In April 2020 I shared details of a new American Airlines safety video. The airline held off releasing it because of the Covid-19 pandemic. I only posted an 18 second snippet to offer a taste, looking forward to the airline’s planned release.
Then at the end of 2020 the airline accidentally released the video on 70 aircraft, and it took them a little while to pull it. So I shared the full thing.
Now – three years after filming, 32 months after planned release, and two years after brief accidental release – American is rolling out the ‘new’ safety video to its fleet, as noted by aviation watchdog JonNYC.
AA: pic.twitter.com/ReOwUgb4jR
— 🇺🇦 JonNYC 🇺🇦 (@xJonNYC) December 29, 2022
Here’s the safety video, originally intended to be released in spring 2020:
Note of course that this will be shown only on aircraft with seat back screens, and American has taken most of those out of their domestic narrowbody fleet. Flight attendants have gone back to manual demonstrations on Boeing 737s and Airbus A321s (and continue to do manual demonstrations on legacy US Airways Airbus A319s, and used ones added to the fleet, along with legacy US Airways A320s). You’ll mostly see this on Boeing 777s and 787s.
It’s not clear how many people appear in ‘Safety at Scale’ but the meaning here suggests scale in a couple of key scenes, using people to do things like form the American Airlines logo and a no smoking sign, and to suggest just how large American Airlines is.
This new video isn’t as chic as the last one. Still, it’s visually interesting. The new video doesn’t make a play at humor, though at the 2 minute mark a cabin crew member breaks formation slightly to wave at the camera.
I’m not sure there’s an improvement here compared to this video produced over a decade ago. American still needs a safety video for some of its aircraft, and this is one.
This is their best one yet. Good job
Lame!
It is bland and boring. Very corporate, starchy, and awkward, with numerous pauses in the dialogue. The formation at the end feels like something from BA, circa 1997. The uniforms are also awful. AA had introduced a better look immediately post-merger, with checkered shirts but there were so many issues with those, they went with the ones you see in the new video now. Very unimaginative and uninspiring. The previous safety video, narrated by a real flight attendant was crisper and more chic indeed. They recycled the faux cabin seating arrangement from that one and incorporated it into the new one.
Better then the last one. American Ann (evil sister to Deltalina) always gave me the jitters. . .LOL.
What’s most striking about most airline safety propaganda video is the disconnect between reality and fantasy. Spacious and pristine seat configuration inside a cavernous hangar to depict cramp, subhuman torture chambers is laughable. Add happy, smiley, helpful employees and you’re entering some bizarro world only the most creative Disney trained wonk can imagine.
I totally agree with Sunviking. Something about that last lady was CREEPY. This is bland but at least I’m not creeped out. And I guess they gave up ‘going for great’ since they could never get to ‘good!’
Stop wasting time and resources trying to be clever. Invest in the gate experience if you want to make my travel more pleasant
When are we EVER going to drop the “how to buckle the seatbelt” instructions??
Is there anyone flying that doesn’t know how?
Pete B. – please address!
David…I flew on Christmas Day and while attempting to get into my windows seat the lady in the middle seat couldn’t figure out how to unbuckle her seatbelt. I agree, seatbelt operation should be common sense by now but the demo video is made for those less traveled.
The video is incredibly creepy, with staff smiling as if they were a bunch of zombies.
The lady doing the seatbelt demonstration freaks me out with her fake smile.
Demographics aside, the last flight attendant is borderline morbidly obese, and that is not great in case of emergency.