Sep 29 2008
How Is American Airlines Doing?
I recently had the opportunity to fly American Airlines between New York’s JFK and Seattle. While it’s true that one flight does not an airline make, impressions do count and can make or break an airline in today’s competitive market. Let me know if you agree or disagree with my observations.
What I found:
- Old appearing, dirty and not (cosmetically) well maintained 757 aircraft.
- Surly, careless flight attendants. We were struck by their lack of focus on or regard for the passengers. Their conversations were primarily between themselves and there was little engagement with their customers. This was not a single flight attendant, but appeared to be the crew overall.
- On-time performance. We were both pleased and surprised.
- Check-in. The kiosk check-in system at JFK worked flawlessly and efficiently. We were on our way to security within about 5 minutes of our arrival. Kudos here.
- Efficient baggage service. The bags arrived at the carousel in Seattle as quickly as we did. Kudos again.
The buzz in the industry:
I’ve been reading more articles about AA since our flight. As domestic airlines no longer offer much in the way of amenities, the way in which they handle the basics may be bellwethers of their ability to even stay in business.
- For the past two years, American has been at the bottom of all reporting US carriers in terms of customer satisfaction, on-time performance, baggage handling and flight cancellations. Even AA’s top executives acknowledge the severity of their problems.
- AA is trying very hard to improve in each of these areas. For example, they recently redesigned their schedule and have increased both flight and ground times in order to try to improve performance. Subsequent results are already reflecting some improvement.
- Employee morale. There is no doubt that airline employees have had a really tough time. The three major unions representing the bulk of AA’s employees, have all had embattled negotiations with the company within the past two years. An incentive plan long in place to attempt to improve both morale and performance produced no significant results. Employee satisfaction appears to be very low, as was readily apparent. This could well be one of their most significant problems.
I’m sure some of you are frequent customers of AA and have a lot more information to share on this. I look forward to hearing from you. This week I’ll also be discussing my experience on United Airlines between Kauai and Newark (with a plane change in Los Angeles).
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I agree with the comments about the shoddy condition of the AA planes. The plane that I was on from HNL to LAX in May needed paint on the exterior and needed a good detail/cleaning on the inside.
The flight attendants had the same surly attitude that you mentioned in the article.
I have found that I prefer to fly Continental. The folks at Continental seem to want my business.
I flew AA last march from seattle to san diego round trip. On the way down we had a flight attendant man who was quite humorous. He was very personable and had everyone laughing. This was a day after they had grounded a bunch of planes for maintenance. On the return trip it was pretty much as you describe. It was a late flight and i accidently left my wallet on the plane. They would not go look under my seat for it even tho the plane was grounded for cleaning. I counld not pay for parking, etc. etc. The parking garage let me out without paying and I paid them later. AA did however mail my wallet to me at their expense (after i had cancelled everything and gotten a new drivers license).
Hi Disgruntled,
I completely get it, concur with your feelings and even feel badly for telling the truth of how it was.
We do bring our own everything, and that helps (on any airline) in terms of limiting expectations.
Thanks for sharing and best aloha to you.
Jeff