New(ish) American AAdvantage President Steps Down

Probably one of Doug Parker's toadies will get the job...

As the saying goes, "do as I say, not as I do."

Sad to see Rick go - He honestly seemed to be the more genuine in caring for customers and adapting quickly to changes from COVID. He truly did have the customers best interest at heart and its too bad it didn't get to stay longer as I think he could have been an innovator.

I have to laugh a little about your comments regarding Bridget Blaise-Shamai. She was definitely was not working in the best interest of flyers.

Hopefully they go outside American for the replacement.

I'm going to bet an internal candidate will fill in.
I think part of AA culture is to be a breeding ground for airline executives. Their management positions often rotate from within but from a different division.

That being said, I think the problem right now is SVPs who don't retire, and too many talented VPs hit this career road block.
Why do you think a large group followed Scott Kirby to AA.

hopefully, its not a case of he disagreed with strategy and got out before it could be blamed on hiim

Like you, I get a little queasy when I read of "exciting enhancements...on the horizon", in his strange, navel-gazing moving-on letter. We know that 'enhancements' are generally not good for the customer but quite good for organisation inflicting them.
As to his successor, I hope they do not look over the sea of pirates from Qantas Loyalty.

They should just put Dougie in charge because there is no way he lets anyone do anything anyway that would add value or comfort or convenience for customers.

Doug probably thinks the same thing. Too bad Doug can't clone himself few thousand times so he can be in charge of everything.

But to Doug's credit, he didn't turn AA into US (yet). I was expecting much worse much sooner. I even feel bad for him for everyone who is making fun of him for boldly saying AA will never lose money again.

It's definitely strange timing. And, as with many things these days, the likelihood of the replacement being worse is higher than the alternative. But you never really know what's going to happen when a previously muzzled back bencher is put into a position with more power (see: Harry Truman).

As for those "exciting enhancements," I expect one of the first to be an extension of elite benefits for another year. In recent conversations I've had with customer service representatives, they've basically said it without explicitly confirming it when asked - eg. "I can't speak with certainty about future AAdvantage benefits for our customers, but it would be uncompetitive not to match what Delta is doing."

Writing is on the wall. Citi transfers, new aadvantage president. Expect major devaluations. Expect 1 AAdvantage point = 1 cent in the latest copy delta move.

Value of AAdvantage points for redemptions on cathay / qatar / jal were the only reason I flew american.

From what I can see American employs the peter principal on a wide scale. People have been there forever and don't have any perspective. The success they have had is primarily based upon controlling routes, gates, and lobbying to allow them to consolidate to reduce competition. The only way for things to get better is for some regulation to allow for competition.