American Pilots Blast Management's Failures, Make Subtle Threat To Board

The comments could well be more interesting to read than the subject article …. thanks again Ben …. 🙂

I wonder at this point if there's grounds for a class action shareholder derivative suit, where all shareholders sue the board of directors and CEO for causing harm to the company. Clearly the board and CEO are all unfit for the job, and management has failed to act.

I’ve never understood shareholder suits - they just wipe out shareholder value.

Ultimately the airline’s problem is union labor costs, given AAdvantage is the only profitable part of the organization - and I’m not sure what legal arguments you can make against the unions under current law.

I'm glad you found a way to cover this because I was in a coma by the end of that video.

Thank you Super, you have summed up the world wide challenge with most governments, “Clearly the board and CEO are all unfit for the job, and management has failed to act”.

If one substituted; Government, President, Prime Minister, etc, in the appropriate manner it could be applied to any country.

Is this actually Mateusz, or someone impersonating him/his site?

American has failed its customers? News to me. UA often has inedible food and an obnoxious boarding process. DL has a garbage miles program. AA has by far the most rewarding miles program and is the easy winner for me.

Even if not hub captive, I image you would still primarily fly AA due to your war chest from planting trees, and a very likely massive Amex-HA-AS transfer.

Surely their poor on-time stats is failing their customers?

Undoubtedly, this post will be as unpopular as a ham sandwich would be at a Muslim wedding, that is with some of the business administration types who may read it. My take on the current situation with AA, can actually be traced back to the turn of the last century. Yes! Back to 1908. That was when Harvard University introduced the Master of Business Administration (MBA).

The MBA has evolved over the last century to become the most irrelevant qualification which can be conferred upon any student of learning. One is yet to meet a real and successful business leader, who prescribes to the doctrine. The MBA syllabus removes the requirement for leadership and replaces it with self preservation. It advocates self interest over labour relations, targets and presentations over humans and customers alike.

An MBA doesn’t make someone a good manager. There is no substitute for industry experience, humility, emotional intelligence or ethical standards. Finally, as is the case with AA …. Communication skills. If the AA management team will not talk to the workforce, then AA is doomed to failure!

Curious what is obnoxious about UA’s boarding system. Preboards and six boarding groups, along with an app that not only tells you what boarding group they’re on and exactly how many passengers have boarded.

UA Polaris food is also improving. I’ve enjoyed all meals on my last four flights on them.

While the he pilots are not blameless for the weak situation and actually have little to complain about given their lavish pay compared to other professions, the points they make about AA management are completely valid. However, if the Board were actually engaged and performing their fiduciary responsibility to shareholders, a meeting would not be necessary. That they have done nothing indicates to they just don't care. Absent bankruptcy, AA's weak performance has no impact on Board members travel perks or compensation, so why rock the boat. What's needed is an activist to run the entire worthless lot of them out.

@Panthersfan - at this point what other value could be wiped out? AAL is down -55% over the past 5 years. If anything, the market is seemingly pricing in the poor performance and incompetence and a shareholder suit could indicate a potential upswing.

It will take a while to recover, even if new management. AA reduced J on 788 models down to 20 seats. These are used at PHL and ORD. PHL gets lots of misconnections with delay feeder fights - and the airline can be flying with 12 occupied J to Europe. UA and DL still fly 767s and 330s and 757s. AA cut those aircraft too soon.

All three airlines have their own issues, but AA is the only airline that I actively avoid booking if actually need to be somewhere at a certain time. The airline is an operational disaster and has been for 15 years.

Where did you get your MBA again?

Oh right, just like you criticized other people for never flown BA Club World because you think you're better than other people but you're not.

You have no clue what MBA really is because you never even went to college.

I pity your narrow view of the world.
But as you are Tim Dunn's alter ego. Thanks for the stupid jokes and trash entertainment. Sometimes we need you as the village idiot to add color to the community.

Eskimo, shame on you, you know only too well that one such as me would never, ever, have wasted my talents on such a Micky Mouse qualification. You really will have to try much harder to best one of your betters don’t you know? …. 🙂

AA's entire trajectory reads like it was being run by a business AI that knows nothing about the airlines industry and that can't consider second and third order effects. Its like someone made a spreadsheet 10 years ago that showed they make the most money with a domestic operation routing through CLT and DFW plus JFK-LAX/LHR and decided this was the only worthwhile activity for the airline, without considering the long term implications of becoming Spirit that also feeds BA. Many decisions that seemed to make good sense in isolation compounded to a path where AA missed every sector trend of the last 5 years.

- Retire the A330, 767, 757 during COVID. Old, burn a ton of gas, risky to keep around, and if the rebound is strong, yields go up on smaller seat count - struggle through the recovery, miss growth in thinner long haul leisure, etc.
- Well documented experience cost cutting (PTV, etc). Pax don't care about the service, there's perfect competition, pax choose based on cost and schedule so that matters more. - misses growth in premium, weakens loyalty incentives as loyalty programs drive even more $$$
- Focus on second-tier cities like PHL over core hubs like JFK, reduce overseas network. Long haul is more expensive and risky, our partners are strong and pax will just connect if its cheaper for them - again misses premium growth, no aspirational loyalty incentives

Every single decision saved, say, 10% of the cost to make the intangibles 20% worse and weakened the airline. And ironically, when AA debuted the 77W and A321T in ~2014, they seemed to have a credible path to a premium transformation. Add strong fundamentals with fortress hubs in DFW and MIA (better catchment areas the DL's), the near monopoly MIA Caribbean/LATAM network, position in JFK/LAX/ORD and golden routes to LHR, disciplined execution of that strategy could have made them the leading US airline today.

For poor on time performance in NA the winner would be Air Canada and its management is even worse

The writing and sentence structures of this post made it hard to get through.

Excluding situations where one of the US3 is clearly superior for a given flying pattern:

People put up with SkyMiles as the price of flying Delta. People put up with American as the price of AAdvantage. People fly United because their employer's contracts favor United and the miles and Plus Points aren't half bad if you're getting them on your employer's dime (but now you need a card from Chase).

I feel they just want the Bonus's they see DL, UA, and AS are getting from profit sharing every year. That's their motivation. They feel left out they aren't getting more dinero with their bloated salaries.

Big Yaaaawwwwnnn!

Many people seem to think that being awarded an MBA or PhD immediately makes them a guru. It does not. Aero is correct - real world experience is vitally important. Oh, and for the record, my MBA is from London Business School, and my PhD is from Columbia.

Yes YY, it can be summed up by that over hyped, Micky Mouse qualification MBA. Harvard has so much to answer for don’t you know …. 🙂

Come along now Tim, one would be interested to read your take on this subject. Micky Mouse MBA or industry shop floor experience …. that is the question?
Captains of Industry with NO MBA ….

Sir James Dyson.
Richard Branson.
Alan Sugar.
Philip Green.
Tim Martin.
Bill Gates.
Steve Jobs.
Mark Zuckerberg.
Michel Dell.
Elon Musk.
Warren Buffett.

Please feel free to educate me/us with your words of wisdom.

It must be such a relief for you BF, that is, not having to suffer the written words from Dyslexia sufferers like Richard Branson or me …. 🙂

G4 is absolutely correct & make no mistake. When it comes to pilots and, while they may have a legitimate concern on the current business mode at AA, their first and foremost concern is their pockets. I expect many will criticize my comment but ask yourself this question. Why do the AA pilot's, like their counter parts at UA think they are entitled to a first class seat over the very passenger that is paying their salary? As an organization of so-called professional pilots, when you look down on the customers that are the sole source of your business & income, I fully understand why the board has declined to meet their demands.

Thanks.
Great review and comments.
You could also easily substitute Marriot for AA in your Comment

Dal, one might have agreed with much of what you advocate, however, surely even you cannot condone a management team who will not respond to the written concerns of a most important sector of their workforce? Turning one’s back on those who wish to discuss a particular topic of concern, is a profoundly unprofessional gesture, yes?

In many circles the subject management stance is known as “MBA mismanagement”.

@PeteAU

You just proved your point correctly but making you look like an idiot in the process.
For someone who undermines a graduate degree. You actually got TWO.

I got many years of real-world experience before retiring at 55. Thanks for your replies.