Enough is enough! All systems red!

[737823]

I have been a loyal AA flyer since 2002 and live in Boston. I've achieved 1MM lifetime gold status and am currently Executive Platinum and am also an Admiral's Club member. However, I am very disappointed with many of the changes taking place at American, particularly involving labor. Additionally, BOS has seen significant cutbacks in the past couple years-services to STL, SAN, SJC, SEA, have ended in the past four years. LHR was operated as 2x 777 as recently as 2 years ago and is now 763/757. LAX used to consistently have wide body service however, it's now hit or miss depending on the season.

The MD-80s desperately need to be replaced. I'm sick of dealing with mechanical issues and smelling jet exhaust during push back-this can't be healthy for me, or quite frankly employees. Even your seeming "new" 737-800s lack personal TVs (which Delta and Continental have). Your management should not have waited for oil to reach $150/barrel to begin considering fleet modernization.

What's most frustating is the (lack of) service from flight attendants and other AA employees. I flew to Tokyo-Narita Japan in international first class last month and had the pleasure of riding in the cabin with several of your co-workers-there were 9 non-revs and only 2 revenue passengers (including myself). The flight attendant call button seems to be treated as a lighting fixture. I had to walk up to the galley to obtain a glass of water mid-flight and was greeted by a disgruntled, senior FA who seemed to think I have no business disturbing her jump seat reading. No other carrier will allow non-revs to conduct themselves the way AA does. Non-revs were making noise, were poorly dressed, and clearly stood out from the revenue passengers. What's even more frustrating is that the best seat on the plane is reserved for, yep the pilot crewrest. I thought the golden rule for customer service is "the customer always comes first". Aparently not at AA and not with your union members. What's even more disturbing was watching the purser on AA 1339 last week (737-800 BOS-ORD) carry back a full meal to a non-rev seated in economy-as if it wasn't noticed by customers. This really sends the wrong message and is disgusting.

Stop exposing customers to your greed and labor disputes. I'm sick of seeing "Got union, got guts" discs. You are among the most greey, highest paid, least productive, and disgruntled employees in the industry. If you don't like what AA has to offer take your marketable skills and seek employment elsewhere.

I must give the APFA credit for recognizing you have incompetent management. While you all love to blast them for their seemingly rich compensation and stock performace bonuses, the fact of the matter is they are underpaid and union employees are grossly overpaid. Perhaps if AA paid its management better, they could attract better talent. You don't fly to international destinations I visit regularly-Tel Aviv, Israel and Seoul, South Korea. The management needs to wake-up and realize AA is in an increasingly weak competitive position. It really says something about the managements incompetence when your airline can't sustain year around service from your Chicago hub to Frankfurt, a route I travel several times each year.

In short, Im taking my business elsewhere. You won't strand me during your labor action. Quite frankly, I think volunteer scabs will be more willing and able to provide customer service than APFA members but I won't be here to see it. And let me be clear, by taking my business I'm not showing you solidarity rather disgust and disappointment.

I've had my status matched with Continental Airlines and have enjoyed their friendly service, stellar BOS terminal A, superior President's Club, and new modern 737s. I don't spend $25K per year on AA to be greeted by surly employees, travel through dumpy Terminal B, and have to purchase my food and drink at your "new state of the art" Boston Admirals club.

I'm open to return to AA when:
1) Labor relations have improved
2) Greater emphasis is placed on customer serviced
3) Management begins service to new markets
4) I don't have to fly on your antique MD-80s

I hope I'll be back, but for now "cheers"


Josh

 

[wcs]

Dear Sir,

I'm sorry you will be away for a while. There may be people on this forum who, because of the disguised nature of the internet, may not believe you
to be who you say you are. They may unkindly ridicule your opinions.
I can't apologize for the non-revs or the crew on your flight to Tokyo, I wasn't there. So it's difficult to reasonably reply to the situation that you experienced.
However there are some things that I can address from an employee perspective. As sure you are familar with the economics that surround the airline industry.
Because of that some routes in the Boston market have been adjusted or eliminated by American. According to "our" management AA simply cannot make a profit on these routes because passengers won't pay enough. There are similar situations throughout our route system. The loss of these routes has resulted in the job losses for many of our friends and co-workers.
It's difficult for employees to understand this since according to company records our aircraft were 80% full last year. There is apparently enough demand for our product. Yet passengers on American paid an average fare over 9% less than a Southwest passenger (yield per Revenue Passenger Mile). AA passenger paid an average of 12.28 cents per mile and Southwest passengers paid 13.29 cents. That doesn't sound like much but with the large number of passengers and miles flown even with American's smaller- than- it- was route system it works out to quite a bunch. If AA passengers had paid the same as Southwest passengers instead of lossing $1billion last year AA would have made over $200 million.
AA should have a revenue premium over Southwest. We have first class, they don't. We fly to international destinations, they don't.
The rest of your post (route selection, fleet moderization) is out of our hands. It seems you should be more upset with "our" management and not the employees.
As employees our problems with management sometimes manifest as poor service to the customer. That is wrong on our part. But by the same token your problems with "our" management results in complaints towards employees that is undeserved. That is wrong on your part.
We hope you'll be back soon despite the quality service you'll receive at Continental. CO does a nice job. But I find that overall AA does well and once we get these problems out of our way, your perception is that we'll do even better.

 

[AANOTOK]

What's most frustating is the (lack of) service from flight attendants and other AA employees.

You are among the most greey, highest paid, least productive, and disgruntled employees in the industry. If you don't like what AA has to offer take your marketable skills and seek employment elsewhere.

While you all love to blast them for their seemingly rich compensation and stock performace bonuses, the fact of the matter is they are underpaid and union employees are grossly overpaid.

Quite frankly, I think volunteer scabs will be more willing and able to provide customer service than APFA members

Anything else?

 

[ReadyNow]

My unscientific observation on red discs on FA's

A red disk tells me = expect a crabby FA who will give bad service
No disk = you have a chance for great service...

I didn't realize until lately that when the company wants pilots and FAs to fly more hours they are going to pay them more...I thought they were wanting more hours for the same salary....

But since these are all hourly positions - whats wrong with working more hours for more pay? If I get paid $40 hour and work more hours a month and get more pay....how is that a problem? Unless you want full time benefits for part time work...

I understand that they don't get paid for ground time - but do FAs and pilots put in 40 hour weeks if you count the time from Airport Arrival to Airport departure?

 

[AANOTOK]

My unscientific observation on red discs on FA's

A red disk tells me = expect a crabby FA who will give bad service
No disk = you have a chance for great service...

I didn't realize until lately that when the company wants pilots and FAs to fly more hours they are going to pay them more...I thought they were wanting more hours for the same salary....

But since these are all hourly positions - whats wrong with working more hours for more pay? If I get paid $40 hour and work more hours a month and get more pay....how is that a problem? Unless you want full time benefits for part time work...

I understand that they don't get paid for ground time - but do FAs and pilots put in 40 hour weeks if you count the time from Airport Arrival to Airport departure?

Oh, I don't know ReadyNow , maybe AA can lock them ALL out and use replacements. Then you won't have to consume yourself sooo much by what someone other than you makes and/or works.

 

[jimntx]

I understand that they don't get paid for ground time - but do FAs and pilots put in 40 hour weeks if you count the time from Airport Arrival to Airport departure?

Quite often. I don't know the max on pilots, but AA domestic f/as can be scheduled up to 13 hours/day on-duty--that's from sign-in (minimum 1 hour prior to first departure of the day) until 15 minutes past last block-in of the day. If, as happened the other day for me, the passengers do not clear the plane within that 15 minutes then we are working for free again. The FAA says we can not leave the a/c until every passenger has deplaned. If passengers are slow, or as happened that day, the wheelchair pushers, who are not airline employees, are nowhere to be found, then we sit with the passengers until they can be gotten off the a/c. The company could care less if it goes past paid time.

In actual operation, delays (for any reason) can push that scheduled 13 hours to 15 hours on-duty before we "go illegal." For instance, I had a 3-day trip last week for which I was paid 15 hours of flight pay--contractual minimum for a 3-day trip. My actual on-duty time in that 3 days was 26 hours, 39 minutes. I then had two days off, then worked a two-day for which I was paid 13 hours, 40 minutes flight pay. However, in that two days, I was on-duty 25 hours and 36 minutes.

So, in answer to your question if we actually put in 40 hours/week...in 5 (out of 7) days I was on-duty 52 hours, and 15 minutes. None of that 52 hours and 15 minutes included any layover time, it was all at the airport or on the airplane. My actual time away from base--i.e., sign-in first day until 15 minutes past arrival back at base--for the two trips was 94 hours and 26 minutes. I was paid for 28 hours and 15 minutes of that time. And, no, this is not uncommon or a result of unusual off-schedule operations. Any other questions?

 

[ual777fan]

My unscientific observation on red discs on FA's

A red disk tells me = expect a crabby FA who will give bad service
No disk = you have a chance for great service...

I didn't realize until lately that when the company wants pilots and FAs to fly more hours they are going to pay them more...I thought they were wanting more hours for the same salary....

But since these are all hourly positions - whats wrong with working more hours for more pay? If I get paid $40 hour and work more hours a month and get more pay....how is that a problem? Unless you want full time benefits for part time work...

I understand that they don't get paid for ground time - but do FAs and pilots put in 40 hour weeks if you count the time from Airport Arrival to Airport departure?

That;s really strange. I've gotten fantastic service from all the AA flights I've been on regardless of whether or not the F/A's were wearing their red disks.

 

[rjf1251]

At American are employees NOT required to be properly Dressed to fly First Class?? If the passenger was upset then could he NOT have complained to the Purser?? I work for United and theough I cannot speak from absoulute knowledge of AA's proceedures I would think they can't be that far from United's who has a FIRM lock on Non Rev Decorum in First OR Business class. As it reflects on the class of the airline. Is he SURE the others in First were in FACT non-revs??
And on the domestic flight. Many times when traveling on company business I've voluntarily GIVEN UP my first class seat for a premier or 1k passenger to be upgraded, and the cabin crews sought to reward me for my sacrifice. I see nothing wrong with that and I've actually made repairs or resets IN flight on some United airplanesbecause of my Maintenence expertise. I and my wife were singled out for helping a passenger by moving so their family might be closer together.
I'm not sure what the passenger wanted but I would BET good Money that all might NOT have been as bad as he made it out to be.. I've flown American many times and I watch thrm with a jaundiced eye because I know what I'm Liiking for and I will say this for SURE! American is a class act ! Obviously to ME this passenger will NO BETTER treated on any USA based airline. And morethan likely if he isn't flying Singapore Airlines?? Won't be treated ant better on any one ELSE either!
I guess you can tell I've REALLY got the HOTS for Singapore followed VERY closely by ASIANA. Those females are SWEET!!

 

[Hopeful]

I'm open to return to AA when:
1) Labor relations have improved
2) Greater emphasis is placed on customer serviced
3) Management begins service to new markets
4) I don't have to fly on your antique MD-80s

I hope I'll be back, but for now "cheers"


Josh

You left out #5 when employees work for minimum wage because you feel they are overpaid and management underpaid.
Big shot business people like you are the same defenders of CEO and executive greed because that's CAPITALISM...and it's the MARKETS AT WORK and employees should work for beans so you can get a low airfare....but YET YOU STILL WANT GREAT SERVICE AND YOU WANTED TO BE PAMPERED....

Do us all a favor an go fly Continental...er I mean, United,,,,

Funny how you fail to mention that GOOD management treats its people well......
I don't know where you became chief economist of the ant-labor movement. Who are you to determine who is overpaid and underpaid?

 

[TIME FOR CHANGE]

I couldnt read your entire post because your constant complaining became tiresome. Fly another carrier if you are so unhappy aboard an AA flight. The days of happy employees willing to go the extra mile went out with the contract of 2003. No one cares anymore
And the way things are going with the current negotiations things are only going to get worse. Cash in your miles and go fly UAL or DAL I am sure they can get you where you need to go and maybe you wont be so unhappy.

 

[boston]

Hi Josh,

Please send this letterr to AA upper mangemet, they feel since they get the least amount of compalint letters all is well. I'm sorry you feel this way, If you were on my Int flight's you would had a full flass of wine or water at all times. I don't make the day to day decsicions,nor order aircraft or tell the mechanics what they will fix or not. Please I imlpore you to forward this e-mail to AA BOD and Arpey,Norton and Redding, I also think this should also be in the paper, NY times,Globe,FT, Washington Post, but then again AA may just dismiss it.

I used to be proud that I worked for AA, but now....

 

[737823]

Dear Sir,

I'm sorry you will be away for a while. There may be people on this forum who, because of the disguised nature of the internet, may not believe you
to be who you say you are. They may unkindly ridicule your opinions.
I can't apologize for the non-revs or the crew on your flight to Tokyo, I wasn't there. So it's difficult to reasonably reply to the situation that you experienced.
However there are some things that I can address from an employee perspective. As sure you are familar with the economics that surround the airline industry.
Because of that some routes in the Boston market have been adjusted or eliminated by American. According to "our" management AA simply cannot make a profit on these routes because passengers won't pay enough. There are similar situations throughout our route system. The loss of these routes has resulted in the job losses for many of our friends and co-workers.
It's difficult for employees to understand this since according to company records our aircraft were 80% full last year. There is apparently enough demand for our product. Yet passengers on American paid an average fare over 9% less than a Southwest passenger (yield per Revenue Passenger Mile). AA passenger paid an average of 12.28 cents per mile and Southwest passengers paid 13.29 cents. That doesn't sound like much but with the large number of passengers and miles flown even with American's smaller- than- it- was route system it works out to quite a bunch. If AA passengers had paid the same as Southwest passengers instead of lossing $1billion last year AA would have made over $200 million.
AA should have a revenue premium over Southwest. We have first class, they don't. We fly to international destinations, they don't.
The rest of your post (route selection, fleet moderization) is out of our hands. It seems you should be more upset with "our" management and not the employees.
As employees our problems with management sometimes manifest as poor service to the customer. That is wrong on our part. But by the same token your problems with "our" management results in complaints towards employees that is undeserved. That is wrong on your part.
We hope you'll be back soon despite the quality service you'll receive at Continental. CO does a nice job. But I find that overall AA does well and once we get these problems out of our way, your perception is that we'll do even better.

Wow excellent post. Thank you for such an insightful, thoughtful, and sincere reply. It really makes me feel better knowing there are truthful, receptive employees at American.

Perhaps I was on a bit of a rant, but you must recognize that employee morale does matter and is driving customers like myself away. I've had many wonderful AA flight attendants who go the extra mile, address customers by name, and really seem to enjoy their jobs. It's great to see but sadly they are seeming fewer and far between. Several years ago on BOS-LAX (763 evening flight) the crew ran out of sundaes when the FAs reached a young child's row. Rather than placing a cheeseplate on his tray, the FAs collaborated and took the left over sundae toppings and chocolate cookies to make cookie dippers for the child. I thought was brilliant and left an AAplause card of mine with the purser. We talked for several minutes and she was very appreciative.It was disturbing when she explained the cards only provide the opportunity to be entered to win an obscure number of AAdvantage miles and do not get any official recognition on her employee file. This is very upsetting and reflects on the poor management and it's inability to encourage good service.

It's very frustrating as a traveling professional being subject to the possibly of labor action. In Laura Glading's words "the threat of a strike is more compelling than a strike itself". I will admit, as an individual I do not like unions and their policies, however I respect that the employees at AA have chosen to be unionized. I consider myself anti-union but very pro-employee but that's beside the point for now.

The issue of union matters should not be done in public domain-I'm talking about tactics like the "Got guts" lanyards and discs, airport demonstrations, and even discussion of union matters in the presence of customers in galleys, jump seats and while deadheading. Union employees at Continental do not subject me to this, Southwest is heavily unionized and they don't either. I'll tell you I've also received truly abysmal service from non-union Delta crews. So unions clearly aren't the culprit it's overall employee morale perhaps a result of mismanagement.

What's more irritating though is the poor service from some FAs. I've flow CO BusinessFirst (technically J class) on both IAH-NRT and EWR-TLV and must say the service from their FAs is vastly better than anything I have received on AA in first or business class. They seem to really appreciate the customers and recognize that paying customers (especially premium passengers) make the company viable and provide revenue for your payroll. Its not an easy fix, but I firmly believe if AA management could work better with employees and help them understand the marketplace realities and long term viability of American it would help.

Q1 2010 results:
AA: $505m loss
DL $256m loss
CO $136m loss
UA $82m loss
US $45m loss
B6 $1m loss
WN $11m profit

The problem I see with management is they are too focused on leveraging the AAdvantage program and partnerships from One World carriers rather than actually improving AA's product and serving new markets. I don't know why management hasn't been able to successfully enter secondary European markets like Valencia, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Berlin, Stockholm let alone sustain year round Frankfurt service from Chicago. The recent announcement that route is being suspended is what made me finally decide to leave for Continental. For me to reach Frankfurt from Boston will require backtracking to Dallas/Ft Worth and giving up an entire day to do so. Because DFW-FRA departs at 2:45 from DFW, I'll have to leave Boston in the morning and forgo an entire day at work. The current 7:30pm departure from Chicago is great as I can catch a 4:00pm flight from Logan after a nearly full work day and still have allowed 90 min in Chicago for my connection to Frankfurt.

My understanding is American does not serve Tel Aviv due to a dispute with the Israeli government on severance pay for ex-TWA workers. Aparently American felt bankruptcy filing from TWA eliminated such liability, however it is still required by Israeli law. Judging how poorly management treats customers, I can only imagine how employees are treated.

I'll gladly come back to American but not until employee relations have improved, more competitive on-board products are available, and when more convenient options exist for the places I go regularly. I'm no longer willing to pay a fare premium and have to double connect with partners to give AA and Oneworld my business.

Josh

 

[JFK Fleet Service]

Josh, seek answers to your questions from the top of the food chain.

[email protected]

 

[Hopeful]

737823...

You see things as a premium passenger from a different perspective employees do. And maybe you should expect to be treated better for your business.
But as airline employees, war was waged against us with the dawn of deregulation, followed by Reagan's firing of the controllers and Frank Lorenzo's decimation of Continental. Our livelihoods embarked on a steadfast decline for the sake of cheap fares to compete with the People's Expresses of the skies.

Here we are 31 years later and management is still not done with us. We are continually expected to foot the bill for the economy and mismanagement. Those of us with 20, 30, 40+ years were promised that if we gave our lives and careers to this company, we would have benefits and a pension. So what did your UNDERPAID management do? Began chipping away at our compensation and benefits while fortifying their own at the same time...

Other airlines used the bankruptcy courts to abrogate union contracts, but asked the same bankruptcy judges to increase executive compensation so they don't lose the KEY TALENT...
But I never heard any business traveler complain about that.
It's always been about greedy union workers....And here we are, someone like you calling us UNDERPAID...

Then they threaten us with bankruptcy and force feed us billion$$$ in concessions....
"WE'RE SORRY BUT YOU EMPLOYEES ARE GOING TO JUST HAVE TO SACRIFICE FOR AMERICAN AIRLINES...."

Meanwhile, they still reap their rewards but get defended by those who feel their compensation was not as much as it should be. Arpey gets a few million and it's "OH, BUT HIS COUNTERPARTS GET ALOT MORE, BLAH BLAH, BLAH."
"BUT HE STILL DIDN'T GET WHAT HE GOT LAST YEAR."



We are sick and tired of it.
Morale will keep this company at the bottom of the rankings and lose premium travelers like yourself.

But hey, they're underpaid and WE'RE overpaid....

 

[floatingon9]

Josh,

Where do I start? Or should I say; why waste my time? But, I will comment on your rant! I invite you to come walk in my shoes for a 3 day trip. Getting paid for 5 hours and being on-duty for 15 hours is not a good deal. Would you want to be paid 5 hours for working 15? I doubt it!

Please be my guest and go fly another carrier. Just an FYI... United Flight Attendants are also in a labor dispute. The Delta Flight Attendants are in the process in voting on a union. So, where do you go? Southwest? JetBlue? Well, since you sound so high and mighty saying, "I've achieved 1MM lifetime gold status and am currently Executive Platinum and am also an Admiral's Club member," I highly doubt you would think to fly a low-cost carrier.

If you have so many issues with AA, I suggest you take your complaints to the top. Here are a few emails that may help you:

1. President/CEO - Gerard Arpey: [email protected]
2. Executive Vice President - Dan Garton: [email protected]
3. Executive Vice President of Finance & CFO: Thomas Horton: [email protected]
4. Senior Vice President Human Resources: Jeff Brundage: [email protected] (This is the guy who refuses to pay us fairly)

I hope this helps you out.

In closing I have one thing for you. Its my gift to you...



Don't let the door slam you in the you know what on the way to the next airline.

Ciao!