The woes of American Airlines are no secret to the frequent flier. American has been wrecking vacation plans and work trips at a record pace this summer. And there doesn’t appear to be an end in sight. What used to be the favorite airline of many frequent fliers has caused many to switch their loyalty. I’ve never been an American aficionado, but I now rank them near the bottom of the large U.S. carriers. To many, they’re the flat out worst. And I can’t argue the point. Here’s why American contends for the title of “America’s Worst Airline”:
A Plague of Cancellations
American Airlines has been in a spat with their mechanics union for the past months, and they are placing much of the blame for their issues squarely on their shoulders. They may be right. A federal court agrees with the airline that mechanics have been purposefully slowing down work and keeping planes in maintenance in order to disrupt the airline’s schedule. While I can sympathize with the situation that American is facing, it has been a massive problem for their customers.
In June American canceled 4% of its entire schedule. That’s huge. Our local airport has an overall cancellation rate of just over 4%, although it feels a whole lot higher than that, and it is a pain. A 4% cancellation rate is ridiculous. Compare this to Southwest’s cancellation rate of 2%. Delta and United had cancellation rates less than 1%. Making some very gross assumptions based on the annual number of passengers carried by American and summer load factors, you’re looking at hundreds of thousands of people affected by said cancellations.
When flights aren’t outright canceled, they are heavily delayed. Depending on where you get the most current data, American is either dead last or second to last when it comes to flight delays and passenger complaints. An astonishing 22.5% of American Airlines flights have arrived late in 2019.
How the airline handle delays is another source of frustration. American Airlines is notorious for rolling delays where customers aren’t updated until much later than they ought to be. In many cases, savvy fliers will pull up the tracking info on their inbound aircraft and realize that it will be arriving later than their scheduled departure. Add in the time it takes to turn the aircraft, and you’re you aren’t getting anywhere on time. All the while the American app will tell you “on time”.
Fleet Stretched Thin Without 737MAX
Compounding their ongoing spat with the mechanics union, American has also been proactively canceling flights due to the 737MAX grounding. This amounts to 115 flights per day. Flights booked on the new aircraft represent 1.5% of American’s schedule, which accounts for a significant portion (but not all) of their 4% overall cancellation rate in the early summer. The MAX grounding has also cost them $185 million in the second quarter.
Whether people will be willing to fly the 737MAX once it is back in service is beside the point. American is scrambling to deal with the loss of their aircraft, and with so many more planes being delayed by mechanics, their fleet is stretched very thin.
These first two points have combined to make American Airlines the worst U.S. carrier in terms of on-time performance and cancellations. It doesn’t help that when they do completely hose you, they are unwilling to offer any real assistance in most cases. Everything gets blamed on weather.
Project “Oasis”
The move to a condensed cabin interior sure didn’t help American’s reputation. This ongoing fleet retrofit has been the source of customer complaints since the airlines first started to roll it out. The “Project Oasis” is anything but. From more rows crammed into coach, loss of legroom in Main Cabin Extra and first class, and the ridiculously tiny bathrooms, converting all 737-800s to 172 seats is painful for passengers. The lavatory is even a source of frustration for pilots.
It does make sense operationally, though, to have all aircraft with the same number of seats. I get that. Just don’t make it so many. But now the whole project is on hold. It’s like American can’t actually decide if it wants to be Frontier or not.
Surly, Unhelpful Staff
I’d read reports of American Airlines staff being gruff, even in their premium cabins. Not flying American regularly, I had no firsthand experience. It took two business class flights, one to Buenos Aires aboard a 777-200, and another back to Miami on a 767, to realize that this characterization is mostly true. On the first flight in particular, the flight attendant was gruff, hardly spoke, and didn’t seem to care about her job at all. When my main course was switched with the person behind me, they were promptly swapped without even a word. The fried chicken actually looked far more delicious than the cannelloni, but because of the attitude, I was afraid to change my choice.
A month later, I had to pull a HUCA with an agent who insisted that American Airlines reduced mileage awards can be booked online. Insisted. I gently tried to tell her that I’d never heard of this being possible, and the website says you need to call. Nope. Do it online. Or pay $40 per ticket (amounting to $120 in this case). She was pleasant enough, but the unwavering stance was frustrating and not at all helpful. I had to wait on hold a second time to book the flights with a much more reasonable agent (so yes they do exist).
No Customer Service Culture
The attitude of American Airlines employees can easily be explained by their own internal survey. Based on employees own reports, the feel that management is completely out of touch with front line staff. When there is a disconnect like this between company and staff, customer service suffers. If American is not going to take care of their staff well, why should staff take care of American’s customers? Often the most senior staff seem to be the most disgruntled. You cannot cultivate a customer-centric culture like this.
In other cases, the airline flat out lies to passengers. Yet another flight cancellation? Yeah, that was weather.
We can also touch on the flight delay issue again. In this data-driven age we live in, it seems like it should be all too easy to automatically delay flights based on the location of aircraft. I’d much rather get a delay notification when I’m chilling in the lounge than after I’ve walked to the gate. Not providing updates is maddening, and unhelpful to passengers. Just tell them the flight will be delayed, and provide a reasonable estimate. Even this adds into a culture of customer service.
Being proactive and honest (and having empowered staff) goes a long way. A recent trip with United illustrates this well. Both the outbound and inbound were delayed by over two hours. On the outbound, the staff were impatient, disgruntled, and not all that sympathetic with customers. Granted, it was after midnight, which made things way worse. However, on the return, the captain did an amazing job of keeping people in the loop with official (and unofficial) estimates, explaining when we were going to deplane, how long it would take us to push back after the thundershower passed, etc. This is the second time I’ve had a captain walk through the cabin to address everyone, and I can say that the gesture goes a long way.
Can American Correct Their Course?
American needs to work on multiple fronts to be able to turn themselves around. They seem to think they want to be a low-cost carrier, yet can’t compete on price. They also want to be a full-service carrier with the most premium product available (what other U.S. airline still has both first and business class?), but your staff are an integral part of this experience. Staff need to understand the company strategy, and American doesn’t seem to have one.
And no matter what, they need a reasonable on-time performance, otherwise everyone will leave off flying them. If a 4% cancellation and 20% delay rate out of ACV is enough to make me drive 4.5 hours to fly Delta (instead of United in this case), I’m never going to touch American.
American 737 interior photo courtesy of airbus777 via Flickr under CC-BY-2.0 license.
My wife and daughter just flew AA. BOTH SAID NEVER AGAIN. Chicken dinner was so raw my wife said, you could smell it. Some black attendant gave my daughter what i call black attitude staring her in the eye with a bully tone, Wife said, stewardesses were very old females. Passengers, dirty people all over the place. We shower before a flight and put on a clean outfit. I USE TO FLY A.A. YEARS AGO. It appears that AA AND United ARE at the very bottom. I THINK THIS IS DISGRACEFUL.
Pretty much sums up my experience. They put profits before people—their employees, their customers—and it shows.
Boo AA. Refuse to compensate me for flight cancelled during Covid.
I just had a experience with American Airline , here are my thoughts , very poor service , I asked for hot tea i, and the tea was not tasty at all and even the water was not hot at all . Also their toilets did not have enough towels and after 2 hours flight the toilet were not clean at all .
There must be some sort of Tax Advantage or monetary compensation when AA cancels a flight. They do it quite often and for what reason?
Your willingness and ability to collaborate with other teams is something we can all learn from. Thank you for offering up your time to help others do their role better through sharing your knowledge, like sharing your insights with the sales team so they could better understand customer needs and why they love working with us.
Thanks Regarding !
Seven Day Rishikesh Yatra
https://gurugrah.com/rishikesh-yatra/
American Airlines is despicable…within 2 hours, I saw them call the police on 3 women in 3 separate incidents. Then just throw people off planes at their whim and fancy. They bullied 1 women saying she cannot caring her hand carry on board just because the other bag “looked” big but actually wasn’t because it could be squashed small. Then they said the so called checked bag cannot be placed with the other checked bags. It had to be at the bullying employees’ feet at the airport. Then the agent pulled the ticket out of the passenger’s hand, ripping it in half saying the passenger cannot board. Then they wasted taxpayer money by calling the police on this very upright mother of 4 who is a Girl Scout leader and Bible study leader. This Airline should not be called American at all. They do not respect other’s rights and us completely un-American!! The manager were completely useless. They did not try to resolve any issue. They are not managers at all. They are not trained properly as leaders/ managers to handle any situation like professionals. Their way is to give you blank stares without really listening and then to remove people from the plane telling them to fly another airline. They threw off another female passenger who was left stranded without her ID and credit card which was on the plane that took off…CUSTOMERS BEWARE!!
That’s crazy! Thanks for providing your experience.
American Airlines delays then cancels flights without warning. Direct you their app that answers nothing. If you bought ticket from a third party they will not honor refunds. Even the telephone survey which asks how likely are you to recommend AA will not hear” unlikely”
The voice says the number 3 button on the phone did not register . Then the quality survey hangs up on the customer. WILL NEVER FLY AA AGAIN.
I just had the most horrendous experience with a bag collection agent yesterday. Set me to tears for two hours. I literally couldn’t believe the bullying and harrassment. It forced the word “fucking bag” out of me and the supervisory element came out of the wood work to launch more threats and intimidation. I’m traveling on military orders by-the-way, like that makes nay difference. It was so bad I may never fly again….
Oh and I also forgot, we sat on the tarmac for an house and a half for a “maintenance issue” and then when we landed my bag had been looked through and my Citi Card compromised to the tune of 4k. None of the charges went through, thankfully.
That’s awful. I heard stories of luggage being ransacked. I hate checking anything for that reason.
I saw 3 women get bullied and thrown off their flight with police escorts within 2 hours…I am a frequent traveler and have never witnessed such bullying and barbaric form of customer service!!
I had a flight yesterday with American to LAX and the scheduled departure time was 5, but at 7 we are still sitting on the runway. They keep saying we had to do re-routes but honestly, that’s not true. Then they say that we need to head back to the gate for “more fuel”. Like jeez American, we’re not your friends waiting patiently for everything we do. We have stuff to do.
Then they announce that the flight was canceled. Sure it could of been the weather because it was drenched but I still think it was Americans’ fault for not handling it well.
Normally we drive from Chicago to Ft Lauderdale (I love packing ALL I want, having my car, freedom of when to leave and no masks!), but this time, last week, we decided to fly….BIG MISTAKE!!!!
The way there was ok, but flying home??? Let’s see..my girls and I wake up at 4am to be at the airport by 6:30am. We do curbside check in and attendant tried to charge me again for 3 ck’d bags I had ALREADY paid for on line! Then he LEAVES in the middle of helping us! 15 min comes back, no explanation, and finishes up. He had to audacity to ask me if I’d tip him…whatever.
So our 8:15am flight got delayed till 10am…9:30am come and AA app says “boarding”…huh…no plane at the gate yet! Then 10am comes…no plane at gate still…then it says”delayed till 11:30am” on AA app. Then flight staff person announces (curtly, of course) that the plane’s delayed “indefinitely, so go to customer service and book a new flight”!!!! Oh sure! Like there wouldn’t be a line a mile long for that! And know what knew what to do! It was a real $hit show there! Like what you see on TV!
3 hrs later, we get a very slow- working-too-busy-yucking-it-up with her fellow workers rep to help us rebook. And the rebook was a shuttle from Ft Lauderdale to West Palm and fly to Chicago. Weirdly, she said we were rebooked for a Charlotte flight already…???…that was interesting!
Anyway, we then needed to retrieve our checked luggage at the Ft Lauderdale baggage area to bring on the shuttle. They said causal go to 2-3, if not, go to Baggage Service, which is what we ended up doing. Lady there immediately tells me “oh, your luggage isn’t here, it already went to Chicago”…but there was NO PLANE, hence the “indefinite delay”, so how’s it in Chicago? She says it already left & it’ll be waiting in Chicago.
Yikes! We wouldn’t be there for hours, so fearing it’d be waiting unattended that long, I sent my husband at home to Ohare’s baggage claim to get it. He tells me AA rep says it’s not there (like I was told it’d be), then tells me “it’s still in Ft Lauderdale”!
But the AA baggage claim lady in Ft Lauderdale insisted it wasn’t, that it definitely left and was already en route/in Chicago! My husband said they told me to tell West Palm to tell Ft Lauderdale to intercept it and send it to chicago. Oh, too late…theAA baggage rep said it’s going to Charlotte! The flight I never booked!
Then guy said it’d eventually get to Chicago…but I asked, “the AA baggage rep in Ft Lauderdale told me, hours ago, that my bags already left for Chicago? Why are they going to Charlotte?’..He looked into it and said, “Uh, they’re still in Ft Lauderdale and that rep knew it but was too lazy to get them”!!!!!
So where WERE my bags? He still said they’re schedule for Charlotte, but still in Ft lauderdale,but’ll try to change it to Chicago.
So after finally arriving home at 8pm in Chicago (long day!), we go to baggage claim. No bags. So once again, I’m in another AA Baggage customer service line. And this time I’m told, no, your bags aren’t in Charlotte, they’re STILL in Ft Lauderdale AT THE CURBSIDE!!! They were NEVER processed!!!
So now, next day, it’s 9pm…after ALL DAY today doing endless legwork, calls, looking on AA app, etc, we finally saw that they went to Charlotte this morning then arrived in Chicago. We ourselves went back to Share and got them ourselves.
Yeah, I’m done with American
The gate agent asked you to tip him? That is crazy. But that baggage situation is downright ridiculous. So sorry you had such an awful day.
My family just experienced just about everything this article is talking about. We got to the airport one hour and 45 minutes early for out flight to Turks and Caicos. After standing in line for an hour we finally got to the ticket agent. Our flight was at 11:17am and we got to the agent at 10:25am. They would not let us board saying that we had to be there an hour early and we were out of time. We told them we were in line for over an hour and that we would need to take another Covid test to fly out the next day with that being the next flight. The results might not come back in time. The agent told me that they announced that there were other ticket counters in other gates but no one moved. I told them it was because we were already in the middle of the line. If we went to the other gate then we would be at the back of the line. They were very rude and curt with us and would not even try to get us on that plane. We found out later that that plane ended up being delayed and did not take off till 12:00!!! We did book a flight for the next day and found a facility that would do Covid PCR test and have results back in an hour for $250 per person! We had to spend over $1000 for a second Covid test in 6 days and we missed out on one day of a family vacation. This is the second time American has done this to us. The first time they cancelled our flight to Hawaii and said it was our problem not theirs to deal with. We are NEVER choosing American again.
That sounds awful! I’m so sorry you went through this.
Wow! That is awful! I’ve experienced similar crap from them…just AWFUL!
American Airlines is further eroding their reputation by turning politically woke. I, for one, will not use an airline that calls itself American and criticizes the nation at the same time. Stick to repairing your bad reputation and keep your nose out of politics!
Mary. Get your head out of your ass!! Being against racism shouldn’t have a label.
Welp, you’re not wrong. As a person with mobility issues who uses a wheelchair, I had a terrible experience with the flight crew on a recent DFW-Heathrow flight.
Bummer to hear, Laura! I hope they made things right in the end.
I’ve been Chairman on US Air till the merger and Executive Platinum on American since and I’m making the jump to Delta January 1st. My last 10 flights, of 8 have either been delayed or cancelled. Changing loyalties is very sad, but has become necessary. It’s one thing to enjoy the perks (although those are shrinking) but not getting to my destination, when my business counts on it, makes the change necessary. I’d rather get to my destination and scheduled in coach than be delayed it be cancelled. Goodbye American Airlines. I’m not gonna miss the delays and cancellations or the abysmal customer service.
I wholeheartedly agree. I don’t want to plan tons of contingency time into my business travel plans, so I’ll literally drive far out of my way to reliably fly Delta.
I have flown with AA in the past and thought that they were a good airline. My latest experience has me never wanting to fly AA again in this life. First our flight was delayed an hour so they changed our flight and sent us to a four hour layover in Chicago. By the time we actually got to our destination, the rental car was closed and we ended up walking in the middle of the night to a hotel with all of our luggage with my two daughters. The second trip was trying to get home and we had a connection flight in DFW that was already gone when we arrived with no other flights available until the fallowing morning and no hotel rooms available because it was memorial day weekend. We spent the night in the airport with two little kids. The reason for my travel is that my mother is dying of cancer so none of this is making things better. I’ve never been treated so badly by an airline in my life. Their attitude was that I was welcome to drive home. We asked if they would be paying for a rental car and they said no. Mad and stuck in Dallas Texas. I will never fly with them again.
I’m so sorry you had to do through this, Erica. Traveling can be stressful, far more so with kids. It hurts when an airline basically hangs you out to dry when the issues are operational and/or otherwise their fault/responsibility.
One other gripe – showing the original boarding time when the plane hasn’t even arrived at the gate! There’s obviously no way we’re leaving on time, why wait to publish a delay? They know exactly where their planes are. Argh.
This is the sort of automation they need to add. A computer should be able to forecast a reasonable delay, based on current location of an aircraft, turn time, etc. But no. The inbound will be 90 minutes behind schedule, and your flight will still show as on time.
My biggest problem with AA are the rolling delays, where they announce a new delay every 30 minutes. I was in MIA (where I lived at the time in 2017) on my way to MEX; my original flight was ~9:30 am. We were “rolled” until almost 6:00 pm! I could have gone home and done anything other than sit in an airport bar (couldn’t even go all the way to the Admirals Club because they were only 30 minutes delays). This was extreme, but it’s typical of them to not allow you to do anything but camp near the gate when there are delays.
These are maddening. OMAAT’s post (linked in text) is entirely correct that they don’t respect customer’s time.
I was flying out of the dreaded 35X gate at DCA. Thought I missed the boarding call for my delayed flight . 5 AA agents at the main desk just stare at me when I ask about the flight. Zero response just stares. Flight was delayed twice, no explanation, arrived nearly 3 hours late.
I wish JetBlue had a bigger network. I just cannot remember ever having issues with them…ever
Sounds like their typical “help.”
Jet Blue has great staff and culture, but operationally don’t expect anything great. Delays, delays, delays. Look at some of those recent articles on ontime performance. I only use Jet Blue where I know a delay will not ruin my day.
All of these problems can be laid at the feet of Doug Parker. Parker’s ineptitude is impressive in scope. He was at the perfect match for his ability at HP but he’s awful at running the largest airline in the world. Despite how manifestly obvious this is, the board of directors keeps deciding to retain him, which shows that a new board is badly needed. Changing the direction of this toxic airline has to start at the absolute top.
When the #1 company merges with a inferior company, intelligent practice would have you select the most talented of the 2 companies. Having the CEO comes from the inferior company is the tip of the iceberg that sunk the titanic .. and may sink AA ! The good old boy friendship meant the most talented in many positions was let go. The inferior CEO’s experience was competing with low cost carrier with densely packed planes. He has publicly said , ” Spirit and Southwest ” is AAL competition Instead of mentioning UAL and DL.
keeping the airline focused on competing with UAL and Delta! Instead of providing a superior experience and product, he tries to produce what he knows.. A absurdly packed “Oasis” plane that he will not even step into the bathroom to verify all the complaining . Here is a example of his misguided thinking . Moving 40 % of JFK international flying to PHL … because the airport costs are much less than JFK . He has just given Delta JFK and LGA and has alienated The NY passengers and most of the east coast for that matter. In that, he expects these people to fly on a cramped regional plane a hour + to get to PHL before the fairly long journey abroad ? !! Another example of penny wise dollar so so foolish ! AAl requires a complete new leadership change that does has the skills to successfully operate what was the world’s largest airline . It 5 year low stock price also bluntly screaming the same message !!
True on All Points. Parker and His Management Style are a Disaster. Most Employees despise the Current Management Team at All Levels from Executive Level to Middle Managers that are nothing but PITA and are ‘ticky tack’ at Best and pathetic. I know Many AA Employees and many have told Me stories that are really unbelievable and quite shocking. Very Unreliable AIrline Operationally, Mediocre Product, Unappreciated Employees who are regularly thrown Under the Bus with a Three Time Drunken CEO at The Wheel of the Bus. The Board of Directors are obviously Asleep…..no other Explanation is Possible. I am a Long Time AA Loyalist but despise Parker and Everything the Drunk Represents!
During Parker’s tenure at HP they earned the moniker “America Worst”. Can’t be a coincidence now, can it?
You said it RIGHT with the word TOXIC and should I say INEPT employees.
Sorry, United holds the title
While I have my beef with United, if I had to pick, I’d fly them over AA, all other things being equal.
I flew j SFO-JFK Their gate agents/flight attendants were the nastiest people I have ever encountered I had just flew economy Alaska and the service felt like j compared to aa. I recommend JetBlue mint or even detla
Airline of absolute last resort.
I AAgree!