Get rid of the incompetent flight attendants, try to become a world-class carrier, invest in a real business class and you'll be able to tell Scotty that he was wrong.

By the way, offer a meal from Charlotte to LaGuardia instead of a snack basket.

Even less would I look to Ben Schlappig (or ANY travel blogger shameless credit card shill) for insight on the subject.

Ben has a world-class vision of air travel.

Kirby has taken UA from being worse than AA to several standard deviations better. He's good at talking smack and spinning narratives, but he can back it up.

This has been the issue with AA since Crandall. The board has been a rubber stamp to some incredibly bad leadership.

I don't think that he is saying that AA will go under, just that AA is getting left behind, and possibly irreversibly so.

Some of these decisions are permanent or take decades to undo. UA's Isom-equivalent, Smisek bailing on JFK is still hurting UA. AA let DL eat it's lunch in NYC, no coming back from that. With the latest gate allocations in ORD, UA seems poised to give AA one final kick between the legs; AA won't go away at ORD, but UA will keep poaching away high value customers, leading to AA cutting frequencies, leading to more defections etc etc.

DL has been the clear #1 for a while, both financially and operationally. Kind of hard to take pot shots at that without looking foolish. In addition, AA is both his former employer and a clown show, so it's both personal and easy.

UA is weird - their own metal cost is atrocious like AA, but I have been able to find some some pretty decent partner redemptions using UA miles. Some are mixed cabin (partner J and a short UA leg in Y), but I'll happily take that.

Domestically, AA miles are far, far easier to redeem at great value.

A visionary? Vision is scary!

And, more importantly, is he a thought leader?

I was able to use AA miles to fly its partner JAL in First ORD/TYO/ORD in September.

Lol!

As a consumer, there 100% should be (and needs to be) more than two majors.

Is AA underperforming compared to UA and DL? Of course, that's been covered here thoroughly. But any suggestion of reduction to two major airlines should send shivers down the spine of every traveler.

Now I'm certain Scott doesn't read this forum nor does he care what I think but I will say: I'm very impressed with what he has done with United. I'm posting this from a Polaris lounge. But, Scott: get over AA, stop talking about them. Focus on continuing the great improvements you've spearheaded at UA.

Kirby is an obnoxious mouthpiece trying to stay relevant...as usual. If your competition is failing then you don't brag about it and advertise it to the world. You say nothing and let them quietly fall. The fact that he is singling out AA tells me that AA is a very real threat to his business model. JMHO

Color me shocked that people read still the various credit card bloggers clickbait....

Airlines can't just expand at DCA.

Lucky has likely been on FT for as long as you've been.

I'm sure there's a sweet spot or two left but shopping for an ANA J flight with UA miles recently was a real eye opener. F was just comical

There's really no correlation between FFP value and the sponsoring airline's financial health and ability to compete. I'm also a fan of the AA program relative to UA and DL, but concerned the airline may fade into irrelevance. Current management's indecisive tinkering around the edges is not going to cure its ills, which include an increasingly debilitating debt load.