I went to college with a guy who went into the USAF and later matriculated to American. He came from a conservative background and termed himself one. His words; "I never believed in unions but a year at American has changed my mind."

In a way you have answered your own question. They don't change at all. You just cant see things from their perspective because now it's YOU who are suffering some inconvenience.

I doubt very much that you look out for a third party over your own interests yet when pilots do so you take it personally.

Though pilots are loathe to inconvenience passengers they are not going to go out of their way to compensate for management's shortcomings anymore either.

Because they don't place your interests in front of their own you term them "robotic, petty, greedy, selfish, self-centered, little people". I think your rant is quite revealing about what kind of person you are.


Since you are unhappy riding airliners in order to do your job I happily suggest you change careers so that you no longer have to suffer.

This is overlooking the entire summer of miserable UA operations. Wander over to the UA forum: Plenty of people are complaining over there.

My AA flight ex-JFK yesterday evening was delayed by about an hour due to WX. I'll take that over mechanical/crewing delays on nearly every UA flight I've flown since June (a measily 25k BIS) across both PMCO/PMUA equipment.

Look, I feel bad for how AA is dumping on all their employees. But I dont think you need to deliberately inconvenience customers to avoid compensating for management shortcomings. Frankly I lose all sympathy for workers when innocent people are impacted by actions like these.

Airline Deregulation - a mistake
 

I am the same way. I was lucky in that I got rerouted very quickly on Sunday, but I was second off the plane (upgraded) and second in line. Those at the back of the plane...who knows when they reached their destination. Same with my flight tomorrow - I found out on Tuesday it was cancelled and was able to rebook, but I am more travel savvy than most passengers (as we all are on FT). How many people might miss weddings, funerals, family reunions, the start of their honeymoon, etc. due to this crap?

The priorities on E+ upgrades changed, and that particularly matters with UA increasing its sales of them to non-elites at minor up-charges. For golds, the bonus milage was downgraded from 100% to 50%, which is huge if you are gold, and silvers lost their second free checked bag, and that includes TATL and TPAC, where silvers now get the same free bag allotment as Kettles. UA gold is AA plat and UA silver is AA gold.

I am a refugee from UA, and AA is a breath of fresh air.

I agree with flygirl. I will not knuckle under to the union goons. I will stick with AA, and it is their far superior ff / elite program that keeps me on board.

My AA TATL flight Monday arrived at LHR ahead of schedule.

So what exactly are you suggesting? This group already has a LOT of restrictions on when and how it can take industrial action, which is part of the reason you're seeing this style of action.

Or should we mandate all businesses being run superbly like Southwest was under Herb so nobody was ever interested in a strike, even though they had organized?

Part of the problem is that, by nature of the biz, airlines have such huge fixed capital requirements that any labor action longer than several days is tantamount to bankruptcy.

I guess some labor groups might be happy with this, but is the community best served by such actions?

Like it or not the airline industry now is deregulated and market considerations are in force. All the legacies have declared bankruptcy (or gone out of business); perhaps Bob Crandall was right when he said the system is broke.

+1 - I'm going to keep booking AA tix as I want to hit the 55K re-qual. All this worries me a bit (esp. with three int'l AA trips in the next month), but I'm refusing to give UA any more $ than is necessary. At least AA makes me feel like a valued customer now.

Do we believe in a free market system or don't we? I have serious doubts about the motivation behind singling out railroad and airline employees for "special" treatment that creates such a long process before action is possible.

And I also wonder why we allow businesses to chose where they file for Chapter 11. Why isn't it automatically in the district where they're headquartered?

It's not only the airline industry where "the common good" or "the interests of the community" turns out to be a self serving smokescreen.

Markets can produce optimal results; however that statement is not without caveats. Market functionality is not applicable when a strike of several days may put an employer into chapter 7.

My fiancée and I are leaving on our honeymoon October 5th from ORD-CDG on an AA award ticket.

I'm contemplating cancelling the AA leg and moving to UA... what are the odds this goes on a few weeks and would impact a transat?

I'm scared that in the event of a cancellation, rebooking on another airline is going to be tough or impossible on an award ticket...

Relax. In the event of a cancellation, AA would rebook you on the next available flights just as if you had paid huge $$$ for your ticket. AA would not require you to sit around and wait for award space. There are lots of ways to get to Paris from Chicago between AA, BA, IB and other airlines.

No one can really give you an absolutely correct answer; you will have to figure out what works best for your comfort level.

Facts:
-About 5% or fewer flights are canceled every day on AA
-It's rather random and no one knows which flights will be involved
-If you have a connecting flight, you've doubled your chances of a delay or cancellation
-You might have more problems if you have a tighter connection
-Changes to tickets frequently involve change or cancellation fees
-AA will be responsible for your rebooking regardless of type of ticket

I don't know where you are flying from, but as an ATL based passenger, I'd probably stick with my AA ticket for now even if I had a connection in ORD. If the flight was substantially delayed or cancelled, I'd ask AA to put me on BA or DL. I'd make sure I had flight numbers and loads available. I'd also take advantage of my AAdmirals Club membership.

All industrial action is prohibited by law unless the union has been released from negotiations by the NMB under the Railway Labor Act.

Take that up with Congress, which made the RLA applicable to airlines in 1936, before any current AA employee was born (except for one mechanic in NYC who has been employed by AA for 70 years), let alone became employed by AA. Whether or not it makes sense, it's been that way for 76 years, so airline employees shouldn't be surprised.

Not sure what difference that makes, but again, take that up with Congress as that body writes the Bankruptcy Code. AMR is a Delaware corporation with its headquarters in Fort Worth and substantial business operations all over the USA. Under the Bankruptcy Code, NYC is an appropriate place for a Ch 11 filing.