American merger - a downgrade or upgrade

[Kev3188]

It's amazing he got anything done with the incessant whining, doom and gloom attitudes acquired with the last merger.

Some people have the ability to turn lemonade into lemons.

Commercial aviation lesson 1: Everyone'll tell you it sucks, but people rarely leave.

Honestly I don't care what the planes look like outside or inside, I just care about job security,pay and benefits at the end of the day we don't own the airline. Loyalty has been gone a long time ago. We're just numbers.

^Truth^

 

[snapthis]

Commercial aviation lesson 1: Everyone'll tell you it sucks, but people rarely leave.

^Truth^

Speaking as someone who carries an AARP card but not yet retired. I have a little catching up to do in the 401K dept.

I'm told companies don't discriminate against older workers....

I'll play it safe and stick around.

 

[malikie]

And just to clarify, HP also had overhead entertainment (like US). Premerger US also had some powerports. But it was ultimately HP management that decided to ghettofy things and take it to an extreme following AA's lead of cutting into the customer experience.

Yes we did have IFE in our aircraft. But do you remember the state of the economy and the reason for pulling the IFE off off all A/C except for international? DP and his group did everything they could to save money. The only thing DP and his group never did was go to the employees and take money out of their paychecks. At that time I would rather loose the IFE and the powerports than money out of my check.

 

[skynews]

"Providing an Industry-Leading Travel Experience

The new American will offer a greater ability to invest in new aircraft, modern technologies, and the products and services loyal customers value most.

In addition, the new American will benefit from landmark agreements with Airbus and Boeing, designed to transform the new American Airlines fleet over the next four years and solidify its fleet plan into the next decade.

During the next four years, the combined airline is planning to take delivery of more than 600 new aircraft, most of which will be equipped with:

• Advanced in-seat inflight entertainment systems offering thousands of hours of programming;
• Inflight Wi-Fi for connectivity throughout the world; and
• “Main Cabin Extra” seating with 4-6 inches of additional legroom in the Main Cabin.

In addition, the combined carrier’s fleet will also feature fully lie-flat, all-aisle access premium seating on American’s new Boeing 777-300ER aircraft and Airbus 321 Transcontinental deliveries slated for later this year. Similar to US Airways’ Airbus A330 international Envoy service, American will also retrofit existing 777-200 and 767-300 aircraft to include fully lie-flat premium seating in an effort to provide a consistent experience for customers flying on the combined carrier."

we will have to wait and see.

 

[FWAAA]

And just to clarify, HP also had overhead entertainment (like US). Premerger US also had some powerports. But it was ultimately HP management that decided to ghettofy things and take it to an extreme following AA's lead of cutting into the customer experience.

Parker has already hinted that HP'ing US was not the best move, and just about anyone who knows what they're talking about (excluding the teenage airliners.net crowd) realizes that Parker won't make that mistake a second time. He's not going to LCCify the new AA.

Yes we did have IFE in our aircraft. But do you remember the state of the economy and the reason for pulling the IFE off off all A/C except for international? DP and his group did everything they could to save money. The only thing DP and his group never did was go to the employees and take money out of their paychecks. At that time I would rather loose the IFE and the powerports than money out of my check.

He didn't have to "take money out of their paychecks" as other CEOs had done that for him. Parker then sat back and watched the infighting save US more than $2 billion in labor costs due to the regional jet pay that US East mainline pilots received since 2005 and the industry-lagging pay that all US FAs accepted since 2005. Parker benefitted from the lowest paid flight crews in among the legacy airlines. One reason (among many) that US gets the lowest yields on TATL and Latin America flights is the absence of industry-standards like power ports and AVOD. The Envoy Suites on the A330s is the first positive sign that Parker realized the mistake of attempting to be a giant LCC. UA, DL and AA all attracted higher fares on long-haul flights with their better products.

 

[johnny kat]

Based upon what I have observed from an in-flight status, after the HP-US merger it took a little while for things to start changing. I noticed that the first thing DP did was put in a very competent VP inflight services and gave him the authority and most of the budget he requested.

Then, slowly as new vendors came forth with the most competitve pricing things really turned around with the inflight offerings. Now, inflight at US is just as competitive if not better than most of the competition. So as usual, perception is slow to catch up with reality.

As for the ovens being removed from coach and the inflight movies being pulled off the a/c...no one seem to care anyway. US a/c are no worse or no better than the competition.

IMHO, some high profile offerings will be gone but will be replaced by something that offers a higher revenue return, which in turn will mean better profits. At the same time what happens at the new AA will most certainly have a trickle affect across the industry as other airlines realize that they are losing money by not doing some of the same stuff. The employees and customers alike will have to accept that things are going to be different. The same old money losing ways of the past are over, get use to it.

 

[eolesen]

If what AA was proposing were actually new, you'd be right that others would follow.

The only problem I see is that AA is playing catch-up to what non-US carriers have been doing for a while. They're just now committing to fully flat seats, something just about every other major long-haul carrier has had for the past five years.

 

[Glenn Quagmire]

Commercial aviation lesson 1: Everyone'll tell you it sucks, but people rarely leave.

You nailed it Kev.

"Battered person syndrome" is rife within the industry.

 

[Bob Owens]

Commercial aviation lesson 1: Everyone'll tell you it sucks, but people rarely leave.

Not so rare anymore, look behind you, Where are all the younger people? They left.

Two more 15 + year mechanics left JFK today.

 

[777 fixer]

Commercial aviation lesson 1: Everyone'll tell you it sucks, but people rarely leave.

I've noticed an inverse relationship in the amount of complaining to the chances someone is going to leave for better pastures. The more someone whines about the company they work for the less likely it it they will ever leave.

 

[Art at ISP]

As one who lived through the US/HP merger, and had frequent contact with US management, I can hardly believe that DP has learned his lesson, and I believe he will try to gut AA's product, as he did at US. When IFE was removed from the domestic fleet, the attitude was "no one will PAY for it, and we can save the weight".. typical of the HP mindset. Also, remember that DP is on record as being resentful of high level flyers, and of giving perks to those who keep the airline in business. He is neither customer or employee friendly at the end of the day, REGARDLESS of what he says or promises you folks.

The pre-merger US had a decent product, and some of the best employees in the industry, who were empowered to help customers, kind of like Delta empowers their employees today. Today, the computers are locked down so neither employees or supervisors can override them to help customers in need. The HP mentality is to step over dollars to pick up pennies, and it shows in virtually all of the operation. The employees I speak to are frustrated, and fed up...because they want to help customers but can't.

So I think this is going to be an eventual downgrade of AA, but I sincerely hope I am wrong. My conjecture at this point is based on experience with DP and his team.

Good luck to you all....

 

[dash8roa]

What about the processing fees to redeem an award ticket. What a slap in the face of your best customers. $25.00 for each domestic ticket and $50.00 for each international ticket and that is when it is done on line, without using res agent on the phone.
Its time to lift US and not lower AA.

 

[WorldTraveler]

I've noticed an inverse relationship in the amount of complaining to the chances someone is going to leave for better pastures. The more someone whines about the company they work for the less likely it it they will ever leave.

absolutely true... and let's be real honest here.

The US airline industry was deregulated 35 years ago this year. While it can certainly be argued that many airline employees at the time had no idea what was going to occur in the airline industry, the deregulated US airline industry is merely a history lesson for all but a handful of current airline employees.
Shortly after deregulation, the whole Frank Lorenzo, Eastern, Texas Air etc. chapters unfolded making it pretty clear where the industry was headed.
If there was any doubt, 9/11 should have completely put it to rest. Yet 9/11 was 12 years ago.

There really is no excuse for anyone in the airline industry to have any delusions about what they should expect.

There have been numerous opportunities to leave, numerous opportunities to realize where the industry would be headed - and yet there are people whose expectations continue to be disconnected from reality.

Anyone who is working in the airline industry and hasn't put plans in place to leave either is content with their employment situation or doesn't have the courage to do what is necessary to regain control of their lives and careers.

The same thing can be said about "customer service" among legacy carriers. There should be no expectation that it could be decent - and certain surprise if it is anything better.

 

[777 fixer]

Anyone who is working in the airline industry and hasn't put plans in place to leave either is content with their employment situation or doesn't have the courage to do what is necessary to regain control of their lives and careers.

If they stay what they are saying is the pay and benefits are good enough. To stay and complain about the two strikes me as a bit odd.

 

[tadjr]

Where AA's been a leader is powerports, and I don't see that changing. They've been able to justify the lack of seatback and overhead IFE by providing power for customer-provided devices and wifi. Smarter move in my opinion. IFE adds weight and complexity that wifi doesn't have, especially if they add video and audio streaming via GoGo that has been discussed elsewhere.

Both carriers today sent out Facebook posts about the Wifi and GoGo on their fleets.
American-
Nearly all of our domestic fleet is enabled with inflight Wi-Fi from Gogo, and we feel like celebrating!
US Airways-
We have more planes flying with Wi-Fi – 270 in total. All of our Airbus A321 and Embraer 170 and 175 aircraft offer Gogo Internet. Check out our progress with installations on our Airbus A319s, A320s and Embraer 190s http://bit.ly/P3IS9h


Looks like Wifi and GoGo are here to stay.