American Airlines has announced a fix for one of the biggest pet peeves among their first and business class passengers. They’re moving away from flight attendants collecting headsets from passengers, up to an hour prior to landing. No more interrupting sleep, no more ending inflight entertainment early.
This applies on all flights landing in the United States stating Wednesday, April 23rd. They’re still working on it for flights departing from the United States, and the change will come later this year – presumably they have to get the ground collection process set up at their various outstations first.
An American Airlines spokesperson confirms,
Starting tomorrow, April 23, customers in our premium cabins can leave their Bang & Olufsen headsets at their seats before deplaning. That means no more entertainment disruptions before landing.
It’s also great news for our flight attendants who can focus on taking care of our customers during the flight instead of collecting headsets – all part of our commitment to enhancing the customer experience.
This applies to customers on all U.S. inbound, Hawaii Flagship Service and American Flagship Service flights. We’ll launch this for U.S. outbound flights later this year.
Flight attendants have often done the collection of these headphones an hour or more prior to arrival. On an overnight flight this meant that announcements about headphones are disturbing passengers who may still be trying to sleep. And it meant that passengers couldn’t continue to use the headphones for the remainder of their flight.
American offers expensive Bang & Olufsen headsets and they do not want to lose them. That was fair enough (they switched away from Bose to Bang & Olufsen in 2018). The practice of collecting headphones was a legacy American Airlines practice, dating back long before US Airways management took over.
Three years ago American Airlines began testing having customers leave their premium headphones at their seat instead of crew collecting them prior to landing.
This was a test on four roundtrip flights – specific New York JFK and Dallas – London and São Paulo flights. So this change has been in the works for a long time. It makes a big difference because customers pay for business class to get sleep, and this means their rest isn’t interrupted by cabin announcements and flight attendants searching for these headsets.
New American Airlines Suites Cabin, Credit: American Airlines
As American is about to roll out their new business class suites, this is a well-timed change. It’s one of the little things that will make the overall experience seem more premium.
For a premium, thoughtfully curated, and multisensory experience in the sky, consider a Delta One flight.
Hallelujah
What is there to keep customers from walking off the plane with them?
Even if these headsets are not compatible with your home’s Hi-Fi system, there are collector geeks who will take them for the sake of having it in their collections.
@ Disgruntled American — Sadly, nothing.
This is the change we have been waiting for!
As a purser for AA .I couldn’t welcome this announcement more . It’s about time !
good move. this was one of the least premium aspects of the premium cabin for AA.
I have always wondered if other airlines have this theft issue? When I fly BA the headset is there waiting for me when I board, and nobody collects it from me even after landing. How does Delta and United handle this?
Nice! Now, please finish updating the cabin interiors on the a321T because the number of ‘inoperable’ seats and the amount of duct tape, even in Flagship First, is astounding! Oh, and you guys better never get rid of the ice cream sundae, or else! Bah!
I am so happy about this change. I work the international premium cabin only and get so tired of playing find the headset game or getting snarled at. I also look forward to the free WiFi. Nooo, not for me but for the passengers that pay for it and then it doesn’t work. I spend hours apologizing and telling them where to write to get a refund. Both of these little things will make a huge difference in the F/A work life.
A rare win around the board, woohoo!
@L737 — Speaking of the board(games). So often, it feels like we’re in a game of Monopoly out here, and we’re often not ‘winning’ with these big businesses. So, yes, it’s the little things that make the difference (like extra headphones time.) Then again, I prefer Catan anyways (…anyone wanna trade sheep for wood or brick?? Gotta build more roads!)
This is such great news. The lengthy credit card presentations sound so much better through the headsets than they do from the overhead speakers.
The right post this time 🙂
@1990 — Nice analogy and I too am a fan of a good game of Catan! On that theme a random thought that just came to my head is it’s like airlines are playing Scrabble and instead of playing “LISTEN” as in listen to what their customers and staff want they often just play “SILENT” as in not do anything so I’m glad it worked out in this case.
@1990,
AA will be redoing the cabins of the A321Ts to a A321 as soon as AA gets the A321XLR.
Unfortunately, the delay on the XLRs has allowed the T cabins to suffer.
@L737 — Well said!
@Pilot93434 — Oh yes. I’ve been following that closely. It’s long overdue, and too often further delayed. I can’t wait for the a321XLR along with the 789 with those new AA Suites. Although I’m in NYC, I’d consider routing through PHL to try the new Flagship there once it finally opens, too. These are the types of things that still bring me hope for AA. I’ll admit, I let my EP go for Platinum Pro this year, mostly earned from crediting QR to AA, but I still enjoy some domestic, transcon, and Caribbean routes with AA. Otherwise, I’ve been flying Delta more so, and United less so. B6 is wonderful if it has Mint, but they’ve let me and others down on reliability lately (4+ hour delay is not ‘cool’). Anyway, safe travels.
@ 1990 — Just think, we can make millions selling ice cream sundaes for less than the lowest economy fares.