Tag Archives for d0.
There’s been a lack of clarity for years over whether customer experience matters, or just operational metrics, and whether American is trying to be a premium carrier or a Spirit and Frontier competitor.
So I’m not surprised to see an internal memo going out to flight attendants telling them not to worry about missing catering, customers just want to depart exactly on time and that crew does passengers a disservice when they ensure long flights have food on board.
American Airlines has focused like a laser on “D0” – exact on time departures – over nearly all other priorities. That hasn’t always made them a reliable airline, but it’s led to numerous dysfunctions.
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom signaled in his first earnings call that he’s shifting the focus of the airline from this metric to a broader set of priorities that will operate reliably while also taking care of customers.
American Airlines has updated its rules have been tightened to require customers to be at the gate earlier, and to board flights earlier.
Requiring passengers to spend more time congregating in cramped gate areas is the opposite direction from where the airline should be moving in the current era which calls for greater social distancing. And closing the doors earlier means more passengers missing more flights.
American Airlines President Robert Isom first tells a group of employees in Philadelphia that they need to do it all, but when it comes down to it he says run on time.
United has a program called ConnectionSaver to hold planes for connecting passengers where it won’t cause system or other passenger delays. United expects 25% of flights to arrive 10 minutes early (or more) every day. So holding plenty of flights still allows for on time arrivals.
American doesn’t defer to a computer for this. Their operations center can make the decision to hold a flight, for instance when there are a large number of connecting passengers they’ll have difficulty accommodating in the event of a misconnect. However there are 3 cases where gate agents are allowed allowed to hold the boarding door for customers past 10 minutes to departure.
By beating the airline’s internal goals for “D0” or exact on-time departures, employees will get at least a $50 bonus under American’s ‘Grand Slam’ bonus program. American employees can earn up to $200 a month based on the airline’s operational performance when the airline beats Delta, United, and Southwest for the month in four areas.
American’s on-time performance and frequency of cancelled flights was appalling over the summer. I’ve highlighted the bad news, so let’s also highlight the good news. November was much much better.
Over the summer the carrier cancelled more flights than anyone, faced not just with a mechanics’ job action but also too much deferred maintenance and management failure to deploy parts where they were needed.
However the month of September was American’s best in two years based on the most important metric of on-time arrivals.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
