Herb687

If that purser was so bad, I hope you reported his or her specific service failures to AA. FAs can be disciplined for poor performance. But if it's never documented it will never happen. You must complain and name names when you experience truly egregious service failures, hostility, etc.

Make it miserable for bad FAs (they're not going to like constantly having to talk to a supervisor about multiple customer complaints) and they might eventually quit even if AA cannot or will not fire them (and if the abuses are bad enough and often enough, they will ultimately get fired, though it may take a while)

TWA884

You are comparing Delta's company wide early retirements numbers with AA's flight attendants early outs. I have no idea how many of DL's flight attendants opted to accept the early retirement package or what the company wide numbers are at AA.

fgirard

On more than one occasion, a family friend (former-TWA) mentioned that she hoped that the AA union would get to see and feel how it felt like to be screwed. Apparently, she went from TATL FA down to short-haul and reserve.

cmd320

No, I'm comparing the ability of one company to offer a package that enough senior employees deemed fair in order to preserve the jobs of more junior employees and possibly avoid furloughs and involuntary job losses entirely, vs. a company that had zero ability to execute that to the same level of success.

Of the 17,000 early retirements at DL ~2200 of them were pilots. It's safe to say a great deal more FAs (likely those high in seniority) at DL opted for their early retirement to the benefit not only of themselves but also their more junior colleagues.

TWA884

In other words, you are speculating. You have no idea how many AA employees chose to accept the early retirement packages or how many of the DL employees who accepted the the early retirement offers are flight attendants.

cmd320

I mean, with use of simple logic and knowledge of the proportion of pilots to FAs, it's not hard to conclude the number of DL FAs who chose early retirement will be higher than the number of AA FAs.

At the end of the day that isn't the point though. The point is AA is involuntarily furloughing 19,000+ people and DL is in a position where they might not have to furlough anyone or if they do a fraction of 19,000. Accomplished though competent management of the airline.

Dallas49er

(RED HIGHLIGHTING MINE) (in case anybody missed the point)

Perhaps that is the answer to the question that I asked.

But, to be counter-intuitive, if an employee hates management and/or hates his/her job and/or hates the clients/customers and/or, maybe hates disrespects their own union, why not take the the $, the first stage out of Dodge City, and do something/anything else?

There has to be something more, IMHO.

fly747first

Are you for real? None of these employees truly want to leave with such bad options but they know that if many of them don't, then things will get even worse... it's not as if Parker is a kind CEO who sugarcoats things. Just wait for AA to get caught posting many of the positions that they eliminated in the US and then filling them with new India-based hires like UA did.

Dallas49er

Good evening ladies and gentlemen.

Tonight the role of Doug Parker and Vasu Raja will be played by Mel Brooks and Harvey Korman.

Enjoy the show.

BearX220

Don't overlook the bitter truth that there is little or no public affection toward the remaining major US airlines. There's not much goodwill, and we can put that down to airline strategies, operating policies, and service standards over the past 20 years, and particularly since the last wave of mergers / consolidations. As ye sow, so shall ye reap. AA and brethren aren't going to get a March on Washington to save them. An awful lot of politically active people I know are enjoying the airlines' current misery. I know there's not enough empathy there toward at-risk employees, or comprehension of the shock that would result from liquidation of one or two network carriers, but rational analysis is not in fashion right now.

That is one of the big paradoxes of airline culture. Many employees hate their jobs, their management, and their customers. They're rebellious and subversive and play chess against management every minute of the day to cost the company more money and restrict operational flexibility. Union protection makes it nearly impossible to discipline bad employees, enforce service scripts, or reward high performers. They're among the most emotional, histrionic, voluble labor groups you'll ever meet, and the culture of misery is passed along intergenerationally; at United the employee base has sought to undermine virtually every CEO / leadership team, boom or bust, no matter what they tried, since the mid-1980s. At Eastern in the early '90s, the machinists' union hated management so much, they drove the airline and their own jobs to their deaths rather than collaborate. I wouldn't manage airline people for all the tea in China.

And yet these same people cling grimly to their jobs. It must be the free travel.

With some exceptions it really is an unhealthy, impossible business environment.

StevenSeagalFan

I took a package with AA, I had several years of seniority but the flight benefits and miles offered were very tempting so I took it. I know several other colleagues who were (like myself) very happy with the offerings.

TWA884

Excuse me, where exactly did I defend the American Airlines early out packages?

I simply took issue with cmd320's assumption of how many AA employees accepted the early retirement offers and the number of DL flight attendants who retired early. The only hard numbers that I read here and elsewhere are for company wide early retirements at DL and flight attendants' retirements at AA. If you know the total company wide count of early retirements at AA or flight attendants early retirement figure for DL, please feel to share those.

fly747first

Didn't think you were defending them, just trying to have a sense of humor about AA's endless troubles being such a poorly ran company with D- executives; even without Covid, it was just a matter of time before AA would hit struggle again.

cmd320

Take as much issue with it as you'd like. We'll see which airline ends up furloughing more staff... hint, it'll be AA.

fly747first

And Parker will continue to make millions despite his alarming performance whilst more dedicated employees will be let go.