AAdvantage President's Take on the AA Experience
Jun 21, 2018, 11:54 am
#31
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Earth
Programs: AA - EXP 1MM, Marriott/SPG Plat, Hilton Gold, BA, DL, TWA Royal Ambassador
Posts: 309
Yeah, that's a pretty remarkable misunderstanding (or misrepresentation?) of their own statistic. And because I couldn't remember for sure, the statistic (as reported) is indeed 87% of their unique customers, not 87% of their enplanements. So even if all of those 13% fly AA only twice per year, only 77% of the enplanements are one-time-per-year AA fliers.
Jun 21, 2018, 12:37 pm
#32
Join Date: Aug 2017
Location: Stilllwater OK (SWO)
Programs: AAdvantage ExecPlat, World of Hyatt Globalist, plain "member" of Marriott, IHG, enterprise, etc.
Posts: 1,848
No offense to anyone here, but I feel that frequent flyer community seems a little out of touch. I would say AA is too for many reasons, but the president either lied or can't do math. On the average domestic flight, my bet is that at most 20% of the passengers on that plane are doing their 'once a year or less' flight and haven't heard the CC sales pitch recently. My supporting evidence? Look back at everyone's faces during the safety video. Squint towards the back, and you will find maybe 2-10 people that are actually watching intently with entertained looks on their faces. Everyone else has seen the song and dance many times before.
Originally Posted by donotblink
I'd guess most of those people are going too see family for Thanksgiving or Christmas.
Jun 21, 2018, 12:41 pm
#33
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 158
A quick google shows that this employee has a 20-year in various areas of the company, that certainly isn't insignificant.
But correct on the above posts regarding reporting to Parker, that's where the issues start/end. She is simply toeing the line.
But correct on the above posts regarding reporting to Parker, that's where the issues start/end. She is simply toeing the line.
Jun 21, 2018, 3:53 pm
#34
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 1,700
I don’t believe that Bridget Blaise-Shamai reports to Parker. I am pretty sure she goes to a SR VP of marketing and Loyalty who reports to Isolm. Who, of course, reports to Parker.
AAdvanatge of course went up though Kirby back when he was at AA. That’s when/where all the problems started.
AAdvanatge of course went up though Kirby back when he was at AA. That’s when/where all the problems started.
Jun 21, 2018, 4:35 pm
#35
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: San Diego, Ca
Programs: AA 2MM LT PLT; AS MVP Gold75k; HHonors Diamond; IHG PLT
Posts: 3,502
Jun 21, 2018, 4:50 pm
#36
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: KHOU/KIAH
Programs: AA EXP | Marriott Bonvoy Titanium| Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 11,244
My supporting evidence? Look back at everyone's faces during the safety video. Squint towards the back, and you will find maybe 2-10 people that are actually watching intently with entertained looks on their faces. Everyone else has seen the song and dance many times before.
I hate the pitch and the pushiness of it, but it seems to be bringing in $$$.
Jun 21, 2018, 5:39 pm
#37
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Verdi, NV, SFO & Olympic (aka Squaw )Valley.
Programs: Ikon Pass Full + AS Gold + Marriott Titanium + Hilton Gold. Recovering UA Plat. LT lounge AA+DL+UA
Posts: 3,823
A little surprised at the ad hominems. I'm CEO of a startup data brokerage; I have to know my product to sell it to clients and keep the board up to date. This said: look at many current job postings for MBAs, and options in tech are very limited if you can't do basic data wrangling. Decision drivers of a quarter century ago like Excel or SPSS are rapidly being replaced by Tableau, SQL, and more technical tools. IMHO this holds for not just marketing, but also finance and many sales roles.
Jun 21, 2018, 5:55 pm
#38
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Over the North Atlantic
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 494
I suspect Bridget Blaise knows that the 87% premise does not imply her conclusion and she is just staying on message. Then again I’ve met a lot of US execs in the legacy industries who would probably be quick to jump to the same conclusion but would quickly correct themselves after thinking about it. It’s nothing shameful. And nothing to do with their skills in a particular programming language.
Jun 21, 2018, 6:05 pm
#39
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Wesley Chapel, FL
Programs: American Airlines
Posts: 30,005
Jun 21, 2018, 6:08 pm
#40
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Verdi, NV, SFO & Olympic (aka Squaw )Valley.
Programs: Ikon Pass Full + AS Gold + Marriott Titanium + Hilton Gold. Recovering UA Plat. LT lounge AA+DL+UA
Posts: 3,823
Jun 21, 2018, 6:50 pm
#41
Join Date: Mar 2017
Programs: HHonors, TrueBlue, Delta SkyMiles, Hyatt Discoverist, Starwood Preferred Guest, American Airlines.
Posts: 2,035
You're not familiar with unions at all. Unions protect against employer corruption (ex: garbage benefits, excessive hours required without time off, unlawful policies, and OSHA violations).
Asking your employees to promote the company credit card without being compensated (other than your hourly wage) isn't corruption by the company.
Using your logic, employees could take naps on two hour flights and wouldn't be able to get fired because the union will "protect them."
I guess next time I save my company millions of dollars, I should ask for a payday bonus, even though that's what I'm paid to do already.
Asking your employees to promote the company credit card without being compensated (other than your hourly wage) isn't corruption by the company.
Using your logic, employees could take naps on two hour flights and wouldn't be able to get fired because the union will "protect them."
I guess next time I save my company millions of dollars, I should ask for a payday bonus, even though that's what I'm paid to do already.
Jun 21, 2018, 8:28 pm
#42
Join Date: May 2004
Location: DFW-In Plano & CDG-In the 11th
Programs: DL Diamond, AA revenue negative, Bonvoy Titanium +, Avis likes me
Posts: 3,209
You're not familiar with unions at all. Unions protect against employer corruption (ex: garbage benefits, excessive hours required without time off, unlawful policies, and OSHA violations).
Asking your employees to promote the company credit card without being compensated (other than your hourly wage) isn't corruption by the company.
Using your logic, employees could take naps on two hour flights and wouldn't be able to get fired because the union will "protect them."
I guess next time I save my company millions of dollars, I should ask for a payday bonus, even though that's what I'm paid to do already.
Asking your employees to promote the company credit card without being compensated (other than your hourly wage) isn't corruption by the company.
Using your logic, employees could take naps on two hour flights and wouldn't be able to get fired because the union will "protect them."
I guess next time I save my company millions of dollars, I should ask for a payday bonus, even though that's what I'm paid to do already.
Last edited by Dallas49er; Jun 21, 2018 at 9:50 pm
Jun 21, 2018, 8:32 pm
#43
Join Date: May 2004
Location: DFW-In Plano & CDG-In the 11th
Programs: DL Diamond, AA revenue negative, Bonvoy Titanium +, Avis likes me
Posts: 3,209
Jun 21, 2018, 8:44 pm
#44
Join Date: May 2004
Location: DFW-In Plano & CDG-In the 11th
Programs: DL Diamond, AA revenue negative, Bonvoy Titanium +, Avis likes me
Posts: 3,209
A little surprised at the ad hominems. I'm CEO of a startup data brokerage; I have to know my product to sell it to clients and keep the board up to date. This said: look at many current job postings for MBAs, and options in tech are very limited if you can't do basic data wrangling. Decision drivers of a quarter century ago like Excel or SPSS are rapidly being replaced by Tableau, SQL, and more technical tools. IMHO this holds for not just marketing, but also finance and many sales roles.
This where AA from top to bottom is missing it. GOING FOR GREAT? Pasture pancakes.
Keeping it OT
Jun 21, 2018, 11:53 pm
#45
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: YYF/YLW
Programs: AA, DL, AS, VA, WS Silver
Posts: 5,951
I don't have any data on this (wish I did), but I would have to in general disagree.
I would wager most ~once a year flyers are more typically doing one of a few things:
-- Trying to get to a funeral
-- Going to a rare and special (for their job) work training or conference.
-- Going on a more affordable domestic vacation (Disney World, Vegas, etc)
Perhaps a once every 10 year flyer is more likely doing that one special trip they saved for as you suggest, but those flying a bit more often (about once every year or two) aren't likely able to afford overseas flights that often.
I would wager most ~once a year flyers are more typically doing one of a few things:
-- Trying to get to a funeral
-- Going to a rare and special (for their job) work training or conference.
-- Going on a more affordable domestic vacation (Disney World, Vegas, etc)
Perhaps a once every 10 year flyer is more likely doing that one special trip they saved for as you suggest, but those flying a bit more often (about once every year or two) aren't likely able to afford overseas flights that often.
Although when it comes to revenue, the fact that leisure travelers won’t consider flying anyway on a 400 mile trip is probably part of the reason they tend to be expensive (especially per mile): no need to offer cheap fares when leisure customers won’t buy anyway and business customers are willing to pay more. So chopping out the bottom end of the trip distance distribution may not chop out the bottom end of the revenue per trip distribution.
But I too am guessing without data other than that 87%/50% statistic from AA.