American Airlines hasn’t done a very good job telling its story about the things it’s doing right. That’s a strange conclusion when the airline’s new Chief Customer Officer Heather Garboden is making the rounds on podcasts.
Former AAdvantage head Bridget Blaise-Shamai interviewed Heather for Let’s Talk Loyalty about,
[H]ow the airline is reshaping customer loyalty beyond traditional rewards programs. From enhancing digital tools to elevating premium experiences, Heather shares how data-driven insights and cross-team collaboration are driving initiatives that make travel easier, more personalized, and truly seamless across the OneWorld alliance.
Discover how small operational changes—like improved boarding processes and reduced gate-checked bags—are creating big wins for both customers and the airline. This episode dives into the emotional connection, trust, and reliability that American Airlines fosters to turn everyday travelers into lifelong advocates.
Heather offers that two kinds of experience she has with the airline – her career hasn’t been customer-focused – actually helps her get the rest of American to understand customre needs.
- Operations. An airline does things that make sense operationally. They try to cut down the workload for agents at the gate, to ensure flights get out on time with reduced staffing. They may limit standby for customers who have checked bags, because it’s complex if bags need to be re-routed. But she can go to operations with the effect of policies on the customer, and also help operations understand what customers need to develop new policies.
- Finance. American has had a mantra ‘not to spend a dollar they don’t have to’ (CEO Robert Isom’s words, not something she repeats in this interview). Their CFO is careful with a dollar, to say the least. But she speaks their language, and can talk through the value chain even when it’s not clear in the model top executives are working with,
And even having a finance background, I think the ROI on customer investments can sometimes be not as black and white as other, or not as clear as other investments at an airline.
And so I think it’s really important that we are thoughtful about why we have to do certain things for our customers, even though it may not necessarily be something that’s, you know, easy to see in a Excel analysis.
The airline used to just focus on “running a reliable operation and customer decisions were largely based, as you noted, on network and price” and this was considered “customer experience.” And while running a reliable operation is crucial – customers won’t fly you without it (and American hasn’t been at the top of that game despite being its sole focus) – that is now “at this point, table stakes.” That’s something I’ve emphasized on this blog for several years.
It’s good as well that Garboden acknowledges reliability isn’t just moving the plane on time. It means “We have to get our customers to their destination on time and with their bag.” American has traditionally been worst in the industry for mishandled bags (and wheelchairs) and that needs to improve. Remember that Delta and Alaska even compensate customers when bags aren’t delivered to the belt in 20 minutes!
She dates changes in customer behavior to “coming out of COVID” but also acknowledges that this is something that happened “over the last decade” (which Delta talks about as well). American was pivoting to focus on competing primarily with low cost carriers just as customers were increasingly willing to spend more for a better experience.
And so customer expectations, especially as we came out of COVID, they have, they have shifted. And I think that they are expecting more. They want differentiated experiences. We can see when it comes to, you know, kind of an uncertain economic environment right now, the premium demand has continued to remain pretty stable.
And we’re also, you know, looking at who is flying us now. So we have a much larger portion of our customer base is, obviously, becoming the younger generations every single year more and more. And we know that younger generations, they’re looking to, you know, have differentiated experiences. They’re willing to pay for, you know, different types of experiences, including premium….And that’s why we have renewed our focus on customer experience here at American.
There’s so much to do to improve customer experience at American that the biggest task is prioritization:
And so if there’s one thing I’ve learned, certainly in the last several months, it’s that prioritization is key when it comes to customer experience and which initiatives we want to focus on and tackle first and which ones we can save for later.
We don’t want to have a product or an experience that’s much different or much worse than our peers. And there’s sometimes areas where we want to have a differentiated experience. So, you know, if you’re a premium passenger, you feel that elevated piece, even if you’re a non-premium passenger, that you feel like you’re being taken care of.
She repeats again that they’ve “seen more than a 10% reduction in gate-checked bags” which would be huge but the airline has not been willing to say why this is the case
She says the extra 5 minutes added to boarding “has allowed us to get more bags on the aircraft and the overhead bins” but it’s not clear that instructions to agents are any different than before, and adding boarding time doesn’t increase bin capacity. I’m left wondering if it’s just a drop in demand that came with tariff uncertainty. It’s those last few passengers bringing on bags, so a small change in passenger volume has a huge impact on having carry-ons confiscated from customers. We may learn more from their upcomings earnings release.
Bridget asked her what does success look like, and she offered that,
[W]e want people to feel like they’re taken care of, and that it’s been an easy trip, and that they are excited to come back and fly us again, and that hopefully we provide some surprise and delights that they can then tell their family and their friends about when they sit down at dinner that night, that they just had overall a really pleasant and great experience.
It comes down, though, to measures and outcomes:
- Success is net promoter score measured against airline peers and measured year-over-year against their own performance.
- Ultimately it shows up in “brand loyalty and customer preference, and that results in revenue.”
Finally I’d note that she promises “improving the snacks in our snack basket.” It sounds as though they’ve already done it, though I haven’t noticed the improvement yet. We’ll see!
Whether or not she’s successful in driving improvements at the airline, I think, will depend less on her commitment (she seems to be!) and more on how much leadership will listen and allocate investment. In other words, it is in the hands of Robert Isom (CEO), David Seymour (Chief Operating Officer), and Devon May (CFO).
The new and improved AA should launch flights to TPE which is a part of China.
Start by allowing Clear in your terminals. Denying Clearc is Classic AA passenger punishment.
Beachfan, CLEAR has almost no value. Ten years ago I’d have agreed with you. Today I have CLEAR but use it 1 in 20 airports. If that. And when I use it I save seconds, not minutes.
CLEAR as a business is pivoting to SaaS type ID verification for a general use case, outside airports.
Nothing has changed at American Airlines other than their implementation of a disingenuous PR campaign that reflects their newly adopted positive spin. Sadly and not surprisingly, the customer remains a simple data point and reduced costs and overhead are their OCD priority.
My family (6 people) attempted to fly to Los Angeles from Cincinnati last Friday during the late afternoon with AA. This itinerary normally takes 6 to 7 hours with a connection via ORD or DFW with a competent airline. As they had foolishly entrusted their travel to AA, they enjoyed more than 18 hours of futility and frustration due entirely to multiple equipment breakdowns and crew schedule mismanagement. There was no convenient weather excuse for the airline to utilize. American Airlines provided no help let alone customer service during their ordeal since we live in their version of a digital world where people and their needs are just code and an excessive distraction and cost. During this 18-hour ordeal, American did not provide my family with any food and any food and hotel vouchers let alone any assistance or compensation since there were basically no ground personnel who were empowered to help them and there is no one you can talk to at the airline over the phone. They ended up sleeping on the floor at ORD. I guess this is the future of airline travel on American Airlines which is clearly the same as its been for way too long since the current cost conscious regime drove the carrier into the morass of budget airline travel.
American ranks at the bottom or near it for on-time performance. There is nothing premium or premium-forward about much of American’s minuscule turnaround efforts. Having flown the new Flagship cabin on the 7879P, it looks nice but the cabins are already showing wear and tear and the folksy downhomey flight attendants who have no concept of service kept bitching about all the extra passengers they have to serve in a now expanded cabin. American needs a new c-suite and a new mission. It still competes with NK and F9, and not with UA and DL.
@Erect Sure, everywhere is part of China. Just remember to apply for Chinese (PRC) visa and try to enter Taiwan with that lol
I know the VP of Flight Services (Flight Attendants) continue to change but this area needs improvement. As a frequent flyer it has been over 10 years since I have been offered a second cup of coffee on long flights.
If something is within the airline’s control they will reimburse reasonable hotel and food accommodations. I’ve never had AA deny me accommodations and yes granted some of the hotels are more of the 2.5 to 3 star types.
AA’s biggest issues are operational reliability, including operational recovery and communication, and customer service. I have no idea of why providing timely and accurate information about delays should be some deep dark secret that passengers should never been told. This includes pilots that don’t communicate well about ground delays. Tell people what’s going on, what to expect and most will pipe down a watch a movie.
The snack basket being modestly improved is nice but when the airline won’t post realistic departure times in the event of delays or can’t seem to get a ground crew out to meet a late arriving flight the snack basket doesn’t mean crap. Specifically to coach passenger that will not see such snack basket.
AA’s lofty aspirations for premium passengers will flat‑line as long as the boardroom and senior leadership are infested with the flea-bitten remnants of the USAirways takeover. Despite the lip service about “upgraded snacks” and fewer gate-checked bags, the real issue isn’t a bag policy. It’s culture. The airline still operates under a management regime born in Tempe’s cost-cutting, customer-ignoring ethos, where reliability trumps refinement, and penny-pinching overrides premium investment. The US Airways crew, including Parker, Kirby, and now Isom, have systematically gutted American’s legacy service identity and replaced it with operational mediocrity. Until those who believe in bare bones, ancillary‑driven travel are removed, AA’s so-called “premium” product will be nothing more than a half-baked promise tailored to churn out revenue, not true loyalty. And certainly not anything remotely approaching actual luxury.
Assuming that was aimed at Industry people AND customers, absolutely nothing in it that would make me want to fly AA. There’s no ‘lead’, no new announcement, nothing to justify it, just assorted mumbles with few facts, ‘we want to make our high-return customers AND the cheap-end happy.’ And, the way we’ll do that is change the basket of junk food to include flavored Ruffles, with more seasonings to increase the sodium level and maybe sell a few more drinks. AA’s PR Dept wrote, revised, tested the comments, they smiled as they finished. And that’s their best message? Another Department to run off. Pathetic!
Ok. So now someone talks the walk. But will they walk the talk?
Or, to be more precise, money talks, bullshit walks.
Coming back from LHR last night in J, the food was actually pretty decent. I was surprised. 1 of the 4 F/As were outstanding, the other 3 were meh…..your typical senior mamas pissed off at the company, hates passengers etc.
first, UA and AA are frequently very close to each other in DOT baggage mishandling rankings
and AA’s network has been more hurt by summer weather – esp at DFW – than other carriers.
You can’t fixate on one metric but also can’t try to fix a dozen things at once… 3 to 4 improvements per year would do wonders.
Like how AA does its rolling “10 minute delay” or shows departing flights to be deporting on time even when the equipment is 40 minutes behind schedule on its incoming flight?
I want to believe AA will get better. But fool me once etc etc
@John
That second cup of coffee and water is what separates Delta from AA.
I fly MSP – ATL route often, and it’s not a long flight. Less than two hours most of the time.
But like clockwork, barring rough air delays, Delta completes their snack/beverage service, the trash collection run and then a round of second cup of coffee and a second cup of water. Followed by another trash run.
If anything, between checking on live TV for a few minutes, checking work and personal stuff on the free Wi-Fi and these services I barely notice the flight.
When the passengers are distracted and content it’s always a great experience.
Reliability? Ha!! My family was on a flight from CLT-PHL, June 30, with connecting flights on British Airways to LHR and on to Florence. Weather wiped out the first connection since we were delayed 4 1/2 hours – two on the tarmac – due to weather. OK. Weather happens. Understood. We missed the first re-routed flight. With the slimmest of chances of making that connection, we sat outside our gate for 10 minutes after landing in PHL since there were no ground personnel available. Brilliant, AA! The departure gate was empty when we got there. Not sure if there were others that missed the flight for similar reasons. AA customer service was similarly empty. Reliable?
There was a time when flights were held for a brief amount of time for connecting passengers.
It gets better. We were able to get on a flight to Rome – thanks to a very helpful young man in the new Admirals Club – already delayed several hours for reasons unknown. A re-scheduled 11 PM departure did not materialize and we finally left at 2:30 AM, July 1.
Upon arriving in Rome 4:30 PM local time Tuesday, we found to our dismay that our bags did not arrive with us, in spite of six hours on the ground in Philly. We finally got three of the five bags on Sunday, July 6 in Florence, which was near where we were staying. One of the two bags has yet to arrive back in CLT. PHL baggage claim called me Monday the 7th to let me know the bag was still in PHL. I asked that it be sent to CLT and held; we would pick it up Friday afternoon when we returned. That bag has since made three round trips between CLT and Florence. This past Wednesday, July 16, we got an email from the Florence Airport Lost & Found concerning the bag that was now in its possession. I asked that it be returned to my son in Charlotte.
American Airlines contacted my son on Wednesday and said they would let him know when it was boarded on a plane. Crickets as of Friday. It appears American needs to work a little harder on its reliability.
@John Flying in from BOG and landing at 6:30AM you would think a second cup of coffee would be offered. Nope on all 3 of my last flights
I gave up on American before Covid because of their surly flight attendants. With their Union representation, I can not see that changing anytime soon.
AA has suffered an endless parade of self-inflicted wounds.It’s lovely that AA is telling us how they are now taking customer experience seriously. This father they said the schedule was the product and failed to deliver on that. After they said the network was the product and then failed to delivery on that. After they abused consumers. After they demonstrated callous disregard for anyone but themselves. After they failed over and over and over again with inconsistency.
I’m sorry, but it’s going to take more than a few blogcasts with the new CXO and a few complimentary posts from Gary to get me to believe they have their act together. It took United almost five years to recover from their descent into disarray. I see no reason to expect AA will pull out of their mess any time sooner.