American introduced their latest safety video in September 2016, which came just shortly after the airline introduced their new uniforms. It was supposed to reflect the “new American,” and the safety video even ended with American’s tagline at the time, “going for great” (which they’ve since eliminated, since they’re decidedly not going for great).
The last 15 seconds of the video feature a flight attendant saying “we’re here to make your flight great, because great is what we’re going for,” and then it features all the employees featured in the video cheering.
View from the Wing notes that American is making an edit to their safety video. Per a memo:
We heard that the ending of the safety video was too loud and celebratory, especially in situations where a flight may have been delayed or experienced some other kind of irregular operation. So, we’ve adjusted the ending to dial down the cheering at the very end, and faded the music out to be softer. You should be seeing this change an overheard screens now and then in seat monitors starting in March.
Hah, I love how they suggest that the cheering may be too celebratory in cases of delays or irregular operations. How about for anyone stuck in the main cabin on any American flight? 😉
Personally I’m happy to see this change made, as I always did find the cheering to be a bit annoying. I get why they did it in the context of filming the video — I’m sure it was quite an undertaking to film it, and the cheering was intended to celebrate it being finished. However, as a passenger the cheering always came across as not reflecting the reality of most peoples’ American Airlines experience.
I was on a flight yesterday and the cheering has been muted.
I wonder what the flight attendant who pauses the video and saves the end for her credit card pitch will do???
Having just flown them internationally in business Syd Lax I was amazed at how unhappy drab and inattentive they are - I understand that airlines pay crews different salaries and award different conditions - Syd Lax is a senior route for them judging by the crew but if you’re not happy with the job you do then go away ,do something else- surely the customers deserve to be spoken to in a civil manner and...
Having just flown them internationally in business Syd Lax I was amazed at how unhappy drab and inattentive they are - I understand that airlines pay crews different salaries and award different conditions - Syd Lax is a senior route for them judging by the crew but if you’re not happy with the job you do then go away ,do something else- surely the customers deserve to be spoken to in a civil manner and not all of us are travelling on “award tickets “ 8K round trip is a substantial amount of money - a glass of water shouldn’t make me a demanding pax- maybe that’s the problem - I don’t know any Americans who actually coin up for premium travel and the crew are of the same opinion ?
I like AA and the video. I think there’s no such thing as a perfect airline. There will be those that enjoy or hate AA and I belong to the former group.
They were still cheering on my flight last night - and the flight attendants all joined in. oy.
I'd rather have them eliminate the credit card pitches
TxAg.. get over yourself.. and most of you on here over a video.. EP or not a jerk is a jerk. They can't control the weather and your sleeping habits. Seems like there is a lot of complaining on here.
Like rats looking for a carcus the rats on here looking for something negative to jump on to. It's a video not a change in policy.. it's really not that serious. American is an...
TxAg.. get over yourself.. and most of you on here over a video.. EP or not a jerk is a jerk. They can't control the weather and your sleeping habits. Seems like there is a lot of complaining on here.
Like rats looking for a carcus the rats on here looking for something negative to jump on to. It's a video not a change in policy.. it's really not that serious. American is an awesome company and I fly them regularly and plan to in the future because of their record of ontime flights and customer service. I won't bash other airlines.. there's no need. Every company has their problems but any I have encountered have been met with resolution.
So get off your high horses or get off the page.
Have a great day!
I may or may not have written 2 customer relations emails as an EP with strong words about the stupid ending of this video. Two thirds of flights occur late in the evening and early in the morning and I doubt anyone wants loud cheering in their ears after 8 pm or before 10 am while getting squeezed in AA's economy. One time I was plugged into the IFE then fell asleep after 2.5 hours...
I may or may not have written 2 customer relations emails as an EP with strong words about the stupid ending of this video. Two thirds of flights occur late in the evening and early in the morning and I doubt anyone wants loud cheering in their ears after 8 pm or before 10 am while getting squeezed in AA's economy. One time I was plugged into the IFE then fell asleep after 2.5 hours weather delay for a late evening business trip and all of a sudden I wake up to loud stupid yelling in my ears.
Flew F LAX to NYC last weekend. No boarding drink, fast meal service, shades down - now everyone go to sleep and don't bother us. This was a 0900 departure.
The whole video is very confusing, and there's more legroom in that "economy" class on the mock up than space in the Residence! (not actually just a hyperbole)
Let's face it, all safety videos are designed primarily for the occasional traveler who really needs to see the information because it is new to them. If it gets their attention, then it's serving its purpose. Those of us who have seen safety videos 1,000 times and could recite them ourselves almost word for word are not the target audience for the creative approaches.
@John,
There's another airline out there, perhaps you've heard of it? it's called United.
What kind of low quality content you are putting out these days? You are click baiting so much that it’s getting annoying the amount of attention we are giving to you doesn’t get rewarded the same way back.
You could easily use a tweet to express your feeling regarding this, instead you wrote a whole post, cuz you money hungary on those ads revenue and hope somebody will use your link to sign up...
What kind of low quality content you are putting out these days? You are click baiting so much that it’s getting annoying the amount of attention we are giving to you doesn’t get rewarded the same way back.
You could easily use a tweet to express your feeling regarding this, instead you wrote a whole post, cuz you money hungary on those ads revenue and hope somebody will use your link to sign up on credit cards.
It’s one things if you are a reality star, but it would be different when you trying to be considered as a serious blogger on traveling.
What happened from high brow to low self esteem ? Maybe you are really getting old ?
Hope you are not still weak enough to take my constructive criticism.
—Your royal fans going rouge
I never thought I would say this but I am so glad I live on a Delta hub.
When my AA flight from DFW-ORD was delayed 5 hours on New Year's Eve (carrying over into New Year's Day,) the entire plane laughed/scoffed at that scene. Glad to see it go. AA is garbage.
The video is annoying, at best. But the BA effort is worse. Takes way too long.
I didn’t even know there was cheering, last time I flew AA 2 weeks ago I don’t remember it? Maybe it was already taken out on some planes.
I think the AA safety video is pretty good though. It has a very...modern? feel to it. Music, voice over, and visuals are pretty well done and unique sounding. I hate the corny UA safety videos with loud and distracting music and backgrounds and haven’t flown DL with seat back entertainment in a while so I can’t say about them.
Wow, this is a head scratcher. It's just a safety video. Relax everybody.
Hey "A" do you personally know the flight attendant to make that kind of accusation?
Here is my tip: Live by the golden rule. Say please and thank you and you will be treated accordingly. For the most part the AA FA's that I encounter each week are hard working people that care about their job. Sure there are bad apples...
Wow, this is a head scratcher. It's just a safety video. Relax everybody.
Hey "A" do you personally know the flight attendant to make that kind of accusation?
Here is my tip: Live by the golden rule. Say please and thank you and you will be treated accordingly. For the most part the AA FA's that I encounter each week are hard working people that care about their job. Sure there are bad apples amongst the AA FA's, but I defy you to honestly tell me that in your company every employee is perfect.
Take a deep breath and relax. You will be a much happier in the long run!
This site is fully of clowns. News flash, many people fly for work. I often fly in F, on short flights between smaller cities, and the seats are fine, the FA's are nice and the drinks are cold.
Bunch of spoiled, broke babies, who fly first on points and act like they have refined tastes. STFU.
Is it me or does the main actress/FA have a RBF? All her lines and tonanlity seem forced and disingenuous.
Come on - what is more American than unnecessary cheering? Watch any American tonight show - American audiences will cheer anything and everything.
@John- i fly AA F willingly. Better than UA domestic F with all their catering cutbacks as of late. Superior hard product on JFK-LAX, etc. Plus oneworld benefits outweigh nonexistant skyteam benefits, but hey thats just me.
The video is terrible - they should ditch the whole thing. I actively try to tune it out - which is not the reaction one wants for a safety video.
And to the posters that are saying they are removing IFE: they're not ripping out IFE - they are ripping out seatback AVOD. Different things. And it's a good move.
- signed, an EXP.
Maybe just an overhaul is needed. How about "Going for sort of OK if we didn't keep reducing seat pitch, ripping out video screens, not allowing decent award redemption's unless you want to pay tons of YQ to BA, not processing upgrades properly while overbooking all flights while also letting employees treat passengers badly"
When we flew AA and they showed the (stupid) video, when the unnecessary cheering at the end came up I clapped and cheered along, only to have my wife give me the "Cut it out!" look. But I guess at least whatever marketing company came up with that crappy video it matches the AA culture, service, and product. The video reminds me of that kid in middle school who always wanted to fit in but always tried too hard.
Aside from the ridiculous unnecessary cheering at the end, this safety video is quite functional as the safety instructions are quite clear. It seems that over the years, airlines are trying to outdo one another with some of the safety video being hardly functional at all and borderline absurdity, case in point, EVA Air's new safety video with ballet dancers???
I always thought it was a great video. Entertaining on its own merits without being a bunch of in Internet memes. The idea that the cheering was offending people is absurd. Anyone bothered by this ought to think hard about whether their inner rage is out of control...
That said i've shifted my loyalty away from american this year. This video was one of the airline's highlights imo. Everything else is sadly a lowlight...
If only they would get rid of the whole video. Am I the only one who misses the old (We’re Glad You’re Here) one? I guess that day will come soon enough, as US AAirways has decided to rip out IFE on the whole deomestic fleet besides The A321T.
From a former FAAnboy who has become a free agent. I have givenmost of my business to Delta and am quite pleased with their overall consistent experience.
Once all the IFE is ripped out of the domestic fleet, we won't have to deal with safety videos at all, and we can go back to watching sour-faced cabin crew do the manual demo. One more thing for them to be bitter about.
It's only the worst safety video ever featuring a privileged FA who clearly is too good to do her job. <y hatred of AA FAs is coming out.
Bring back the cheers when Doug Parker gets fired.
@ John, totally agree. I presume that nobody flies American domestic first out of choice?
Last time I flew AA, I cheered when the flight was over. And I was in F.
Big Surprise, the worst US Carrier hands down. Ho-hum....
How about the seat pitch shown in the video for things not being realistic ;-)