Dallas49er

Will agree to disagree, if you choose.

Our tipping point: Flight home from CDG last week in paid J. Crap crew, with a crap attitude. Then we took off. Rushed meal service (Entree cart right behind salad cart, right behind drinks cart, all in a row all in the aisle at the same time. J crew clears at the speed of light, draws curtains, and when I go up and ask for refill of wine, ELDERLY BURNEDOUT FA says "The curtains are there for reason!. We are on break!". Me: All I want is a refill of wine. Its been 30 minutes since anybody came through the cabin. ELDERLY BURNEDOUT FA says "You all are suppose to sleep on this flight. That's why I bid it." Me: Sorry to bother. May I have refill of wine, and my wife would like more hot water for her tea. ELDERLY BURNEDOUT FA says "OK, I'll be right there." Me: Its ok. I'll wait here. ELDERLY BURNEDOUT FA says "Oh ok" and gets up. Me: How about 2 hot waters for my wife and 2 wines for me, so we don't inconvenience you and your staff any more than we obviously have. We only have 6 hours to go. Then service went to ...

Dallas49er

Due to crew quality and pricing, we have been hubbing through ORD and MIA and do DFW-CDG-DFW only as a last resort.

enpremiere

Plus the Flagship Lounge is nicer in ORD and MIA than what passes for a "premium lounge" in DFW.

jcatman

Apparently, getting rid of Tom Horton and receiving an unscheduled pay raise from Doug Parker did nothing to improve the attitude for many, many AA flight attendants.

reeg2

That's surprising to me. I've been to Rennes for work 5x this year and have had no issues on the direct.

I've never personally understood why people even use the lounge on a direct flight. At DFW, you can drop car at the valet, be through security and on board in 10-15 minutes or so. No need for a lounge.

stewlevine

Frequent flier programs are designed to incent future loyalty, not to reward past loyalty. If the offerings aren't enough to make you want to shop around, then by all means do so. That's a rational choice and the one you should make. No one should be under any illusions that airlines and their FFPs are attempts to do anything other than maximize profits (an often dicey proposition for the industry), nothing more.
Shop around. Get the best service you can for your dollar. But remember, AA management and the management of other airlines are indeed trying to best position their bottom lines. Whether or not they believe the way to do that is through customer service initiatives, convenient scheduling, pricing, loyalty programs, etc... are their choices to make. You should make yours.

enpremiere

Slightly better grub than plane food and to echo Dallas49er, the DFW-CDG crews always seem surely.

Dallas49er

Good Plano thinking! It's now MY $.

abk

When I retired 4 years ago I did the same thing. Fly American when it suits me and fly whoever else has the best flights or prices when it doesn't. Lifetime Platinum helps on AA in coach but other than that is worthless. I actually really like Delta and have an Amex Plat for access the Delta Club. The one thing I still do more out of habit than anything else is keep an Admirals Club membership which I really don't get my money out of.

When I retired I had just shy of 2 million advantage miles and am now down to 250,000. I used to be a hoarder but burned through a number of FC tpac and tatl awards in 2014 and 2015 and am glad I did as I find it ridiculously difficult to use the miles for what I want to do now in a worthwhile way.

C17PSGR

Thanks for the post! Sounds excellent!

But ... if you're going back and forth to Europe, I'm not sure there are any great options. The AA hard product is as good or better than any of the other carriers across the Atlantic. Unfortunately, J service is mostly below what it ought to be, particularly at certain crew bases. On the other hand, I don't think you're going to find huge service differences across the Atlantic between carriers. From my view, if I was a 60 y/o FA who could hold a DFW-CDG line and work 3-4 round-trips a month, I'd be pretty excited to work J and meet interesting people. I still get that on random flights -- a legacy US CLT-LHR crew who worked the same flight for years was excellent!

Personally, having just returned from trip in J on QR ... I get the soft product difference. I wish QR would offer more fares US-EU ... its worth the detour!

Now .. if (a) AA would offer LT Plat Pro to those with 3 mm plus or (b) emailed a survey to EXP's after an international J flight ....

3Cforme

I'm wondering what carrier you're going to fly? Is total free agency - service/price/schedule - in your future?

dantheflyingman

Best of luck to you as a free agent!

As I've told many people, my loyAAlty comes from the OG US Airways (I'm from Pittsburgh originally). My wife and I are planning a move to Ireland next summer, so we'll likely be switching loyalties anyway or going free agent ourselves if my new job doesn't involve travel.

I find AA to have the best TATL hard product. Soft product is hit or miss, although we've gotten lucky on our last couple trips over.

socalduck

[QUOTE=Dallas49er;30080910]Warning: YMMV

Question #1-Why should I chase "status", when if one is not CK, you ain't s***, and one's lower tier loyalty (EXP) is is continually being diluted, disrespected, and cheapened? Have you tried using one of your higher threshold/ fewer SWU's this year?

Question #2-Why should I ... be subject to, on most TATL and TPAC, to a mixed bag in flight crew of mostly ... ELDERLY burnouts, union protected burnouts and slugs, other burnouts, industrial strength attitudish, and people who just refuse to do their JOB, over and over, and over again (PDB anybody?)!, and then treat you like s...tuff (TPAC F FA refused turn down, saying it was "beneath" her). There is that occaisional superstar, but they will eventually be beaten down by the mediocrity. Other airlines, its like they are happy to welcome you.

Question #3-Why would I should I show loyalty to an airline/AIRLINE MANAGEMENT team that worships only their bottom line and shows me NO loyalty back?]

Okay, here are my thoughts:

Question 1: I'm not thrilled with how AA has handled the promotion of CK status, either. If you are going to make CK an official status, a bit more transparency on how it is achieved would be welcome. Fortunately, EXP still gets me OW lounge access, which has been a godsend the past couple of years. I tend to forget about the SWUs until the end of the year, so that's a self-imposed struggle on my part. I usually end up burning them on J>F upgrades on the 321T, where I generally find lots of availability.

Question 2: The past year, my TATL (RDU-LHR (3 times), CDG-ORD) and TPAC (DFW-PEK, PVG-DFW) experiences were all pretty positive, with an especially great crew on the CDG-ORD flight. However, I actively avoid MIA, where they have taken surliness and indifference to a new level.

Question 3: Although I've been EXP many years, I stopped being an AA fanboy long ago, even before the merger. DL is showing lots of love to RDU these days, so that's where more of my domestic flying is going. But for international, AA and its OW partners still work great for me. If that equation changes, so will my buying habits. So on that basis, I guess you can say that I'm as loyal to AA as AA is to me.

Adelphos

The vast majority of people who make these posts (on the AA forum, other airlines, blogs, etc) seem to be retired, have lifetime status, or otherwise have flown a lot of miles. Or they only fly international trips for leisure. I am in my early 30s, and I just am starting to travel a lot more for work. I could have 20 more years of frequent domestic travel. I've noticed the benefit of status (even mid level status) on my business travels and I am actually getting more serious about securing status on the airlines I fly. It's all about life circumstance.

IflyonAA

I think I have been EXP now for 9/10 years. I'm not that convinced that I'm going to even bother to qualify this coming year and wholeheartedly agree with the OP's statements.

AA has pushed me away.

In fact I have a Delta First trip booked for this week to France...............