American Airlines has been pivoting to premium over the past year and a half. They are investing in lounges, food, coffee, champagne and finally wine.
They’re expected to buy new widebody aircraft and to fix broken seats on existing planes.
That’s because for years the airline’s management got the vision wrong – they saw themselves competing against Spirit Airlines and Frontier for low fares, precisely when customers were willing to pay more for a better product. As a result they’ve been a financial underperformer in the industry as Delta and United earned record profits.
However, the biggest gap in their strategy remains with front-line employees.
- The CEO hasn’t been out selling the change. Employees need to know what’s expected of them, how they’re on a mission to transform the company, and how this will translate into greater profit-sharing.
- And customer-facing service continues to lag at American Airlines. They’re spending billions of dollars on the product, but the last mile of service delivery undercuts the investment.
An FBI special agent working an American Airlines hub, not steeped in the industry, shared their comparative experiences with different carriers, telling me that Southwest employees are generally happy; Delta employees come off as professional; United employees want to keep law enforcement off their planes (a legacy of the April 2018 David Dao passenger dragging incident) and American Airlines employees seem unhappy with their jobs.
This is a generalization based on repeated interactions over a long period at one of the country’s major airports, but it seems to hold. And it helps explain why turning around American Airlines is so hard – and why management isn’t doing enough beyond writing checks.
A couple of commonplace stories from Sunday stood out to me online.
- In a since deleted tweet, motivational speaker Chris Widener called out the crew of his American Airlines flight, complaining that in the gate area prior to boarding flight attendants were talking about skipping service, and asking the pilots to make an announcement about bad weather as an excuse not to bring out the galley carts and offer drinks or snacks.
We heard them agree that they would blame it on the weather. The flight attendants even asked if the pilots would announce it so they didn’t get the blowback. The pilots agreed to do it. Sure enough before we ever took off they announced it being because of the weather
— Chris Widener (@ChrisWidener) June 7, 2026
You should call the cockpit and tell them the ruse is up and to do their job.
— Chris Widener (@ChrisWidener) June 7, 2026
Interesting, that they are up serving first class after announcing they can’t get out of their seats because of “weather.” Smooth sailing up here by the way.
— Chris Widener (@ChrisWidener) June 7, 2026
- Complaints about American Airlines service are something I see regularly, including by the airline’s premium customers. While Delta onboard service hasn’t been as strong as it used to be (compared to before the pandemic, likely because of significant turnover), their flight attendants remain proud of their product. There are great American crews, but I also see this too frequently:
Hey @AmericanAir, is it customary when seated in first to go have to ask your flight attendant for a drink or a snack? The drawn curtain and them on their phone really sends a clear “please go pound sand” vibe
— @saifsrathore (@saifsrathore) June 7, 2026
Leadership needs to sell a premium vision, and explain the role that employees across the company play in its success going forward – getting the front line on board to deliver an elevated experience. The airline is actually improving in a lot of ways, but employees don’t realize it.
The messaging also needs to reach down to middle management, where employees haven’t been incentivized to sweat the details of product. Getting the details right across the board is how you get the most out of each dollar of investment.
Kudos on throwing-in a Dr. Dao reference here, Gary! *chef’s kiss*
The mess at American Airlines all started with Parker (Former CEO) and the arrival of the USAIR guys. Robert Isom is unable to turn things around. Maybe at the 6/10 board meeting Isom we be replaced or he will resign.
I wish AA was non-union so they could more easily fire the dead weight (not all FAs or even a majority but enough to drag down the rest) and replace them with people that actually want the job.
@Retired Gambler — Tell them how you really feel, preferably before meal service! *clears throat*
@John C – Absolutely correct.
@Gary – When I saw the headline I thought that a more appropriate one would be referencing why FA’s are not on board.
@Christian — Ah, the difference between a ‘thot leader’ and an actual journalist…
In my recent flights, the regional subsidiary crews from Envoy have gotten the message in a way the mainline crews have not. As an EP, I have recently received: a personalized welcome note; visits with the F snack basket while seated in coach; an invitation to use the F lavatory during flight; and an invitation for my children to visit the cockpit while the a/c was being held at the gate awaiting connecting passengers.
In addition, I also witnessed Envoy crew make a happy 80th birthday announcement to a passenger seated in coach, and (on a flight with inoperative WiFi) come down the aisle with a connecting gate list and offer that information to pax who wanted it.
Not much of this taking place on my mainline flights, though!
@Retired Gambler — No, tell them how you really feel before beverage service. Then, drink up!!
@Christian – and I thought the FAs would just physically not be on board and they’d just leave some water and biscoff on the jetbridge. That’s the latest premium cost-cutting measure, no? I hear the latest regulations are that they need 1 FA to not be physically on board for every 50 passengers?
@Peter — Leaving some water and Biscoff on the jet-bridge is still a delightful idea, regardless.
Whenever you tell us how AA is improving (often) , you continually speak of lounges and wine on board.
At the end of the day, AA is still crap. Why is there tape everywhere, no IFE, FA’s with lousy attitudes, all run by a CEO who can’t get of his own way.
I’m sorry Gary, but most of AA’s customers don’t hang out in lounges and drink wine in FC and Biz. They are coach customers going from A to B.
I will pay attention when AA finally ditches the loser CEO and hires someone who gives hoot about customers.
And the very first thing the new CEO should do is to give every employee a copy of Jan Carlzon’s book, Moments of Truth. When he became CEO of SAS in early 80’s, they were as bad as AA is now.
The gist of his book is that every employee who interacts with a customer has 15 seconds to get a customer on board with SAS, or choose another airline to fly. He decentralized decision making, empowered all employees to make certain decisions, and famously once said that employees who cared little about customers, should try working without customers for 30 days.
One of the best CEO’s ever
Overall, the FBI agent’s observations track very closely with my own experience. I do wonder whether Southwest flight attendants are still as happy as they once were—I’ve personally stopped flying them as they’ve moved away from what made them my go-to for short trips—but that aside, the rest of the assessment feels spot on and has been consistent for at least the past 10 years.
Why anyone flies AA (unless they are the only non-stop option) is totally beyond me…
“…the crew of his American Airlines flight, complaining that in the gate area prior to boarding flight attendants were talking about skipping service, and asking the pilots to make an announcement about bad weather as an excuse not to bring out the galley carts and offer drinks or snacks.”
I’ve seen this happen on SkyWest flights. Must be a common trick they use.
Getting buy in from employees to take pride in their work or even joy requires real leadership, and AA does not have that. I suspect if Isom is at a gathering he has strategies for avoiding dealing with people. He was the guy Parker picked over Kirby, maybe because of that. Isom more aligns with Parker’s vision of a bigger American West.
p.s. @ Gary. The idea that the American public is willing to pay more for a better experience is oft-repeated here. Is airline financial performance the basis of that or is there more empirical evidence. I does not seen to jibe with current consumer views of the economy except the view from the top.
@ChrisInNY – and yet, on my AA regional jet flight a few days ago, where we were passing through actual turbulence, the FAs passed out biscoff and pretzels while drink service was suspended during the turbulence, and then started going row by row in economy and bringing the drinks out on a tray until the turbulence cleared. All while doing multiple passes in first.
The problem with these generalizations and ancedotes is that they are only so helpful. I’ve had great AA crews and terrible DL crews. And vice versa.
@Peter, @ChrisInNY — Go Knicks!
Anecdotally, I’ve found that AA crews have been improving in the premium cabins over the past 18 months or so. Pre-departure beverages are now the norm in domestic F whereas 3-4 years ago they rarely ever happened. The problem is, it’s still not consistent at all. I had a 3-hour flight on an A321 very recently with one of the worst crews I’ve encountered in a long time, but service levels on the previous dozen or so flights before that ranged anywhere from borderline acceptable to spectacular. Food can be pretty decent on one flight (it’s never amazing on AA), and then nearly inedible on the next. You never really know what to expect with their premium products. Delta, on the other hand, while not perfect, has a far higher degree of consistency in the premium cabins.
@Mike Hunt — “Anecdotally”? According to @Tim Dunn, that doesn’t count!
I still shake my head at what the USAIR crowd did to a once-geat airline. The roots go deep. In Boston, back in in the ’90s, we used to joke that USAIR stood for Unfortunately Still Allegheny In Reality…
Yes, I had one of *those* FAs on my recent SEA-ORD flight. While the meal itself was well-presented and tasty, the service was…lacking.
First interaction: “I have your pre-order.” (Not, “Hello, I’m….;” “verifying that you pre-ordered…”.). To my seatmate: “Chicken OK?” (Not, “I’m sorry, all I have left is the chicken; would that be okay?”.)
Everything was presented as a wave in your face: e.g., when it came time to serve the (unwarmed) nuts, it was waved in my face instead of just set on the tray table. Same with the beverages. Same with removal of any trash–hold the bag and wait for you to put it in.
After the initial meal service, the FA closed the galley curtain and stood behind it. Easier to stare at your phone that way, I guess.
Separately, I also think AA has made a mistake with all of the pre-recorded announcements in that annoyingly cheery voice. I guess they think it makes for consistency; I think it makes for even less interaction with the FAs. You don’t even hear their voice anymore.
[All of this in contrast to my UA flight *to* Seattle earlier in the week: a cheery welcome aboard, verification of pre-order with a smile and a hello, a second beverage with and after the meal without asking, etc.]
@BRMM — A cherery welcome from United? (That’s not what Dr. Dao go….)
Since their new contract including boarding pay I’ve definitely seen an improvement, particularly with pre departure beverages. There are still some flight attendants that struggle with the first class/business class service or find a way to only do one round on shorter flights. But it seems there’s not a huge difference between the other US4.
This is not a management problem except for the fact that they don’t have the guts to fire bad flight attendants. Other international carriers have good crew with lower pay, fewer benefits, and longer hours.
They have no incentive to do their job well. There is no chance of getting fired for doing a bad job, and they keep getting raises regardless of their effort level. Any FA who goes above and beyond will soon be shunned by their coworkers until they get back in line. Nothing will change while the union is in place. Their only chance was to lock out the union and hire fresh willing new workers based on merit, but they blew that opportunity.
@Mantis — Horrible ideas. (Since you’re no longer based here, honestly, when is the last time you even flew on a US carrier?)
I ask out of ignorance…do delta, united, jetblue, southwest not have unions?
Delta is mostly non-union.
AA needs to get the APFA on board, and when they verify reports of poor service (or no service), call the F/A in and give them a 30 day suspension. Require them to attend an abbreviated service training class before returning to the line,
IMHO a couple of 30 day suspensions will wake some people up.
And yes, my last flights on AA have been really wonderful, and one had a spectacular crew.W
i have been on flights where there is no Trolly service due to weather but the FA have no problem “chit chatting” with each other standing up.
.
There are those employees who just need to RETIRE and/or be fired. Union or no Union If you are not doing your job then get a job at Wally World or a cemetary where you do not have to speak to anyone. I do not need a smile from you the entire flight but if i say hello say it back.
They are primarily here for your sAAfEtY guys
I’ve flown American 10x compared to Delta (my bad, was hostage to AA hub), but boy oh boy, those NON-union crews at Delta are way more professional, engaged, and committed to customer service. It was literally shocking to be treated so well as someone with zero Delta status. It definitely reinforced my belief that union airline crews are just lazier and meaner. I’m no longer in an AA hub, but it sounds like not much has changed with the American flight crews.
There is one overriding and overwhelming problem at American. And his name is ROBERT ISOM. A man sincerely afraid to speak directly to the media & actually petrified to speak one on one with rank and file front line employees.
How do I know? My wife has been with AA 40 plus years as an airport manager & she’s been beyond unhappy with her employer since Parker and team destroyed a stellar brand. Used to be as consistent as Kleenex & BandAid. Perfect in all ways? No. But the pride was infectious and now so is the corporate cancer called Isom & USAir.
Isom and the AA BOD should be taken to state and federal court for failing their REQUIRED United States following of fiduciary duties. They should all be in prison. As someone that has closely studied the US airline industry I have never seen such pure incompetence and intentional corruption.
Just check out AA’s DFW wide body operation today snd all the cancellations. And the London trip that never had a captain scheduled. 100% total organizational failure and incompetence.
When I fly AA Eagle, the FAs are usually very nice. On mainline AA, hit or miss. I agree most FAs are fine but the ones who are not can ruin the experience. Sad. When I board those tiny planes, I get smiles (usually) but on mainline flights, you never know…
@Gary Leff — Since you post about it occasionally, you should know that Delta Air Lines pilots (mainline and regional subsidiaries like Endeavor) are represented by the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), and dispatchers are represented by the Professional Air Flight Control Association (PAFCA).
“Mostly” depends on who you consider “Delta” … are we talking just crews, or also including the tens of thousands of people performing land-based support, etc.
The major difference, for now, between Delta and other US airlines is that the flight attendants at Delta are not yet unionized. Those workers would benefit from the additional protections of union representation especially during an economic downturn.
However, peoples’ subjective love or hate for their relative experiences on-board any particular airline have little to do with crew unionization or lack thereof. Much of that ‘hate’ is an oversimplification, and likely the result of right-wing propaganda to loathe unions, as historically their members did tend to support center-left parties. I think that context matters.
Chiming in since I was mentioned. I did delete the tweet because I typically, in these situations, use it to get their attention. After everything has been done, I delete those posts so people can see my normal postings. That being said, the whole trip was a disaster, including listening to a “support dog” bark incessantly for 90 minutes on the final leg from DFW to Chattanooga (which was a day late since we got grounded and had to spend the night at a local hotel). We were told that it was both of the pilots’ birthdays and we should wish them Happy Birthday as we left the plane. More people than not asked the pilots why a barking dog was allowed to disrupt the entire flight, rather than wishing them a happy birthday.
The flight attendants are not on board?
The same way they were not on board when management (Parker and his designated clone Isom) configured the A321XLR and the 787-9P without soliciting any input from the flight attendants?
That kind of bringing employees on board?
@Chris Widener: The airline is now responsible for the behavior of an animal the owner claimed was a service animal?
Get real.