Here’s how to turn around the service culture at American Airlines.
The best-performing airlines in the U.S. have been the ones following a premium strategy: Delta and United. Low cost carriers have been struggling. Their costs aren’t so low anymore, with pandemic shifts in wages. And consumers have been looking to buy more differentiated products.
American Airlines lagged the industry financially before the pandemic, and they struggle today. They have high costs and lower revenue. And they’re saddled with debt that comes from borrowing money to fund share buybacks under predecessor CEO Doug Parker.
Even their credit card – the lifeblood of profits for the airline – has slipped to third place in charge volume, when it used to lead the industry.
CEO Robert Isom has announced to employees a planned pivot to premium. I’ve gone into great detail over what they need to do to accomplish this and why it’s unlikely without bringing in executives from outside the company to drive it.
Live and Let’s Fly thinks one of the five most important things is “Flight Attendants Who Actually Care” and while it’s true that employees need to be motivated to deliver outstanding service (and Delta cabin crew overall deliver better customer service today), what’s important to understand is why American Airlines fails here. It’s not the fault of the front line.
I haven’t shared about my latest AA flight yet, but the service was so comically bad, not in a hostile way, but just in the laidback and unprofessional attitude of the flight attendants.
While AA has some amazing, wonderful flight attendants, it also has many who are just going through the motions. It shows! People notice.
Why are we so willing to accept that service on East Asian carriers will always be better? Certainly you’ve had a flight on US carrier where the service was outstanding…that must be replicated and I refuse to accept that there is no room for improvement or that the service culture is too ingrained.
Always and everywhere poor service delivery is because of management not because of flight attendants.
- Frontline needs the tools and they need a product they can be proud of. When flight attendants are given $8 wines to serve to customers on $6,000 tickets, and do so in plastic cups what message does that send?
Back when there were still closets on planes, management took away tags for flight attendants to write down seat numbers in order to track whose jackets were whose. Flight attendants still tried to get the service done, even without the tools. But what message does it send over time about prioritizing delivering service to premium customers?
Or when American told flight attendants working international first class that they no longer needed to bother setting the table for meal service?
- The message to deliver Spirit-style service comes from the top. For years, Robert Isom spoke about the need to focus their competition on Spirit and Frontier and flight attendants became confused about what kind of product they were even supposed to deliver?
[T]oday there is a real drive within the industry and with the traveling public to want to have really at the end of the day low cost seats. And we’ve got to be cognizant of what’s out there in the marketplace and what people want to pay.
The fastest growing airlines in the United States Spirit and Frontier. Most profitable airlines in the United States Spirit. We have to be cognizant of the marketplace and that real estate that’s how we make our money.
We don’t want to make decisions that ultimately put us at a disadvantage, we’d never do that.
- Some flight attendants provide amazing service despite management. There are flight attendants who never sit down. They engage customers, check on them, proactively offer more drinks, just fantastic. They’re motivated by an intrinsic desire to do a great job. It would seem to me to be so discouraging to go to work and not leave your heart out on the field every day. But at the same time those are the outliers.
There’s little appreciation shown by management for this. In fact, a flight attendant who calls for catering when international first class is about to go out without flatware is going to get yelled at for potentially risking a moment’s departure delay. Flight attendants aren’t rewarded for taking great care of customers, and there’s little risk in not doing so.
And when you watch your colleagues do the bare minimum each day, there’s no consequence and they’re rewarded just as much as you are? That’s demoralizing. And that’s at the feet of management.
- If there are ‘bad apples’ that’s because of management. You aren’t going to find 17,000 self-starters, and in any case it’s American Airlines management that is doing the people selection! The airline used to say it’s tougher getting into flight attendant training than getting into Harvard. If they have the wrong people, whose fault is that?
The way you begin to turn this around is to get the message out, in person and in a credible way, that the company is on the line. Things need to be different, and will be different in a lasting and sustainable way. Here’s a four point plan to accomplish it:
- Symbolic change. Make a change to the product that hits at the heart of customer complains and turns it into a surprise and delight moment. When United Airlines introduced Stroopwafels as an economy snack, and changed the coffee from hated Fresh Brew (‘Fresh Poo’) to premium brand Illy, this served as a signal that the product matters, details mattered, and there had been a significant change in management from cost-cutting CEO Jeff Smisek. American Airlines still serves Fresh Brew.
- Prioritized by management. If you want to assess what’s truly important to management, watch how they spend their time. At United, Oscar Munoz spent his time with employees. He traveled around the system, talking to frontline team members. He told stories about great service he encountered. He wasn’t a great airline executive but he was a good people executive. He convinced employees that they had a bright future, he should that they mattered to him, and that they were all in it together. Top executives need to hit the road to sell the importance and connection of front line team members to the success of the airline.
In 2014 American’s then-CEO Doug Parker said profit sharing is “not the right way to pay 100,000 employees that don’t have that much impact on the daily profits.” They’ve been telling employees for years that their contributions don’t matter it’s going to take real sales and commitment from the top to convince them that each employee matters with every customer, every day.
- Giving the tools to do the job. If American Airlines doesn’t provide tools and product to do a great job, they’re communicating that it isn’t important to do a great job. Begin by improving onboard offerings, and ensuring that flights are properly catered. Stop telling flight attendants not to care whether they’ve received proper catering. You want them to care!
- And rewarding customer satisfaction. When American was negotiating its flight attendant contract, I flagged that it was a real opportunity to pay cabin crew more and tie some of that pay to service metrics. That was only one element of getting great service, but it was a unique window of opportunity for the financial piece of the equation. They have a contract in place now, so any investment they make here will have to be incremental. But make no mistake they need to make the investment.
American Airlines should announce a compensation program to bonus employees for customer satisfaction scores. They should reinstate real rewards for ‘aaplause’ certificates that elite frequent flyers can give to employees. The old You’re SomeOne Special or “SOS” program gave positive space travel.
Years ago, Doug Parker used to talk about ‘taking care of employees so employees would take care of customers’ and that this was how they would earn a revenue premium. Customers would prefer flying American. The problem is that taking care of employees largely meant getting HR to show them how to use their benefits, not provide them with the tools to provide great service. And the airline lacked a mission, eventually settling on ‘caring for people on life’s journey’ which sounded like the tagline for an assisted living facility.
They never came up with a mission for employees to rally behind, communicated what’s at stake, and enlisted front line crew to fight beside management for the future of the company. Instead, they told employees the goal was to “passionately pursue efficiencies.” Not providing service can be more efficient! You see the problem that exists today?
Fully agree with the points indicated. It is so sad to see the down spiral in AA continuing without any light at the end of the tunnel. It is not rocket science in finding way to improve customer experience without breaking the bank, but sadly at AA it’s penny wise, dollar fool mentality. Seeing how DL and UA sprinting ahead leaving a cloud of dust in AA’s face is just sad in what used to be a great airline.
Hopefully with the newly appointed AAdvantage and Customer Experience lead, things will start turning around. On my last few Flagship First trips, it was very obvious AA has given up and even complaining to Customer Service after the trip, you’re just given a few miserable points.
Agree on most points but the first. Poor service delivery and onboard behavior are not management’s fault. True, management can set the expectations and enforce them but it’s up to the individual to perform to expectations. I highly doubt that the initial and recurrent training encourages barricades in the galley, hiding for hours behing a drawn curtain, not answering call buttons, surly attitudes etc. These are individual decisions made by individual flight attendants.
They need to start doing a better job hiring…..then start knocking off the ones who simply will not get with the program. Money is not the full answer. If these people were paid $100k per year, I’d doubt much would change.
You favorite flight attendant commenters here only cement that.
When you tolerate shenanigans, you’re going to get shenanigans and that’s where AA is now……a hair above Spirit and Frontier.
If they don’t like it, they can resign and work somewhere that their antics will be tolerated.
When the management sucks, so goes the airlines. Yes, I once worked for Eastern Air Lines.
When AA management failed to restore cabin staffing levels post-COVID, fewer staff had to do the job of pre-COVID tasks and service has declined. When AA management says it wants to focus on quality, here is where to start. “Focus on quality” is a catch-phrase like “every aircraft is ready to fly every morning.” (By the way, what ever happened to that?) I don’t believe it. Like Alex Cruz was at BA, AA management thinks in terms of the company being in a commodity business rather than a differentiated business. It is beyond their depth. And, I think these catch-phrases from AA management are mere words to placate its Board of Directors.
American used to run the “we know why you fly” commercials and they seem to have forgotten that.
Hey, Spirit style service would be an improvement. On Spirit, 9 out of 10 times I am thanked for my loyalty status by name, and the flight attendant handling Big Front Seat comes around before takeoff introducing themself by name, taking drink orders for once in the air, and outlining the service. It is frighteningly consistent.
I had a very nice flight on American yesterday to end a horrific travel week (thankfully got last minute nonstop ticket on AA… my UA connection finally ended up leaving 5hrs50min late). Maybe it was because I was on the AA silver/red/white/blue “recent retro” B737 but it felt like the old AA of the early 2000s. Two flight attendants served First as a team, introduced themselves by name (both also had at least 20 year seniority pins on), provided a solid meal service with hot towels, and were active in checking every 10-15 minutes through the balance of the flight. My upgrade was free based on status but I would have given two 500-mile stickers for it in the old days.
Name all the improvement steps and suggestions you want, Gary. Nothing will meaningfully improve until the entire legacy management team is fired and gone, starting with Isom.
This 4-point plan is spot on! Better tools and management accountability are crucial for improving service culture. Empowering employees with the right resources and holding leadership responsible can truly transform customer experiences. American Airlines has the potential to turn things around—hopefully, they take these actionable steps seriously. Great insights!
Gary Leff should be American’s next CEO
It’s pretty clear that management thinks domestic flying should be on the Frontier/Spirit side even as the airline (and rightfully so) tries to monetize domestic first class. Less than half the time no pre departure beverages, lacking in meals, flight attendants that on flights of less than 900 miles do one beverage and snack run then run and hide in the back.
Domestic coach, barely above Frontier or Spirit.
Flagship Business very dependent upon the crew.
Some Admirals Clubs (most former US Clubs) that are nothing more than a Wendys.
But if front line workers think the focus is to be more like an ULCC that’s the experience you will get. And so far no real desire on management to change the perception or reality.
Bring back blankets in business class. Have better food options for meals in business too and don’t “run out” so frequently. Make it easier to prebook a meal in the app. And then get a competitive international network ASAP.
Its mostly the trashy uneducated passengers like CHRIS’s fault!
We’d like to thank you for flying American airlines. Just wanted to let you know that we departed on time today BUT we did not have enough time to fully stock the gallery. So this 3 hour flight will not have any type of refreshments
@CHRIS — At least you’re consistently awful on here. I’ve noticed nearly any time you comment it’s usually to bash workers, even though as Gary correctly pointed out yet again: AA’s issues lie with management. Some people, like CHRIS, just hate anyone they deep ‘less than’ themselves. This is not the way. Do better. Treat others as you want to be treated—and in CHRIS’s case, no wonder he’s often disappointed.
Or just take your business elsewhere until they improve. As Michael O’Leary claimed, my planes are full of people who said they would never fly me again.
What incentive do they have to change?
I certainly hope someone in AA management is reading this, but I think they would rather pay some consultant millions of dollars then take the free advice that’s been given here. This advice comes from customers not consultants.
Doug Parker is the reason things got so poor at American Airlines. As a retiree I am ashamed to tell anyone I worked for AA in the past. Delta, United and Southwest all have better customer service. Maybe things will get better.
This is spot on. But I doubt anything will really happen under Isom. AA culture under Isom is truly soulsucking for passengers and employees alike. He will never embrace this.
Poor service is absolutely management’s fault.
If front line service is poor — regardless of the reason — it is management’s responsibility to identify, assess and address.
Accountability starts at the bottom, but floats upward.
If service remains poor, then it is time to replace management.
As the saying used to go, “That’s why they get paid the big bucks.”
Fwiw, there are numerous business school cases where retainingthe front line while sacking management’s resulted in improved performance.
Unless it is American Airlines at which the only service metric is D0.
I think this is a fair analysis, Gary.
While there are certainly some bad eggs (and those may, indeed, speak to some opportunities around hiring standards), I genuinely believe that most customer-facing staff at American want to provide good customer service and be customer-focused.
However, in any corporation, customer focus begins with the leadership team itself being customer-focused. As you have pointed out in other articles, that seems to be missing at American. A perfect example is the standby policy (e.g., those without status cannot have an agent add them to the standby list). It’s clear no one at headquarters incorporated the customer into that thinking. I feel for agents in scenarios like that: the standby decision does not meaningfully reduce agent workload (i.e., plenty of people are still asking agents about standby, taking their time). Now, instead of the agent saying “sure, let me add you to the list,” the agent is taking his/her time to say “no” and explain the (stupid) policy to the customer. It’s hard to engender a customer-focused culture among frontline staff when the policies themselves are customer-unfriendly (and, in this case, for no particularly good reason). And, as you’ve pointed out, when the messaging at the top is devoid of customer-focused language (e.g., the relentless focus on saving pennies), it’s no doubt that those newer to the culture pick up the message–because that’s exactly what the message is! (I think this is why so many frequent flyers notice that tenured flight attendants provide better service. Often, the commentary seems generational–the young ones are lazy, etc.–and while there may be some truth to this, my lens is that the more tenured flight attendants were immersed in what once was a culture with higher service standards and still carry forward that culture, while less tenured flight attendants have only been immersed in the meet-the-bare-minimum-culture that has been coming from the top of AA.)
There are certainly AA flight attendants who go above and beyond to provide excellent service with what they are provided. However, you do not create a “premium” or customer-focused experience by relying on your employees willing to go the extra mile (nice as those employees are to have, and as much as those employees should be recognized and celebrated). Instead, you create a more “premium” and customer-focused experience by setting standards, training to them, enforcing them once the expectation and training are in-place, and ensuring that staff have the resources and tools needed to hit the standard.
As your article points out, so much of AA’s experience could be improved simply through better service flows, some of which would not cost the airline at all, and some of which would. What I find ironic (and annoying) about AA is the massive capital spending on “premium” hard product (e.g., new flagship suites) without the corresponding management of the impressions that go into a premium experience. For example: paying $8K for an (admittedly nice) business class suite to then be served pre-departure drinks in plastic and cheap wines and to have to use a call bell to get a second glass of wine with your main course or tea after your meal. Imagine the impression customers would have if the service flows (and associated training and on-board implements) simply had pre-departure drinks in glassware, higher quality wines, and a pass through with before-entree wines (even if off a cart!). And little things like–hey, if you serve me a cup of tea, serve it with a little dish for the tea bag.
While I understand people’s skepticism (given their lived experience of AA in recent years–like many, I have so.many.stories of service going downhill), I am at least encouraged that AA’s leadership seems to see that the world has changed and that “premium” is no longer a matter of nice seats and on-time.
Anyway, good article and discussion.
The cheap plastic cups for pre-departure beverages are a FAA / AA policy to ensure if takeoff is quicker then normal that all items can be quickly picked up,
No one would like a ceramic mug or glass tumbler to hit them.
@Joe T and @BRMM you make excellent points. I’ve been flying heavily since 1986. At one point or another I’ve been top tier (well, the “published” tiers) on most US airlines and many that are no longer around. AA’s Platinum, which morphed eventually into Executive Platinum used to be the best of the lot. Somewhere around the mid-teens the ExPlat experience began lagging. In 2019 I had a horrific experience on AA as a paid J / upgraded to F-class pax DFW-LHR. In fact, I never got to board and missed the trip altogether. The fault was an extrordinarly bad check-in experience at the Terminal D Priority counter. I won’t go into the details except to say I went home and by the next day I was extended full United 1K status. UA was my preferred carrier out of DFW up until about a year ago when some timetable revisions resulted in untenable UA connections (40 minutes or 3.5 hours). Now I’m back on AA as ExPlat. It is a markedly noticeable drop-off from the UA 1K experience. So bad that I’m going free-agent. Have two paid J TATL flights this summer. Neither will be on AA. @BRMM is right on the mark when he/she says AA doesn’t understand service flow and soft-product details. I couldn’t care less about a door on a suite. But if I’m on a J/F international flight I dang sure don’t want to have to ring a bell to have a coffee refill. And it better be in a mug, not a paper cup.
George – Plastic pre-departure is not an FAA protocol. Delta’s pre-departure sparkling wine on international flights is in glassware. Same for British Airways and multiple other carriers. Yes, they do have to picked-up before takeoff (as are the plastic ones).
Given the crash today, it seems like Delta cares more about the in-flight experience than it does about safety.
American air lines is a no care airline ,is only about close the door ,who care about service when you don’t have anything to offfer ,is not fly att fault
Good luck with that!! These big companies have all these ideas to make a turnaround, keep in mind maybe treating your employees better as change number 1, also AA has a major over abundance of management staff, the airline should trim it’s management by at least 55%! Many managers are never seen and all the work is done by union employees.
Hope they can turn the ship around by may be too late!
Excellent article, Gary. The worst part about AA management is that they didn’t seem to care about frontline service and fooled themselves into believing frequent flyers either wouldn’t notice or wouldn’t care. And, by the way, I never cared as much about when the plane left the gate as I do about what time it arrives.
The understaffing on AA flights is absolutely comically bad, and it’s obvious that there is no management supervision..
Add one more flight attendant per flight, with management and obligation to file a performance review for every flight, and you will see service become one of the best of the world. The added flight attendant is needed, as is the ongoing monitoring.
And stop putting airplanes without screens on (6-8-hour) transcontinental routes
That’s by the way, how every well-run airline does it.
In the interim, the solution for those who are not hub captive is pretty simple: avoid AA at all cost. Which is what anybody with some wealth is doing, leaving the price sensitive passengers to AA.
Stop outsourcing services like companies that hire the lowest common denominator
You want an elevated experience stop hiring from the bottom of the barrel
Hire knuckledraggers for $15 bucks an hour that have zero customer service skills, can’t effectively communicate in English and once they make supervisor and get paid 19 bucks an hour they’re on a power trip
As an EP, the biggest issue I have is with baggage teams that are either a) outsourced with no accountability and the team is staffed with riff raf
Just got off a business class flight from Madrid to Philadelphia where I thought the service was exemplary throughout and the food was quite good. Of course the “champagne” served in a plastic cup before takeoff is not the same as the excellent French champagne served in flight. It is my understanding that this is to save a few $ in tax if it is served on the ground, at who knows what cost in loss of future disillusioned revenue paying customers …
Sounds like something Michael Scott said at the investor day then did a twirl.
All jokes aside, the problem with AA is not just abysmal management, but also the FA union who stand in the way of a lot of bad apples being dealt with.
Fire that sucker Isom NOW before private equity swops in and drives the company into bankruptcy after raping it. . The AA Board is a bunch of total wimps who are tools of Isom and who approve of his outrageous salary/benefits while making one of the top 3 airlines in passengers at the bottom of the heap in quality. Whoever heard of the CEO also being on the board of directors until the past few years when it’s become the norm. Talk about the fox in the chicken house ! He demeans his employees and giving nothing but lip service to them and then has his managers come down hard on a gate agent for a 5 minute delay. This wouldn’t matter if they didn’t offer 35 min connections at DFW and sometimes 20 minute connections at PHX and CLT. And because of this they have the worst baggage mishandling record of the major carriers since passengers may make a short connection if they are at the front of the aircraft but the bags don’t. Then add to the constant mechanical delays over the past year. At most well managed businesses a VP of that high a level and be costing the business SO much in compensation they would have been FIRED well before now. But at AA it’s a good boy/girl relationship where no one gets fired except that inept and foul mouthed Vasu Raja who other employees should have kicked in the ass for the way he spoke. AA Board is there simply to collect their ridiculous salaries and unbelievable benefits. SHAREHOLDERS AND EMPLOYEES REVOLT !!
Clearly having an MBA is not sufficient for being a competent CEO of an airline. Parker, Isom, and, yes, I could go on with others. If a CEO, Director, Manager, Team Lead cannot inspire their team to give their best, they need to look in the mirror, not at their team(s). AA could be the best, as US Airlines could have been, as Air West could have been. None ever were, because if the CEO, and other leads are not the best, don’t expect anything more from the team. AA has some great FA’s and others in so many roles. All that matters is how the customer perceives what they are receiving from the company they paid for service. That comes down to the CSA, gate agents, FAs, etc. Leaders lead, and the rest follow. Clearly, there is not, and has not been, any true, honest, real leadership at America West, US Airlines, American Airlines for years… including prior CEOs. Basically, a private equity approach to airlines, which only enriches executives, is what we’ve seen for decades, going back to Pan Am, Eastern, etc…..
United is the airline I normally always fly. In reference to the service. I have always been happy with the service and FA in First/Bus Class. Was very disappointed several weeks ago. Was flying on a Dreamliner and was looking forward to the lay flat seats. Houston to San Jaun, 4 plus hours. Asked FA for a Pillow and Blanket. She said the plane was NOT stocked with them. I was really disappointed.
Nice article. I love giving good service but you are right, the slips given to premium customers to reward good service are worth $1 at most. You can get 100 of those a month and nothing shows in your file. A single email is so much better. It makes those chasing credit focus on getting emails instead of just focusing on the passengers. Also the management has been all stick and no carrot for some time now. This is reflected in the direct sales plan. Instead of offering a bonus for booking through the preferred channels (carrot) they punished those who didn’t book where they wanted (no miles for those flights, heavy stick). The punitive culture has killed morale. Lastly the trips have gotten so bad, the joy has been stripped away, and the 12 hour days with 11 hour layovers lead to exhaustion and thus less enthusiastic service. It’s sad.
Since Gary knows everything, start with the 2003 restructuring BS Don Carty forced upon the FAs while 2 days later announcing bonuses to the top 36 executives. Or it could be that the FAs are working understaffed since the now defunct America West management team is failing miserably at running an international carrier. The service passengers receive is a product of the service the FAs receive from management. Once again, Gary doesn’t have a backstage pass so really doesn’t have all the facts.
Probably the most spot on article I’ve read from Gary Leff. I am a 26 year legacy AA flight attendant and I agree. The service is an embarrassment at AA. I was once proud to be part of AA which was the best when I started flying. Watching it fall from grace is so sad. I hope they truly have a wake up call because I’d love to see us focus on service again and be proud of my airline again. We are basically America west camouflaged with AA logo now.
I would say 40% of the management 60% of the quality of FAs, AA should start to discipline the FAs, FAs sitting in FC playing with their phone while deplaning, really ?! FAs sitting in the jump seat saying goodbye when customers deplaning (on Airbus ), holding coffee while boarding and closing bins ?! Customers should start to write up FAs.
@King
Your village called, they’re missing their idiot!
@Maxine – I have covered executive bonuses while asking employees for givebacks https://viewfromthewing.com/leadership-lessons-from-american-airlines-past/
@Christine you are so correct and I totally agree. AA has slipped badly. I was a regular on AA 50/51 and 60/61 when I was doing business and living in Tokyo and London. Aways top notch. That was in the 90’s.