I didn't need to ask AI the difference because my mind immediately knew you were using the wrong metric to justify why an airline should/shouldn't expand. You reaffirmed my point that MSA is the more accurate metric in the context of catchment area of an airport and overall economic strength. Claiming the stat that the city population, defined by municipal boundaries which vary widely from one city to another, is 5th largest misses the bigger picture (i.e. MSA).

It's like saying Pittsburgh has only 310,000 people (very small city limit boundaries) while ignoring the other 2.2 million people in the greater PIT MSA.

The Kirby interview on the Airlines Confidential podcast this week is a good listen. He even has a go at his old boss, Oscar Munoz who is co-host.

I applaud your use of the of the term "weapons grade incompetence", it brings back fond memories. could use a hyphen, though.

I started jumping ship when they pulled out of JFK and put them in PHL … besides, while AA hard product is ok-ish, their soft, F&B + their crew service + cleanliness of the aircraft … just below sub-standard. Am glad that my miles now down from 7-digit to 3-digit all redeemed on either CX, JL or QF.

Their biggest problem is their incompetent flight attendants.

Unable to deliver a predeparture beverage.

Unable to perform duties inflight.

"Their biggest problem is their incompetent flight attendants.

Unable to deliver a predeparture beverage.

Unable to perform duties inflight."

This!
AA needs to adjust their hiring criteria, IMHO. Stop with the DEI/AA hires/Quota goals and recruit people who just truly love flying and are customer service oriented (It's really not that complicated). I once had a neighbor who was a senior Delta FA for 25+ years. I would often see her before and after her long hauls (Her seniority landed her on the international routes, obviously). When she would return I often recalled how happy she was with her job. She spoke with great passion of amazing experiences on the job and time spent abroad. She was just as giddy as I am when travelling to far away places. She clearly loved her job. I wish I had been a pax on one of her flights. AA needs more people like her not someone who checks a box or who shows up for a J.O.B.

When they start making multi-year losses, perhaps. Now? I wouldn't say so. AA has many strengths it can play with the right leadership: formidable JV & OW partners flying in JFK/LAX, DFW & CLT money printers, largest number of gates at LAX, dominant position in MIA/largest airline in South Florida, still a very large #2 competitor at ORD, etc.

They need a vision and the ULCC mindset of "the network is the product" is played out. FAs got a new contract with pre-boarding pay, why aren't they being held to a standard to perform the customer service aspect of their jobs? AA's fixed costs are too high to let standards lapse and to chase after Frontier/Spirit/Southwest clientele. At least Kirby admitted in the interview on Airlines Confidential that he was wrong and adjusted accordingly after he came to United. I will say the FAs and other frontline staff likely have their hands tied with inconsistent messaging from leadership, and definitely don't have a product they can be proud to serve to customers.

IMO consistently improving BOB options, retrofitting the domestic narrowbody fleet with the new 321XLR design/ all the 787s with flagship suites for hard product commonality across the fleet, and updating all ACs and flagship lounges to the new DCA/LGA/PHL designs would go a long way to help remain competitive in key markets.

Network-wise, AA is going to continue to lag in widebodies for years vs. UA/DL, but I'm not so sure international premium will continue to be red-hot forever. Eventually growth and yields will drop as Asian carriers are able to buff up their fleets as well and dump capacity into the market, and TATL to Europe is already saturated. I'd say AA's conservative approach to bringing on additional 787s while debt is paid down is a good thing. Being late to the party with a massive order of new, expensive widebodies would be fatal. Leverage the partnership with Alaska in SEA as they grow it into a global hub, use the XLR fleet to open secondary European markets/maintain year-round service to key business markets, and strategically target Asian markets from LAX after T4/T5 renos are completed.

The ship isn't going to be turned overnight. This will all easily take 5-10 years to complete, but it's needed.

I'd second all of this. AA isn't in as bad shape as I think we (at least many of us) and Kirby think. There are a lot of strong parts they've lucked into or have from previous, less bad leadership. They could turn things around in 5 years and be competitive with DL and UA in 10. But, that does require the board and C-suite doing something about it. It does seem if they don't do something, they'll start to fall so far behind that in 5-10 years they'll truly be boxed in and have a hard time recovering.

Two things I think have been highlighted but need emphasizing:
1. I've had the best soft product flying and the worst. The inconsistency in service is their biggest problem. Like, many on here, I flew over 80 segments on AA last year, and am at over 50 this year. About 1/3 of the flights are some of the best service I get. About 1/2 are neither good nor bad. But that remaining portion are truly, truly terrible experiences. They need to raise the bottom up and then push for consistency.
2. There's reason to possibly be optimistic - Nat Pieper brings a unique perspective from his time at Oneworld about how actually decent airlines run. If Isom actually lets him implement changes, like he did Vasu, we might start to see more careful, forward thinking changes. Or at least changes that stop the bleeding and turn AA in the right direction.

Everything I've seen over the years shows that PHL punches above its weight for profitability, the problem is that it punches below NYC's, so AA wants to keep chasing that white whale despite being #3-4 in the market for years now, depending how you measure it.

AA does best when it's the big fish in a small pond (PHL, CLT, DFW), but that temptation of a bigger and better prize is what prevents them from truly investing in PHL, because they will continue to salivate at any opportunity that could give them a real hub at JFK.

I could not agree with you more. They are hiring people who are uninterested or just don�t care about their job and/or customers.

My favorite FA story was on an Eagle flight (I think it was Envoy operated) a few years ago. Service in first class was non existant for the first 3/4 of this 2 hr flight. Another first passenger went and had a chat with the FA working economy about having no service well into the flight. She then promptly came up front and chatted with the other FA in the first cabin. The economy FA then executed a quick drink service for us all right before landing and profusely apologized to us all about delay. She rolled her eyes and told us her colleague was doing her nails after takeoff and got nail glue in her eye and couldn�t work the flight. Someone that incompetent with no respect for their job or customers should not be flying for any airline. Period.

"Stop with the DEI", huh? No alrline in America cares more about DEI than Delta, the airline whose FA you're gushing about in this comment.

And for what it's worth, I flew DL over the weekend and had one FA who hid in the F galley for half the flight with the curtains drawn and another who gave the absolute bare minimum of effort. DL has great FAs and completely unmotivated and underwhelming ones. The same is true for AA, UA, and every other airline.

Not to mention, the issues with AA's staff long predate the concept of DEI.

IMO, the bigger problem is the retention process. Between a seniority based system and a seeming inability or unwillingness to fire poor performers, the process grinds people. The rotten apples poison the barrel, resulting in people putting in less and less effort.

AA 3 class F is a perfect example of this. You have 2 polar opposite personality types that have made it through the years, those that do a great job because they take pride in what they do and those who are absolutely horrid. Anyone in the middle slowly slides into the latter category over time.

While acknowledging that I only get to see a very small subset of the FAs for any carrier, my experience has been that AA has a wider variance of FAs than DL or UA, so I agree. I flew SYD-LAX-JFK once and the SYD-LAX FA in J could not have been less interested in her work, her passengers, or doing anything besides passing the time until the flight was over, to the point where it honestly felt like she was putting on a performance to show off how little she cared. And then the LAX-JFK FA in J was so spectacular that I wanted to start a company just so I could hire her to work there.

Or perhaps, dear friend, have these flight attendants go through training in Qatar. Or Saudi Arabia. Training facilities there are world-class.

And I agree with you. Emirates, Etihad, Air France are scared of AA poaching their premium customers.

If I'm flying from Miami to Paris, I wouldn't even consider Air France. Only AA.