The woes of American Airlines are no secret to the frequent flier. American has been wrecking vacation plans and work trips at a record pace this summer. And there doesn’t appear to be an end in sight. What used to be the favorite airline of many frequent fliers has caused many to switch their loyalty. I’ve never been an American aficionado, but I now rank them near the bottom of the large U.S. carriers. To many, they’re the flat out worst. And I can’t argue the point. Here’s why American contends for the title of “America’s Worst Airline”:
A Plague of Cancellations
American Airlines has been in a spat with their mechanics union for the past months, and they are placing much of the blame for their issues squarely on their shoulders. They may be right. A federal court agrees with the airline that mechanics have been purposefully slowing down work and keeping planes in maintenance in order to disrupt the airline’s schedule. While I can sympathize with the situation that American is facing, it has been a massive problem for their customers.
In June American canceled 4% of its entire schedule. That’s huge. Our local airport has an overall cancellation rate of just over 4%, although it feels a whole lot higher than that, and it is a pain. A 4% cancellation rate is ridiculous. Compare this to Southwest’s cancellation rate of 2%. Delta and United had cancellation rates less than 1%. Making some very gross assumptions based on the annual number of passengers carried by American and summer load factors, you’re looking at hundreds of thousands of people affected by said cancellations.
When flights aren’t outright canceled, they are heavily delayed. Depending on where you get the most current data, American is either dead last or second to last when it comes to flight delays and passenger complaints. An astonishing 22.5% of American Airlines flights have arrived late in 2019.
How the airline handle delays is another source of frustration. American Airlines is notorious for rolling delays where customers aren’t updated until much later than they ought to be. In many cases, savvy fliers will pull up the tracking info on their inbound aircraft and realize that it will be arriving later than their scheduled departure. Add in the time it takes to turn the aircraft, and you’re you aren’t getting anywhere on time. All the while the American app will tell you “on time”.
Fleet Stretched Thin Without 737MAX
Compounding their ongoing spat with the mechanics union, American has also been proactively canceling flights due to the 737MAX grounding. This amounts to 115 flights per day. Flights booked on the new aircraft represent 1.5% of American’s schedule, which accounts for a significant portion (but not all) of their 4% overall cancellation rate in the early summer. The MAX grounding has also cost them $185 million in the second quarter.
Whether people will be willing to fly the 737MAX once it is back in service is beside the point. American is scrambling to deal with the loss of their aircraft, and with so many more planes being delayed by mechanics, their fleet is stretched very thin.
These first two points have combined to make American Airlines the worst U.S. carrier in terms of on-time performance and cancellations. It doesn’t help that when they do completely hose you, they are unwilling to offer any real assistance in most cases. Everything gets blamed on weather.
Project “Oasis”
The move to a condensed cabin interior sure didn’t help American’s reputation. This ongoing fleet retrofit has been the source of customer complaints since the airlines first started to roll it out. The “Project Oasis” is anything but. From more rows crammed into coach, loss of legroom in Main Cabin Extra and first class, and the ridiculously tiny bathrooms, converting all 737-800s to 172 seats is painful for passengers. The lavatory is even a source of frustration for pilots.
It does make sense operationally, though, to have all aircraft with the same number of seats. I get that. Just don’t make it so many. But now the whole project is on hold. It’s like American can’t actually decide if it wants to be Frontier or not.
Surly, Unhelpful Staff
I’d read reports of American Airlines staff being gruff, even in their premium cabins. Not flying American regularly, I had no firsthand experience. It took two business class flights, one to Buenos Aires aboard a 777-200, and another back to Miami on a 767, to realize that this characterization is mostly true. On the first flight in particular, the flight attendant was gruff, hardly spoke, and didn’t seem to care about her job at all. When my main course was switched with the person behind me, they were promptly swapped without even a word. The fried chicken actually looked far more delicious than the cannelloni, but because of the attitude, I was afraid to change my choice.
A month later, I had to pull a HUCA with an agent who insisted that American Airlines reduced mileage awards can be booked online. Insisted. I gently tried to tell her that I’d never heard of this being possible, and the website says you need to call. Nope. Do it online. Or pay $40 per ticket (amounting to $120 in this case). She was pleasant enough, but the unwavering stance was frustrating and not at all helpful. I had to wait on hold a second time to book the flights with a much more reasonable agent (so yes they do exist).
No Customer Service Culture
The attitude of American Airlines employees can easily be explained by their own internal survey. Based on employees own reports, the feel that management is completely out of touch with front line staff. When there is a disconnect like this between company and staff, customer service suffers. If American is not going to take care of their staff well, why should staff take care of American’s customers? Often the most senior staff seem to be the most disgruntled. You cannot cultivate a customer-centric culture like this.
In other cases, the airline flat out lies to passengers. Yet another flight cancellation? Yeah, that was weather.
We can also touch on the flight delay issue again. In this data-driven age we live in, it seems like it should be all too easy to automatically delay flights based on the location of aircraft. I’d much rather get a delay notification when I’m chilling in the lounge than after I’ve walked to the gate. Not providing updates is maddening, and unhelpful to passengers. Just tell them the flight will be delayed, and provide a reasonable estimate. Even this adds into a culture of customer service.
Being proactive and honest (and having empowered staff) goes a long way. A recent trip with United illustrates this well. Both the outbound and inbound were delayed by over two hours. On the outbound, the staff were impatient, disgruntled, and not all that sympathetic with customers. Granted, it was after midnight, which made things way worse. However, on the return, the captain did an amazing job of keeping people in the loop with official (and unofficial) estimates, explaining when we were going to deplane, how long it would take us to push back after the thundershower passed, etc. This is the second time I’ve had a captain walk through the cabin to address everyone, and I can say that the gesture goes a long way.
Can American Correct Their Course?
American needs to work on multiple fronts to be able to turn themselves around. They seem to think they want to be a low-cost carrier, yet can’t compete on price. They also want to be a full-service carrier with the most premium product available (what other U.S. airline still has both first and business class?), but your staff are an integral part of this experience. Staff need to understand the company strategy, and American doesn’t seem to have one.
And no matter what, they need a reasonable on-time performance, otherwise everyone will leave off flying them. If a 4% cancellation and 20% delay rate out of ACV is enough to make me drive 4.5 hours to fly Delta (instead of United in this case), I’m never going to touch American.
American 737 interior photo courtesy of airbus777 via Flickr under CC-BY-2.0 license.
All of these problems can be laid at the feet of Doug Parker. Parker’s ineptitude is impressive in scope. He was at the perfect match for his ability at HP but he’s awful at running the largest airline in the world. Despite how manifestly obvious this is, the board of directors keeps deciding to retain him, which shows that a new board is badly needed. Changing the direction of this toxic airline has to start at the absolute top.
When the #1 company merges with a inferior company, intelligent practice would have you select the most talented of the 2 companies. Having the CEO comes from the inferior company is the tip of the iceberg that sunk the titanic .. and may sink AA ! The good old boy friendship meant the most talented in many positions was let go. The inferior CEO’s experience was competing with low cost carrier with densely packed planes. He has publicly said , ” Spirit and Southwest ” is AAL competition Instead of mentioning UAL and DL. keeping the airline focused on competing… Read more »
True on All Points. Parker and His Management Style are a Disaster. Most Employees despise the Current Management Team at All Levels from Executive Level to Middle Managers that are nothing but PITA and are ‘ticky tack’ at Best and pathetic. I know Many AA Employees and many have told Me stories that are really unbelievable and quite shocking. Very Unreliable AIrline Operationally, Mediocre Product, Unappreciated Employees who are regularly thrown Under the Bus with a Three Time Drunken CEO at The Wheel of the Bus. The Board of Directors are obviously Asleep…..no other Explanation is Possible. I am a… Read more »
During Parker’s tenure at HP they earned the moniker “America Worst”. Can’t be a coincidence now, can it?
One other gripe – showing the original boarding time when the plane hasn’t even arrived at the gate! There’s obviously no way we’re leaving on time, why wait to publish a delay? They know exactly where their planes are. Argh.
This is the sort of automation they need to add. A computer should be able to forecast a reasonable delay, based on current location of an aircraft, turn time, etc. But no. The inbound will be 90 minutes behind schedule, and your flight will still show as on time.
I was flying out of the dreaded 35X gate at DCA. Thought I missed the boarding call for my delayed flight . 5 AA agents at the main desk just stare at me when I ask about the flight. Zero response just stares. Flight was delayed twice, no explanation, arrived nearly 3 hours late.
I wish JetBlue had a bigger network. I just cannot remember ever having issues with them…ever
Sounds like their typical “help.”
Jet Blue has great staff and culture, but operationally don’t expect anything great. Delays, delays, delays. Look at some of those recent articles on ontime performance. I only use Jet Blue where I know a delay will not ruin my day.
Airline of absolute last resort.
I AAgree!
My biggest problem with AA are the rolling delays, where they announce a new delay every 30 minutes. I was in MIA (where I lived at the time in 2017) on my way to MEX; my original flight was ~9:30 am. We were “rolled” until almost 6:00 pm! I could have gone home and done anything other than sit in an airport bar (couldn’t even go all the way to the Admirals Club because they were only 30 minutes delays). This was extreme, but it’s typical of them to not allow you to do anything but camp near the gate… Read more »
These are maddening. OMAAT’s post (linked in text) is entirely correct that they don’t respect customer’s time.
I’ve been Chairman on US Air till the merger and Executive Platinum on American since and I’m making the jump to Delta January 1st. My last 10 flights, of 8 have either been delayed or cancelled. Changing loyalties is very sad, but has become necessary. It’s one thing to enjoy the perks (although those are shrinking) but not getting to my destination, when my business counts on it, makes the change necessary. I’d rather get to my destination and scheduled in coach than be delayed it be cancelled. Goodbye American Airlines. I’m not gonna miss the delays and cancellations or… Read more »
I wholeheartedly agree. I don’t want to plan tons of contingency time into my business travel plans, so I’ll literally drive far out of my way to reliably fly Delta.
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Sorry, United holds the title
While I have my beef with United, if I had to pick, I’d fly them over AA, all other things being equal.
I flew j SFO-JFK Their gate agents/flight attendants were the nastiest people I have ever encountered I had just flew economy Alaska and the service felt like j compared to aa. I recommend JetBlue mint or even detla