American has announced a minor but positive change, which passengers on both select domestic and international flights may notice (though flight attendants aren’t happy about this)…
Continue reading: American Brings Back Second Drink Service On Many Domestic Flights
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You’re absolutely correct, Ben. Discount management with no vision, providing us with nothing to be proud of or look forward to.
AA management reduced the amount of catering provided onboard when they cut the second beverage service. $10 bet they won’t increase provisioning, they’ll just expect us to make it work with what we’ve got.
I had the worst experience in American business last week, on a flight from MAD to ORD. One food service only, and the flight attendants pretty much disappeared the whole flight. Its as if I was only paying for lay flat seat. The he service was terrible honestly. The flight attendants had the worst attitude, and kept talking about their hourly pay.
6 hours across the nation on a 737 with no screens.
No thanks, American. Life's too short, and thankfully I worked hard enough to afford better transportation.
I feel for you AA FA.
So often, many companies adopt a cut cut cut to profitability, expecting front line staff to work miracles. But without the vision from the top ranks, the company is doomed to eventual destruction. The adage of a fish rotting from the head down still holds true.
Best of luck
Look out the window and watch the geography and cloud scape. Our country is beautiful and fascinating.
Lol life's too short so you spend it looking at screens. What a pathetic take. Read a book or look out the window. Maybe take some time to reflect on your life, before you turn into an ipad kid.
It doesn't take much to improve onboard service. Heck, United introducing cold brew felt like a gamechanger. Meanwhile, AA can't even regularly cater flights with buy-on-board snacks to the level of Ryanair.
I've had an impressive run of flights here lately where the FAs actually did their pre-departure drink service. On my last leg they even omitted the long, loud, misleading credit card pitch!
The bar really is on the floor when it comes to AA...
People keep bullying American carriers. But if it was a third world airline being analyzed, people would be far less critical. Simple.
One surprising area where American is actually industry leading is that they relatively recently started offering oatmilk in addition to standard dairy creamer in economy!
"I work hard and am superior and demand royalty" "Im simply too amazing to not have a screen"
There sure are some pompous people on here. Maybe one day, ill no longer be a peasant like the Queen Mary
geee..i wonder why. Maybe an airline from a country that purports to be the world's superpower should be held to a higher standard than an airline from a so-called "third" world country.
Flew Charlotte-Buffalo yesterday and the flight attendants said they were waiting for the all clear to begin drink service. The beginning 30 mins or so were a bit bumpy due to weather in the South (but I’ve seen services done in worse) but after that pretty smooth. No service the entire flight, and they did one pass on trash which was the extent I saw a flight attendant for the rest of the flight. Never seen that before.
Also I grew up in Pensacola, FL and took the 45-minute connection to Atlanta a million times as a kid and always got service (even on the occasional 757 flight) but last few times I’ve taken they always say no time for service even if on a regional jet or 717.
Feel for you as well. I flew a 788 ORD-MIA last week and the airport mistakenly placed bedding at all of the seats, thinking the aircraft was heading back to Athens.
The pax were ecstatic and even the FA in my section was visibly excited. Something seemingly so minor but it set such a positive tone for the rest of the flight. We had a rolling delay due to the plane needing to be towed from T5-T3, but that was totally an afterthought because of the surprise bedding and great crew.
If American cut FA pay next contract... literally by 50% overall... 60%+ at the top end and say 30% at the bottom end, what would happen?
Sure, there would be a massive strike. Maybe the other unions join for a while, but, what if AA holds the line? Seems to me one of two things...
1. The FA union caves or
2. AA does a mass hiring on non-union FAs at an even lower rate than what they offered the union. And of course the new contract pays from the start of boarding. And bonuses for service.
At that point, any negotiations with the union start with carve outs... 'These routes' are for the non-union FAs. Don't like it? Every day you wait, we carve out more routes as we hire. And the contract gets tighter around service. No full PDB? Reduced pay before takeoff. Reviews go below a certain level, no bonus.
Doubt it would happen, but, the reality is FA's are 100% unskilled labor. They can be replaced in a few short months.
Ignorant comment. I fly what you would call 'third world' carriers a lot. I can tell you the flights are a lot better! You can fly for $30. If you want to check a bag, you pay $20. Who cares. All in, fly a few hours for $50 or less. With friendly agents and FAs. DEAL!
The "Misleading Credit Card Pitch" is on the way out as AA is discontinuing the sale of Barclays AAdvantage cards and concentrating on Citicards. Maybe it will come back with a Citicard pitch which until now never existed on board.
I find myself agreeing with Mary, Life is too short for spending money on American Airlines. Thankfully I fly from a non-hub city and chose Delta and Alaska. You know, airlines that actually have a fairly consistent experience.
I feel bad for the AA employees that really are trying to do a great job. God bless them.
But never again will I fly AA.
Life's too short, as they say.
Flew American LAX-HNL on an A321. Had my own screens on both flights but didn't use them at all, instead I read a book and dozed, no screens needed and no complaints about not having them. The slimline seats however....
Seriously, crew is already paid for the flight, so a .75 usd can was an issue plus the jetfuel to carry the can. The management, particularly the fools responsible for cost management in relation to customer experience are and have been nuts. For example why have expiring global upgrades. As an EP it irked me how stupid AA was giving it a one year expiration versa, assigning beneficiaries by the EP the day they get them within the family of EP with an assign AA advantage number, so they can be traded in Asia, and then let them be valid for ever. If not used, no cost to AA and a happy customer, if used by an AA member, limited cost and still a happy customer. They are just dumb to catch the easy wins.
American Airlines… we’re the abusive partner that’s throws you a few breadcrumbs of service as soon as you’re sure you’ve had enough and are headed out the door.
@larry geff. I dunno how about you don’t tell people what to do on a flight? What’s wrong with watching a movie? I look out the window, read a book and watch tv screens. Is that OK, mr judgey?
Why don’t pax on AA flights get together and start dinging the call bell repeatedly to get the FA to come down and serve you each a coke? Could be funny, make a point or even get the whole plane arrested. Might also ding a bell at headquarters eventually…..
I'd rather just walk back to the galley and ask for a second drink than have the carts block the aisle for another 20 minutes...
Jokes on them, I have no shame ringing the call button for a third drink on a flight with two beverage services. While I'm at it, I'm going to ask for some more chips too!
AA is struggling finding their way. Once a premium carrier, now Ryanair with a different paint job. Restoring a basic beverage service will not resolve the issue. It sits deeper and like you said it’s their staff. This won’t be fixed immediately, it will take years. AA clearly has no understanding of a service culture, but also seems to treat their employees poorly. At this point, it’s like the MTA NY bus in the sky. Sad times.
You mainly pay for the real state in fact. One meal service is a lie . Probably they cut you off , and you are pissed .
I’m a very active Alaska flyer. Had to take American tonight from lga to clt and then home to Seattle. It’s amazing how Alaska puts their “senior” Oneworld partner to shame. The flight attendants are so totally indifferent and borderline surly, the food offerings in economy are awful and the WiFi so overpriced. Makes me appreciate Alaska so much. And they only did one drink service on a 5.5 hour flight!
My wife and I are 2-million miler AA flyers and we now happily pay more to fly on any other airline. Two international business class trips scheduled between now and July. One on Delta, one on United. Zero AA. We'll avoid the surly FA's, inedible meals and the dilapidated aircraft. I don't drink and we bring our own entertainment so we don't care about either of those things. We've just become tired of paying $5,000 for a round trip and being treated like freight.
I love the story about them having saved $40,000 by omitting one olive. Think how much they could save by omitting one CEO - except they have to reward him with a huge bag of gold for having destroy a once great airline.