing American Airlines CEO Doug Parker would not be enough to change the course of the airline. Many American flight attendants reached out and they are furious.
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Replacing Doug Parker Wouldn’t Solve American Airlines Woes: Revisited
In the piece I published last week, I outlined that other things need to change besides simply swapping out Doug Parker for another CEO. One thing that I sensed was missed by many readers is that I don’t support Doug Parker. I don’t think he is good for American Airlines. Many look to the CEO believing that if they replace the head of the organization needed changes will follow. I don’t believe that’s the case.
However, if readers don’t see the point I am making, that’s my fault. I must not have stated my position clearly enough. So to be clear, I am not a fan of Doug Parker, but the issues with American (catering, employee morale, senior leadership, loyalty, fleet, hub choices, etc.) will not be solved by solely getting rid of Doug Parker.
American Airlines Employees Reached Out… in Force
I welcome emails from any reader (sherpa@thetripsherpa.com) and while I can’t respond to all of them, I aim to write back if I am able. They also reached out to me on Facebook (link above) and the underlying theme of most of the messages was that American Airlines employees take pride in their job but feel hampered and demoralized by management which in many cases extends beyond Doug Parker and even to their own Union representatives.
Interview with an Employee
One particular employee was gracious enough to be interviewed on what they see as the principal problems at the carrier. I will not name the employee at their request.
- What is the single greatest challenge you have faced since the merger with?
“Inconsistent procedures between US/AA. Different metal and no cross qualification. Different uniforms. Different contracts. Hate between US/AA employees. Changes to food and beverage. Eliminating entertainment screens from aircraft. Small and narrow lavatories on the 737 and small pitch between passenger seats”
- Many American employee groups are represented by Unions, do you feel your union doesn’t support you?
“My union doesn’t really focus on the real problems. We had union officials join the AA management ranks. Ie: Leslie Mayo and Laura Glading.”
- What stops you from being able to deliver great customer service?
“To be happy to come to work. Be proud of what AA use to be. Now we are worst than a low-cost carrier. We need to fix everything at all levels and all departments. Better working facilities. More humane hours and breaks etc. “
- What policies have come into effect that handcuff or hamper your abilities?
“Our premium economy and more leg room seats create problems with our customer (base). We have (to) police them all the time. AA makes us monitor this. Just to mention a few.”
- What is the one change you would make to your job that would make you happiest?
“A new and better contract will benefit all parties.”
- How many of your fellow compatriots are unhappy?
“85%”
- If Doug Parker were to resign tomorrow, how would your outlook change? Is wholesale change needed?
“Membership will start to believe in management again and perhaps all unions can start to be (treated) with respect and humanity. Mechanics and Rampers (have been) negotiating (their) contracts for the past 2 years. AA needs a people person to run the company. Not another micromanagement/union buster!”
American Airlines Knows Employee Morale Is Low
Last year, American Airlines conducted a company-wide survey presented with mixed results. As Gary Leff commented at the time,
“American, to their credit, didn’t spin the results. They said this would be a baseline against which they’d measure improvement.”
However, 41,858 of 59,000 participated in the survey at all (just over 2/3rds) and those that completed the survey didn’t have very nice things to say about upper management. Here are some of the results as reported by Inc.
Leaders at American make the right decisions that take care of our frontline team members.
- Favorable: 26.4 percent
- Neutral: 22.3 percent
- Unfavorable: 51.3 percent
Leaders at American make the right decisions that support me.
- Favorable: 27.8 percent
- Neutral: 22.8 percent
- Unfavorable: 49.4 percent
Leaders at American listen and seek to understand the frontline team member experience.
- Favorable: 28.0 percent
- Neutral: 22.1 percent
- Unfavorable: 49.9 percent
Though, when speaking of their managers they did have positive things to say:
My manager acts in an honest and ethical manner.
- Favorable: 73.4 percent
- Neutral: 18.2 percent
- Unfavorable: 8.5 percent
The key takeaway from that positive result is the difference in wording (in my opinion) from the others. The employee’s manager is not the same as “Leaders at American.” That’s a distinction that those who generated the survey created but clearly matched a different outcome from other questions.
The Survey Is Dated, Employee Morale May Have Sunk Lower
The survey results are from November of 2018 and were likely collected weeks or months prior. Now, some 6-8 months later, employees feel like they don’t have the tools to make customers happy. They feel overwhelmingly (according to the communication with me) that arbitrary processes have been put in place to disadvantage both their abilities to look after the customer and the customer experience itself. None of that has improved and now that American has increased the EQD requirement by 25% for Executive Platinums and employed more dynamism to their award chart increasing costs for their best customers.
There is also this website sent to me by an American Airlines flight attendant that alleges criminal misdeeds by those currently running the carrier. I don’t doubt what’s stated on the website but can’t verify it either. Regardless, a lot of employees at American feel the same way that I do: The airline is not headed down the right path and there seems to be no way back to where they once were.
The flight attendant union has sought legal remedies in response to a new attendance policy that they state violates employment laws.
Even the dismal performance by the stock price and failing to generate a profit from flying airplanes in the best economy in 50 years has failed to command real change at the airline.
Conclusion
Most employees at the airline do not believe that management is making positive decisions for frontline employees and in particular, flight attendants have been very vocal about this. They are infuriated by company protocol that forces them to make negative impacts on the customer experience and hampers their ability to make bad situations better. Like us, they too are disappointed with fleet decisions and the quality of the products they are meant to deliver. In a sense, as my post last week intended to deliver, it’s not just American Airlines CEO, Doug Parker, that needs to go but rather wholesale change at the airline. When will shareholders make their voices heard and affect real change? Customers and employees are clearly sending the same message. Where in the world is Gordon Bethune when you need him most?
What do you think? Are American Airlines employees constrained by the actions of upper management? If the company is profitable, from flying or the loyalty program, does it matter? What would you do to improve American Airlines?
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Firing D0ug Parker is the best thing AA can do right now. They need to clean house of the old US Air management and get back to being AA. There is a clear identity crisis with the new terrible Oasis seats and the nicer MCE/PE and international J seats.
AA was no airline to brag about. They had a terrible attitude to passengers prior to US Airways. You put two thirds together and expect greatness, . . duh.
They did?? I defected from UA before the merger and didn’t see this at all
I used to fly AA anytime I could. Now I never fly them. I have had major issues with important flights and the main problem, no one has any authority to correct the issue. Serious attitude problem is the main problem.
For some reason management at United and AA just don’t seem connected to the flight crews or the customers… There’s a reason Delta can charge more for similar routes, and passengers are flocking to them.
You are WRONG!! US airways didn’t buy AA , Both airlines got together by merging operations AA73% USairways 27% BUT!! US airways management is bringing the whole airline AA to the ground. AA shoes are way TOO BIG for them to handle.
US Airways was the lead airline in the merger – they DID acquire American Airlines. They kept the American Airlines name because it had a larger global brand footprint and recognition. But, going back further America West was lead airline when it acquired US Airways, and America West was a low-cost carrier. They carried that culture into the post-merger US Airways. What you’re seeing now, is a culture clash from the LCC elements of US Airways and the legacy full-service elements of pre-merger American Airlines
As a retired AA flight attendant, you have hit the nail on the head!
If they’re unhappy they could always leave that’s what I’d do if I work for an employer I’m having problems with, I mean American airlines doesn’t have them imprisoned.
Many unhappy AA employees I have talked to have made the same basic statement-their hands are tied by ‘management’ & that starts w/Discount Dougie. HIS management team needs to go & a new management team will then need to decide what kind of airline AA is going to be.
I just retired 2 years early mind you. Flight Attendant Purser. We had a great Airline until the merger then everything changed. I couldnt take it anymore. Terrible trip pairings, longer work days, shorter layovers. Tight 3 and 4 leg trips and no time to get food. The company does not care.
I stuck with AA the past couple years thinking/hoping Parker & Co. would be gone by now and positive changes would be coming. My patience is just about up and I find myself booking Southwest a lot more these days.
I can’t believe the street continues to tolerate this. The stock performance alone when compared to peers is appalling.
Just think if DP had spent the same Billions paying down debt and fully funding pension obligations what would have happened to the stock price? My guess is up up and away.
Perhaps not, but other businesses are able to invest in their frontline employees or at least keep them from openly disliking their employer while the corporate office is chasing the customer base away. Why must the choice be limited to: pay people what they are worth, or have a high-value stock. I think there is another option.
Have you ever ran a business? From the sounds of it you Haven’t? To compare any airline to on that of one that funded by their government makes you look like a moron. You missed the boat there. Have you every worked with unions? I have worked for a few. They are full of drama. Union says one thing to their people but say another to the company. I have sat at the table a few times. Not sound like a jerk they all have contracts but they are signed for 3-5 years. Every Airline aren’t done at the same time. So contracts get better as time goes on but they think they need it now. The merger between US and AA was more complex than any other airline. If you understand the IT world a little more things will make since. Maybe do more work on stop being bias and look at the real issues. If you take time to ask real question and stop talking to anyone that will whine for you. Grow up and do real journalism stop being a fly by.
BDA – a few clarifications prior to my response. I’m a blogger not a journalist. What government funded airline did I compare American to for the purpose of this post? I don’t recall one but even if I had, if the competing airline offers similar prices and competitive routes, as a consumer, I really don’t care. If the product is better and the price the same, why would I choose an inferior product? Why would you?
Your assertion that in order to report back what a company’s Employees have told me, the results of a survey and combining that with public articles is unqualified because you assume I haven’t run a company (I have), not worked with unions (I have) and am not also in IT (I’m not) is flawed. How many jobs must one “journalist” have to compile facts and insider commentary? It’s an absurd notion.
If you’re not satisfied with my work, however, I provide a 100% money back guarantee.
Fake news!
Fleet service person here from a major hub … Doug Parker and his management has to go or we will be right back in bankruptcy… He’s running this airline into the ground !
You are WRONG!! US airways didn’t buy AA , Both airlines got together by merging operations AA73% USairways 27% BUT!! US airways management is bringing the whole airline AA to the ground. AA shoes are way TOO BIG for them to handle.
Copy/paste much? US Airways was the lead airline in the merger, US Airways DID, in fact, acquire American Airlines. See my response earlier in the thread. I’d rather NOT copy/paste for the benefit of those who already read my prior posting.
Post merger, AMR owned 72% of the new company and US Air owned 28%. From my understanding “aquired” means to come into possession of something. Maybe I’m bad with math, but could you explain how the minority shareholder holder could be considered the owner when the majority shareholder owns more than 50% of the company and nearly 3x the shares of the minority?
US Air did aquire managerial control of the company, but manager doesn’t equal owner.
I disagree. You’re talking about paper ownership and I’m talking about operational ownership. It’s kind of the Theseus paradox. If you replace all of the boards on a ship one by one until it’s completely replaced, is it still the same ship or is it a new one altogether? In this instance, if you cling to the paper ownership but change the CEO, the COO, and versions other heads of operations and functionality, is it not then a re-built American with all US Airways parts. It’s American Airlines in name alone.
We the flying public are the problem. In our quest to play the lowest price possible and still avoid a crash, we have driven these airlines to be managed liked minimum wage endeavors: management gets the upside, the rank and file the shaft. This race to the bottom in service is bottomless.
Totally agree! Government’s that give unfair preference to low cost carriers over legacy airlines have created this mess.
Retired USAirways.
That’s so true! With everyone booking the lowest priced flight, and not being loyal to 1 or 2 brands, there’s a ton of pressure on all the carriers to drop prices… Unfortunately that means services and amenities are going to get dropped. Delta seems to be going the other way, where they provide a better service and charge a bit more for it…
The airlines didn’t exactly do themselves any loyalty favors when they revamped their frequent flyer programs. For the casual flyer that used to accumulate a rare free flight, the increased number of hoops to jump through pretty much blew their loyalty away. The only loyalty remaining are the high-mileage super-frequent flyers. I gave up on airline loyalty and went to price loyalty when I started having to cough up cash “co-pays” to take my “reward” flight, and that was several years ago.
Exactly! I recently retired after 44 years as a flight attendant. When given the option of more comfortable seating and amenities at a higher price, many travellers opt for the least expensive seats with limited flexibility if their travel plans should change. Then they complain about their seat comfort and add on fees. The consumer has created the monster.
The consumer??? You must be kidding.
Ah yes, blame the consumer for the product. Strange how some airlines seem to be able to deliver what consumers are looking for and others cannot. I do blame consumers for not paying attention to what they are buying and expecting more than they paid for. But aside from that, it is up to businesses to attract consumers.
My loyalty goes to the airline that provides the best budget experience.
I flew Spirit once, never again. I am not complaining about them, I just recognized that I am willing to pay for more. Currently, Delta and Jet Blue get 80% of my travel $$ and I am willing to pay a little more to get that known level of service. Southwest is my next favorite for certain routes. I am not a picky flier and do not expect anything beyond simple courtesies and a well run organization managing my travel experience. Everyone has their own expectations and there is no one size fits all airline (or anything).
The problem is that SOME customers have created this, but ALL customers live with the ramifications.
Consumers have not created this. They did not suddenly stop flying until their low cost demands wee met. Enterprising startups recognized a large potential market and created this.
It is up to the various airlines to figure out how to provide what the customer wants. OTOH, the customers need to do their homework and use the airlines that fit their needs and stop complaining when they do not get an extra pack of peanuts and a second soda on their $139 round-trip. The flying public has way to many whiny, entitled drunks. FAs have to deal with way too much crap. Would I like more leg-room? Sure (I’m 6’1″). Am I willing to pay extra for it? Nope, but I do not complain about it either. I honestly do not miss the airline food, so that was easy to give up. I love that flying is so cheap and recognize that comes at a cost. So I am part of the market that drives airlines to lower costs. However, I did not create it. Consumers want the most for least and will bring their business to those that offer it. This is pretty standard consumer behavior. Its competition. Some win, some lose.
Delta, Southwest, and Alaska would all disagree. Shockingly, they all made money last quarter from flying airplanes AND bank deals.
Spirit also made money from flying passengers and bank deals but is perhaps more of the reason we have a Basic Economy approach to the model which (to your point) can be blamed in some part on the consumer. Yet they finished above American in both satisfaction and since they didn’t lose money on flying airplanes, profit per available seat mile.
“We the flying public are the problem. In our quest to play the lowest price possible”
This is NOT universally true.
I still prefer AA as my first choice when traveling and will always try to book them if I can work the flights out.
What I think Management needs to understand, is I do this because the service and overall treatment from their employees (Res Agents, Flight Teams) has always been outstanding.
Reasons I would consider changing – smaller seats, uncomfortable bathrooms and most of all – flight delays. AA needs to do a better job in all these areas
Note: People return because your employees treat people right. Take care of them.
I agree
Send these comments directly to AA management, the more comments they get from Keys/EPs maybe that will enlighten them.
They no longer care about their EPs. Only care about two groups: CKs (the “pampered poodles”) and the Spirit passengers who they are trying to steal away (although the “why” for this group mystifies me …). Everyone else, including EPs, are just the “huddled masses”. As an EP who spent $47K last year, and flew nearly 300K miles, I’ve had it with AA. This year, I will have at least 15-16 international RTs (and all are Business or First Class), but because AA gives all of its perks to the “pampered poodles” (CKs), I am booking my nice international trips on airlines that treat me like something other than “the great unwashed masses”.
You mentioned the res agents and flight crews, but nobody ever think about the mechanics that make sure the plane you are flying on is safe, you only think about the employees you see
I agree that they are less visible to customer experience and therefore receive less attention.
A consumer can only reasonably comment on the people they interact with. Every company has critical people that will never receive specific consumer praise ( or wrath ). They are highly relevant to the consumer experience, but have no direct impact as individuals. Nature of the work. I have spent many years in critical jobs completely removed from any public awareness.
Robert Goonan Said: “…the service and overall treatment from their employees (Res Agents, Flight Teams) has always been outstanding.”
I must *strongly* disagree with you. I have flown AA a handful of times, and I have had less than stellar service each time (I’d say 2 1/2 to 3 out of 5). Though my last trip with them was completely abysmal!
Mr. Goonan ended by saying, “Note: People return because your employees treat people right. Take care of them.” Here, I completely agree. People will come back because the staff treat them well, and make them feel like they matter. I have flown US Airways prior to the merger; I have flown American Airlines prior to the merger, an I have flown American Airlines “Post-merger”. I personally enjoyed flying US Airways. I found their fares reasonable and the service of their gate agents and flight attendants to be professional and courteous. My experience with American Airlines (both before and after the merger) has been “less than wonderful”.
I’m somewhat incredulous as how incorrect the statement you quote as fact is with respect to post-merger issues at AA.
Out of the following four points, all four are wrong.
Inconsistent procedures between US/AA. – Correct information is that the airline has had one set of procedures for several years.
Different metal and no cross qualification. – Correct information is that this has not been an issue for over a year.
Different uniforms – Correct information is that AA introduced a uniform for all FAs several years ago although that introduction was problematic due to complaints about reactions to the material. Regardless, FAs have had the same uniform – be they legacy US or AA – for several hears. The airline is already introducing
Different contracts – Correct information is that all FAs at American – be they legacy US or AA – have been under the same contract for several years. They are also on the same trip bidding system for that matter.
This (unfortunately) points out the distinction between journalists (who would have fact-checked this or had the publication’s fact-checker do it) and bloggers (where it appears sometimes that no fact-checking is done).
Martin, thanks for reading, thanks for commenting.
First, it was an interview. Some of the information could not be verified. Where it could be verified I used the evidence I had. I did so even where it countered the interviewee, for example, the dissatisfaction amongst their co-workers.
To your salient points:
1) You would need to throw a lot of asterisks behind that, so many, in fact, that I am not sure your counter can be held as true. And “several years” is a little ambiguous too. I can’t imagine that a careful and detailed commenter like yourself would suggest that all the policies changed day one. In fact, some areas (as highlighted above) still remain different.
2) “Not an issue” is more than a little loose. Even if they resolved the matter on paper, you still have legacy US Airways equipment flying out of legacy US Airways hubs with legacy US Airways employees, the same for legacy American. How much cross-pollination could you really have if the frontline managers, employees, equipment and systems remain in their legacy operation?
3) In November I was on a flight that had US Airways uniforms (jackets, shirts, pants) on an American Airlines flight departing from… any guesses… Philadelphia. It’s not that they weren’t assigned and issued consistent uniforms, it’s that they may not wear them and enforcement is lax. I don’t really care, personally, if they have a US Airways sweater on or an American Airlines dress, but the interviewee did and that’s what this post is about.
4) I don’t have access to the system and as a non-employee, I am not sure how you’d like me to investigate that. I took the interviewee’s word for it and saw that the union is fighting the matter too which makes me wonder, even if it is unified as you say: How popular is that bidding system?
The last part made me laugh, and I want to thank you for that. This is clearly an opinion piece, most blog posts are. But so are most media pieces, pick your outlet and you’ve picked a side – Fox is no less biased than MSNBC, The Washington Post no more biased than the New York Times. You obviously also have not seen journalists posting about travel stories where it seems no facts were even attempted, but I will get back to my lane.
I used no less than a dozen sources for this piece including the interviewee and have no regrets about the quality of my work. Without being an employee, some answers would be impossible to ascertain, others (like the uniform issue) may be true on paper but are untrue in practice. Suggesting that a policy written down means a policy practiced is naive.
Those of us who must travel often for work are getting more an more anxious each time about the next change— which can always be expected to be for the worse. I remember those long-gone days when the actual trip was a fun part of the overall travel experience. Having to fly for work nowadays is the most detestable part of a job that, other than that, I absolutely love. Mind you, I always fly AA because its routes are the most convenient ones to my work destinations. But I really wish I had more options.
Managers/management should be forced to fly coach from time to time to fee how most of us ‘little people’ always feel.
I, too, am one who travels a lot for work. I agree that every chef should taste their food, every airline executive should fly their product both in the front, middle and back of the airplane. They should also fly the competition. When chefs aren’t in their own kitchens, truly great ones are out trying other people’s food, seeing how others run their business, getting inspired and encouraged by the decisions they have made that work better than the competition.
I agree that all of the top managment at AAINO “American Airlines in name only” need to go ASAP!!!!!!!!!!!!. The one thing I know for sure you got wrong. Is that the Aircraft Mechanics, Ranp workers (Fleet Service Ckerks) and seven other work groups. Have been negotiating for 3 years and 4 months and still no joint contact. And no end in sight!!!!!! I hate the company I work for with a passion, But I love what I’ve been doing for a living for the last 28 years. And I like all my fellow employees take a lot of pride in our jobs. And are the blood, sweat and tears of this company. NOT THE EXECUTIVES!!!!!!!!!!!
As a 34 year veteran of AA, I am ashamed, no, embarrassed with the crap we are putting out for the public!!! Doug and company have almost succeeded in making this once Great airline the Worst of the Worst and still dropping!!! I am “below the wing” and come June 1st, here in DFW, we are starting DFW 900 where AA will try to cram 900 daily flights in all 5 terminals. Yet American refuses to hire more ground workers but gut the bagroom and our ramp transfer departments to try and cover the operation!! We have told our supervisors that it will not work and the response is “well it works in PHX and CLT”!! That’s fine for them but DFW is a whole different animal and everything that AA has tried in other hubs not only fail, but fail miserably!! We are being set up for failure from the get go!!! If AA thinks offering all the overtime one wants, well I’ve got some lake front property in Arizona for sale!!!
As far as getting a contract from these tightwads, well we are under a bankruptcy contract since 2012!! Here is a company that is raking in billions of dollars in profits and is asking, no, DEMANDING we agree to outsourcing more ramp jobs and sending more maintenance jobs overseas! Parker has guaranteed “an industry leading contract” but has yet to bring it to the negotiating table!! In fact, the NMB has not scheduled any more talks between our union and the company as we are no where close to coming to an agreement!!
Our best bet is to get Bob Crandall to come back, clean house, and right this sinking ship!!!
And I just heard AA is going to start using that HORRENDOUS midfield terminal again. For persons with mobility challenges, that is NOT going to be welcome news. I doubt I could begin to imagine how tough it must be to coordinate such a spread-out operation.
Very well said Kyle.
Great comeback. You went straight to the source for your piece. The person above sounds like a bot……..or someone who works for the company from behind a desk
As an American airlines flight attendant. The statements in the interview are correct. We have only been on the same Contract since October. All of our bases are finally on the same systems since May 1st, 2019. Both sides still do different procedures, and the uniform is toxic and causes severe illness. We cannot be expected to wear them. The company is taking forever to get us a new one to wear that is safe.
Martin my husband is a mechanic with American and has 29 years in. We are still waiting on a contract. We have lots of friends that are employed in various areas of American and she is right.
Different Contracts, The other facts is that the Mechanics and related and the Ramp have been in contract negotiations well over two years and only been offered concessionaire proposals.
The biggest complaints are about aircraft configuration and service items. When asked what they (employees) want mist of all, they do not specify these items be addressed. (New contract) This is inconsistent.
Don’t know where you learned your statistics, but how is over 2/3 “just”?
“However, just 41,858 of 59,000 participated in the survey at all (just over 2/3rds)”
When it comes to employee engagement surveys, having nearly 1/3 of your workforce not participate is a terrible sign. It further indicates what the results themselves said, that morale is low.
Now, if Kyle said “just 2/3rds of people who play the lottery win a million dollars” you’d have a point. But context matters, and “just 2/3rds” is quite appropriate in this case.
No, is 70% just over 2/3?
Can you show me the normal response to employee engagement surveys? In what world/situation do you think 100% people respond to surveys?
2/3 is 67%. So yes, 70% is just over 2/3, like how $1.05 is just over a dollar.
I don’t expect any survey to have a 100% response rate, and I said nothing to indicate 100% is expected or even a good thing. Most knowledgeable HR folks will tell you a 100% response rate in a large organization indicates that employees were coerced or pressured into responding, there will always be those who choose not to participate if given the decision freely.
So basically you have no idea what a good response rate is, yet are willing to say 70% is bad?
I recently, April 19th, traveled on American Airlines flight 700 Philadelphia with an ongoing flight to Barcelona. I had booked a hotel in Barcelona and the Picasso museum. I planned to spend a day and a half before connecting to a flight to Marrakech Sunday night.
I was left waiting in Philadelphia airport for the flight.
The flight was delayed and once we took off, no flight attendants were seen.
I was in the back of the aircraft and it was noisy but comfortable enough as I am 5’ 2”. I was in the second to last row aisle seat.
I watched Bohemian Rhapsody to the end and we were somewhere over the Atlantic. The Captain came on and apologized for the heat in the back of the aircraft. I took my shoes off to feel the floor. Warm but not disturbing.
The announcement came that the crew in the back had complained it was too hot and we were turning around. Huh!?
The aircraft returned to Philadelphia, ugh, we had to leave the aircraft we all our belongings. They served sandwiches which ran out at the gate. It was getting close to midnight. No announcement was made other than another aircraft was coming from the hanger.
I was appalled at how rude the staff was and how little communication was given.
They announced the flight had been canceled. That’s it thank you very much.
It was now after midnight, no rooms were available and there was a crowd at the desk.
Amex found me a room. No further Information was forthcoming. I didn’t receive an email text or phone call. I was left to find my way back to the airport and helped by another passenger who was rerouted via Nashville, Heathrow, Barcelona. He got me rerouted the same way.
I eventually got to Barcelona just in time for the connecting flight Sunday night.
This was staff driven and had nothing to do with the weather. The part of the flight was smooth.
They lied, I am disheartened to say the least that American Airlines staff lies!!! More lies later I still haven’t heard back from them , not even an apology let alone compensation for my holiday!!!! Now I have to take the same flight again and I am dreading flying American.
Suzanne, I can completely relate! My wife and I recently made a trip to Orlando, with a layover in Philadelphia. Our flight from Philadelphia to Orlando, which was supposed to have departed at 6:15 pm, was delayed repeatedly and eventually canceled at about 2:30 am. The staff acted as though we were an imposition on them, and as you say, communication was minimal. All of this was due to a mechanical issue with the aircraft, which we eventually learned, had been going on since at least 9:00 that morning, and that morning flight had been canceled and the passengers rebooked. If the aircraft had issues causing the morning flight to be canceled, and mechanics were still working on it, unable to resolve the problem by 5:00 or 5:30, why would they not either assign another aircraft for the 6:15 flight or if that wasn’t an option, cancel the flight at 5:30 as passengers are arriving, and rebook them at that time. A far better option than keeping a planeload of people (many parents with young children headed for Disney) waiting in the terminal all night, to eventually be rebooked and finally leave at 1:00 pm. Communication was abysmal, their treatment of paying customers is abysmal. We witnessed epic failures in every area.
Mechanics: Unable to repair the aircraft in time for the assigned flight, even after working on it all day.
Gate Agents: Rude, treated passengers like an imposition (rather than the whole reason they even HAVE a job!)
Booking Agents: Worthless. When we called AA directly, seeking to get on a different flight, we were told “There is nothing we can do for you. You’ll have to talk to the Gate Agent about that.” While another passenger called them and was told that there were a few seats still available on a flight to Daytona Beach. She was rebooked and left to go to the gate for that flight. 30-45 minutes later, she returned, furious. The flight to “Daytona Beach” they had rebooked her on turned out to be going to Dayton, Ohio! And it was a major ordeal for her to get her trip corrected so she could get to Florida.
Airport AA Customer Service: Pathetic, and non-existent. At one point, one of the Gate Agents announced that they weren’t able to rebook anyone, and if we wanted to explore that possibility, we would have to go to Customer Service (which was located about 2/3rds of the way across the terminal, and when we went there, it was closed, no one was around, nor any sign or indication as to when it might reopen.
Flight Attendants: Unfriendly, never so much as smiled.
VERY Displeased.
Doug and senior management, please take your golden parachutes and bailout over Venezuela or Gaza.
Excellent suggestion!!
We have a choice when flying and we choose Delta, SWA, HawaiianAir, and Jet Blue, as the lesser evils, when traveling domestically; and Delta, Air France, and British Air when travelling abroad. We stopped flying United in 2004 after a miserable Paris to Texas trip. We haven’t flown AA since the merger. AA did a great job of getting the four of us back to the USA after my mother died in 2002., and for that, I will always be grateful. But I want an airline whose management & employees value my business, or at least ACT LIKE they do.
FlyAA 110 times and 7 times you will notice the FA are unfriendly, uncaring, literally not giving a damn crap and just try to hide. Hurray and thanks to the 3 out of them, but AA stil is crap.
Your math is a little fuzzy.
I’ve always found the problem isn’t Doug Parker but legacy US Airways employees. American has been a great airline in Dallas, Chicago and Phoenix. Crews based there have always been friendly. Yes I miss the video screens on the seat back and that has pushed me to Delta. However not so when going through Charlotte, Philadelphia or DC.
Thank you for your comment Mike. That was the point I was making last week, that changing out Doug Parker was not going to solve all of the problems.
The merger wasn’t good for US employees. A lot of our old frequent flyers recognize the difference in a US and AA cabin crew, generally because US FA’s/Pilots are more friendly and actually follow service procedures. Prior to the merger US FAs had decent work rules, great pay, amazing insurance, and the company made lots of money. Great work environment, and the company was more family oriented at US Airways. Management actually cared. AA mid-level management doesn’t care, so going from that great culture to a horrible corporate culture is going to piss people off for sure. Don’t you agree? AA FAs were disgruntled prior to the merger any way and had horrible customer service ratings, US FAs had a lot of valuable perks/insurance/work rules taken from them. So that is kind of what happened generally speaking. Employees have treated worse in the end. AND to top it off, management are getting huge bonuses for a job they consider well done, when the state of this airline is subpar at best and a hair trigger away from complete chaos and breakdown.
@martin. Wow, little do you actually know. As a current employee that started with America West then US Airways, and now the New American, I can tell you there is absolutely a division between US Airways and American with hub cities, aircraft types, company policies, pay scales, benefits, uniforms. I know there’s other things as well. Most of our aircraft are different models with different engine manufactures installed. That means lots of different parts. To this day we still have a completely separate maintenance program with different papperwork and different software programs for recording and tracking maintenance. If that wasn’t difficult enough. We can’t even work on each others equipment. Oh and some do wear different color shirts and logos. We have such different contracts, that our schedules have different shift times, different holidays, and our medical companies aren’t even close. It is truly 2 separate companies. In fact we don’t even share breakrooms or office space. So same company for years? LOL. NOT.
Phoenix was a US Airways hub, not an American hub. Charlotte always had friendly employees, but agree Philly not so much
We free first class and the attendents we’re rude and uncaring. They were complain ing about coach. The return flight was WORSE.. old plane with only two TV’s for 1st class, tables were filthy and seats and windows we’re as well. Would never fly America again. Horrible experience!
The reason Doug is the main problem is the old saying, perception is king. His inflammatory comments on ‘minor’ issues such as the seatback screen removal, seat comfort, tiny lavs, etc. have caused an uproar when they really shouldn’t have, if they had been handled properly in context. AA was headed in a good direction under Horton with a massive product investment that could’ve rivaled Delta, and Doug essentially came in and undid EVERYTHING related to building goodwill with passengers and employees alike. It really is remarkable that he learned absolutely nothing from $misek’s habitual blunders at United.
In the end, Doug Parker just cannot get out of the mindset that he’s running the world’s largest Low Cost Carrier, and his decisions he’s made fully support that statement.
Current management is in over their collective heads. They have no idea how to run a legacy carrier. I SAirwsys was a conglomeration of regional carriers with seasonal international service. Management would rather sell a seat at $9.99 them let it go unsold. Our premium business passengers are being virtually ignored for this LCC model. Team Tempe needs to go ASAP or I am afraid that once again corporate greed will be the downfall of another great legacy carrier. Today is not soon enough!
I think airline employees are rather well paid for 80 hours a month. I rarely work less than 55 hours a week, with a fair amount of time spent on airplanes listening to employees bitch about everything under the sun. if I didn’t like what I do, I’d quit. Didn’t AA employees get a big raise mid contract? time to get out of the business now.
Agree wholly – heard the same junk by Northwest FA’s after Delta merger.
You obvoously do not understand how the airline industry works as far as hours. It is 80 credits. The flight attendants work their butt off!! I can at least say this for the former America West flight attendants and the US Airways flight attendants. They were taught to follow procedure as far as service goes and treatment of their passengers. These flight attendants truly care about the customers! You are correct, though, when stating that if they don’t like their job that they should quit!
80 FLIGHT hours, or BLOCK TIME. Starts when the AIRCRAFT DOOR CLOSES, and stops when the AIRCRAFT DOOR OPENS. The time crews spend in the airport, checking in for their trip, safety checks on a/c equipment, crew briefing, boarding, serving while boarding…..NOT PAID! Got it!
Flight crews (cabin and cockpit) get paid roughly 80 hrs p/month But WORK twice that. The way they are compensated can be confusing to those outside the industry because it is done so differently.
No different than how their rewards passengers are treated. Give less, take more.
Have you ever heard of Google? Just wondering since you it’s so obvious that you have no idea what what your spouting out words for. So,.. do you how many hours airline crew are actually on duty? … Per how many hours actually paid?? Didn’t think so- Sounds like your the one bitching, not your flight crews-
That’s 80 “flight hours” a month, which means we’re only on the clock once all aircraft doors including cargo and catering are closed. That means we’re not getting paid for boarding, deplaning, the van drive to and from the airport, the hour report time at the beginning of each day.
I think Doug Parker’s missteps at AA are indicative not so much of any basic ineptitude, just that AA’s problems aren’t the sort he’s good at fixing. He’s proven that he’s good at turning around failing/flailing carriers (HP/US). The problem with AA is that the challenges that led to its bankruptcy were different. AA had some labor issues, some hub challenges, and then the recession. None of those challenges, save the money hustling that the recession demanded, are in his wheelhouse. He was a great choice for putting out the fire but he’s not the person that should be rebuilding.
Robert Isom also needs to be fired. He is the man behind the curtain turning AA into the Dollar General of major Airlines!
As a former FA back in the day when we were called Stewardesses, I am so disappointed in how they’ve gone downhill. American was always one of the top airlines and I was proud to wear my silver wings! After retiring from American,
I always chose to fly American whenever possible, but now it’s sad to say I choose Alaska, Delta, SW or Jet Blue whenever possible.
AA was no airline to brag about. They had a terrible attitude to passengers prior to US Airways. You put two turds together and expect greatness, . . duh.
Two things:
1) The FAs, through their union, are who orchestrated Discount Dougie’s takeover by coordinating with his team to cut Tom Horton off at the knees with their contract proposal shenanigans. While it does look like the union sold the rank and file a bill of goods, it’s time for the employee groups to acknowledge some responsibility for the mess they find themselves in.
2) A lot of this sounds like the same old junk domestic carrier employee groups love to fall back on – that their beef with management justifies mistreating customers. That never works out as well as folks are led to believe it does. Case in point: there are plenty of people who ditched UA during the darkest of the Smisek days that still haven’t returned. That’s going to be especially true here since there’s people, myself included, who remember that it was the employees who begged Dougie to take over – so it’s disingenuous now to expect passengers to sympathize that it didn’t work out.
Really, the whole US Airways management team reminds me of the parasitic weed that’s taken over my lawn and that I’ve been working for two weeks now to get rid of. Its roots are so deeply intertwined in the system that the only answer is to fire everyone and start over from scratch.
Obviously you don’t know the whole story here. Our previous union president, Laura Glading was the person driving the scenario you are describing. The contract presented to the FAs was a fait accompli – the only thing we were allowed to vote on was the pay structure. Even so, we voted it down. Most of us did NOT agree to how this was done, which is why Ms. Glading was pushed out. She then promptly began working for AA as a consultant, shredding her credibility. So no I won’t take responsibility for a contract we didn’t want and that was forced on us anyway.
What is wrong at AA could be said of most retailers in the United States as well. Some of the real reasons why many retailers are closing are results self inflicted problems by management.
That Muñoz guy at United seems to be quite popular with employees and Wall St alike – just take a look at UA’s share price.
Agreed Smisek was a terrible idea, but UAL is on the up. American should take note – they could even maybe learn a thing or too, if their management team can pull their collective heads out of the sand.
Just sayin’.
The trouble began long before the merger. I’d trace it more to September 11. That’s when the cost-cutting began in earnest. The seats got tighter, meal service disappeared, AA fell behind the others on IFE and hasn’t even tried to catch up. And that’s when the FA’s became disinterested, and sometimes hostile. The merger may have made thing worse – I don’t know since I don’t think I’ve flown AA since the merger – but it was pretty lousy long before that.
*yawn* this is the same tired Script unhappy flight attendants spew on a daily basis. I’m a flight attendant and don’t live my life or base my happiness on the choices my company makes.
Let’s start with the facts and debunk the vocal minority who continues to control the narrative while the silent majority is left being lumped in with a whiney bunch of entitled-over compensated workers.
1) Flight attendants at American are the highest paid among the industry and with enough seniority and premiums, on average, can easily make close to 6 figures if not more.
2) Flight attendants at American are consistently given opportunities to vote on decisions, like the one mentioned in this biased uninformed hit-piece, regarding if we should police MCE seats or not. They voted via company survey to say the WANTED TO.
3) Flight attendants at American are allowed to get away with just about anything they want with no repercussions from the company but consistently find ways to take ZERO personal responsibility to making the airline better.
Side note: I’m not management, never have and never will be- but god bless them for even trying to work with this work group.
I do not work for an airline and I agree with you. Reading the answers to the questions led me to believe that, yes, there is a problem with management BUT also a problem with front line employees. I found this flight attendants answers to be self entitled and looking to put blame where it’s easily given now…on upper management..for what is nothing more than their own laziness (note the mention of breaks etc).
These were not the answers of someone who cared and took pride in their profession. This was the response of someone who just cared about themselves and making their lives as easy as possible at the expense of any target they can find.
I am not defending Doug Parker. He is abysmal at running this airline. I am probably mostly defending Kyle in saying that, in reality, the problems are so multi-layered now that there may be no saving this airline ever.
The U.S. Airlines are in business because they have monopolized the market. They are failing in International routes serviced by Airlines like Emirates, Etihad etc. If those airlines were to fly domestically in the US tomorrow, Delta, American, United etc would be out of business in a week. They have taken passengers for granted, their staff are rude to passengers, their food is the worst in the World, their legspace and toilet sizes keep getting smaller and smaller. When was the last time any of these airline employees made you feel welcome with a genuine smile and great service? You are even worried about asking them a cup of water as you are afraid to upset them. By the way, flight attendants according to the US airlines are not there to provide good service to customers anymore it seems. They say they are there for passenger safety. History shows that even big companies fail. TWA failed. These will follow suit soon and I hope they fail and we will have the Middle Eastern airlines flying here. Then Americans will know what real service is and will be shocked that they have put up with crap all their life.
As long as upper management seems to embrace the idea that aircraft maintenance is strictly a liability and a cost Instead of an actual revenue enhancer by providing safe and reliable aircraft to our operation, and as long as we continue to operate in a “fly till failure” maintenance posture, we are set up to fail every time every day!
And that’s not my limited viewpoint from just a part or this very complex operation. Not many people think much about maintenance or what they even do until the airplane is delayed or cancelled.
I recently took a trip to Oahu and Maui out of DFW airport. On both flights we were treated as a bother rather than a valued customer. Especially on our return trip out of Maui . We received one beverage shortly after take off , followed by all food and snacks at once . We barely had time to start eating and they were there to pick up trash .
After this we barley saw a flight attendant (except for the ones in first class running around taking care of their customers)
We were finally offered a second beverage service( juice or water) about 45 minutes left in the flight .
I understand the beef between employees and upper management but the paying customers are paying the price . I do understand that even the best companies change . All companies are doing what they can to cut back , change benefits and this never makes any employee happy, but if you don’t like you job , find a new one . I do have other choices and my next flight , I will choose another Airline,
Being an employee of AA for about 20 yrs over definitely seen the decline of this airline. I’m not going over sell what we were before but we were not number 8 or 9 of the best airlines in the USA. what I need everyone to understand is that when you have a low budget airline running the largest one, the only thing you have created is a large low budget carrier. I guess we have the AA pilots to thank since they were the ones who insisted on us airways management to run the new airline. I honestly have lost hope. And I’m dead serious.
Maybe Parker can go, and Kirby can go back to AA. Would be best for United customers.
I am a crippled traveller. Plain and simpler. I have no issue with being called crippled. It’s what I am. What I have an issue with is airlines like American and United treating me like a side of beef instead of a human being. They don’t take any kind of care of me whatsoever. What is the point of saving a few bucks if I’m going to risk further injury when their employees manhandle me on and off the plane, and act like it’s a huge I position for them? On the other hand, it doesn’t matter which class I’m flying in, Delta treats me like a princess! They treat me with the greatest of care and kindness, and don’t act put upon because I might need a little extra help. I am polite and pleasant to the cabin crew, and they are wonderful right back. So guess who gets my loyalty every time I fly? It ain’t United or American, that’s for darn sure!
Have been AA customer since 1987. EXP for a number of years, now retired and PLT for life. Feel I’m stuck with AA as I go out of PSP and probably wouldn’t get status on another carrier . Have watched things go downhill for a number of years but only in last few years has it really pooped out. When I have to roam the entire int’l biz class cabin to find a FA to help me, that’s telling me I’m with the wrong carrier. But what other choice do I have? Anyone have any suggestions for a traveler from Palm Springs?
Mr. Stewart Noone in you survey has brought up another fact that integration process for flight attendants. Has been very out of balance the fas from both Reno Air and Twa were placed on the bottom of the senriorty list instead of being merged one for one which caused a huge moral problem as well. With the merger of us air and aa fas was also done .base on date of hire vs completion of training .lack of consistency is a mayor problem here as well .this airline is dysfunctional
Clarification: the survey was conducted by American Airlines and they chose the questions in the survey.
In my humble opinion, at this time, AA cabin crew members are the very best part of AA, perhaps the only good part of AA. I have flown hundreds of flights all around the globe, on dozens of carriers. In the 6 times I have flown with AA, I have consistently been subjected to terrible, mean spirited, threatening, inhospitable service from AA gate agents, from AA customer service representatives, from AA gate supervisors, and even from AA airport operations managers. These people have been self serving, they have lacked compassion, empathy, generosity and seem to reflect an unwillingness to perform the responsibilities of their jobs, which is to provide for the needs of the travelers who pay their wages. I have experienced circumstances in which AA captains have caused 4+ hour delays between doors closed and wheels up so that they could max out their daily 9 hour duty limitation, thus fulfilling their self serving motive of attending personal events rather than working. All the while, an aircraft is filled with customers, guests, children, parents, families, tourists and business professionals who paid money to travel, instead, their lives and the lives of their families, friends and employers are imposed upon by selfish, greedy, unconscionable people. I have personally observed AA aircraft maintenance workers who are disgruntled due to having no contract, they retaliate by failing to perform general maintenance, and they slow up repairs, causing delays for hundreds of travelers. AA employees have been purposefully negligent, violating the global rules, causing hundreds of paying travelers to spend hours, wasting time, dealing with the stress caused by misconnects, lost time with family, friends and at work. With the one exception being AA flight attendants. Who have been cordial, kind, helpful, responsive, and who express sincerity and empathy for their guests.
Wow, you must be some kind of incredibly insightful traveler. Perhaps psychic! You are perhaps the only passenger to actually observe a mechanic NOT doing something.
Honestly, there is absolutely no logic to this post. How are you magically aware of what the pilot is doing in the cockpit to “cause delays for their own selfish reasons”. As a passenger, how do you have ANY idea how the aircraft is being maintained ( or not ). You have flown with AA 6 times and yet you have this amazing behind the scenes knowledge that an inspector might have a hard time documenting, yet you have seen this all yourself. As a passenger…
Seriously?
As an AA FA he is actually somewhat correct about the mechanic and ground crews. It’s called a work slowdown and it can create havoc for an airline. The mechanics have been in contract negotiations for a couple of years now. One of the main sticking points is outsourcing jobs (a terrible idea!). When a strike is not an option slowdowns are often the result. And believe me that we flight attendants are affected negatively by slowdowns too and don’t like them. But we also understand why slowdowns happen.
Number one…AMERICA WEST BOUGHT U.S AIRWAYS…THEN WE BOUGHT AMERICAN…I WISH PEOPLE WOULD GET IT RIGHT. BUT YES PARKER NEEDS TO REMEMBER WHERE HE STARTED
I am a frequent flyer of American Airlines. I don’t care to speak on where the problem is coming from, but what i will speak on is the fact that their are a lot of problems I’ve noticed in the about 3 yr period that I’ve used this company. To name a few the customer service isnt professional. Your packed like sardines in a can on the flight. The contract seems to be horrible, for not just the employees, but the customer as well. The flights aren’t at all flexible. If your late for or miss a flight. You loose, or have to go through all sort of unnecessary changes to get another, or have to simply purchase another ticket. To make a really long” story short. A lot of changes are in need of being made. I flew Southwest 1 time, & if i weren’t a loyal person. I would choose Southwest honesty”. Comparing the 2 Southwest honestly would, & is the best way to go.
Maybe they should bring in Jan Carlzon
I hadn’t flown AA in years and recently I flew Business Class to Lima, Peru. I experienced the rudest, grumpiest, oldest flight attendants ever. The lady next to me said–yeah, they are the worst. Last time I bother. Years of domestic flights on SW and Jet Blue apparently spoiled me. If you don’t like your job–LEAVE.
I flew American Airlines and I will never and I mean never flywith them again. A flight attendant was rude. She act like she was mad because I pushed my button. She act like it was an inconvenience for her to come to me. Both of them seemed like they didn’t want to serv anybody anything. Im done with American Airlines permanently.
Something definitely needs to change. I would always fly first class on AA and was always treated terribly. Hopefully a management change can change their employees attitudes because it can’t get much worse. Complaining did nothing to solve problems, I was told over and over again that it was not their standard that they take pride in great service. It’s all on my Twitter… I finally gave up, I stopped flying AA, I called Citi and changed my AA credit card to another brand. I don’t even care about using my points to fly them again. They would need to do a huge damage control with the public to reverse the damage they did.
Getting rid of Parker couldn’t hurt but someone at AA hasn’t been doing her/his (probably ‘his’ in this male-toxic environment) for a long time. I fly almost 100% on AA and have acquaintances who work for the airline. Many of them, especially those working in domestic airports, still complain about the attitudes of old TWA employees and how they don’t pull their weight like AAers do. Now the fact that one can still identify an AA plane from an old USAir plane by the galley – Parker refuses to buy Boeings upgraded galleys and forces crews to use the most basic and inefficient one – is just one sign that he should not be running a legacy airline that is not trying to be the number one discount airline in the US. USAir was never a leader in comfort, food, service or mileage plan. It simply had a little more money than the legacy lines did when the mergers were happening. Sadly Parker got AA and not United.
The federal government should never have bailed American Airlines out, following 9/11/01. They should have permitted the families of the victims to have sued both American and United Airlines, out of existence, for their negligence, in not ensuring better security. Their philosophy at that time was “to cooperate with hijackers”. Secondly, it was only about two months after 9/11/01, when Richard Reid, a terrorist from the UK, tried to blow up an American Airlines flight over the Atlantic. The latter flight was heading for Florida, but was forced to land in Boston. American Airlines did not give a damn about the plight of the stranded passengers, and initially refused to make any hotel arrangements or make arrangements for another aircraft to pick them up. One really has to be a masochist to fly with either American, or some of the other domestic “beauties”. If one flies on the international asian airlines, (i.e. All Nippon Airlines, Japan Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlies), their flight attendants are very courteous, accommodating, and service oriented. They will actually smile at the passengers, and bow to them. On the other hand, the American flight attendants have an attitude and a chip on their shoulders, from the time that they arise in the morning. In the back of their warped minds, every single passenger is their enemy, who they feel that they can mistreat with impunity.
De-regulation has turned out to be the most detrimental cause of the current state. Too many entities vying for the same dollar. Sometimes control is needed for the entities to eat their own. Hub monopolies give the chosen few the ability to cannibalize any attempted competition . Would you want to compete with American at DFW as a new market entry? Only if you had a death wish.
I have been an EP with AA for about 20 years. And I am near finished with them. Their service is now close to abysmal. We are packed like sardines into inhumanely small seats. Upgrades are mostly a thing of the past (and are given to a small group of CK “pampered poodles”). On their international flights, the FAs are all nearly ancient (I worry that one of them will fall and break her hip). Their planes are poorly cleaned and doggy looking (hate these new seats). But unlike so many EPs who fight so hard to stay EP, I am taking my own actions, with a nice smile. For example, this year I will travel 15 or 16 times across the Pacific for business. And only a few of those will be on AA. I have discovered other very worthy international carriers. And when I can buy business or first class international tickets for the same price, or less, than AA, and then be treated like a king instead of like something that is stuck to the bottom of their shoe and they wished they hadn’t stepped in, well, then I will gladly support other carriers. Go ahead, AA. Take care of your CK “pampered poodles”, and ignore us people who have been with you through thick and thin. And see if your pampered poodles can keep you afloat in the next business downturn. I am very quickly, and quietly, disengaging from AA for how badly so many of us former loyal flyers are now treated.
I am in the same boat. Two simple examples to illustrate. Also a loyal EP for nearly 20 years. But two incidents have convinced me to only use AA enough to renew EP, and then take my business elsewhere. Two incidents: 1. Last November, I was traveling from LGA to DFW. I had a PURCHASED (not upgraded) First Class ticket. Got in line to board at LGA (always a zoo). First they boarded deadheading crew members (there were TWENTY of them – and they always travel with 3, 4, or 5 bags). Then their “Pampered Poodles” (love that name for CK) – there were TWELVE of them – WTF, I thought that that CK group was some “exclusive” membership, 12 out of 160 is about 7-8% of the plane. And lastly, disabled passengers (there were 7 of them, including one guy who I had seen in the Admirals Club, who had TWO rollaboards, and he was clearly NOT disabled). Anyway, I was the 40th passenger to board. By the time I boarded (I was the first person in Group 1 to board), there were NO open spaces in the overhead bins in First Class. In fact, I had to go back to the sixth row of Economy to store my one regular-size rollaboard. And, again, remember that I had a PURCHASED First Class ticket. Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable. When we landed at DFW, I was almost the last passenger off, because it took forever to get back 6 rows into Economy to get my back. And the second incident, about 1 week later: 2. I was in line getting ready to board a flight to somewhere close (may have been Kansas City, or New Orleans, or wherever – I cannot remember). Some chatty EP was standing beside me, and he told me that he was making this flight plus one more as “mileage runs”. He had calculated that with these two flights, he would have 14 miles over the qualification requirement, and $18 over the requirement. So he would also be an EP in 2019. He was so proud. And as I stood there, I realized that in AA’s eyes, this guy, wit 100,014 miles, and $15,018 was exactly the same as me, with nearly $50K in spend and more than 3 times his miles. And both of us are nearly worthless to AA. So I now almost never give AA any ticket of value (like my international flights). Just sign me “Passenger #40”.
It is evident the employees haven’t abandoned the airline, I still like the way I am treated by the ground crews and the flight crews and that is the reason I continue to fly American. My biggest disappointment is having over 93,000 miles in my account and every time I go to use them there are no seats available or upgrades available. My elite status does give my wife and I an occasional upgrade but that is usually on a flight that no one else wants to take. I flew Delta last fall and was impressed with their equipment and the attention the flight crew paid to the passengers, if I could convert my AA miles to Skymiles I might consider flying Delta until American’s management get’s their act together or decides to sell the airline to another carrier, too bad British Airways can’t buy them, they seem to run a much better airline. It is too bad that the Board of Directors can’t see beyond Doug Parker, another American executive getting paid more than they are really are worth. I recommend he is awarded the Jeffrey Immelt prize for the destruction of an American business, another winner rubber stamped by an overpaid Board of Directors who were more interested in their Directors fees and not the proper oversight of a company.
everyone shut up, stop whining and get on the bus in the sky…you wanted low prices, you got them, but along with that comes change and not all of it good.. stop comparing flying now to “the good old days”, they are gone so deal with it…
I used to fly AA exclusively, when I was employed. (over 25 years ago. flew AA exclusively where their system would fly me, for well over 20 years! ) They got my business because they demonstrated a genuine concern for my comfort and safety. However, toward the end of my traveling requirements, I did observe a decline in the management attitude toward the employees at all levels. My company was also a significant vendor to ground operations. I am aware of the typical low moral issues with big companies. However, this moral attitude has manifested itself to be “what AA is all about!” The constant stories of flight attendant problems, not issues, is just too common in the media today. AA’s current reputation is in the toilet and they have brought in management types that focus on business practices, that drive that companies attitude, moral and value DOWN! Ins’t it unfortunate that people like JAMES BELL get to use a computer to expose his personal apathy and naivete. Let’s demonstrate just axactly what JAMES needs. Compassion or maybe sympathy!