Speculation- Major collapse of AA coming in next year due to IT?
 

I fly eight plus flights per week. Things were bad last Spring (2019), but recovered decently through the end of the year.

I have noticed major IT issues over the past two weeks. Super slow web site, smartphone app not updating. At DFW last week, missed a connection in Terminal D (now a bit of a ghost-town with reduced Asia flights) and went to customer service over calling EXP desk. Three reps, three customers in front of me. I am first in line. 45 minutes later all three PAX still in line, the reps are on the phone, saying nothing is "taking". I finally walked and called the EXP desk.

Yesterday my early morning flight from TPA to DCA was delayed two hours because the flight came in late the night before. Yet no message until after I dropped my bag of the problem. The AA customer agent knew- but did not care as she checked my bag. Had AA IT system provided timely automated notification - I would of had time to reroute and make my meeting yesterday.

Today I sit in ORF- another two hour delay which means I can't make my connection, miss my 8am meeting tomorrow morning. All flights for my connection are full. The delayed flight showed left PHL- but never left the gate to ORF. Had the system been accurate, I might of had time to make flight timely flight adjustments.

Just a sense that AA keeps implementing more IT features, that appear nice to have but likely appear not to be fully verified, validated, or accredited. On the worlds largest airline that runs flights 24x7 (redeye CONUS west coast to east coast) the IT system must be solid as a rock. I am speculating it is not and will cause a major systemwide crash at AA in the next 365 days, because of IT- that AA will be not equipped to efficiently recover from.

Little follow up (just on today's IT issues).

I was able to change to a flight departing ORF today. I have seats, it is "ticketed".

I am not able to check in, nor able to get a boarding pass (final step of check in). I go through all the steps , all looks good, but does not complete the transaction- nor does it show any error. IT is in trouble at AA....

Not as critical as IT related ticketing/reservation issues, but my e-upgrade balance did not increase by 4 when I passed the 12,500 EQM threshold last week. I emailed AADv customer service this morning. My EQM balance says I need to earn 10,317 more miles to earn my next batch of 4. 2 weeks ago it said I needed to earn another ~3000. I passed that mark and no increase in e-cert balance happened. And I haven't redeemed any in 3 months either because I didn't make the cut on the list, or I bought up in advance with a TOD offer.

i've been flying the past 2 years, twice a week, with AA and know that you can never go off of the times that AA gives you with delays. It has more to due with AA folks updating the delay times and less to do with the IT. I always check FlightAware to see when my inbound flight left and when does it arrive, that's your best option.

As an EXP, I haven't had any issues with doing same day flight changes and the notification that the plane is boarding has been pretty accurate and helpful. Both on the mobile app.

AA is a great example of the perils of being the first innovator in a field. Half a century ago AA revolutionized the industry with Sabre. Fast forward to now and 50+ years of patchwork add-ons and bandaid solutions are starting to show their wear.

The risk with checking the inbound aircraft is that, if you are at an AA hub or even focus city, they could always do an equipment sub with something that's there. For this reason, I always stay close to my gate in those cases. I will also check the AA app for inbound flight info in the cases where an equipment sub is 99.9% improbable.

The counter resets to 0 at the start of the membership year, which is February 1. See https://thepointsguy.com/guide/ameri...mile-upgrades/.

right, if you're boarding in 15 minutes and AA shows no delays but Flight Aware shows your incoming flight is still 30 minutes away from landing. I'd believe the AA app as an equipment change is definitely a thing.

These substitutions are common at PHL. A few weeks ago my inbound aircraft hadn’t left Boston 30 minutes before my scheduled departure from PHL and my flight went off on time because they substituted an aircraft from Aruba which had just landed.

What is ascribed to poor IT is, in reality, real-time IT providing accurate information in the moment.

The inbound timing is a valuable tool most of the time but is subject to change. As others note, when you see the departure time holding but the arrival time of the inbound steadily delayed, you can bet that OPS is looking at an aircraft sub. If the sub can be finalized, the incoming data will update or disappear. If it can't, the delay will post.

The suggestion of a "collapse" is fear-mongering. Nothing more.

AA App is usually pretty correct....this week JFK-MIA was showing departing on time but arriving over 30 mins late....I ask AC agents what’s going on with this flight and they have no idea and says everything is fine despite the App showing otherwise.....sure enough the App was right......due to strong headwinds it took an extra hour to fly to Miami but no staff on the ground could tell this from their systems.

With the tight connections these days this left me very stressed out to say the least.

You could be right. But I would not take that bet.

What I am seeing in your "real time" is numerous IT errors/ concerns, across the mobile app, the web app, and AAs internal intranet. It is a deflection to suggest it is about delayed flights, real time updates. Those are not the center of gravity of what I am seeing, as someone on AA planes for eight plus flights a week.

I am seeing a smartphone app that loses flights (have to enter RL to find the flight), loses same day flight change feature, on and on. Can't complete a smartphone check in, can't display boarding passes. Seeing less but like issues on their web-site. But most concerning- is the customer service agents appear to have IT issues also- and are having to use their phones to fix problems. Something is cooking and is not looking so good.

Just a hour ago, had to go to boarding agent at ORF to get boarding passes, as mobile app would not provide it (not even tell me if I was checked in). Another long wait, as the agents had to call some call center to get PAX rebooked. They were unable to get it done just using their internal intranet. In my case, I was in fact checked in, but the smartphone app said I was not, and kept providing the check in icon. I took a picture (vague to not show clear faces) of the AA agents on the phone to try and rebook PAX. Same thing I saw in DFW Wednesday and TPA yesterday.



https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...eb9992c2f7.jpg

technical debt

Still working to get to my destination earlier than the AA has offered... and now this has shown for past for few minutes. Yes- another one of many signs of what I think will likely be of a future major collapse of AA centered around IT issues.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...28395dfd01.jpg

I’ve noticed a definite slowdown to both the website and the app so far this year, as well as much increased bugginess - error messages, “try again later”, crashes - that never used to happen.