In September American Airlines was named a 5 Star Global Airline by the Airline Passenger Experience Association.
When you board American Airlines flights you’ll notice a new logo being added to their planes, beneath the oneworld logo. These new decals promote their ‘five star’ status, as they explained to employees this week:
American’s Flagship Dining is the best lounge experience in the United States in my opinion, though access is severely limited (United Polaris lounges beat American’s Flagship lounges, but access to Polaris lounges is more limited). American’s business class seats are excellent on their Boeing 777-300ER, Boeing 787-9, and most Boeing 777-200 aircraft.
However they’ve significantly degraded the passenger experience with their new standard domestic narrowbody configuration, that they’re retrofitting existing planes to match — squeezing seats closer today, less padding in those seats, a less comfortable first class seat even with less legroom to go along with smaller lavatories, bigger overhead bins, and faster wifi.
Five Stars from the Airline Passenger Experience Association, where American CEO Doug Parker gave a keynote, may not carry the meaning that it seems on first blush. Delta and Air Canada have five stars. Last year there was a low cost category where JetBlue, Southwest, Sun Country, and Virgin America received five stars.
I take the Five Star designation to mean – now that the low cost category has been eliminated – that American Airlines isn’t Spirit, Allegiant, or Frontier, even though in May American Airlines President Robert Isom explained in a closed session with employees that their domestic product aims to mirror Spirit and Frontier.
[T]oday there is a real drive within the industry and with the traveling public to want to have really at the end of the day low cost seats. And we’ve got to be cognizant of what’s out there in the marketplace and what people want to pay.
The fastest growing airlines in the United States Spirit and Frontier. Most profitable airlines in the United States Spirit. We have to be cognizant of the marketplace and that real estate that’s how we make our money.
We don’t want to make decisions that ultimately put us at a disadvantage, we’d never do that.
I noticed it on both a 787-9 and 777-300er on Tuesday. I was almost impressed until I realized it wasn’t Skytrax and I wondered who the heck is the APEA?
So how did THAT happen?
When flying on American Airlines, today there is a real drive within the industry and with the traveling public to want to have really at the end of the day seats that don’t make their spinal column and butt scream out in pain due to the lack of seat padding and, passengers not needing to visit the emergency room after landing to be treated for deep vein thrombosis caused by the reduced leg room between seat rows.
Going for mediocre… at best!
I’m rated 6 stars by the Airline Passenger Rating Consortium. I should get a sticker and brag about my fake rating, too.
A sharpie should correct it to the actually star rating.
I enjoy the click bait nature of this headline Gary.
Sounds like APEX gives out 5 stars as a participation trophy. Or more like Oprah… “You get 5 stars, and you get 5 stars! EVERYBODY GETS 5 STARS!!!”
Who is APEX? Is it like the folks who continually want to give me an award for distinguished law practice (even though I’m fully retired and have been so since 2012), if only I join their association or buy their directory?
It is a marketer’s dream to find an organization to give you an award for the best anything, in a category where you are the only candidate that year.
Don’t understand how JetBlue and Southwest have their own classifications as “low cost” airlines. Both are unionized and having largely the same cost structure as the legacy carriers. Theit fares are largely identical to legacy carriers too.
5 Star rating? Not domestic, what a joke. Recently offered Platinum Status through May and 20 upgrade certificates, no thanks. DL continues to get my business.
@Retired Lawyer: Do you think I can get that without even being a lawyer? Sort of like the MIT short course completion certificate makes it look like I attended MIT.
Reduced seat pitch in any airline aircraft increases passengers stress
Lame headline. If you want VFTW to be taken seriously — the “thought leader” — you should stay away from clickbait headlines. It’s lazy and a disservice to your readers.
As a rule, if a headline contains “May Surprise You”, its clickbait which is beneath what I think Gary wants VFTW to be.
I noticed these last week. I had to laugh. I almost asked the flight attendants who APEX was. The only legitimately recognized airline quality ratings come from SKYTRAX, which give American a whopping three out of five stars.
The airline ratings remind me of an experience I had 47th Street Photo when I was buying a portable camera in the film days. He showed me an Olympus. I said a famous consumer magazine rated another camera higher. He said: “We have that camera. Those ratings are rigged. This camera is better for the price.” Not sure if the APEX ratings are rigged. However, there are certain incentives for giving high ratings to a domestic carrier. One incentive is that APEX, now is being pushed by American Airlines.
Bad headline and worthless “award.”
Look at me! I just got 8 stars but still hate my pax
Oh if DL had won it you would all be falling over yourselves to praise them.
AA AaPEX award reminds me of the Southwest Airlines Triple Crown Award of past years which was invented by SWA. Thing is, SWA actually earned it by being First in On-Time Performance, Baggage Handling, and Customer Satisfaction. However, if the finalist for the AaPEX were BA and AA J Class, then congrats. I have found AA International J to be as good or better than BA First but still not up to PAA standards on PA 024/025 (JFK-DHA)
A gong from SKYTRAX isn’t particularly objective either. The rating relies on customer surveys which (surprise) are often introduced to an airline’s own databases filled only with people who they know are in love. Those experts (!) are encouraged or incentivised to complete the survey. Needless to say, the airlines with the best databases and biggest Marketing departments tend to win.