American Airlines has had difficulty with employee groups lately and morale is low. But with the stock price at an all-time low and the potential for employee action, can CEO Doug Parker possibly survive the summer?
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Mechanics Have Warned Management Publicly
I have written about American Airlines flight attendants and their displeasure for the carrier’s management and direction. I have also discussed the unions which have contributed to the blight of FAs comparatively to non-unionized compatriots at Delta. Now the mechanics are speaking up.
American Airlines mechanics have been negotiating a contract for years. At the risk of sounding like a millennial, “literally” years. That’s insane and the mechanics shouldn’t put up with it. There are always two sides to any argument and I am sure that the mechanics and their union have continued to fight over capitulation to management terms. But the stakes have been raised.
Summer Is Already Hard
Summer is the busiest season for the airlines with kids out of school and warmer weather. Airlines are their busiest because seemingly the entire country and the rest of the northern hemisphere travels between May and early September and for the most part, business travel remains normal too.
The 737-MAX issue has not yet been resolved and while I believe that American owns the necessary equipment to get through without it (simply pause aircraft retirements and tighten schedules), they may face other challenges like expensive C-checks due on those planes if they continue to fly them more than expected. That won’t help matters.
The last MD-80 was scheduled to retire in September and while American has stated that the MAX issue will not extend the life of those planes. Parker, again following United’s lead, [aims gun and foot and fires] has said that he’s not sure if passengers will ever accept the aircraft type again.
How Low Can AAL Go?
Seemingly taking the American Airlines stock price (AAL) stagnation as a challenge, Parker has been blind about the performance of AAL stock and lost bets due to his failed peripheral vision. The market has penalized American while they have rewarded Delta (wisely), United (eh) and Southwest (wisely) for their performance. The disparity, however, is startling.
As of the publication of this post, the price has actually regressed to a 52-week low.
I’d argue – as an observer and not as a qualified financial advisor – that it will go still lower as the MAX issue drags on and numbers do not improve. Mechanics and upset flight attendants will have an effect as well of course.
How Does Doug Parker Make It Through The Summer?
Mr. Parker, sir, you need a win. Badly. Maybe two. Parker could make it through the coming summer of American Airlines’ discontent if he finds success on a few key deliverables:
- Mechanics contract agreed
- On-time ratings improved
- Profitability from flying airplanes, not just from selling miles to banks
This will not rescue the carrier from their abysmal 7th place finish of a possible 8 airlines from the reliable WSJ. It will not make unhappy flight attendants suddenly pleased to go to work. It will not restore faith in their reward program either, bringing back the most critical passengers for the carrier.
But he will get through the summer and that should be his objective right now.
Conclusion
I’m not confident that Wall Street is going to continue their enduring patience with CEO Doug Parker, the recent turn in the stock price may finally signal that investors have had enough. Even if the above criteria aren’t met and he survives the summer (after all, it is June already) it won’t be long if he stays the course.
What do you think? Will Parker continue to run American (into the ground) following the summer? Are there other objectives that will determine his success/failure? Or is he secure in the role?
From your lips to God’s ears. Hopefully it will bring American someone that respects their employees and loyal passengers.
Only if He Stops drinking . We heard he is a 3 times felon but still have a Job or else employee get fired
Amen.
It’s not just low morale for flight attendants, the gate agents are mad as hell too. I’ve been an agent with AA for 13 years and quit this week because I can’t put up with a he BS this company keeps dealing out. I got a much better job making more money.
AMR was a big mess before it became AAL. The culture at the airline needs to change.
Investors, employees, and customers are all very unhappy. What could go wrong? What AA absolutely needs is a CEO that can make customers and employees feel valued. If that drastic change were to ahppen, the bottom line would take care of itself.
Really Bro ? AA management doe snot even understand that it is the employees who runs this airlines not them . Employees walk away airlines shut down and will never recover and investors screwed for life. Doug Parker is a bad news for American Airlines so does other higher management like Isom
same story different CEO. I worked there when Bob Crandell was CEO and unions ALWAYS complain. never happy even when they make industry leading wages. non-union airlines are much happier and it shows.
Go sell crazy somewhere else.
these are not industry leading wages, non union airline employees are afraid to join unions with that in mind most non union mechanics average $15 to $18 per hour, while other employees,gate,ticket counter, cleaners average $10 to $12 per hour, while CEOS rake in millions
I have never worked for more of a sleazy company. Everything is programmed for AA to make every penny they can 100% at the expense of the customer and employees. Agents are supposed to “Elevate” for how crappy the service is to make up for the fact you will be screwed on AA. They pack the flights in with minimum turn times and minimum staffing asking for everyone to be superman. When the smallest occurence throws a flight off schedule (which will happen), then everyone is screwed but the airline got every penny they could and sold every seat they could. Employees are forced against their will daily to work off mandatory off their scheduled shift, usually the part-timers who aren’t making the overtime pay.
Then when you need rebooking, their computer system suddenly blocks agents from rebooking customers on flights that have seats open to them forcing them to lie to customers faces and either book them the following day or force then to risk misconnecting.
Basic economy customers are purposely seated apart from eachother so they have to pay for a seat near their partner. Ironically one is often seated in a row that has a choice seat next to it which cost more and in forces you into paying for a more expensive seat
If the flight is oversold, and you do try to check in ontime, suddenly, it won’t let you check in without seeing an agent, making it as difficult as possible for you to check in so that they have one less person to pay off the oversold flight. Suddenly now you’re the person who is losing money because you missed your flight.
Employees are promised high wages then lost out on the money as they leverage away health insurance. Nothing ever improves for the employees. When the market goes up, the airline finds someway to take something away from employees.
I honestly think the company doesn’t want employees to be happy because in this business employee retention is expensive since the pay scale is so steep. They want the senior agents to quit so they don’t have to pay topped out wages, so they make it a miserable place to work for everyone. Terrible values, terrible computer system, terrible company. Spend your money elsewhere.
I used to love working for US Airways when ethics actually mattered. All that matters is that the company is making as much money as they can at the expense of everyone else.
Parker is a loser he’s going to run aa into the ground.he don’t care about his employees thats goin to be his downfall. GREED
My wife and I fly American, usually to Europe. The difference between American and US Airways is huge on the negative side, after 50 yrs of flying with US airways
I to feel the problem lies with the top management, not the employees serving the public.
When the Check Engine Light illuminates on your car…..how long do you drive thinking everything is okay, hoping the light will just go out by itself. Until you finally realize, you need to get it fixed.
Well the Check Engine light at AA…it has been illuminated for over 5 years now….and Dougie….IT WILL NOT TAKE CARE OF ITSELF! Fix it or step aside and get someone who is qualified. But this could be hard, as no management at AA is qualified. Now there is some outsourcing you should consider!
He needs to resign already. He’s dragged AA lower than it should have ever went.
He -and Isom- need to go before he “manages “ American into the ground a la Eastern Airlines.
We are quickly headed that direction.
LOL, the UNION drove pan am, eastern, etc. into the ground. they just hop from one airline to the next.
Oh yeah? Then what happened to Northwest?
So you think low wages, bad benefits and poverty level employees are the answer to big business, your crazy atleast the unions will keep upper management in line, especially when they are getting million dollar bonuses
I worked at eastern airlines for 13 years,Frank Lorenzo drove eastern into the ground,not the unions.The unions tried to save eastern but lorenzo had other plans.Please do some research before you shoot your mouth off.
LORENZO also drove TRANS TEXAS , PEOPLE EXPRESS & EASTERN ( and almost CONTINENTAL ) out of business { NOT THE UNIONS } . He would sell off everything he could , THEN put the airline in bankruptcy . When the airline went under , HE would walk away with a GREAT GOLDER PARACHUTE . The employees got nothing
Do you get your news from facebook? The head of Eastern Airlines was banned from operating an airline for life. And you blame the unions and employees?
He needs to fire all whiney LAA people and let lus run the place.. too much policy with LAA get back to running an airline.
That hilarious! Almost all of LAA management was pushed out after the merger. These days AA is American Airlines in name only…. and it shows. It’s really US Airways with American Airlines livery on the planes. Upper management needs to learn that you can’t run an airline of this size the way they did America West.
You do realize that it is US airways management running this shit show right? AA disappeared when Parker took over. This company is LUS Airways now!!
You don’t sound like a millennial: you have let the side down by failing to include “incredible”, “amazing”, “reach out”, “not so much”, multiple times, or any memes from reality television. “Literally” is low scoring.
Not to forget “OMG”
I don’t have any sympathy for the AA unions, no matter what their gripes are. They were so hell-bent on getting rid of Horton that they never even considered the union problems at US – which were on Dougie’s watch. They never really finished the America West merger, and they thought everything was going to be just fine and dandy all of a sudden?
I agree so much with this. The reason we have Parker is precisely the responsibility of the unions.
He has already ruined AA’s former stellar reputation as the #1 carrier. Everyone aspired to be AA.. We provided the the best customer service, in-flight experience and confidence in the safety of our operation. If you look at the AA flying experience today it is mass chaos on the good days. I know good customer service. My husband and I provided it for a combined 76 years of service. We are deeply saddened with Mr. Parker’s “AA”. They should have kept the US Air brand!
Where have you been in the last 20 years? AA’s DOT numbers have been in the tank too long. Pax hated that US took over AA. All we heard was that AA stats were crap…that’s from the pax. US was always in the top three when AA was at the bottom of the DOT rankings. Please, no carrier wanted to be like AA unless you’re referring to 30+ years ago.
Gone, Jeff…gone not went.
Are you insinuating that the labor unions had some say in Horton’s fate? Seriously? You sir need to educate yourself a bit more in the history of this “merger”. We (legacy AA employees) were there victim of Mr Horton’s failed attempts to outsource all aircraft maintenance to the lowest bidder and kick all the American AMTs to the curb. The board of directors are the guilty party for Mr Horton’s departure. Make no mistake, there was no love lost between we the unionized AMTs and Mr Horton. Some of us hated to see CEO Gerard Arpey leave as he was one of the few who had actually worked his way up through the company ranks (as he continued his education) from a baggage handler originally. He understood the rank and file. He at least had the character to say he would not be the CEO to lead AMR Corp into bankruptcy protection. So when the board informed him of that decision to file, he resigned instead being the one to sign the papers. Enter Mr Horton. US Airways leadership, who now holds the reigns of our company, are the ones who saw fit to oust Mr Horton. Here’s a mostly actuate Wikipedia link with a brief timeline of events:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_American_Airlines
lol.you guys are all the same. same story different CEO. I worked there when Bob Crandell was CEO and unions ALWAYS complain. never happy even when they make industry leading wages. non-union airlines are much happier and it shows. y’all MILKED THE SYSTEM DRY with your delaying maintenance checks forcing overtime. upper and lower structure maintenance separation and EXTREMELY INEFFICIENT work practices like “finding” maintenance issues during the closing up stage of maintenance.
Go sell crazy somewhere else.
As a mechanic for AA I can tell you that morale is at an all-time low and it is the management of this once proud airline that is making it so. I can tell you Brian, that it was the Board of Directors that took AA into bankruptcy that caused the present problems. In their haste to dump the pensions, they invited in a CEO that sees this airline as a LOW COST CARRIER, not a customer oriented service airline. The America West mentality has totally destroyed it. Parker made all kinds of promises but he had no intention of keeping those, and now he is reaping the rewards.
Agree!
American’s demise as a carrier when the Board of Directors fired Arpey and brought in Tom Horton.
Horton’s decision to take the airline into bankruptcy and hire Frank Lorenzo’s union-busting legal firms guaranteed that relations would become acrimonious.
USair thought they could clean up the mess, made promises they haven’t kept, and are now holding the wrong end of the stick because they chose to pick it up…not because it was forced on them.
Arpey wasn’t fired. He resigned after trying to save the airline from bankruptcy – bankruptcy was a path he despised, but one that was already traveled by every of AA’s primary legacy competitors. He was unsuccessful – and turned the reigns over to one of his best friends, Tom Horton, to do the dirty, but necessary work, to achieve a competitive CASM. I don’t blame individual AAers, that just happen to have a 3rd party representing them, for Horton’s ouster at all. But to pretend the union didn’t have a role in lobbying for Doug with the creditors’ committee is simply rewriting history.
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/21/business/us-air-strikes-deal-with-amrs-unions.html
Doug’s actually a very nice person despite the easy slams written about him above, but the team he and Kirby largely put in place at US was simply a yes-men culture…and unfortunately this is where AA finds itself.
I worked for AA for 32 years both as a mechanic and Crew Chief mechanic . I retired in 1999. I.am not.impressed with Doug Parker. American is the largest airline in the world. Mr. Parker treat your people well and American will again be #1 in the world
pensions???? what happened to Pan Am, Eastern pensions??? do you REALLY think pensions are in your best interest? you want someone else to hold your bag of money for 20-30 years? come on man.
It’s sad when I work for Spirit and see our metrics beating out AAL on multiple fronts. DP is tanking that airline and extorting his miserable employees to line his pockets.
IF, AA TAKE CARE FIRST THE EMPLOYEES WILL BE ON THE FIRST PLACE AGAIN LIKE WAS ON THE 90
Be careful what you wish for. DL & UA are largely outsourced already, Doug & co. think they’re just trying to catch up.
Mechanics unions are always the toughest, historically.
Flight attendants, are never happy with their contracts, historically. Pilots always believe they’re worth more and should have more say.
Customer service/ramp service always gets the scraps, historically.
None of these things will change under a different CEO’s watch.
Too tight scheduling, too tightly packed airplanes (seat pitch) and the constant picking of the customers pocket are things that CAN change. But then you’ll have to charge more.
I’d back a CEO who advocated a simplification of the product and pricing in packages. Go somewhere you haven’t been AA.
Yes! What Said 100%
You do not have a good understanding of American. Parker will survive the summer. And beyond. It is COMMON for contract negotiations in the airline industry to go on for years. Do you understand how the Railway Labor Act works? Sadly, it is also common for mechanics to try to slow down airline operations at certain times when they are in negotiations. It is also common for management to then sue for injunctive relief (and win) when they do this. American’s problem is that is does far more in-house maintenance work than all its competitors. There is no an easy solution to this problem. But the problem will get resolved, eventually.
Signed
Doug Parker
I was a 100% fly American passenger. In April a flight was delayed in Albany NY by 5 hours. Therefore I missed my connecting NC flight. All flights leaving NC were booked until the next afternoon. I was given a voucher for a run down Economy motel. I doubt any American Airline’s executives stay at the Economy Motel. I am switching airlines to Delta or Southwest until hopefully AA gets their act together.
The operation was terrible in May. Summer is going to be a disaster!
The mechanics may have gotten the big displeasure shout-out but the Fleet Service Clerks and related are just as pissed? AA wanting to outsource more of us,extremely limit our scope( job descriptions), no future growth for Fleet Service Clerks ( reduce headcount via attrition) ,no medical cost relief ALL WHILE MAKING HEFTY PROFITD.
Baggage handling was never meant to be a career. You guys have been riding the mechanic’s coat tails for entirely too long. Bag smashers are only making the wages they are making because they are linked to the mechanics. We wouldn’t have to outsource as much maintenance as we do if Fleet Service wasn’t extorting the ridiculous wages they are. It’s total BS in my opinion.
“We wouldn’t have to outsource ..” says it all ! What flavor is today’s Koolade?
What kind of union brother are you? Same union Moron. Why dont you join management and ride their nuts some more.
Amen to that! Acting like it’s a different union, we are all standing tighter but I won’t stand with someone like that!
You sound ridiculous. Ramp does more than just handle bags. Without the ramp, nothing moves period. It’s the last line of defense for making sure that plane goes out safe and passengers are aligned with their belongings among other things. Amazing how people use terms and titles to minimize hard work so you can place a lowly price tag you feel is appropriate.
Very well said !!!
Work groups bashing one another is a recipe for disaster.
It takes everyone to make any airline run! Take out any work group and it falls apart. Want to change a tire and then load bags or run the ticket counter? Service a lav and then go make coffee in the cabin or set up the flight plan. We are the ones that make the airlines run day to day! The bad decisions, seat pitch, gigantic overhead bins, poor flight scheduling etc.,etc.,etc. are made by the people that make that are making the large salaries. If they think they deserve the bonuses make them play up or get out! Poor performance, hit the road!
Amen brother
Hubie……You must be a part of a management team using divide and conquer strategy. We all know one of the classic tactics of a ruthless boss or manager is divide and rule. Little do you know Divide-and-conquer creates small goals that might not lead to the larger goal at all.
Does CEO Parker ever realize why AA is in business. Receiving reliable customer services.
Without that ” misson statement”. an airlines have nothing !
Airline employees, hard working with extremely demanding customers, should be of grave concern.
Without enthusiastic employees with goals and TRUE great customer service…the airline dies.
Makes Don Carty look good.
Put in more seats, take out seat back entertainment, devalue the AAdvantage program, ridiculous and inconsistent flight schedules, substandard Business/First class meals, inconsistent aircraft interiors and amenities, shrinking JFK operation, poor dependability, tanking stock price, race to the bottom of airline ranking surveys, low moral of employees, loss of high yield business customers to Delta.
By all means AA board of Directors, keep Parker, Isom and Raja at the top of the decision making ladder. The stockholders must also be impressed with their success at running the worlds largest and dysfunctional airline.
you forgot loading passengers on dirty airplanes
He makes too much money to resign. These CEO parasites are the cancer, not the cure. Give a shit about the people who fly and there is hope. If not join TWA in the graveyard of failed companies
Dont forget AAL president Robert Isom. He and his entire staff are the real underlying cause of these problems. Decisions of this magnitude arent simply based on Dougs wild dreams. Time to rethink the whole AAL board. And their strategy.
In top of all American is more expensive than Delta on domestic First Class routes and the service with AA is terrible. You pay more for nothing.
He needs to go aa with him leading has turned into a pile of s*>t!! It’s not the max it’s not catering it’s not the stock ITS HIM!!! He needs to go and go ASAP before AA becomes the new pan am or eastern!!
Take care of your employees, Mr. Parker!!
My last flight was 10 minutes late. I want a first class upgrade, a free ticket, access to the Admirals club and a free hotel and uber ride.
and what you got was middle finger right lol
Parker isnt the only problem, Isom needs to go too! They both have the same mentality so keeping either one of them doesn’t fix things.
I just hope someone comes along that can put AA on the right track. Not long ago, AA was “the” airline. Best service, best aircraft and best overall. My goodness, American is the biggest airline in the world. There is no reason it can’t be the best. It to get there, it’ll take new leadership. Don’t know who that could be but I’m sure someone is out there. The next Bob Crandall. Let’s find him and turn American around,
I spend a good 100k per year on AA purchasing full fare F&J tickets. Conservatively, I direct a good 500k+ in revenue by employees and contractors I direct to fly AA. Mr. Parker &
Mr Isom has eliminated any reason to keep my spend on American. They spent $ to literally make a product worse & less comfortable. Their service & soft product has declined because the staff and management are at war, On time performance — forget about it, and now they are gutting what’s left of the AAdvantage program with mass devaluations. My business is no longer exclusive to AA. It’s only a matter of time before the banking customers revolt over the miles they are selling today, could soon devalue 50%. The board needs to bring in a CEO and who can return AA to the brand it was. That was Parker’s promise— go for great and level up towards legacy AA standards not US airways
The original AA Pilots wanted the merge with US Airways. US Airways couldn’t fix their problems with the America West employees in 7 years, who will think that they were good for AA. They though the AA name will solve all their problems. AA original employees made too many sacrifices to keep the airline a float after 911 while other airlines ride the bankruptcy boat as a benefit. Original AA employees were proud and were engage and the customer was taken care of and it wasn’t a burden.
Mr. Stewart, let’s not forget the heart of the company, the passenger service agents. Nobody’s seems to even count them in the equation when they have been the ones left holding the bag in their hands with no tools, no systems, no alternatives to help passengers not the customer service the original AA agents use to offer. They are suffering the most facing angry passengers, flight attendants, pilots and everybody else that stand in front of them while force to work 14-16 hours every time the company comes up with any excuse to make them stay. Flights are delay, lines are too long, not enough volunteers to work, not enough crew, etc, etc. Even CEO Parker said in his TV interview, customer service is not important. Without the customer service that the original AA agents offered the company can’t return to its former glory, sadly. But nobody counts them on. CEO Parker and his people need to resign immediately. I doubt they will do it, though.
mary keep in mind USAIRWAYS wAsnt the one in banktrupcy it was American airlines, Us air bought AA, parker gave 72 percent stock to AA stockholders and 27 percent stock to US AIR investors, on paper that makes AA look like they bought USAIR, but they didnt, But usair management runs company the AA way,just what parker wanted.
Let’s hope he’ll be gone. TOP 3 WORST CEO’S.
I have watched this go on and on. Working here the big issue is they want to give us bad health insurance and trying to sell it a great insurance! My customer service agents agreed to it a few years back and they hate it and say it eats up their paychecks! The other part is scope. Most are worried that the jobs are going to disappear over time the way the contract is worded but AA says it is not so. Anyway change the wording or have the union word it and both parties tweak it until satisfied. The insurance issue is AA knows the other unions have these me too clauses and they will have to provide the insurance we used to have and the Usairways merger people still have due to under the old contract still. SOLUTION: Keep your profit sharing! It is totally diluted by the time it gets to the rank and file workers. Each year it is over $200million to split up give or take a million. WE see about $600 of it. I would much rather have the insurance and AA can brag that their employees have great health coverage because they care! AA claims it would cost an extra $40 million a year to put all on the great insurance. So this would cover it, especially since making unheard of profits in the BILLIONS. Can we get an amen?
Just flew AA over the weekend for the first time in years (in domestic first). One of my three flights was delayed by 2 hours due to crew issues (three called in sick at the very last minute). The A321 on my last flight had the new seating configuration and even first class pitch was lacking. Enough so that when the guy in front of me reclined, it was a bit tight and claustrophobic. That should never be the case for such a product. And the service, while well intentioned, was lacking (i.e. breakfast consisting of a basket with packaged cookies/fiber bars). The tight seating, tiny washrooms and general cheapening of the product are bad enough. But AA’s absolutely unacceptable reliability and their handling of delays (not calling a delay on a 5:00 am flight until 4:25 am) is absurd. Anyone I talk with who flies AA with any frequency is dealing with constantly delayed/cancelled flights. I can’t understand why anyone pays to fly these guys at this point.
Meanwhile, United (which many here love to bash) has been very dependable, proactive in informing us of delays, and provides decent service in their still-spacious domestic first. And most of their economy seats are still habitable, even if they’re not the most comfortable. Which is more than I can say about the rear portion of an AA Oasis jet.
Given all of the above, this once-great airline is a disaster. As a product, it’s terrible and operationally it is a mess. Parker should be fired (without golden parachute) and it probably should have happened yesterday. Today would be fine, however. He’s presided over a disastrous period in the history of this storied carrier.
Only if He Stops drinking . We heard he is a 3 times felon but still have a Job or else employee get fired
American Airlines is like a Grey Hound Bus Service especially with Grey Color after a dinky Airlines with Bad Reparation like US Airways and Doug Parker who loves to drink alcohol took over this great Airlines and ran it down the drain. There is no quality and no service and they dont hire quality people any more especially in flight service. Hiring Ghettos with no quality no personality and they present no positive image. Most Other Airiness have strict Dress code policy but Doug Parker did a great job we dont have any policy you can come to work without taking a shower brushing your teethe or hair and dress well underwear is ok as long you can hide your private parts and talking about image. We have seen flight attendants with half head shaved. Male with earrings in both ears and nose and nail polish . Not wearing proper uniform. Wearing daisy dukes and displaying company ID around their neck like they are on duty it is gross to see what happened to this great airlines and blame goes to incompetent management clueless people who are running this airline down the drain. SAD SAD SAD. American Logo was Based here best here now it should be based here worst here and we know why we fly if we have an option we will take the Grey Hound Bus they have better service than American Airlines lol
AIRLINES DIES IF EMPLOYEES WALK AWAY FOR ONLY ONE DAY
Is it me or has the usual nice comment area of Matthew and Kyle’s posts turned into a hot mess for this post? If these are American employees here (and I am no fan of Doug Parker) than this says more about the culture than perhaps he does. Half can barely complete a full and comprehensible sentence. My favorite being that Doug Parker is a felon and heavy drinker?
good article
Took the words right out of my mouth Stuart- was thinking the same exact thing when reading thru all of the posts
FROM A CUSTOMERS PERSPECTIVE: This year I’ve done 30 segments on United, 13 on Delta, 5 on Southwest and 4 on AA. United, Delta, Southwest was a great experience. 48 segments on UA, DL, WN all of which I would consider good experiences. Now lets forget the delay rate, the lousy food, the small bathrooms, the seat pitch etc. It’s pretty much all the same. What makes the difference, especially during irregularities, is the people. 48 segments I did not encounter a single rude employee UNTIL I FLEW AMERICAN. Those 4 segments were awful. One rude employee after the next from Customer Service to Flight Attendants. The first AA flight I figured we just had a tired and cranky crew. It happens, I get it. But nope, the next flight and the next flight and the next flight all the same. TO THE AA EMPLOYEES: You can’t control the companys seats, food, delays and bathrooms. What you can control is YOU! I get you’re miserable, and rightfully so (I’ve kept tabs on the airline industry) but have a tiny bit of self respect and dignity and treat your customers with just a tad of courtesy because whether you like it or not, horrible CEO or not, without us you won’t have a job. And for those of you who say I’d rather have American go under so the CEO doesn’t have a job, just remember neither will you. Parker has his millions stashed away. He doesn’t need to work again. Can you say the same thing?? I hope things get better at AA, I truly do.
Nobody asked you for your sympathy!
It’s time for Doug to go. We need someone that will treat all employees well and equal to include the wholly owned subsidiaries. All flight Attendants, pilots and all others do the same job and deserve the same respect and pay.
Haha. Matthew – love the blog but keep any investment advice to yourself. Stock is up 12% today. Well done!
Not Matthew’s post and if you’re day trading American (as I did when they dropped sub $1) you’ve probably got some fun times ahead. If you’re looking for lasting value, I’d try an airline that is profitable from airline operations.
In a nutshell, they are not qualified PERIOD !!! They are just regional airline skilled. And not that smart as proven by selecting who stays and who goes after the illegal and coerced merger. They pretty much used the good old boy technique as apposed to keeping the more talented, world class airline qualified. So every department are under qualified ex regional people . You see the limitations in everywhere. It is a such a huge mistake that they are not extremely grateful and treat the employees with the generoursity that they treat themselves. Below explains how this came to be :
Last updated: 12:30 PM ET, Wed October 28 2015
Attorney Puts American On
Notice Over Flight Attendants
RICH THOMASELLI | OCTOBER 28, 2015
More than 1,300 American Airlines flight attendants – paying $41 each – have
retained an attorney to investigate claims of wrongdoing during the American –
US Airways merger and the current contract negotiated by the Association of
Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) union. Attorney Brian R. Mildenberg, Esq.,
of Philadelphia-based Mildenberg Law Firm, on Tuesday sent a lengthy letter to
American Airlines general counsel Paul Jones, putting the company on notice.
“Please be advised that I have been retained by over 1,300 American Airlines
Flight Attendants to advocate on their behalf, investigate their claims and to file
complaints with the United States Department of Justice and the United States
Department of Labor as necessary,” Laura Glading, the embattled president of the
Association of Professional Flight Attendants, the flight attendants’union at
American Airlines, resigned on Oct. 9, almost two months before her contract was
up. Some flight attendants picketed the union’s headquarters earlier that week,
alleging that collusion and nepotism within American and is merger partner,
US Airways, contributed to reduced wages and a lack of a profit-sharing plan.
Senior American Airlines flight attendant and union activist Rock Salomon, who,
along with a group of concerned flight attendants, has challenged the conduct of
the negotiations and deal making surrounding American Airlines’ merger with US
Airways and related agreements made between US Airways, American Airlines, and
APFA. It was Salomon who reached out to Mildenberg and began gathering the
1,300+ participants so far.Among other concerns, the flight attendants say the new
agreements negotiated among the three parties resulted in the loss of profit
sharing terms and other benefits in their contract with the merged airline, and
purported to bind the flight attendants to binding arbitration instead of open market
negotiation of contract terms.”At the request of Mr. Salomon, our law firm has
agreed to become engaged by American Airlines flight attendants seeking counsel
in order to formally investigate these issues, advocate on behalf of those
concerned, file complaints with the United States Department of Justice, and make
legal demands to the airline,” Mildenberg wrote. benefits, and requesting
preservation of all relevant documents and other evidence.
“We can argue about how it happened, and the propriety of the negotiating process
that my clients believe involved collusive meetings between American CEO Doug
Parker, American President Scott Kirby, and former APFA President Laura Glading,
and ** her family member, American Airlines Treasurer Thomas Weir,** or we can get
right down to the facts,” Mildenberg wrote. “Our clients believe that these
negotiations were wholly inappropriate, and resulted in a collusive, harmful
relationship that contributed to the company’s forced extraction of unfair wage
concessions, including but not limited to the termination of the Flight Attendants’
traditional, customary, well-deserved and well-earned profit-share in the company.
It is estimated that over the six years of their imposed contract, American Airlines
Flight Attendants will have lost in excess of $100 Million in profit share.”
My wife and I fly American, usually to Europe. The difference between American and US Airways is huge on the negative side, after 50 yrs of flying with US airways
I to feel the problem lies with the top management, not the employees serving the public.
The two crashes were a disgraceful management stupid move and show the management’s lack of concern for our saftey.
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