American Airlines May Be Forced To Require Employee Vaccinations For Better Marketing

Two weeks ago American Airlines promised employees that while they encourage Covid-19 vaccination they would not require it. A week later United Airlines came out and said they would require employees to get vaccinated. And if United goes through with making their employees take a jab, American may feel the need to follow suit.

That’s according to comments offered to employees last week by American Airlines CEO Doug Parker, answering questions at a forum after the carrier’s earnings call.

While American isn’t currently planning to require vaccination, he told employees at the airline’s State Of The Airline meeting,

At this point anyway we’re stopping short of saying it’s a requirement because I don’t think it’s going to need to be a requirement. I think enough people are going to get vaccinated that the disease will be eradicated and we won’t need to make that requirement. But that could change.

And competitive issues could cause us to change that, if other airlines wanted to market themselves as the one where everybody’s vaccinated, those are things we’d have to respond to.

If there’s a chance customers might choose another airline because they can be confident that airline’s employees have been vaccinated against Covid-19, American would be forced to do the same thing in order to stay competitive.

Parker does seem unreasonably optimistic about Covid-19 being eradicated rather than becoming endemic, something we live with that’s hopefully less severe when you get it.

By the time questions like these matter, though – where there’s enough vaccine available that all of an airline’s employees could get a jab if they want one – we’re likely to have suppressed the pandemic to the point that hospitals aren’t overwhelmed and daily new cases have fallen substantially, unless further mutations present even greater new challenges.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. I know this doesnt pertain to this thread but I applied for the world of hyatt card december 3rd because of the articles you wrote about 10 qualifying nights in 2020 and another 10 in 2021 but now Chase is saying its 5 so 10 total. I tried to explain the articles out there explaining how I came across this but all they care about is wording from chase website and obivously theyve taken that down after promotion. So my question is there a way to pull up there official info the promo. I’ll be honest I’ll never use chase again if this doesnt get fixed being I have, freedom, sapphire, world of hyatt

  2. Another great example of Covid Derangement Syndrome and medical tyranny. When will the sheep wake up?

  3. James N – “medical tyranny” is a choice set of words. I feel bad for the medical professionals who take the hippocratic oath to protect you, even while you actively hate on their profession.

  4. I am fully in favor the vaccines but I find it Interesting that some companies are requiring their employees to receive unapproved vaccines. Liability exposure?

  5. “I feel bad for the medical professionals…”

    Oh, for gosh sakes, the tyranny doesn’t have to come from the healthcare workers. Tyranny involves the use of force and that can include individuals from many different areas.

    And then we have rog, our resident third-grader. The consistency of his infantile remarks is impressive.

  6. The vaccine doesn’t stop you from carrying the virus or spreading it. It protects the individual who received the vaccine only.

    There is zero advantage to you personally if others have the vaccine, or do not.

  7. @Notadoc True, we don’t know for sure but based on the efficacy of other vaccines, the odds are very high that the vaccine does prevent the individual from becoming infected.

  8. Oh of course. Medical tyranny. Typical idiotic talking point of the pro disease cultists.
    The idiocy of people @JamesN is why the virus is spreading in the USA and why there are now mutations coming around.
    All
    Because some uneducated halfwits want their freedumbs but none of the responsibilities that come with them

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