American Airlines is Brand of the Year According to Harris Poll
American Airlines is enjoying a year full of accolades. In January, American was named Airline of the Year by Air Transport World. ATW named American, Airline of the Year based on the airline’s “practically flawless” integration of US Airways into American’s operations.
American Airlines Won Airline of the Year (Image: Air Transport World)
American Airlines was recently recognized by the Human Rights Campaign as one of the best places to work and received a perfect Corporate Equality Index (EQI) score.
Today, American Airlines received yet another award this time for the American Airlines brand. According to a Harris Poll, the American Airlines brand is the brand of the year among “Full-Service Airlines.”
According to their website, Harris Poll uses an “academically vetted brand equity model with elements like familiarity, quality, and consideration, brands create powerful connections with consumers.”
American Airlines Boeing 777 at LAX (Image Credit: Alan Wilson)
Some Passengers Would Say Otherwise
American Airlines has had a great year in terms of awards and recognitions and it’s only April. However, the experiences many passengers have had this year would say otherwise. From lesser quality catering to a devalued frequent flyer program, even loyal American Airlines flyers are beginning to question the airline’s future.
Gary Leff of View from the Wing recently wrote a post about the downfall of the American Airlines AAdvantage program. Additionally, many frequent flyers have noted the poor quality of American’s meal services in recent months. One Mile at a Time recently wrote about his experience with American’s domestic catering.
However, American’s awards and recognitions are based heavily on operational results, not passenger experience. Still, in recent years, American Airlines has been plagued by delays and cancellations, especially among their regional carriers.
Overall
It’s interesting to see American Airlines take yet another award. Many flyers were surprised to see Air Transport World award American Airlines with Airline of the Year. With flyers reporting lesser quality service and a devalued frequent flyer program, some flyers have begun to turn away American. Albeit, roughly every award American has received is based on operational performance and is influenced very little by the passenger experience.
What do you think about American Airlines being recognized as Brand of the Year?
“Harris Poll uses an “academically vetted brand equity model with elements like familiarity, quality, and consideration, brands create powerful connections with consumers.”
The quality of a poll is directly related to the quality of the sample us for the poll. They obviously chose people who were sympathetic to AA. I can’t publish what I think of AA.
American used to have a very nice product and good frequent flyer program. As United and Delta have raced to beat each other to the bottom, AA has remained on small notch above them. Not ‘quite’ as bad and just a little better. But overall, everything with the product and program has taken a massive downfall. If you’re flying on a newer AA plane or one that has been retrofitted, it’s a rather nice product. The seats of course are very cramped, but a tad bit less than UA (UA has 30 pitch, AA, has 31). The inflight entertainment is… Read more »