American Airlines has been on a years-long quest to reduce staffing. They reduced the number of agents at each gate, so that domestic flights that are no more than 80% full now get a single employee.
That solo staffer has to board the aircraft, perform customer service like seat changes, and watch out for passengers who are too drunk to fly or who have too many carry-on bags. They’ve automated tasks like clearing upgrades and standby passengers with a program called AgentAssist.
American Airlines Gates, Washington National Airport
And they’re taken away the ability of agents to help most customers with things like standing by for an earlier flight – requiring passengers to do it themselves using the airline’s mobile app and website.
Along these lines, when you misconnect or your flight cancels you’re going to have to be doing a lot more self-service if you’re flying American. They are cutting the hours of airport customer service.
- The Chicago O’Hare Customer Service Center is currently open 6 a.m. – 11 p.m.
- On the upcoming employee summer shift bid, service center shifts prior to 2 p.m. have been eliminated. Usually airlines staff up for peak summer!
- I’ve reached out to American Airlines to learn what scheduling cuts are being made at other hubs.
American Airlines Customer Service In Phoenix
Eventually AI is going to replace most customer service. We’re not there yet, and customers still need help from live agents.
Miami Customer Service Line
Here are some things that you can do during flight disruptions to get help:
- Rebooking can be done in the mobile app… sometimes. You may not see all possible flight options, but may be able to confirm yourself on a flight that works.
- Go to the club if you have access rather than standing in line.
- Twitter direct messages can also be helpful with rebooking, I DM American Airlines when I’m inflight and can’t call and need to get changed onto a new flight due to a delay.
- Telephone customer service especially if you have elite status and have your calls answered faster may be quicker and easier than standing in line.
- Foreign call centers aren’t free calls, but use an internet calling app to ring up an English-language call center in another country (for American the U.K. and Australia numbers are best).
- Get help at your gate if you can rather than customer service, or even go back out to the ticket counter, there are people besides the customer service line who can help when things are this bad.
DFW Airport D Concourse
In fact, try a combination of all of these. Stand in the line and while you’re there start working the phones and twitter. You may get what you need long before being helped at the airport in person. In the meantime, however, you’re advancing in the queue in case you do need physical help on the spot.
It also helps to know what you actually want when you do get someone to help you. I use ExpertFlyer to quickly find flights with availability, but you might just pull up the airline website and search as though you’re buying a new ticket. If they can sell you a seat they should be able to rebook you onto a flight.
American Airlines, Austin
During major flight disruptions you’re not the only one looking for help, and you want to get ahead of your competitors (fellow passengers). But since other people are moving around, too, availability for other flights changes all the time. I keep refreshing availability if I don’t see the flight I want.
I’ll start calls to the airline even when I don’t see what I want, or see something better than I have, because by the time they pick up options may be better. Or they might not be! Once you’ve been rebooked, you can still keep searching to improve your new itinerary.
And remember when you’re dealing with customer service agents to be nice. You may be having a bad day. It might even be the airline’s fault. But it’s rarely the fault of the person trying to help you. And they’re dealing only with unhappy people, so they’re having a bad day too.
DFW Airport A Concourse
What’s more, the person in the customer service role doesn’t get rewarded by their employer for going out of their way to solve your problem. Yet they can make a big difference getting you to where you’re going quickly (or not). You want to get them on your side. Joke with them. Ask them about how they are doing. Treat them like a person, because that’s what they are, and they’ll be more likely to go out of their way for you.
If you don’t get what you want the first time, though, ask someone else. Use each of these customer service options as a second and third bite at the apple. Some agents will bend rules, others won’t even give you what you’re entitled to. I usually ask for something at least three times (from different people), and get told no at least three times, before accepting that as the answer.
When I get to the counter agent on a busy day, I tell them to take a breath and relax for a few moments before worrying about me. Everyone needs a moment to compose themselves, and this is theirs. That 30 seconds or so of downtime, along with a smile, has gotten me rebooked and often upgraded. Dealing with customer service anywhere is an excellent time to remember the golden rule.
Gary, Please we’ve had enough of your AA negativity. You really want to see American fail don’t you?
The people making these decisions don’t have to deal with the consequences of their actions, I pity the poor person who will have to do the job of two or more people and dealing with angry and confused people. I would expect to see a large turnover of employees that are overworked and quit for something better.
Congress needs to make it easier to successfully sue the airlines and require better consumer protections for passengers.
In cutting staffing hours, the logical plan would be to have an irrops list of employees that can fill in. But logic never seems to be a priority.
@”Gary Stop” I desperately want to see AA succeed. I love the people and the history and the brand.
Maybe it’s just me, but, it sure feels like the oligarchs look down on the rest of us, or something. What is it that the bootlickers like to say: “just doing business…” Yeah, not cool.
Keep going, @Gary Leff. Speak truth to power! We know that you do care about these airlines, their people, and us travelers, too. ‘@Gary stop’ can say what he wants, but he’s wrong.
@Ron — How virtuous of you, sir. I do sincerely hope that you practice what you preach. My only advice on the ‘golden rule’ is maybe to ‘treat others as they wish to be treated’ and to ‘limit harm’ at all costs. You do you, though.
@John Robert Stone — Bingo. There is little accountability for such harm, especially when it is the wealthy and powerful abusing their power. Perhaps, the people will have enough, and take back power by enforcing better regulations, transparency, and actual accountability. Until then, corporate greed and corruption will abound.
@GUWonder — Dear friend, this is the way. Congress needs to act. I’ve been promoting passenger rights legislation on here every chance I get. We need an EU261 or Canada’s APPR equivalent.
@Maryland — Thank you. You get it, too. These years will be known for their absence of ‘logic’ and decency. We must learn the lessons yet again and not allow this to reoccur in the future. *sigh*
Excellent post. I agree 1,000%.
When I need a live person, American Airlines turns off the phones when there are issues. The airline website and airline app stop booking tickets. I can use my other apps like Expert Flyer and find availability, but I need a live person to change my ticket. AI, at its current iteration, is useless. Used to be, I could get a live person who could fix the problem immediately.
Also, your comments about creatively trying to fix the problem immediately after there is a problem. When a plane is cancelled, other people go home, I go to the nearest chair and see if I can figure out an alternative. Almost always, I have been able to save my trip.
Two examples. (1) I was in JFK planning to visit my beautiful girlfriend for a couple of days in the LA area, Snow somewhere in the USA or Canada, delayed the incoming flight, cancelling the flight. There was a massive line of frustrated people at the airline counter. Plus, the service staff was telling people to fly the next day. I went straight to the airport seats took out my laptop and started looking. I found a frequent flyer ticket on another airline, leaving two hours later from another terminal from JFK. I recovered my bags, my trip was saved, and my girlfriend and I had a great time.
(2) I was flying Washington DC (IAD) to Istanbul (IST) the next night. First leg of a trip to Asia and back, all in frequent flyer business or first class. I had gotten one of those 40,000 business class seats to IST, but to fly it, I had a positioning flight LGA-IAD on American. When the snow started, I thought OMG. The American website said flights were on time, but I did not trust them, so at around 11PM, I searched and found availability on a first class refundable flight (for around $300) JFK-IST on Delta just in case. Sure enough, at around 3AM, American cancelled my LGA-IST flight and all American, Delta, United NYC-IAD were full or cancelled for the next week. Plus phone lines were turned off (like 12 hour callback time). My Delta JFK-IAD flight flew on time, and I was happy.
–Great post, sort of like when the going gets tough, the expert frequent flyer gets going.
@Other Just Saying — Good examples. For those who know, we do have to have back-up plans, and back-ups for those back-ups. I’ve also enjoyed leveraging frequent flyer program flexibility when booking points tickets (especially, being able to literally ‘cancel before check-in’).
Another example for you: During the Crowdstrike incident, I had an itinerary with Delta that would have routed through ATL, booked on points. I didn’t trust it at that time. I booked a back-up with United using points. Delta canceled on me. Ended up flying with United that time. I was glad my skepticism paid off. But you’re absolutely right, when things get ‘wild,’ we’re on our own–status means next to nothing.
One more: Cheap business class to Asia via Europe. Maintenance issue on the second flight. Next available alternative supposedly two days later–that wasn’t going to work for me. Had to take the partial refund, book a new segment on a competitor to get there relatively on-time. Sure, you could attempt to use your travel insurance (but then you learn that the delay needed to be 72 hours or more, ah, the fine print), or you can take the airline to court, argue Article 19 of the Montreal Convention, maybe get your $2,500 difference within the 2 years statue of limitations. To each their own on that ordeal.
Anyway, the only times I’ve flown Spirit are when my preferred airlines have ‘screwed’ me. Nothing worse than paying last-minute, top-dollar for a middle seat in the back, no-recline, naturally, just to get you where you need to be within a reasonable time. Bah!
$54.2 billion profit in 2024. They really need to cut staff, don’t they? Not to single out AA; the airlines are fleecing their customers. I do feel sorry for the front line employees: flight deck crew, cabin crew, agents at airports. Remember Ernestine from the Phone Company? “We don’t care; we don’t have to.”
@johanna, not sure what you are drinking or where you are drinking it, but TOTAL profit in 2024 for all airlines was about $8 billion.
In fact, if they just made money hauling passengers, they lost money.
https://www.investopedia.com/the-four-biggest-us-airlines-all-lost-money-flying-passengers-last-year-8781856
Premium move.
There goes AA again “caring for people along life’s journey…” There’s a special place place full of fire and brimstone reserved for Isom and his cronies. I think if he had his way he’d cut all staffing and force customers to selve serve for everything that couldn’t be done with AI.
Choosing to fly AA really seems like natural selection at this point. All of this overwhelming bad press and customer complaints and cutting of helpful features. This airline has to disappear.
This decision speaks to that “premium” airline AA wants to become,
Good start, AA!
Who cares BOOMERS, you can do everything electronically from this thing we call an iPhone.
The app is pretty good at rebooking and for me will even tell me which flights I can confirm immediately into F. The app however takes a bit to catch up so you will need to log into the desk top version of aa.com and email a new boarding pass from there. Also, you can use the app or desktop to look at possible alternatives with open seats if you don’t like the choices given on the app, which may not be all potential reroutes.
However, most travelers today struggle to understand the boarding process and would never be able to use the app. So the 200+ customer service lines will grow to 300+ over the summer travel season.