After the American Airlines earnings call last week, CEO Robert Isom spoke to employees in a ‘State of the Airline’ address. I’ve reviewed a recording of this private event. He revealed big changes on the horizon for the airline’s strategy.
While he began by repeat his standard mantra about “being a reliable airline” as a starting place – as though it’s the only thing they need to accomplish, rather than table stakes – he pivoted to talking later about using it as a building block to attract customers willing to pay more for better services.
- American isn’t yet as reliable as rival carriers. They mishandle more bags than anyone else, involuntarily deny boarding more than anyone else, and they’re not as on-time as Delta or Alaska. They’re cancelling fewer flights than they used to, though.
- They talk about controllable completion factor but much of the time cancellations and delays aren’t controllable (weather, air traffic control). The customer experience is something they can control but that gets relatively short shrift in the model Isom has spoken about for years. And as a high cost airline, American needs to generate a revenue premium rather than competing primarily with Spirit and Frontier which had been Isom’s focus in the past.
Recently Robert Isom has spoken about the airline’s upcoming premium initiatives, but he’s never made as bold a claim as he did at this ‘State of the Airline’ event. The airline is going to have a “rededication and a renewal to focus on the customer experience.”
He talks about this as “the next order of business, we’re going to organize around this.” And says “you’re going to hear some things very soon.”
[American has] led the industry in terms of Flagship lounges. We’ve got Flagship suites that are coming on our aircraft. We operate in some of the best places from a network perspective. We have partnerships that we’ve maintained throughout the world. But the game’s getting harder. People expect more. But it’s not just expecting more. They’re willing to engage with us and pay more for premium services.
Then he proceeded to talk about premium investments American is making, though only some of the half-measures they’ve announced so far.
- “[I]t’s the reason why we’re looking forward and adding premium seats, Flagship suites and bringing on the 321XLR and the 787-9s” American was planning business class suites with doors prior to the pandemic. They’ve been delayed by Boeing. So far the airline has announced plans only to put the new suite on new delivery 787-9s, and to retrofit Boeing 777-300ERs (removing Flagship First Class from those aircraft). Boeing 777-200s and 787-8s and existing 787-9s will have old business seats, and indeed two different business seats (Super Diamonds, and the older ‘Concept D’ seats where half are rear-facing).
Credit: American Airlines
Flagship Suite Preferred Seat, Credit: American Airlines - “[I]t’s the reason why we’re opening the Philadelphia Flagship lounge.” This lounge was supposed to open in 2020 but is now expected to open this year. The good news is that the delay means it will feature the new-style lounge design, rather than the ‘modern hospital’ look of 2017.
Philadelphia Flagship LoungeThere aren’t announced plans to re-open Flagship First Dining in Los Angeles, to build out a Flagship lounge in London as originally promised, or to do one in Charlotte either where the Admirals Clubs are overrun. There also aren’t plans for retrofitting American’s lounges to the new design standard – even the old US Airways clubs that are in tatters.
- “It’s the reason why we plunked down – Nate [Gatten], how much in terms of DFW? $5 billion program for renewing DFW. It’s the reason we’ve got so much money tied up in Los Angeles now and that we build a new regional concourse at DCA during the height of the pandemic.”
American Airlines isn’t investing in airports to offer a premium experience. In 2019, DFW airport wanted to build the new terminal F, and use those new gates to allow them to tear down 50-year old terminal C and replace it. The airline’s CEO said it would be silly to renovate terminal C. But American wouldn’t make the investment. Instead they’re building a scaled back terminal F to give themselves new gates, without a head house. It won’t have check-in or security or baggage claim. Everyone using it will have to take a train from another terminal and back.
And they’ve ceded what was once a leading position in Los Angeles to Delta, and scaled back most of their international flying there. They only operate long haul to joint venture partner hubs. Terminal 5 is getting an expensive makeover that won’t yield a single new gate.
Meanwhile, it is nice to have all of the American Airlines gates connected inside of security at Washington’s National airport, making it convenient to access the E concourse Admirals Club (in my opinion, the nicest in the system) as well as the Capital One Landing and American Express Centurion lounge.
Washington National E Concourse Admirals Club
So far American has taken a lackluster approach to premium – box checking at the lowest possible cost. They’ve invested in better food for Admirals Clubs in partnership with Citibank, which raised the annual fee of its card that comes with membership, but still lags the lounge food offerings of Delta and United. They’ve refreshed their amenity kits using products that are virtually identical across premium economy, business class, and first class. (That seemingly small element was far nicer at American before the pandemic.)
And premium isn’t just about premium cabins – most customers, even those paying more, are still traveling in economy. They haven’t paid as much attention to detail in coach seat comfort as they should, or in inflight entertainment. Delta, JetBlue and United all offer seat back entertainment screens. Delta and JetBlue offer free wifi, and United is moving in that direction.
American’s plan is to remove seat back screens from the last of the narrowbody aircraft that still have it, and their wifi is the most expensive in the sky (and other airlines have caught up and exceeded it in terms of performance). Both Delta and United offer more robust complimentary snacks and food for purchase on board than American.
American Airlines A319s Will Lose Seat Back Entertainment Screens
If American is serious about competing for premium customers with premium products, that’s an all-in proposition not a half-measure. It’s the strategy that’s worked for the best-performing airlines in the industry to produce the greatest profit.
I start off skeptical because Isom came into the CEO role telling employees their priority is not spending a dollar more than they have to and even in last week’s earnings call, CFO Devon May talked about their success in shaving costs when it was clear to analysts that the airline has a revenue problem (and expects to lose money in the first quarter).
However, American does have a problem with financial underperformance. They do have high costs and therefore need higher revenue. And the only way to generate that is to convince customers that they offer a better product that is worth paying more for. That can’t be accomplished primarily through cost cuts. And I would love to see nothing more than a “rededication and a renewal to focus on the customer experience.”
The inability to cater buy-on-board snacks is a dead giveaway of management incompetence.
If you’re following the ULCC model and keeping ticket prices at the bottom of the barrel, you NEED every dollar of ancillary revenue you can get. AA seems to do pretty well collecting Citi’s money, but it’s clear, and has been for a long time, that they’re failing to maximize revenue in their stated model.
Time to take a short position against AA, I guess.
“. . . the older ‘Concept D’ seats where half are rear-facing, none of which have operable dividers between center seats even).”
Perhaps this was true at one time, but it isn’t anymore. I flew in the Concept D seat last week on 8AA and there was definitely an operable divider between 1D and 1H.
Robert should be announcing his own retirement. The guy is clueless and AA is trash. Truly a horrible airline all the way around.
They are discontinuing Flagship First. They kept FF Dining at LAX closed. They don’t have FF Dining at each Flagship waypoint. The beef they serve in Flagship First. What quality? What nonsense? Don’t spend a dollar you don’t have to?
Not a dollar more.
Get out the hook.
Empty talk by Isommss usual.
He has focused his effort on being a half step above Frontier airlines. Poor handling of irregular operations. Clubs that look like something out of 1984. Taking away AC staff ability to handle irregular operations-other than a relatively small number of staffers you get no better service than a rebooking desk. Dirty clubs, lines to use the bathroom. Flights constantly late. No BOB for coach.
Turning around an airline takes true leadership and talent and this guy ain’t got it. Maybe becoming CEO of Spirit is more his talent.
Every report from Gary confirms my intention to never fly AA again.
@Gary, This past weekend I flew DFW-SFO on AA. As I’ve mentioned before, I am Alaska MVP Gold and therefore oneworld Sapphire. I was seated in Premium Economy (9C) on a 737-800. This was not the worst flight I’ve ever been on, but it was the most nondescript one. Nothing was wrong, per se, but nothing was right, either. Check-in was easy, and the AAdmirals Lounge in C was roomy and not crowded, but the food was “meh!,” and it was all downhill from there.
(As an aside, every time I fly out of DFW on American, I get between 3-4 gate change announcements, sometimes requiring a last minute change of terminals. WTF is up with that? It happens every single time!)
The FAs were almost surly in their attitudes, and looked as though they were simply going through the motions somewhat robotically (except in F, from what I could see through the gauzy curtain). Once they came through the cabin with the drink cart and little packets of pretzels, they almost immediately came through with a trash bag to collect the empty cups. (What empty cups? They just handed them out.) They must have come through four additional times after that, but not once did they offer any sort of second round (more coffee, more water even) — just collecting trash. They all looked like they were doing a job they hate and can’t wait for the flight to end so they can be done for the day…
I’m too embedded in the oenworld universe (AS, BA, IB, JAL) to be able to ignore AA altogether, and so I am doomed to periodically fly with a cabin for of Grinches. But I do try to avoid them whenever possible. If they ever return to flying a premium product, no one will be happier than I, but I won’t be holding my breath while I wait.
—–
My flight to Texas was on Alaska. The entire crew, including pilots, were all ex-Virgin America employees, considerably happier in their work, and actually smiled at passengers. An amazing difference in attitudes. Oh, and unlike AA, there was buy-on-board food available in addition to pretzels and cookies. (Not that it mattered, as my wife and I were upgraded to F.)
Have been EP for years (mostly due thanks to crediting paid business class on partners like Qatar to AA, which if you do that a couple of times a year, you’re set), but starting this year, I’m reverting to PP, which is appropriate because AA-operated flights have become ‘pee-pee,’ lately, if you know what I mean. However, I will return to try the Flagship suites, and the 321XLR and 787-9, when (if) they actually get around to that.
About time. AA leaves so much money on the table with their Amtrak-grade service across the board.
@shoeguy – Amtrak actually consistently offers buy-on-board snacks, and when they don’t, they offer free snack packs (I used to commute on Amtrak daily for work). AA cannot clear that low hurdle.
I would actually argue AA belongs not in the same tier as Spirit (I have yet to fly Frontier so cannot comment on that, but I have plenty of miles on NK), but Sun Country, a tier well below Spirit and company. Spirit manages to also consistently board BOB snacks because, well, that’s their business model.
@shoeguy
Take it back. Right now. How dare you defame Amtrak. I’ll have you know that I am a Guest Rewards member, and I will defend those little choo-choos to my last breath. The Acela is trying, sir. It. Is. Trying. And that new Moynihan Train Hall rivals any Flagship lounge. So, you and your ‘shoes’ have gone far enough!
And to our employees, well, zero training as usual, but you’ll figure it out.
If they want higher revenue passengers, they need better equipment. I paid $5000 for my Christmas ticket MIA LAX SFO LAX MIA. I don’t mind when I get an aircraft with lie flat and FSD/FSL access. But now running MAX8? I will not fly and pay a premium fare for such horrible aircraft. If they want higher revenue passengers, they need to provide equipment worthy of those fares! I will not endure a six hour flight on any narrowbody.
@Helen Porche
I was literally just talking about how ‘sad’ AA’s 737 from MIA-SFO is on a different post.
https://viewfromthewing.com/how-united-airlines-turned-denvers-clear-skies-to-snow-the-fascinating-science-behind-the-rare-phenomenon/comment-page-1/#comment-5911092
For lie-flat from SE FL to SFO, best bets currently are jetBlue’s Mint and UA’s seasonal 757, but both are from FLL, not MIA.
He could start off by making sure that
a) FAs in First class don’t forget to serve passengers breakfast on 16 hr flights
b) Having a wine list that is non mediocre. I’m not a wine snob, but their wines are pedestrian
c) Not shutting off the FC lavs half the time on flight because the flight crew needs to use them
No mention about adding and managing employees, which most times are a major source of issues (and are certainly the reason why no two AA flights are remotely similar).
They’re doomed. Putting lipstick (doors) on a pig (terrible.service). won’t get people back, especially when they’ve become accustomed to Delta and United (not perfect by any means, but measurably better overall)
I’d wager that 98 percent of customers on AA, DL and UA have extremely similar experiences on these airlines. There really is little reason to pick one over the other, and to select simply on price and schedule. Even with high status in all 3 alliances, I don’t really have a preference between the 3 major US airlines. Yes, the DCA AA lounge is particularly nice, and DL and UA have nice lounges in some places too, but they’re selling transport. Which is what you should be focused on buying.
Robert Isom is a joke! He needs to be fired like yesterday. No one at AA respects him, can assure.
Former AA Flight Attendant
AA management has discovered at mile 24 of the marathon that their race strategy was all wrong.
It’s not a secret, it’s been a race to the bottom for a while. AA could literally go back to running the 5 across cabins in 737s and they’d be the most comfortable major airline. I don’t care if the seat is stylish, I need my shoulders to fit so I don’t get to my destination with crushing back pain from leaning out into the aisle to give the middle passenger space.
Sure, you’d have 30 fewer seats to sell, but guess what? You’re already not selling those seats today with your Air Tran quality at Delta prices.
As an AA EXP: They have gone downhill and fast. I enjoyed the “little” things like luggage tags, actual mail, nice Amenity Kits, seats that work, and better LP earning rates on flights…..maybe it’s just me though…
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.” — Theodore Roosevelt
@Gary: The image labeled “DFW F Concourse” isn’t of F. That’s the new pier being grafted onto C. But kudos for correctly calling it a concourse, not a terminal. I do the same.
If they want to compete in the premium sector, provide good business class suites like q suites or Emirates cabin. Then they can compete at the reasonable price or cheaper than Qatar and Emirates. There is no point a customer would spend money on American airlines if Emirates or Singapore or Qatar is available on the same route.
American is not going to compete with real premium class. They will be competing with cheaper airlines like Delta and Alaska and JetBlue or United. Even I would consider after traveling in Qatar and Singapore airways business class. Even United Polaris is just a cheap premium economy kind of a cabin
Its gone too far for current leadership to fix it. The only hope is a new start with new leadership (and board). These guys have zero credibility, Isom has done nothing in his 40yrs in the airline business to suggest he understands what needs to be done to turn this around
How about not telling a pair of paid B passengers who’s connecting flight to DFW (with onward travel to Rome) cancelled to pound sand? Instead as a result of getting no help from AA these high yielding customers were forced to make their own arrangement and pay out of pocket for their flight on another airline to get to their TATL flight on AA.
This guy fails to understand that running a business, let alone getting a premium for your products requires treating your customers right. All the lounges in the world aren’t going to make up not caring about that.
I mostly fly AA as I am Executive Platinum and they offer the best connections and prices from my home city (Palm Springs). That said, when I can’t even get a PAID upgrade from Economy to Busibess/First despite booking the flight 8 months in advance and having 2.5 million lifetime miles, tells me they don’t give a F* about loyalty. And when you can’t buy food on board on a 6AM flight because it’s a few miles short of their “requirement” (but still a 3 hr flight) tells me even further where AA’s priorities lie.
None of this sounds like a plan or inspires any confidence. I simply can’t understand how The Board allows such a pack of nitwits to manage – never lead because leadership is absent – the airline into continually worse circumstances.
None of this sounds like a plan or inspires any confidence. I simply can’t understand how The Board allows such a pack of nitwits to manage – never lead because leadership is absent – the airline into continually worse circumstances.
I really enjoy flying on AA. Flying from Philly to anywhere in the world is a treat. As a business owner and employer of 150 people, I understand their issues with staffing. Yes there is room for improvement just like everything else in life.
To Desert Ghost: This sums up the US d/b/a AA leadership since 2014 – “If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable” – Seneca
Get Devon May out. The monetization of every seat needs to be scrutinized. More ancillary fees. The FAs should absolutely be policing during boarding ready to swipe a credit card if they see someone help themselves to a main cabin extra seat or exit row. No long haul flight should go out with 25 empty seats in business class without better upgrade offers sub $500. Money out the window. On the other end I don’t like $55 upgrade offers on short regional flights ; let the elite members be upgraded . Sell alcohol in the main cabin. American must make nothing compared to some airlines. FAs should be upselling alcohol there’s a world of drinkers out there.
Isom and his SMT doubled down on cheap just as the market demand was pivoting to a premium and often full fare experience in F, J and even Y class.
He’s taken a decent brand and hard product (Flagship First) on the transcon A321s and 777-300s and removed them outright, leaving little product differentiation nor the ability to increase premium RASM with the full fare & prepaid corporate AAirpass crowd (naturally, it was discontinued).
Also, splitting the most recent single aisle order between the A321s and MAX 10s is a mistake. I’m flying from ATL to SFO next week on a DL 737-900ER and I’m already dreading it; I actively seek out DL A321 transcon flights whenever possible.
I used to work for US Air and there we knew keeping the airline on time would bring in the domestic business customers, who were willing to pay higher fares. In 2009-10, we were in a race to keep every flight on time and efforts paid off well. Running on time ops is a major chunk of the competitive edge. Today, if I’d like to fly my destination on time, I would prefer DL or UA, not AA. In 2013-2015, UA was trailing the other legacy carriers’ OTP by a wide margin and that cost them a lot of business traveler revenue. As Munoz period started, UA increased block times to make the flights look more on time.
Anyways, besides the on time performance, what matters to me is the comfort as an occasional economy flyer. If the seats are rock solid, leg room is minimal, and the restroom is so tiny that I cannot squeeze in past the door on those 737s, I switch to UA… That simple…
US Air was Ok… Amtrak is non- comparably better on the North East corridor.
Isom is a joke. You can’t jump from preaching about squeezing out every last dollar of spend on one earnings call to pontificating about attracting premium revenue through better experiences on the next. What exactly are you going to do here Robert, hire a shaman to sprinkle holy water on the new flagship suites and hope it somehow produces actual caring service, decent catering, and all the little value-added features that make competitors like the ME3 worth my money?
My last several “flagship” experiences have been tantamount to DMV employees angrily throwing disgusting jail food at passengers like me who’ve foolishly paid thousands for the privilege. I’m not convinced a company can ever come back from that without new leadership.
Mike,
you are correct that the strategic inconsistency has been AA’s biggest hurdle.
customers aren’t going to suddenly change their behavior because AA has a new strategy; they will respond positively if AA succeeds at executing – for years in a row.
the biggest hindrance to turning AA around from a service culture is AA’s employees who have been conditioned to provide the level of service they provide – and get by with it.
as for on-time, AA does pretty good in decent weather. The problem is that so much of its network operates at CLT and DFW which are stretched beyond what those airports can support.
I thought nobody could afford to buy eggs?…….
@Tim ja
I thought it was about ‘eating the cats… and dogs,’ and ‘her emails’… (It wasn’t).
Just another lesson in leadership. It matters. The CEO’s level of competency truly matters. When it’s substandard, you get Boeing, Intel…..and AA!
@Old Gold
Today’s CEOs aren’t ‘running’ companies so much as they are ‘mercenaries’ for their oligarchs. So, while ‘competence’ should matter (objectively), these days it’s all about ‘profits over people’.
At Boeing, safety clearly no longer mattered, only stock buy-backs. Too bad for the victims on Lion Air and Ethiopian (and the next one), but Wall Street demands its next pump n’ dump!
Why this is still allowed is beyond me. For some reason, we still let Congress trade on insider information–not just Pelosi, this is actually a genuine ‘both-sides’ issue. How is that.. still a thing!
They still ban people from adding their premium credit cards from Google Pay which is like having your card declined when shopping at Amazon.
I guess I’m piling on here but Isom (and Parker before him) have made very bad decisions since Covid. Things weren’t great before then, but almost every decision has been the opposite of what they should have done. They certainly don’t have a passenger-centric, customer-service mindset.
They thought they’d get a premium (they haven’t), the thought they’d never lose money again (they have), they thought they could hang with DL and UA (they can’t).
There are certain quick fixes that can be done, but actually changing the culture will take time…and new leadership.
My grandfather used to say that you have to spend money to make money, and sometimes, you have to spend money, when you don’t have two nickels to your name.
It seems AA management, which is still of the UA Air/America West mindset, is simply afraid to spend money.
It’s almost as if the “More Room Throughout Coach” plan, which came out when Don Carty ran American, still haunts management.
When Doug Parker and his team lobbied the unions to support the US purchase of AA, Parker made the point that AA had a premium route system that supported a premium product. US’s system lacked the premium routes that would support a premium product.
Isom seems to think differently now.
Ultimately, American Airlines downfall comes down to US Airways Group, LLC’s greed and quest for power to usurp Tom Horton’s management team and acquire AA at ANY COST!!!
In reality, American can’t afford to make the investments that Delta and United can, because its own BASELINE costs were not properly shed during AA’s own Chapter 11 reorganization! Parker and US Airways swooped in to woo creditors so that they would NOT need to take a haircut, whereas in a traditional bankruptcy, a creditor’s committee would have wrestled control of the airline from Horton’s team. Additionally, Parker engineered agreements from labor by offering pay packages that were far more generous than what was on offer from Horton’s team. These actions, plus keeping AA’s pension plan intact, set the stage for AA’s sorry current state.
Essentially, Parker’s team had no leverage to lower labor or leasing costs, because their only objective was to maximize their chances of pulling off a sneaky “rug pull takeover” of AA. This was highly destructive to the future of AA, because costs either stayed constant or increased, and relative to their legacy peers, AA’s unit costs, CASM, etc., were much higher!
I don’t necessarily defend Tom Horton’s team either, because Horton’s timing choice for Chapter 11 was poor … US Airways was waiting in the wings to come in for the kill, taking over the board, and ejecting AA’s more competent management team! I am not sure why the board of directors were so easily sold on Horton’s Chapter 11 plan and Horton’s own management take over of AA/AMR.
Perhaps, we need to go further back in history, back to the days when Gerard Arpey’s team ran AA. While Arpey should be credited for his moral fortitude that shedding pension obligations was “immoral” and harmful to AA colleagues, he was unwilling to execute a Chapter 11 strategy while it was palatable (between circa 2002 [United] and circa 2005 [Delta/Northwest]). I should not just have called out Arpey and Horton … in reality, Donald Carty could have pulled off Chapter 11 around the time that United declared it.
Although Carty/Arpey/Horton’s leadership was lackluster compared to Bob Crandall, the Carty/Arpey/Horton teams were relatively effective … and one could probably easily argue that the trio were SUPERSTARS when compared to Parker/Isom.
Now that United has Scott Kirby—who knows AA’s Achilles’ heel and can easily anticipate their playbook and capabilities—United will always be a step ahead of AA. When United sees AA make a stupid move, United stands ready to do the polar opposite (e.g., when AA implemented the heinous and insulting “D0” rule that took away discretion from pilots/gate agents that were trying to do their jobs, United expanded “ConnectionSaver” on a wider scale to the benefit of customers)! And of course, Delta is the wise master of them all and may remain steps ahead of United for some time, maybe perpetually.
very, very well said, Brian.
The real question is whether AA can be turned around or will it just limp along for years with DL and UA having no shortage of revenue they can pick off from AA. I tend to think the latter is quite likely. this was exactly what happened with Eastern which made Delta rich and gave them a platform for growth for many years.
American Airlines could improve its customer experience ten-fold by pulling out of PHL and finding a new airport.
Based on my experience of flying AA for 30 years, the majority of my “bad experiences” have come when PHL is part of my journey.
I now will pay extra or fly longer just to avoid Philly. The fact they are putting a flagship lounge there just baffles me.
It makes me wonder if anyone in AA management has ever flown anonymously through PHL.
It’s a sad state of affairs when the senior legacy AA employees see this continual downward spiral and watch and hold their breath as to what’s to come next. I agree with pretty much all the comments here. AA continues to throw crap against the wall and hopes something sticks. Time is running out and unfortunately their hiring practices in the last five years will spell disaster in the years to come. Younger generation tattooed to the moon and back with the accompanying nose rings and bling and angry senior USAir employees whose customer service was always toxic and despicable. Truly sad, AA was that shiny dime aircraft that everyone took pride in and now, since the USAir debacle, it’s ranked in line with Spirit and Frontier.
Time to retire….
Thanks Mr. Crandall for the great years, we will never forget them.
@Tim Dunn, I think American will limp along hamstung for the forseeable future. The only thing that might help AA a little bit is a better “hard product” for international business class … their new pseudo-suites on widebodies and A321XLRs will presumably provide a superior experience compared to United’s Polaris. However, United will beat American hands down on the “soft product” offering, in terms of excellent meals at Polaris Lounges, and reasonably decent Polaris in-flight meals, wine selection, etc.!
United will have to respond with a better hard product (e.g., Polaris 2.0 with doors on at least a subset of the front cabin … and decreasing seat density + increasing pitch in the front of the cabin will also help). But as a passenger, I think I would tolerate a “decent” hard product on United, if it is combined with an “excellent” soft product, which United already provides.
American will continue to be a laggard in its soft offerings (e.g., not enough business class/first class airport dining experiences, an awful wine selection, and insulting in-flight meal selections in the front cabin).
We already know that Delta will continue winning with it’s amazing Delta One offerings (with lots of room to spare), United will be second, and American will be last (even though it will have made up a small amount of the deficit with the better upcoming hard product).
Cheers!