777 / 767 / 757 Love
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- Jan 26, 2012
- 204
- 188
I find all the argument about who is more pitiful talk kind of funny. I assume most of you work in or some how derive your income from the airlines, so your opinions are probably biased. But I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt, that service wise, AA is the only U.S. airline that even comes CLOSE to competing with the Asian airlines as far as service. I used to like Continental as well during the last few years she was independent, good service. I saw what the United merger has done to the service, so as someone who travels 200k actual miles a year on AA, the thought of them merging with Delta or U.S. scares the sh*t out of me, because for all the traveling I do, service is EVERYTHING to me. AA management should focus on new customer service initiatives with their flight attendants. Extended trainings and really focus on what a 5-STAR hotel would focus on.....if the flight attendant thinks they are too good for that, let them go. Sorry to say it, but if you hate your job, no one is forcing you to stay. At first this will suck, but it will change the expectations of those looking to be hired, and set AA miles ahead of their competition here in the U.S. I don't mind the current service, but for those paying 10k for a First Class tix to Asia, you got to admit, they aren't out of line to expect 5-STAR hotel type service. If you are a FA and don't want to give it, why are you bidding International in the forward cabins? Hell, why are you a FA? Fact is, I know employees who went 30 year careers with only 1 or two "emergencies" or "safety" events. So something tells me, your job is SO MUCH MORE than just safety.
So regardless of anything, U.S. Scare has gotten my business a handful of times, and never impressed. For me JB and AA is the best service I get in the U.S., and with much of my business travel being to Asia and back, AA offers me the service I want, while giving me miles I can use to many destinations I go, something the Asia airlines can't, hence my loyalty to AA. Now is the service on par with some of the Asian airlines? Not really. But its not bad, not bad at all, and I manage my own expectations, and I compromise so I have miles I can really use, not to mention I love the 777 Suites......and I have been on many other airlines. The only thing better are the 380 suites on some asian airlines, but that is so over the top, and I'm SO NOT THAT HIGH MAINTENANCE. If you complain about the Flagship Suite at AA, man, you need to get over yourself. Plus, I love the swivel option, sick.....and for the most part the Pursers @ AA really do a good job to run a great cabin.
At the end of the day, most people think bankruptcy is just that, the company is bankrupt. Simply not true, and I think we all forget that. AA is reorganizing, and while its easy to blame management and the pilots (the two most visible groups) there are a lot of people who are affected by this who BUST THEIR ASS every day, and I see it while out on the road. AA is not perfect, but who is? But here are some complaints I see from customers, pilots (know a few) and other employees of American:
1) Customers: Service isn't great, why can't they be more like the Asian airlines? Not sure how to answer this. I find service is not always perfect, but you could never run an airplane like a 5-STAR hotel, IMPOSSIBLE, hence why some people's expectations are simply to great. The tope hotels I stay at for business have service managers who can train people all day long, and those people went to school to work in the service industry. Flight attendants do not study for years how to make it in the service industry, nor do they have managers around them constantly showing how to provide better service. Some of it is expectations set by the industry and airline during the hiring process. If they were told that they have a important safety duties, but that more likely than not, in a long career they will use their service duties more and that they should expect to have the same responsibilities as that of someone in a 5-STAR hotel, their attitudes would be different. Then if you trained like a hotel, the service would be different. But the don't, so it won't.
2) Pilots: All day and every day I hear pilots #### and moan about taking cuts and not having the big lump sum pay day they expected upon retirement. The word in there that is SOOOOO important is "expected". Its unfair to expect pilots who have watched their brethren walk away with millions at retirement, not to get angry and bitter on the prospects of receiving 40-50% less than those before them. But the bottom line is: that is reality. Just as friends of mine on Wall Street see MUCH smaller bonuses then they used to, and will have to work many, many more years than those before them to get a descent retirement. Don't let the bonuses of a very few skew your understanding of just how much of a haircut people have taken on the Street, where the world still thinks its business as usual. Truth is, back in the day, pilots were pilots and flew from a base they lived near. Today, many have side businesses and / or commute to work to a base 1000 miles away.....something most Americans would kill for. Don't tell me its because a base was closed and they were forced to commute-----its called MOVE, every other American whose job moves, has to move with it.....and please don't act like you are the only industry that has jobs move around, and layoffs and uncertainty......WELCOME TO TODAY"S WORLD. At the end of the day, there are many out there who would kill to get paid 70, 80, 90k or dare I say 100k+ a year to fly big commercial planes because form their PERSPECTIVE, it would be heaven compared to what they fly and how much they get paid now. At the end of the day, if you are flying for the money, you need to get out, or give up the idea that you are going to get 200k a year for a 78hr month. If you have expectations of a pay day and lifestyle that they saw in the 70s, 80s and early 90s----you need to get out. The industry can't support it.
3) Employees: "Management has screwed us, they make all these mistakes and get big bonuses while I get nothing." First, if every dollar of every bonus of every management team member was taken away from management and distributed to the employees, everyone would see maybe a few hundred dollars more a year. Second, running an airline is hard, so hard that NONE of them have been able to do it WITHOUT THE HELP OF BANKRUPTCY. Third, one of the best CEOs in the history of the airlines was vilified and his departure was celebrated (Bob Crandle) but now suddenly doesn't seem so bad does he? Fact is, management makes mistakes, but so do employees......everyone assumes they could do a better job, kind of like in sports when everyone wants to fire the Coach or Manager when things don't go right.
4) Management: "Employees are greedy, we work long hours, our jobs are near impossible in todays market." Please, yes your jobs are difficult, but get over it. More importantly, invite your employes to put forth their ideas, and then execute them. Give back some of your bonuses not because that money will make any difference in the company's bottom line or the employees pay, but because PERCEPTION is always greater than REALITY. The perception is you are greedy, incompetent and make money off the sacrifices of the general employees.....whether or not this is reality, is is the PERCEPTION. So change the culture, and have the guys making 2mm in a year in bonuses, go down to 1mm or even 750k......if you can't live well on that, YOUR view of reality is skewed.
Both sides are to blame.....along with the expectations of the buying public that they should not have to pay more than $150 to get from here to the other side of the country. Its a tough, tough industry, created by deregulation. But regardless of why we are where we are, we are here. I am a customer who appreciates the CRAP employees and management has to deal with, in what seems like a NO-WIN-SCENARIO. But bottom line is, AA employees should be proud, and management should be as well. The customer service is for the most part really good (+1 to employees) and the idea of newer fleet, and the way they have leveraged foreign partnerships and cornering South America (especially out of Miami) was really smart (+1 for management).......but, both sides need improvement, and I KNOW they can and will improve, but it will take BOTH sides changing how they have been doing business, something that is VERY tough to do, and if they do, they should be COMMENDED for.
Forget the past if you can, and the future will look much brighter to all who are involved.
I love flying. I love AA because she has earned that love. I love Boeing. If I have offended anyone, that was not my intention, not at all, so please forgive me if I have.
Cheers,
777 / 757 / 767
So regardless of anything, U.S. Scare has gotten my business a handful of times, and never impressed. For me JB and AA is the best service I get in the U.S., and with much of my business travel being to Asia and back, AA offers me the service I want, while giving me miles I can use to many destinations I go, something the Asia airlines can't, hence my loyalty to AA. Now is the service on par with some of the Asian airlines? Not really. But its not bad, not bad at all, and I manage my own expectations, and I compromise so I have miles I can really use, not to mention I love the 777 Suites......and I have been on many other airlines. The only thing better are the 380 suites on some asian airlines, but that is so over the top, and I'm SO NOT THAT HIGH MAINTENANCE. If you complain about the Flagship Suite at AA, man, you need to get over yourself. Plus, I love the swivel option, sick.....and for the most part the Pursers @ AA really do a good job to run a great cabin.
At the end of the day, most people think bankruptcy is just that, the company is bankrupt. Simply not true, and I think we all forget that. AA is reorganizing, and while its easy to blame management and the pilots (the two most visible groups) there are a lot of people who are affected by this who BUST THEIR ASS every day, and I see it while out on the road. AA is not perfect, but who is? But here are some complaints I see from customers, pilots (know a few) and other employees of American:
1) Customers: Service isn't great, why can't they be more like the Asian airlines? Not sure how to answer this. I find service is not always perfect, but you could never run an airplane like a 5-STAR hotel, IMPOSSIBLE, hence why some people's expectations are simply to great. The tope hotels I stay at for business have service managers who can train people all day long, and those people went to school to work in the service industry. Flight attendants do not study for years how to make it in the service industry, nor do they have managers around them constantly showing how to provide better service. Some of it is expectations set by the industry and airline during the hiring process. If they were told that they have a important safety duties, but that more likely than not, in a long career they will use their service duties more and that they should expect to have the same responsibilities as that of someone in a 5-STAR hotel, their attitudes would be different. Then if you trained like a hotel, the service would be different. But the don't, so it won't.
2) Pilots: All day and every day I hear pilots #### and moan about taking cuts and not having the big lump sum pay day they expected upon retirement. The word in there that is SOOOOO important is "expected". Its unfair to expect pilots who have watched their brethren walk away with millions at retirement, not to get angry and bitter on the prospects of receiving 40-50% less than those before them. But the bottom line is: that is reality. Just as friends of mine on Wall Street see MUCH smaller bonuses then they used to, and will have to work many, many more years than those before them to get a descent retirement. Don't let the bonuses of a very few skew your understanding of just how much of a haircut people have taken on the Street, where the world still thinks its business as usual. Truth is, back in the day, pilots were pilots and flew from a base they lived near. Today, many have side businesses and / or commute to work to a base 1000 miles away.....something most Americans would kill for. Don't tell me its because a base was closed and they were forced to commute-----its called MOVE, every other American whose job moves, has to move with it.....and please don't act like you are the only industry that has jobs move around, and layoffs and uncertainty......WELCOME TO TODAY"S WORLD. At the end of the day, there are many out there who would kill to get paid 70, 80, 90k or dare I say 100k+ a year to fly big commercial planes because form their PERSPECTIVE, it would be heaven compared to what they fly and how much they get paid now. At the end of the day, if you are flying for the money, you need to get out, or give up the idea that you are going to get 200k a year for a 78hr month. If you have expectations of a pay day and lifestyle that they saw in the 70s, 80s and early 90s----you need to get out. The industry can't support it.
3) Employees: "Management has screwed us, they make all these mistakes and get big bonuses while I get nothing." First, if every dollar of every bonus of every management team member was taken away from management and distributed to the employees, everyone would see maybe a few hundred dollars more a year. Second, running an airline is hard, so hard that NONE of them have been able to do it WITHOUT THE HELP OF BANKRUPTCY. Third, one of the best CEOs in the history of the airlines was vilified and his departure was celebrated (Bob Crandle) but now suddenly doesn't seem so bad does he? Fact is, management makes mistakes, but so do employees......everyone assumes they could do a better job, kind of like in sports when everyone wants to fire the Coach or Manager when things don't go right.
4) Management: "Employees are greedy, we work long hours, our jobs are near impossible in todays market." Please, yes your jobs are difficult, but get over it. More importantly, invite your employes to put forth their ideas, and then execute them. Give back some of your bonuses not because that money will make any difference in the company's bottom line or the employees pay, but because PERCEPTION is always greater than REALITY. The perception is you are greedy, incompetent and make money off the sacrifices of the general employees.....whether or not this is reality, is is the PERCEPTION. So change the culture, and have the guys making 2mm in a year in bonuses, go down to 1mm or even 750k......if you can't live well on that, YOUR view of reality is skewed.
Both sides are to blame.....along with the expectations of the buying public that they should not have to pay more than $150 to get from here to the other side of the country. Its a tough, tough industry, created by deregulation. But regardless of why we are where we are, we are here. I am a customer who appreciates the CRAP employees and management has to deal with, in what seems like a NO-WIN-SCENARIO. But bottom line is, AA employees should be proud, and management should be as well. The customer service is for the most part really good (+1 to employees) and the idea of newer fleet, and the way they have leveraged foreign partnerships and cornering South America (especially out of Miami) was really smart (+1 for management).......but, both sides need improvement, and I KNOW they can and will improve, but it will take BOTH sides changing how they have been doing business, something that is VERY tough to do, and if they do, they should be COMMENDED for.
Forget the past if you can, and the future will look much brighter to all who are involved.
I love flying. I love AA because she has earned that love. I love Boeing. If I have offended anyone, that was not my intention, not at all, so please forgive me if I have.
Cheers,
777 / 757 / 767
