WSJ recommends booking away from AA
 

Could not find this posted yet...

http://blogs.wsj.com/middleseat/2012.../?mod=yahoo_hs

not very encouraging.

This is BS. UA is 10* worst. We should only book DL?

Perhaps, but recent operational performance has been much worse at AA. Did you read the article?

The comments are quite strident as one might expect.

The operational performance they are talking about is just the past few weeks, (Since AA tossed out the union contracts) not the summer or past year...

30 RT flights so far in 2012, only 2 have been canceled due to weather, and the majority on-time. This will pass.... Living in the SF Bay Area I have many friends who work for UA and loss everything during their reorganization, I expect the same with AA... Hopefully this will bring in lower fares this fall.

Yes.

This guy has no idea what he's talking about.

Yesterday AA cancelled 5.8% of its flight and had an "on-time" arrival (less than 14 minutes late) of 39%, truly an operation in shambles given the clear skies. I'm not sure who doesn't have an idea on what's being talked about.

BTW, this probably belongs to the thread http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...ct-2012-a.html

Wonder how that compares to the worlds largest airlines handing out BPs written with pen and paper...

Factually, I am not sure why that's relevant. You're comparing something that happened for a portion of a day in the past (UA) with an ongoing issue in the present (AA).

I'm no UA or AA defender, but this article is about AA, not UA. And looking forward, the likelyhood that UA, DL, WN, B6, VX or whatever will have an operations in shambles due to having to hand write BPs is rather low, while the likelyhood that AA will still have problem with "sick" or "to the T" pilots are rather high.

Emotionally, please book AA (instead of UA, DL, WN, B6, VX or whatever): they need all the revenue they can get. Factually it's another story. And personally, I think they'll get everything back to acceptable levels by 1OCT. Just a hunch, based on experience, but nothing more.

The issues with UA are ongoing, I was just bringing that extreme example.

Theres also a difference between 10 flights arriving 30 minutes late (AA) which shows a mess, and 2 flights delayed 24+ hrs (AA) which is an airline in total failure. The handling is also rather different. UA in many cases simply leaves pax hanging. AA has excellent IRROPs management. There's even a thread here with an AA phone rep instructing a UA airport agent how to issue a ticket.

UAs day to day OPs are not working. Try to do a simple SDC. The agents are clueless, everything takes multiple calls to help centers. AA might not be running on time, but things are working.

Simply look here for the threads of UA elites and corp accts who can't rely on UA anymore, and moved to AA.

The idea that UA is more reliable than AA is laughable. Now, DL might be the best, but to make AA the worst is grossly incorrect IMHO.

I see your point; as a non-UA (COdbaUA, acutally) flyer I don't know how bad their "normal" operations have become.

And AA indeed has an excellent IRROPs/OSO handling -- their outstanding autoreaccommodation tool, along with 90%+ of AA employees, makes them awesome.

I think the writer is bringing out his anger at AA because he lost his EXP status recently and he is very mad about it :D:D

UA is a disaster, especially since the start of the summer. My planes have been hours late or in one particularly grim instance, I had a terrific double mechanical of a p.s. redeye in July that led to my flight being cancelled at 4:30AM.

Before you buy into the article's FUD, be sure to verify that the grass is actually greener.

The fact that UA is a disaster is not in doubt. But it wasn't always. A year ago everything was fine (or I should say as fine as any American carrier can be). But UA's downward spiral started somewhere just like AA's looks like its starting now. It's to late for UA to fix things quickly now. It's to much of a mess. It's not to late for AA But it will be soon if they don't get it together. If you think things are looking bad at AA now just wait for this merger. AA will be EXACTLY in the same shape as UA if this merger Is allowed to happen

LOL. That is what it sounds like. COdbaUA is in complete and utter chaos in comparison with AA. I wonder what makes Scott suggest AA is in a worse shape? Flying every week, I am confident with AA getting me there than COdbaUA.

I don't think fine was the the right choice of a word... I mean, a FC cup that says AA on it isn't fine...

But it seems we agree telling people to stay away from AA is pathetic. They should stay away from UA.

From the Sun Sentinel:



American Airlines has canceled an unusually high number of flights in recent days, as the airline bickers with its pilots and plans to reduce service in coming weeks.

On Tuesday afternoon, American Airlines had canceled 51 flights, more than double the number of the airline with the next-most cancellations, according to FlightAware.com. Cancellations on Tuesday included three at O'Hare International Airport, according to FlightStats.com.. This week, the carrier has canceled 243 flights nationwide, far more than any other airline.

Cancellations and flight reductions are due to an increase in the number of pilots calling in sick and an increase in maintenance reports filed by pilots, said spokesman Bruce Hicks.

The airline will reduce its schedule through October by 1 to 2 percent, Hicks said.

"It's an attempt to preplan and better accommodate our passengers by canceling in advance and changing the schedule to reaccommodate people ... to give them plenty of notice before they get to the airport and find a flight canceled," Hicks said, adding that the company is not aware of an organized job action against the airline by pilots. "We recognize these adjustments may affect our customers, and we apologize for any inconvenience."

AMR, parent of American Airlines, is in bankruptcy protection and has not reached a deal on contract cuts with its pilots union, about 100 of whom are expected to picket at Chicago O'Hare Thursday. Instead, the company has begun imposing pay and benefits cuts, along with new work rules and outsourcing more flying to regional jets.

The pilot union, the Allied Pilots Association, has not sponsored a sickout by pilots, said spokesman Dennis Tajer. "There is no union-endorsed activity," he said.

Still, pilots are not in great moods.

"The pilots of American Airlines are angry," APA President Keith Wilson wrote in a note to members Tuesday. "While AMR management continues paying lip service to needing a consensual agreement with us, their punitive approach of extracting far more value than they need is hardly conducive to reaching a consensual agreement. In fact, they have made that critical task even more difficult."

By Tuesday afternoon, American Airlines had canceled 35 flights nationwide for Wednesday.

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Look, I am incredibly loyal to AA, even when they have ticked me off in the past. I keep coming back because I do feel that, compared to UA/DL/US, they are the best legacy carrier in the USA.

HOWEVER, I cannot trust them right now. The trip I am currently on - the outbound was impacted by this pilot situation, and the return was too. I had obligations on Saturday that I will no longer make because my Friday night flight was cancelled.

So, right now, I cannot trust AA. I have cancelled a future reservation in a few weeks and taken my business to another carrier than I feel I can trust a bit more right now. In that way, I somewhat agree with the author because I did, in fact, take my business elsewhere. Hesitantly...but I did.

I will most certainly come back to AA once they have their stuff back in order a bit. But right now, based on personal experiences + stories of others, I cannot trust them. Which is a shame.

The AA pilots are feeling a lot of pain and I have a feeling they are going to communicate this pain to the passengers, so the WSJ article is good advice. A 5.8% cancellation rate is ridiculous.

Unless you like pain ;)

Oh well done pilots. In some parts of the world you would be put in prison for doing this. If you don't like your employer then quit, it is a simple as that. Stop taking your job and your customers for granted and behaving selfishly, the FA's made an agreement to take cuts, but your too superior to do it?

Fortunatley for AA they can impose a contract that can make employees more productive, which can offset the attempts at pilots sabotaging the company. How long will this take because this cannot go on for much longer? Also fortunatley UA/CO is a basketcase and have been delaying many flights recently, although they seemed to have improved.

Perhaps AA can wet lease some planes off another airline like Frontier during the union action. BA wet leased a Titan 757 for Gatwick operations this summer due to an aircraft shortage.

Man, that is brutal.

When reading articles like this in the WSJ, the Sun Sentinel, or elsewhere, it is well to remember that the writer is a union member and almost always a strong supporter of unions in general. This should not influence what is written, but almost always does. News writers feel it necessary when writing about labor-management disputes to write the article that the head of that particular union would write (in some cases, it is the union's PR staff that has written the article and shipped it over).

When reading articles written by travel writers, it is also well to remember that they generally don't travel much. When they do, it is on comped tickets that identify them as travel writers, so they have a far different experience than normal travelers do. The typical travel writer knows less about travel (from personal experience) than the average Kettle does. They do read a lot about travel, though, and tell us what they have read.

Not to mention the writer often gives it sensualistic effect to grab the reader's attention. If AA had a cancellation rate of about 6% then there was still a 94% chance that your flight would go as planned. Of course, yesterday there were extended delays due to weather in the East.

I'm loving all these tears. Remember when there was generous applause for AA executive management's strategy of using bankruptcy court to force weak/worthless/un-American employees to bend over?

Now who's laughing?

BTW, I do have flights scheduled on AA in October. Most people are going to do what they've always done: book based on price.

I think people overlook a bigger statistic (particularly for those of us who make connections): Earlier this week the "on-time" arrival (less than 14 minutes late) was only 39%.

Lies, damn lies, and statisics. :D

Look at it another way if a normal cancellation rate is 1.4% then the odds of cancellation have quadrupled. This does not even consider delays.

This seems a little mean-spirited. Aren't the passengers just innocent bystanders?

Yea, right, the WSJ is a liberal rag. ROFLMAO

I'll be one of them next month. Life's not fair. :)

Besides, it seems that the pilots are living by the law. They're not making that extra push to help the company out, which is what's causing all the issues. IMO, a company that can't operate unless its employees are kind enough to sacrifice in order to redress management's shortcomings does not deserve to survive.

I hear you. It seems the bottom line is bankruptcy, whether personal or corporate, is awful.

All the legacies have declared BK, American is just the last.

I think thread title is misleading.

This is a WSJ blog. Big difference then "WSJ Recommends"

The blog is based on an article by the WSJ travel editor.

I don't care if I arrive 30 minutes late. Flying isn't a Swiss train. Not saying this is acceptable, but from here to labeling AA 'unreliable'?

AA, please layoff the right person, who does not want to work....
I believe most of the employees are good, just some are .........

AMR expects about 4,400 job cuts, warns 11,000
http://news.yahoo.com/amr-expects-4-...ce.html?_esi=1

AA has a great ff program and a great elite program. DL and UA have both ruined their ff and especially their elite programs. Booking away from a great ff program to move to a crappy one would be stupid. I can put up with a few irrops, especially with AA's great handling of them. This travel editor has his head up his rear end.

"I like to watch."-Chance the Gardner (Being There-1979) :D

Sorry, but a 39% on-time rate indicates massive unreliability, especially for a hub-and-spoke network where that many arrivals running 30+ minutes late can lead to thousands of misconnects daily.

I can't say that's necessarily true. I write on the side while I work and travel, and there are many like me. I flew, drove, sailed about 250k + last year, so I covered a decent amount of ground, and my tickets are never comped or have a note that I write, in fact, I can't think of any writer I know that does, short of Bryson or Bourdain, and maybe Simpson. It doesn't actually work that way. Everyone and their uncle wants to travel write and score free stuff, but it's just a fantasy that is happens.

Excellent! :D

So you're saying that Scott McCartney, whose article this thread is about, pays for all his own travel, and travels mega-miles per year?

You have some serious gaps in your understanding of U.S. labor law, a defect regrettably common in this thread.