Is American Airlines a better airline than we give them credit for? They have made a decade of boneheaded decisions and the customer hasn’t been at the forefront of their thinking. But they’ve also made real improvements, and I don’t think they’re doing enough to tell that story.
Schedules have been built for aircraft utilization rather than timed to when customers want to fly. Policies like baggage interlining, standby and confirmed flight changes are built around avoiding revenue leakage rather than thinking through how they’re experienced by the customer. And their long-term focus on competing with Spirit and Frontier rather than Delta and United led them to a product that fails to command a revenue premium – for instance not having enough extra legroom or business and first clas seats to sell.
But in many ways they’ve been getting a lot better. They’ve been getting a lot better even in ways they don’t take enough credit for. They were the first airline with sufficient bandwidth to offer high speed wifi to everyone, they just didn’t make it free. They’re rolling out high speed wifi to their regional jets… I’m now writing from one right now… but don’t really tell the story.
- Where is the web page tracker showing the progress updating this fleet?
- Where is even the announcement on my flight that this aircraft has the fast wifi?
American’s lounge food lags what Delta offers, but it’s actually improving quite a bit. It probably still lags United in many cases, but not by much. I was shocked to find that the cole slaw in the Philadelphia Admiral’s Club was legit by New York deli standards.
Philadelphia Admirals Club Cole Slaw
Even in my home club of Austin they’ve ramped up much better food in the past few weeks, against an already improved offering. American just really doesn’t tell this story.
I write this from the Austin club where they have the new dishware that first appeared in the Washington National E concourse club and that makes everything just look so much more appetizing.
Washington National E Concourse Admirals Club
Their new business class and premium economy products are shockingly gorgeous. They aren’t putting their new business and premium economy in the 787s and 777-200s that are already in their fleet. They’re allergic to capital investment.
Boeing 787-9P Suites
Boeing 787-9P Suites
Their new lounge template is stunning. They aren’t building enough new lounges or retrofitting lounges to this standard.
Washington National E Concourse Admirals Club
Philadephia A-West Admirals Club
Still, the airline isn’t the same one it was before the pandemic, or under their previous CEO, even though some of these initiatives (like the Adient Ascent suite on the new 787-9P) began under his leadership. The current CEO isn’t out talking to employees and selling them on a vision the way I think he needs to be. But that’s also what underscores American’s problem.
- American undersells their improvements and achievements
- While competitors oversell theirs
Now, American’s approach to many of its improvements seems to be ‘the same, but less than’ – at least for now. But if they’ve just gotten started on their coach food for sale program, then offering fewer choices on fewer routes that aren’t as tasty as what Alaska and United offer is ok – these things take time. They just haven’t articulated where they’re going, what that will look like, and when they’ll get there. In other words, it’s a failure to tell their story.
In contrast, Delta Air Lines is a pretty good airline! They just aren’t close to as good as they claim to be. Their business class suites aren’t as nice as American’s new suites, and their Boeing 767 business class product (on both the -300s and -400s) lag American’s old business and United’s current business even. Their domestic coach product has TVs, and their flight attendants often a bit happier, but otherwise isn’t really differentiated.
Delta Air Lines tells a story and keeps repeating how premium they are, enough that people start to believe it, like Obi Wan Kenobi telling imperial stormtroppers that ‘these aren’t the droids you’re looking for’ as he enters the security checkpoint in Mos Eisley on Tatooine. He’s Jedi mindtricking everyone. When Delta does something good, deep in their bones they need to exaggerate it.
United Airlines keeps repeating how premium they’ve become, and they’ve no doubt gotten better over the past 10 years. But their Polaris business class was designed to be just good enough for customers not to avoid buying – signed off on by disgraced former CEO Jeff Smisek, its key attribute is density.
And while they’ve revealed new business suites those too will go on new aircraft deliveries without any announced plan to retrofit existing aircraft. Their coach seats are too hard. Their boarding process doesn’t respect customers’ time.
They have a good app, good coach buy on board and they’re adding free Starlink wifi which is great (but most planes don’t have it, so for those American’s offering is better). United isn’t that premium, and aren’t as reliable as Delta (even as Delta isn’t as reliable as it used to be), no matter how many times CEO Scott Kirby groups the two airlines together.
United and Delta overclaim, American underclaims, and the marketing and positioning of these airlines has a lot to do with magnifying our perceptions.
US Airways sold an inferior product at a discount, their bread and butter was coach travelers buying on schedule and price, and I think this management team had a bit of an inferiority complex around what they could provide.
What American needs is a clear vision – both for customers to understand them and also for employees to understand the service they’re meant to deliver. There have been too many mixed messages about whether it’s a Spirit product or a Delta one. Give employees tools and inspiration and they want to offer a product they’re really proud of. The inspiration piece is marketing!
American Airlines, I beg you. Please fire your entire reception staff at the JFK Joint Premium Lounges and rehire people who actually know a modicum of what it means to give your highest value customers a warm welcome.
Your current staff are the bottom 25 percent of working class New Yorkers in that position when it comes to warmth, friendliness, or communication. They generally scan me into the lounge with ZERO verbal communication whatsoever and a zombie look on their faces.
That’s not Premium in any way, shape, or form.
Fortunately, your gate agent for JFK-SFO greeted me by my name and welcomed me onboard.
If only they had a small mark they could use as a north star; like perhaps, “Going for Great”
@ Gary — We flew F LHR-DFW last week, and the food was disgusting. The FA even asked “did it taste like *hit becuase it looked like *hit when I put it on your plate?” One bite, and I went straight to the sundaes.
Wow, a Delta hit-piece and American puffery in rapid succession. @Tim Dunn, I think we’re under attack! A day that shall live in infamy…
@Erect (a.k.a. @E. Jack Youlater, @Un, and @Unintimidated) — How could you go to Soho/Chelsea at JFK T8 and be so ungrateful; honestly, those a ‘great’ lounges, regardless of a ‘warm’ welcome. Also, I’ve found the degree of ‘warmth’ often depends on the mutual exchange, so perhaps, review your own behavior at the lounge, consider whether you even said ‘hello, how are you?’ etc. Further, referring to anyone as ‘bottom’ (if they aren’t ‘into’ that, no kink-shame) is kinda unnecessarily mean. At least you had a better time ‘at the gate,’ sheesh!
@Chris — How about “Going for Great (Again)”… *sigh*
@Gene — Even if the entrees were 10/10, I’d say it’s not a bad idea to go ‘straight to the sundaes’ anyway. Like, doesn’t matter which of the Big Three (or jetBlue Mint), if a sundae is involved, it’s gonna at least be better than nothing. Actually, a sundae makes it ‘good’ inherently. Live a little!
@ 1990 — How about “Make American Great Again?” The hats are already made, at least to the illiterates who wear them.
Things will continue to improve at American Airlines now that Parker (Former CEO) is long gone. Parker brought AA from “First to Worst” in the industry.
Unfortunately, the two adjectives that come into my mind to describe American Airlines are BLAND and BORING. I’ll fly them only if the only other travel mode to get to my distant destination is an intercity bus.
The issue for me is not whether or not AA is making investments in its hard product. It’s all about their (lack of) consumer-focused policies and culture.
AA can up their hard product. They can add better food to the Admiral’s Club. They can fix their reliability issues. But, I still get to experience:
1. Staff that would rather have a colonoscopy than act with kindness toward paying pax
2. They still charge me over $20 for internet DL gives me for free on most flights.
3. They still make we walk out in the elements to board planes in CLT, PHL and MIA.
4. They still have an inferior IFE offering.
5. The majority of their clubs are two generations behind the competition (sans DCA and PHL A-West)
American is…inconsistent. That doesn’t get fixed quickly and it’s going to take a lot more for some of us to ever consider returning.
AA won my attention by offering summer award travel between Europe and the West Coast at 30k miles in coach (connecting in ORD or DFW to LHR) with minimal fees. That beats United, my previous choice.
Oh, and @Gary, kinda odd how you posted an article about vomit in an AA plane right before a piece trying to tell us AA has gotten better, LOL!
@Gene — We could scoop up some of the existing red hats, since the conspiracy theorist wing is pretty upset over the Epstein cover-up, and instead of burning them, we can add the ‘n,’ poof, big money there… bah!
@Tampa Jim — Oh, come now, as far as inner city transportation goes, speaking of Tampa, the TECO streetcar is kinda cute. Maybe stop by Ybor City, get yourself a ‘1905 salad,’ and some Cuban coffee, because that should cheer anyone up.
For a thoughtful, elite travel experience to or from DTW, consider Delta.
@Gary shhhhhhhh!! Stop telling everyone how good American is getting, we want their planes less filled for upgrades I’m very happily satisfied with American lately because of their global network and partners that make Australian and European travel from the US seemless.
@Parker — I join you on the lack of free WiFi and lack of IFE screens on most of AA (and UA, AS, WN, F9, NK, etc.) narrow-bodies, is a ‘hill I will die on’ (and clearly, DL and B6 are better for those ‘premium’ amenities).
On lounges, LGA Terminal B and EWR Terminal A Admirals Clubs aren’t bad either. I prefer the newer SkyClubs, and UnitedClubs are about on-par with AC.
On ‘walking out in the elements,’ yeah, MIA D60, specifically, oof. Too many times, E170, etc., pouring rain. Chaos.
Focusing on food in the new lounges, or first class suites on planes to be delivered in 2026 or 27 is focusing on the pig’s lipstick.
The basics of customer service (especially during irrops) staff attitude, on time arrival (not departure), in flight experience – including bag handling (both carry-on and checked) and aircraft condition – are what are important to the customer. In these categories, AA is an epic fail.
If AA C-suite management were really dedicated to upgrading the cistomer experience, they would find real and detailed measurements for customer attitude and make them a significant part of executive compensation.
Heck – measure just the response to question 1 on the current survey – “Based on your most recent flight, would you recommend AA to a friend or colleague?”. Anything less than 90% “Yes” should entail a cut in executive bonuses at all levels.
Wait Gary… you write this post from up in the air… then you write this post from an AA club?
You are amazing to be in two places at once! 😉
I just like AA because their points are valuable and for now that works for me.
@Parker — Oh, and since I recall you’re a SoFla fellow, I cannot believe FLL T3 doesn’t have an AC. Absurd. Like, the expanded SkyClub in T2 is clearly #1, and the United Clubs in T1 is ‘fine,’ but pretty small. The Amex Escape lounge in T3 is ‘fine,’ but AA is quite lame for not investing in a lounge at what is the second largest airport in the tri-county area. FLL is odd how Air Canada is in T2 with Delta, when it really should be at T1 with Star Alliance partner United. Anyway…
@Matt — Yeah, buddy! Keep climbing!
@L737 — He’s baaaack! Woop!
AA’s biggest problem is still operations and operational recovery. The airline is getting better but has a way to go. Another is communication. Gate agents that can’t be bothered to tell you anything as though telling you about delays should be some guarded deep dark secret.
Incompetent and lazy flight attendants that at best do the minimum with the most lackluster attitude but they seem to be everywhere and with unions they’re impossible to get rid of.
@Retired Lawyer — I wish your approach was reality. As you said, if only ‘anything less than 90% “Yes” should entail a cut in executive bonuses at all levels.’ That’s definitely not the world we live in, but, wow, would it be utopian if we actually had that level of accountability at the top. Instead, it’s bash workers and consumers into submission, then blame them while the owners and executives get more and more.
@ Parker – Once again you hit the nail on the head here. It’s not the new hard products on a few select airplanes or the coleslaw in a random lounge. It’s the people. Over the past 5-7 years American has hired an entire generation of younger flight attendants who clearly do not wish to work or engage above whatever minimum level it is that will not get them fired. Their customer service training, if they really received any, is clearly insufficient. They are often indifferent, and sometimes even plainly hostile. By contrast, I have not been on a single Delta flight in the past 24 months where I did not feel genuinely welcomed and cared for by the flight attendants, and where they did not work the flight *on their feet* the entire time it was safe to do so, actively serving passengers. No gabbing with each other in jump seats or hiding in the galleys. Until that problem is solved at American, and until they staff their aircraft appropriately with edible catering, they have zero hope of surpassing Delta’s reputation for quality and good customer service.
@George Romey — Want better service? Pay the entry-level folks more. As usual, you (and some of the others) are so quick to punch-down. It’s not the solution. Gotta actually *invest in people* if you want things to improve.
@Mike Hunt — I’m a huge fan of Delta, but I’m not seeing what you and some of the others are saying about AA’s FAs. Like, are you literally picking fights with these people? You’d think so, based on how you describe your interactions with them. They’re human beings. Let’s treat them better. At least treat them as you want to be treated. Sheesh.
I don’t think AA can ever beat Delta at its own game – the best they can do is compete with United as mid-tier airlines. AA’s biggest advantage is their miles schemes; they should leverage that as best they can to outcompete United.
@1990 – I honestly don’t know why I bother engaging with you, as nearly everything you post on this forum is incorrect. I always treat all airline employees with the utmost respect and courtesy, even if they don’t reciprocate. Perhaps you simply don’t fly as frequently, or perhaps you don’t travel the same routes where many of us have encountered consistently negative experiences. As I’ve mentioned before, I only ever fly domestically in F. To be fair, my last three or four domestic flights on American were noticeably better than the prior thirty or so, but I’m not prepared to call that a genuine cultural shift. Not even anecdotally. Within the past eighteen months, I’ve had five separate three-hour mealtime flights on American where a single beverage and the nuts were served alongside the meal tray all at once, and that was the only service for the entire flight. That has never, not once, happened to me on Delta in First. I took an international flight on AA earlier this year in paid J, and in the complete absence of turbulence it took *over two hours* from takeoff until I was even offered a beverage. I have never experienced this on any other carrier, foreign or domestic.
Yet AA has no shortage of people applying to be flight attendants. If the pay is low to you then go do something else. And will @1990 will be more than happy to pay 25% more in fares?
@Mike Hunt — I like your style. It sounds nice to only fly First. Personally, I’ll sit anywhere, but I do prefer up-front, too. And I do travel more than most, though, it is possible you have me beat. Who knows. Let’s leave it a mystery!
As for the sub-standard service you described, yeah, that doesn’t sound ‘great.’ At the very least, there should have been better communication and expectations setting by the crews if there was going to be such a delay.
Last Friday evening, experienced great service by the AA FA’s in First, domestic, 737, recliner, but the sliders were simply ‘not great.’ Oh well. Win some, lose some. Won’t do that pre-order again. At the same time, I like AA’s G&Ts with Aviation gin and whenever they have actual limes. It’s the little things…
I’d caution against mistaking disagreement or different preferences with outright ‘correctness.’ We each may be ‘right’ and ‘wrong,’ sometimes all at once, depending. If we need to evaluate subjective vs. objective reality… we can. Bah.
As to rules of ‘engagement,’ yeah, it is indeed ‘a choice’; you are always welcome to ignore. But, it’s unreasonable to expect that if you comment others, like myself, won’t respond, if we wish, within reason, as, of course, this is Gary’s website; he is the god/king here. He can delete us!
@George Romey — How about top-level executives and the capital class ‘profit’ slightly less?
I agree from my own personal experiences that AA should have better customer service. Not a controversial statement.
I think Gary’s point is that they are slowly trying to turn the ship in a better direction and that will take time. But while they are slowly turning the ship, they should tell better stories about themselves. Stories can be powerful and promote buy-in and loyalty from both employees and customers.
The real question is whether AA is going to open its points ecosystem to Citi. It’s been great for the value of AA miles, but being a walled-off garden has greatly reduced potential AA profitability. If the new Citi Strata Elite allows TY points to be transferred to AA, such that AA gets to start selling points, etc. to Citi so it can make significant money that way, it is possible that AA can pour some of those profits into improving their hard product and their customer experience. It’s not exactly a hidden playbook – Delta and United seem to have figured out how to make money off of their credit card relationships with Amex and Chase.
@Peter — I miss the days of the Prestige card having Admirals Club access (until 2017), so if the new Strata Elite could include even limited AC access (like 10-15 visits/year) AND transfers from TY to AA points, that’d be a keeper card.
@1990 Worked in senior management (as senior counsel) at a major manufacturer before the Europeans took over in the late 90s, and for several years after. Before the Europeans, our exec bonuses were 40% tied to customer satisfaction as measured by customer surveys. It was and is doable, but the “I’ve got mine – let everyone else fend for themselves” culture of today likely makes it less doable in the absence of a strong and visionary CEO.
And, as my former client (some guy named Iacocca) said, “Never let a bean-counter run your company. You need them as #2 to make sure the sales guys don’t spend you into oblivion. But a bean-counter as #1 will always save you into oblivion.”
@ 1990 — I miss the days of the 4th night free using the Prestige card. It saved us like $25,000 over a few years. Only the Thank You fixed redemption table that you could use to create a massive travel voucher was better. I wish Citi could do something equally stupid again!
@Retired Lawyer — I hope the ‘pendulum’ swings back to that customer-focused mindset. I recall your earlier comments on Iacocca. No one is perfect, and he certainly ‘battled’ with the UAW, but your former client is indeed worthy of praise; he and his team ultimately did save jobs (and pensions) when ‘those companies’ likely would have otherwise gone bankrupt. Also, huge fan specifically of the ’65 Mustang, so cheers to him for that, too!
@Gene — Oh, how I wish the 4th night free would return on that Strata Elite, but I highly doubt it. Citi lost so much money on that ‘benefit’ alone. Hooey!
after seeing how many comments I had missed, I latched onto Rene’s comment about Gary “writing this article” from a regional jet AND the Austin club.
and Gary is correct that DL and UA are good at marketing – and actually delivering most of what they promise – while AA isn’t making a whole lot of promises because, as Mike Hunt knows, they don’t deliver consistently well near enough to win any awards. Anecdotal good experiences won’t win over any customer esp. after years of bad service.
and the incessant focus on DL’s 767 business class seats is not only tiresome but it is also childish cherrypicking. DL is getting rid of its 767s at a pretty hefty clip – another half dozen are supposed to make their way into the beer can supply chain over the next few months – but they are also using those 767s on routes competitive with other carrier – UA specifically – 757s which don’t have direct aisle access and domestic configured 777s which cram far more passengers in than any AA or DL widebody.
and unlike AA which got rid of its 767 fleet during covid and has been short of widebody capacity ever since, DL has been steadily taken delivery of enough new and used aircraft to keep growing its network in key competitive markets.
It says volumes about DL’s competitive position that they just announced 2 routes today that directly challenge AA and UA directly or via their partners – LAX-HKG and LAX-ORD in addition to ATL-DEL (likely waiting to announce until the emotion over the AI accident dies down).
DL already has announced a healthy profit for Q2 and UA reports in minutes.
Competitiveness might come to subjectivity for some but it ultimately is about getting people to pay good money for the services you offer and continue growing your network including into highly competitive markets.
By every OBJECTIVE measure, DL is very well positioned and is still looking to take a bite out of other airlines’ backsides.
And it comes down, again, to the CEO Isom and his lack of vision, guidance and the US air cronies under him. Poor service. Bad planning and inflight experience and food. Lowest possible quality of all!
Fire him. Replace with a new college grad with better ideas and vision than that group. Board is somehow bamboozled into keeping him. Stock should be $ 50-100.
AA won’t take the time, or expense to fix, update all planes with comfort. Only crammed and cramping for passengers.
@Tim Dunn — Safe travels, sir! Nice tie-in with the objective vs. subjective. ATL-DEL is a welcome return for DL to India. I mean, I think most folks would prefer a DL a350 to an AI Boeing these days.
@Josh Gates — Nice use of ‘bamboozled.’ How creative; probably pay the ‘new college grad’ a little less than the $15 million Robert got last year, eh?
About a decade too late. AA is fundamentally a bad airline. When it works, it works well. Too often it does not.
> They’re allergic to capital investment.
I do realize you’re attempting humor here, at the expense of disabled people with potentially life-threatening allergies. Under the US ADA allergies such as food allergies are considered a disability.
Perhaps you meant to say “They treat capital investment like a cleft palate” or “Like a man with a peg leg” or something equally sensitive to the less able.
Sorry- disagree
Every AA itinerary I have had the last 2 years was delayed or cancelled. Check In is always chaos as they don’t have enough staff to accommodate especially in my home airport. Only reason I fly them is that they are cheaper than Delta