American Airlines President Robert Isom was back in Philadelphia last week and he held a town hall with employees there. Isom is American’s primary proponent of ‘D0’ über alles, the idea that nothing else matters but exact on time departures and if employees make that happen everything falls into place.
I’ve described this as a ‘Maslow’s Hammer’ approach, that when the only tool you have is a hammer every problem looks like a nail.
View From The Wing reviewed a recording of the employee session. Taking questions about how to prioritize all of the things that employees are supposed to do – get planes ready to go for the first flight (‘right start’), get planes out exactly on time (‘D0’) but also make sure that those planes have everything they need on board like customer baggagae, what is the most important?
Isom talked about the importance – to customers – of on time.
Timeliness for our customers, it’s the number one driver of customer satisfaction. If you’re on time everything else seems a little bit better. The food seems a little bit better, the service seems a little bit better, any type of difficulty you may have gone through it’s a little bit less of a concern. When you’re late everything is amplified.
I’d point out that it used to be (accurately) said that having an empty seat next to you is what made everything like food and service seem better.
But what about when there’s a tradeoff? Isom first says that they need to do it all, but when it comes down to it he says run on time.
I can’t tell you that right start or baggage is more important. Baggage is really important too because you don’t have your bags somebody is going to be really upset. They all have to happen together. I will say I do put a tremendous amount of priority on making sure the airline runs on time.
It’s hard to know exactly what the right choice is going to be in any given situation, because an airline is a complex system and every decision has myriad knock-on effects. Does waiting for bags on one flight shorten connections enough on the other end that bags don’t make it to the next flight, or will passengers misconnect? Does it mean having the plane sitting at a gate than an arriving aircraft is waiting for – with all of its passengers potentially risking their bags and conenctions?
United of course knows that a large segment of its flights are going to arrive at their destinations early and using a computer algorithm (ConnectionSaver) to factor these tradeoffs in order to determine whether to delay a flight.
The right question that Isom should be asking is what are all of the decisions that are being made that bring someone to the point about facing a tradeoff?
- Is there enough staffing at the gate to process upgrades and standbys without delaying the flight? Are there enough computer terminals?
- Is catering meeting its deadlines and if not why not?
- Is the ramp ready to handle last-minute gate checked bags, so that gate agents don’t feel pressure to make customers gate check early while there’s still plenty of bin space available?
- Since the same flights tend to carry the same connections day in and day out (as well as the same percentage of originating passengers, with some variance by day of week), are gates being assigned to minimize problems making connections and to make baggage transfer times the shortest?
- Are flights assigned enough cleaners, and a long enough turn time, so that aircraft can be cleaned between flights (that’s especially important now with coronavirus)?
Managers showing up on the jetway to yell, or calling gate agents and flight attendants in, because they delayed a flight to do all the necessary work to make sure that basic customer needs like food and bags and filling each seat happen isn’t a strategy for satisfying customers. Satisfying customers requires getting all of the details right so that planes can leave on time, not skimping on the details prioritizing D0.
Yet they’ll hold a plane to pull a bag if pax skips out
Gary, your über alles joke devalues the holocaust. Please consider removing it.
@JamesP – No, it does not. Did you know that Deutschlandlied was written in 1841 and its third stanza remains part of Germany’s national anthem? It was the national anthem of Germany during the Weimar Republic and the national anthem of West Germany after the war.
Keeping pax informed of what’s going in a timely manner is more important than D0. Timely info is where AA really falters. If I know what going on, I’m more likely to forgive a bit of tardiness.
@SomeDutchGuy, you hit the nail on the head! What is so frustrating about the constant delays American has is the fact that information is usually utterly lacking. If they would keep people informed, then it wouldn’t be as bad. A few weeks ago they kept delaying and finally canceled a flight. The problem was the destination airport was fogged in. How much would it have cost to have someone go to a microphone and say, “We can’t fly to Fort Wayne now because the airport is fogged in.”? Instead I learn about the delays by text messages, get rescheduled on another flight, only to have it canceled too (the fog didn’t lift), and finally a third flight with the same result. Never once a word from American about why. In the end they were willing to reschedule me for two days later. After renting a car instead to drive to Fort Wayne, we learned from people there that the airport had been fogged in all day. Thank goodness for credit card trip delay protections, and chalk one more up to American’s dreadful customer communications.They really do not respect their customers.
Let me tell you about Northwest Airline 727 Captain Mike King, with whom we flew 30 years ago on our way to our Honeymoon cruise. I don’t remember his name because I have super human memory, I remember his name because he was the captain that said we will wait for the late bags from the Detroit flight, but then he didn’t, as we found out 6 hours later when our ship left the dock and we had no bags.
As a million mile + traveler here’s a tip for Mr. Isom (and a hint as to why I always favor Delta). It’s not when you leave, it’s arriving on-time that counts. So leaving at D0 but stranding passengers and bags so you can arrive 15 minutes early is not a victory.
And to reinforce what @SomeDutvhguy and DaveS said, keep your customers informed with honest info. FlightAware is a great tool for detecting when an airline is BS’ing you. “Our plane has left Grand Rapids and will be here in 25 minutes” False – Flightaware shows it still at the gate and delayed as the airport has a ground stop. I know I have a good gate agent when I see them sneak a peek at Flightaware on their phone after getting the call from ops.
@JamesP
Sees 2 German words
“Surely this is the Holocaust!”
What’s next?
“A bratwurst? you must have supported the Anschluss!”
“Leederhosen eh? Are you invading France later tonight?”
As airline passengers are condidered self-loading cargo, a better question is “Should An Airline Hold A Plane A Few Minutes To Make Sure Checked-in Confirmed Passengers Are On Board?”
Airlines, particularly AA, still believe that customers make decisions based upon their on time performance. Face it, we know that number is going to be low because we have all experienced their delays many times and have taken that data out of the equation. I don’t see how they can still feel this way since they long ago recognized that loyalty was only $5 away in the fare comparison. Most of my experience is with American Airlines and their customer respect is at zero. Watching their stock plummet has been very satisfying. Of course they would wait for luggage to get put on because if they were unable to get it to the plane on time, then that still goes to their neglect. I was hoping that a recession would put the airline management back into a customer oriented perspective but now it is a virus that is going to take them down but fail to help them understand it is a customer satisfaction problem.
If I can sprint my ass from E to T (ATL) in 30 minutes to make my connection, so can my bags. I fully expect and demand that my bags make my flight if they’re going to force me into unreasonably short layovers due to limited flight options. Applies to all airlines(I realize my reference is Delta)