Originally Posted by
Tack
One place where AS excels is damage control, especially when they majorly screw up. I lived through their Dog and Pony show after 261. While nothing can ever compare to that, they are masters of spin. 63 pilots isn't Ben's issue. The issue is they planned the schedule like they always do. They over built flying with the hopes that drivers would pick up the open time. When pilots got sick of the game playing with contract negotiations, they stopped snatching those trips. So AS burned up their reserves. Over building is something AS has always done, with the pilot MEC always telling them that producing a schedule like that has too many variables to be covered. However, it's nice to get another personal message from Ben. (Tongue planted in cheeck!)
One big difference between now and when 261 happened - DL looms large in SEA, and that's where AS has retreated to post-pandemic. AS has squandered a bunch of goodwill over the last few months and they will pay a price for that, videos like this won't make up for it. These issues seem systemic/cultural rather than the IRROPS headache that each major airline deals with at some point during the year.
In a situation where you really needed to be at a destination on a given date, would you rather be on AS/AA metal, or DL's? Anyone that's dealt with the situation over the last few months has an easy answer to that question. Seems like AS is "Going for GreAAt", which is unfortunate.