Besides, aa.com is there someone to complain to about the ongoing lack of ground crews to tow the plane up the gate after landing?

Late arrival, early arrival, day or night, weekdays, weekends, it does not seem to matter either the airport or the aircraft anymore.

The ground crews at American Airlines are AWOL.

In 1986 Jan Carlzon, the former president of Scandinavian Airlines wrote a book, Moments of Truth. In his book, Carlzon defines the moment of truth in business as this:

"Anytime a customer comes into contact with any aspect of a business, however remote, is an opportunity to form an impression."

From this simple concept, Jan Carlzon took an airline that was failing and turned it around to be one of the most respected airlines in the industry.

Some examples of moments of truth in Jan Carlzon's airline business are:

-when you call to make a reservation to take a flight,
-when you arrive at the airport and check your bags curbside,
-when you go inside and pick up your ticket at the ticket counter,
-when you are greeted at the gate,
-when you are taken care of by the flight attendants onboard the aircraft,
-when you are greeted at your destination.

When you are towed up to the gate by the ground crew is clearly another moment of truth.

Last night, for the sixth time in the past six weeks, on AA#952 MIA JFK, the pilot with an almost childlike apologetic demeanor asked the PAXs to remain patiently seated whilst he pleaded for the AAWOL ground crew to show up to "scoot us up to the gate".

I can think of no greater aggravation than to land, early in some cases, and have to wait and wait with the pilot literally pleading for over 30 minutes for a ground crew to show up, can you?

Why does this continue to happen? Whom should be held responsible?