In early 2025, American Airlines executives shared their vision to once again make the airline more premium, given the carrier’s lagging financials, compared to rivals Delta and United. For so long, American executives were convinced the airline could just compete on schedule and price, but that strategy hasn’t turned out to be a success.
Continue reading: How Much Has American Airlines Really Improved? Let’s Not Be Too Charitable
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Until they bring back meals on flights that used to have them, they will not be premium. Example Ord to LGA. Handing out potato chips is not premium.
The "business seat" fare for an uncomfortable seat , all airlines copying each other , has been a Fiasco .
My cousin had driven a different vehicle into the pond each Fourth of July week from 2021 to 2022. Every year since then that he has not driven a vehicle into the pond, our family treats him like a golden god. Same logic here I suppose.
From a coach experience other than IFE on narrowbody aircraft there is NO difference between UA, DL and AA. Ditto domestic first and even long haul business isn't all that big. All three have great and lousy crews.
From a lounge perspective it's probably close to a wash. I'm not sure why it takes AA so long to open a lounge and open lounges that are over capacity day one. The PHL FL. And why the lounge situation at PHX hasn't been addressed. For example taking the high A club and just making it a Grab and Go, considering there's rarely an open seat. However, UA and DL have their lounge issues.
Operationally is where AA has fallen plagued by the idea compete more with Spirit and Frontier because those two airlines are the future of the airline industry. There have been improvements but there's more to go.
Isom: Every aircraft ready to fly at the start of every day.
Raja: Quality doesn't matter, only the routes.
glad you and Gary bounce ideas off of each other but, as I said there, the measure of whether AA is succeeding at becoming more premium is whether it begins to move its revenue in the direction of DL and UA and esp. DL which gets far more revenue per seat mile than any US airline.
part of AA's revenue challenge is getting rid of its sales structure and part is product related but, like B6, part of that is its less reliable operation.
AA's most profitable hubs - according to itself - are DCA, DFW and CLT. DCA has strict capacity limits as a result of the military/AA regional crash while DFW is just a poor design for connections and CLT moves way too many passengers for the facility. AA's operation hurts at its largest and most profitable hubs.
Product has to improve but AA has to turn whatever it gets into cash. We will see in a couple weeks w/ their earnings report if that is happening
AA remains a dumpster fire. They are operationally unreliable and that's just basic table stakes.
We don't actually disagree - my point, as I explain at the outset of the post, is that American has been doing a lot of things but hasn't framed them as part of a clear vision and so they largely just dissipate into the ether. They've done more, and set more things in motion, than they get credit for.
But they do need that vision, and I give a nod to Oscar Munoz in terms of what selling that vision to employees actually means. His important contribution, as a transitional figure at the airline, was spending time at line stations with employees getting them onboard with a positive belief about the future of the ariline. And that's the biggest thing I've been hammering over and over is missing at American. It's not enough for a CEO to simply say here's the vision, they need to sell it retail. That is not in the current CEO's blood - he is way too scripted for this.
Really, though, just commenting to clarify one small item that you mention: "[A]irport committee documents don’t show any approval for" a new MIA Flagship lounge, but they actually wouldn't as no new lease or county action is required for a signatory carrier of the AULA to repurpose this space. If curious, you might try to FOIA correspondence between the airport and airline regarding the project.
Cheers,
Gary
@Tim Dunn - I don't know about your analysis of American, you applauded their retiring all those long haul aircraft during the pandemic and applauded their Sun Belt strategy both of which you said would already have turned around their financial performance.
Is Lavazza coffee premium? I view it as a run-of-the-mill mass-market product. Better than the worst, for sure, and a predictably safe bet. But premium? Surely not! A premium approach to coffee would surely be to find an artisanal provider with close ties to the airport, and to offer a choice of beans with tasting notes. Extra marks are available for organic production and ethical certification.
The same observation could be made for champagne. Collaboration with an international brand isn't premium. Premium is employing a skilled person to identify vineyards unknown to the international market, and rotating around these suppliers so that regular flyers can enjoy variety.
@Ben, why are you giving Gary any oxygen and promoting his blog.
He is the worst aviation blogger by far. He along with Matt are irrelevant self promoting morons.
Please just don't.
"with employees getting them onboard with a positive belief" ? "selling that vision" ? Baloney .
Professionalism is in the person , not received from someone "selling that vision" .
If they are uncouth , an uncouth cheerleader cannot make them couth . Especially if the cheerleader is also uncouth .
Having left AA after a million miles, to go to UA, they still have done nothing to address the two things that drove me away.
One, they are inept at recovering from disruptions. Weather issues that create 90 minute delays for UA or DL, cause 5 hour delays for AA. They just don’t know how to get back on track when things go bad.
Two, half of their customer facing employees need to go. Way too many of their flight attendants, gate agents, etc… hate their jobs, the customers, and possibly life itself. Those employees are likely unfixable because bitterness has been entrenched in the AA culture. Until they fire half of their workforce, and give the deserving half a big raise, they won’t be able to be anything close to premium.
If an employee is uncouth , an uncouth manager cannot improve them into couth .
Whether an employee is uncouth , or classy , depends on upbringing .
Yep . Professionalism is in the person . If people are unprofessional or unhelpful , it is obvious .
This article should be about United Airlines.
So many bandwagon opinions about how United has "improved", yet they remain solidly a mediocre airline by global standards. No one I've seen has been talking about AA improving whatsoever.
no, Gary, I didn't applaud AA's retirement of widebodies. I said that AA didn't make money flying the Atlantic or Pacific before covid and still don't. It doesn't make sense to castigate AA for retiring assets that they couldn't profitably use.
and AA does have the best hub portfolio in the south. Those hubs are doing well. I didn't say those hubs can or have carried their underperformance of their coastal hubs or their underperforming interior US hubs.
Ben might argue once but he doesn't run around the internet misquoting what I say.
The powers that be at AA like to talk a big game, but at the end of the day, it's just same song, different verse in my experience. Of my last 5 flights on AA, 4 have been substantially late. One was due to bad weather at DFW, so whatever on that one. Of the other three, two were mechanical issues, one was unexplained, and the problem has been the same every time - it's obvious hours before that the flight isn't going to take off on time due to a late-arriving aircraft, but AA won't post the delay until very late in the process. On my last flight, we board on time and it's completed a good 10 minutes early - only for the captain to come on and say there's a maintenance delay, and then we sit for 45 minutes on the ramp with no updates, with AA rolling the departure time back 10 minutes at a time every 10 minutes. Then there's the on-board experience itself. Everyone knows about the cheap Oasis configurations with no IFE screens, but AA also cut any kind of food in coach on flights < 1,500 miles. So that means on pretty much every domestic route out of DFW, all you're getting after your rolling delay is Biscoff, because you can't even pay for food if you wanted to.
None of this is a life-changing deal on its own, but there's simply nothing "premium" about AA right now, and the airline also doesn't want to admit that it's the world's largest glorified LCC at the moment. And they can't even get the reliability piece right. I put up with it because I don't have much choice (no, I'm not connecting through ATL or IAH to get to Florida), but it's not a great feeling when you know you're in for an experience that ranges from mediocre at best to lousy at worst.
ya just gloss over how the financials are improving, focus on bickering about lounges that require coordination with governments...
"Progress is visible, but there's still a long way to go before American Airlines can truly match its biggest competitors.
It's a disaster. However it's time you actually write about the other airline collapse.
Air Canada from broken down plane to ancient lounges to the worst on time performance.
@ 9C -- Did I miss something regarding improved financials? Of course revenue is up across the industry right now due to higher ticket costs, but that's largely offset by higher fuel costs. Did I miss something about how American's relative performance is improving?
Are you suggesting financial performance (as the result of cost cutting) has a direct, positive relationship to quality and customer satisfaction? Why do you suppose my first name is "Former?"
The over emphasis on lounges and having that be a measuring stick in the overall experience is hilarious to me. A small subset of customers are actually experiencing a lounge of any kind. Focusing on the things that the majority experience is where improvement lies. High dollar spenders, unless it's a significant layover are not on average, spending hours in a lounge either.
One of my biggest complaints is that there's no higher thinking on *how* they roll out the improvements. They're haphazardly slapped on and quietly implemented, with no particular intelligence given to the order of importance. Heather Garboden is just another of the old guard it seems. Very disappointing.
I think lounges are how airlines compete for premium credit card customers. When it comes to actually flying domestic routes, the big things I care about are whether the plane has the modern large volume overhead bins that allow for luggage to be placed on its side, reliability of WiFi, and frequency of mechanical/staffing related delays.
I've been in and out of the Flagship lounge in LAX a couple times the last two weeks and find the food upgrade incredible. I've also flown Polaris this spring and found the lounge food tired and the food served on the airplane to be vile.
Lucky, you should do a really in-depth Delta x United x AA comparison... 1x longhaul, 1x shorthaul, admirals club, business class lounge, followed by ancillery features (alliances, elite benefits, credit cards, etc).
AA is miles ahead of Delta and United, IMHO
Too many AA employees justifiably hate their jobs. Or more specifically what their jobs have become due to one inane AW management directive after another.
Agree AA needs what Oscar achieved at UA.
But also the ongoing leadership commitment to unwavering improvement despite bumps in the road.
Currently when push comes to shove, AA is quick to toss passenger experience to the side.
It is management with an addicts mindset.
Here are my thoughts based on my experience: AA remains the least premium of the Big 3. I usually fly them between MIA/FLL & RDU and DCA. The MIA-RDU flights inevitably are delayed due to mechanical issues, and on both MIA & FLL - DCA, if you're in F, the most you'll get is to fight over the dreaded snack basket. Priority bag tags are a joke, as my bag rarely comes out near the first group. And the FAs generally do the absolute bare minimum - they thrown down 1 drink, wave the snack basket in front of you and then immediately hide in the front, Contrast this to DL & UA, where you get more pleasant staff, a PDB, and a full meal.
Ben, a lot of these things take time to develop and implement, but we are seeing good momentum.
I also think premium means better than a LCC vs better than united / delta. Being on par is good enough.
For example, Miami isn't competitive and connections to Latin America, American has a huge advantage. You don't need a super premium flagship lounge. Getting one in PHL and CLT is a much bigger priority.
Lounges take time, but the new DCA lounge is incremental capacity. LAX is in the process of a large construction. Being able to walk into an admirals club is much more premium than waiting in line to get into a sky club. Food and beverage offerings are improving which is great
787-9Ps are a nice new aircraft and older airbuses are getting more F seats. AA doesn't have old 767s like DL that land on your worst business class list. AA also uses 321Ts with flatbeds on bos-lax where UA uses standard 737s with recliners. This will change as UA launches coastliners but I would say the hard product is consistently good on AA. I don't have an issue with the concept D seats and I like the backward facing ones.
It's been a stunning transformation from what AA used to be.
For example, I flew coach from DCA yesterday on AA on a non-stop flight to Florida. The flight ONLY cost 2X the AA points it used to cost as short while ago. There were no beverage options left by the time they reached row 22.
The flight was on time and the Wi-Fi worked. Stunning!!!
You even quoted LTD and provided a link to his quote. Amazing he is trying to deny it now. Yikes!
A lot of these improvements are capital intensive, and have long time horizons.
New lounges take a lot of money, need planning permission and take a long time. Ditto for new planes. There are some contracts like catering that are easier to change, but also that has fairly long lead times. It gets even more complicated when it has implications for what the employees are being asked to do.
You have a new chief customer officer, she seems great, but she's got to sell in and prioritize what needs to be fixed ASAP, and what can wait. I'm sure she wants all the things DL & UA do, but getting sign-off + funding is another story.
Feel like there's some case for mild optimism, but as always it's the soft product that makes or breaks it. Right now AA's soft product is average at best.
let's see what AA and WN report but they were guiding to stronger unit revenue performance that DL and UA which says both are finally making their revenue improvement strategies are improving.
The quarter ends tomorrow and none of the big 4 changed their guidance even though fuel costs fell during the quarter which means airlines are likely going to meet or exceed their guidance.
If AA's RASM performance beats DL and UA, then all of the non-sense about product - good, bad or indifferent -doesn't matter. What matters is that they are getting people to spend more. It will take some time before they are at or above DL levels - if ever - but they very well could be moving in the right direction.
We'll find out in several weeks
no, I didn't ever APPLAUD AA for getting rid of old widebodies. I said it made sense given that they don't make money on their TATL and TPAC systems.
and, no, Gary didn't accurately quote me.
It speaks volumes that Gary comes to argue on Ben's site rather than responding to my comment on his own.
volumes, just volumes.
Customers are spending hours in the lounges at American because of all of the maintenance and operational delays.
Also, lounges increase credit card sign ups and usage, which are highly profitable for airlines.
The priority bag tags is an excellent example. I’ve only experienced those bags having priority delivery at a couple of airports, and DFW is certainly not one of them.
Does it hurt me to wait an additional 5 min for my priority tagged bag? No, of course not. But it sends a clear “no one cares” message.
Not much since they remain a pathetic three star airline. Heck - even Air India now has four stars.
Americans are happy with mediocre - I mean just look at the food, education, medical care, cars, infrastructure and quality of life. The perfect airline for the country.
I only fly AA domestic due to work and to the Caribbean because of its schedule. When it's business travel I often purchase the upgrade to domestic first when it's a price that I think is value for money.
I have not experienced anything premium thus far. Not the lounges, nor the fare served in them nor the onboard service on average.
The majority of AA's flights are not delayed. So your point doesn't make any sense. And on average, people are spending 1 hour in an AA lounge.
I agree with most of Ben's opinion, but I'm one of the rare guys who'd prefer Flagship lounge over Delta One. I don't wanna be bothered by an attendant, and I want to grab all the food and beverages in a few seconds without waiting to be served. I'm all for a buffet rather than an a la carte.
Fliers can deal with a weak soft product if the hard product is solid. Thus far, American is 0-2.
Ben is correct, American is catching-up but not leap frogging anyone. They still cut corners on their products and services in an effort to "catch-up".
Maybe my standards are low but I’m perfectly fly fine flying AA in basic Econ within the USA. They consistently offer lower fares out of ORD than United and offer a free carry on. It’s nothing special but it gets the job done.
Side note: Is Starbucks actually considered a selling point? Because their coffee is medicore at best.
The biggest issue is the attitude of the AA employees!!!
Have encountered several "militant" FAs based out of Miami. To the point where I fly B6 when heading to south Florida. Yet, a NYC based crew could not do enough on a different flight. Go figure!
Also, imagine being bumped from 1st class for a FO or Capitan who are deadheading. Yet, the flight was delayed so the deadhead could make the connection. Might as well throw dirt in my face while you kick me to the back of the bus!!
It's the unions who are running the asylum while "Quarter Zip" is asleep at the wheel.
I'll opine again as I fly AA every week and pay enough coin to be CK. I find many of the young flight attendants, more the women than the men, seem to be overwhelmed particularly if they are working the front. I can't imagine in any universe how they would have survived that job 40 years ago when a 90 minute LGA/ORD flight would have gotten a beverage service and a hot meal service in coach. I think training is some of. I think some of it is social. The inability to hustle, think quickly and be flexible.
Of course, there's the 60 year flight attendant that hates the job and should have changed careers 30 years ago but hung on.
There are fantastic crew and ground workers. All of these observations would apply to both UA and DL.
Good idea, but the short haul should be a tight connection thru each airline’s biggest hub.
LTD says, "no, I didn't ever APPLAUD AA for getting rid of old widebodies"
“AA made the right decision to get rid of a bunch of aircraft during the pandemic and, given that they have pushed back deliveries of 789s, they aren’t expecting a whole lot of growth but rather reshuffling their network."
I took American Airlines to Barcelona a few weeks ago. The seats are tightly squeezed together and you can not stretch your legs. It was a very uncomfortable 9 hr flight. The food was horrible. I will not be flying anymore. They really don't care about the passengers comfort at all.
"It speaks volumes that Gary comes to argue on Ben's site rather than responding to my comment on his own."
He responds to you all the time on his own site lol. stop being so damn sensitive
You act like such a child.
it's also no surprise that you have no idea or memory of what you post all over the internet. I've never seen someone lie so much about his own posts.
Couldn't agree more. It amazes me that the majority of Delta and Alaska F/A's I encounter, as well as gate staff are almost always pleasant and engaged. Particularly Alaska.
And American ? not nearly so much. Flying them tomorrow in F Class. I am intrugued.
@GeorgeNRomey
My wife has 40 years flying with AA. Her initial safety training was eight weeks. She then went through a total cumulative eight more weeks service training included Purser, domestic, South America, Europe and Asia inflight services. Eight weeks safety & eight weeks service.
A new hire gets 30 MINUTES of total service training in their initial five weeks. And that’s it!
Morale is so bad under Isom’s lack of leadership that she says most of her inflight colleagues are on Xanax or some type of antidepressant. They dread going to work as it’s such a disorganized, embarrassing and depressing s””” show.
When we travel we buy tickets exclusively from on Alaska Airlines.
I can't see any changes at AA until they rid themselves of the America West mentality and management. Prior to AW taking over, for example, 737s has 150 seats total. Post AW, they have 172. They removed main cabin extra seats, removed seat back entertainment, and installed laughably small lavs. This is not premium. They chased the Spirit customers instead of capitalizing on their previously premium assets. Now, that Spirit model has failed and they are sticking with the bottom-of-the-barrel product for the vast majority of their flights.
Retiring all of those planes during the pandemic was short-sighted. Now, don't get me wrong - the 757s and 767s were an embarrassment for international service and needed significant updating, but the 330s were not that bad and quite fine actually (I flew on one and found it to be quite fine even though it was a bit aged whereas the 767 was horrid in business). Instead of any investments in those, they shoved more seats in already tight 737s then bought hundred more of those. Flights to Brazil upwards of 8 hours in that??
Their lounges are far nicer than their planes. What does that say about a premium product? They spent a decade chasing the bottom and that's what they got. Everything wrong at AA was self-induced. It could all be reversed, but they spent a decade creating this cheap/basic/lifeless/dull product that no one is willing to pay a premium for. They'll need to put serious effort into making themselves actually premium like they used to be then perhaps talk about how they have actually become premium.
I agree with you - saying "some day we will do some thing..." doesn't really resonate for the person flying today.
Reading American is improving service. They may be. I fly them out of Boston and I don’t see the changes. I just flew them two days ago and it was a bit Greyhoundish. Same for United btw. Flew them two weeks ago I don’t notice any improvement. Delta is nicer. I really wish there was a good competitor to Delta. Their quality is dropping.
Just flew AA from LA down to South America, with layover in JFK. Like you previously wrote, no one cared to look and greet passengers when boarding. Also had THE rudest check in staff at LAX. I filed a formal complaint and received a seemingly standard apology email within hours. And I’m OW sapphire flying in business class, I couldn’t feel any warmth as an ordinary passenger, never mind any sense of premium. The 100 year special beef Wellington served was also a joke. They didn’t voluntarily give out slippers on flight between JFK and GRU or at least they skipped me (seating last row). And when they found out I don’t have a pair, what did they do? Nothing… I still have return flights with them… not excited at all…
t's made promise but no delivery. I'm trapped living in DFW and hate it. They take us all for granted, know and love it. They have no premium experience and gauge us with high fares that if I fly to Austin, back to DFW and then onward my fare is half the price. Get it together for once in my life
I miss America West especially the pre bankruptcy America West. The service was good enough to pay extra to fly them. Now its a zero sum game with most airlines on how cheap they can be.
My wife and I are retired Army; MD & RN. We have the choice between American Airlines & Delta. Delta provides early boarding for both active duty & retired military. American only allows active duty early boarding. Active duty may only be serving for a few years and can only fly when given leave. Retired military are older and have served our country for over 20 years; can fly anytime.
Which airline provides the best service for military people? Why does American airlines not allow the same service for military as delta?
American just sold off its former retired A330s to an Asian airline.
Surely these aircraft, which were fitted with Premium Economy I believe, could have seen another 5 or so years plying routes through to Europe until new aircraft are ordered and arrive. They weren't that old as far as cycles and flight time were concerned either. And another 20 or 30 additional used ones could have been purchased too to fill the gap until they are no longer needed.
and yet he comes to someone else's site to argue w/ me.
you of all people are hardly the one that knows how to contain your argumentative nature but it does say volumes that he has to argue w/ someone on another blogger's site
and specific to the topic, which at least rebel discusses- you always resort to personal attacks when you can't debate the issues - AA wasn't profitable in the TATL and TPAC regions and in major markets like the transcons. DL has and will continue to grow its share and add premium revenue AA could not carry as a result.
AA made the right decision to retire aircraft; that isn't applauding them. That is being able to see that doing the same thing as your competitors is not the right thing if you can't do it well
TD says, "AA made the right decision to retire aircraft; that isn't applauding them."
Actually, FAIAP it is applauding them, and it was obviously the wrong thing to do along with a lot of other miscalculations that are easy to see in retrospect. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say, but parking long-haul wide-body aircraft ahead of the biggest boom in international travel and with supply severely constrained was a mistake. Much of that lack of supply was because most other airlines made the same mistake so they are far from alone.
I agree that some folks are incorrigible, but the vast majority of people want their work to make a positive difference. Airlines are extremely complicated ventures that if mismanaged can frustrate even the most right minded employee. Beyond good management a large airline requires strong leadership with a well-communicated vision to inspire employees to go the extra mile for the customers to get the service to the next level.
The only other way to do it is through fear at airlines based in places where workers have no rights or recourse. No thanks.
I quit halfway. The aimless ramblings and run-on sentences with too little information or insight became unbearable to read. Are writers here paid by the word or just incapable of ruthless editing for reader value?
DO you think making multiple posts asserting your "uncouth" belief somehow makes you/it more persuasive? Saying the same thing over and over often does the reverse.
Normally an AA customer (lifetime hubster), but we recently flew Air Canada for the first time in many years. Paid extra for "better" seats in the main cabin and to check our bags. The original plane was 3x3, but was later switched to 3x2.
Due to the plane switch, we were moved to the exit row, with an empty middle seat no less. They just made better, well better. Without even asking.
Again, without even asking, AC sent an automated refund for all the extra seat & baggage fees I had paid.
I can't imagine AA doing something like that on their own accord. It's just not in their current DNA.