"...flight attendants go through training in Qatar. Or Saudi Arabia..."
It's much easier to run an airline when the government subsidizes most of the expense.

I agree with some of this, but AA is actually boxed in financially with both a large debt load and expensive long-term union contracts. Their cost base requires high fares and more premium paying passengers. The product as it currently stands is not good enough to justify those fares. I can't remember the last time I considered AA to be a premium airline. It's a full service global airline that penny pinched while buying new planes and missed the pivot to premium.

Having said all that, if you look at United's Polaris and Delta One, they aren't all that amazing. Delta hard product on many of their planes is worse than AA's, United started off with a very fancy Polaris concept and quickly dropped many of them, and AA on their best day can compete on all fronts. The marketing from Delta and United is better than AA and they play to their strengths. I'm NYC based and fly all 3 of them regularly.

I would argue that AA doesn't have a single item that they do well enough to market. I'm keeping the focus on J as that's where marketing would focus, and economy passengers as a whole have similar experiences on all 3 airlines and choose based on cost and schedule.

Polaris - Hard product is consistent across the fleet and fairly good. Best bedding in the sky and good seat for sleeping. UA app is also excellent. Polaris lounges are solid across the network. UA metal flies to a ton of destinations and is the most global airline of the 3.

Delta - If you need to get somewhere on time, Delta is the airline of choice (many disagree after a few recent meltdowns, but the halo persists). New J seats with doors are great, food is average, and FA service is the most professional of the 3. Handles most issues well, generally avoids the lows that a bad AA can be. I'm partial to Delta as a NYC flyer (VS Clubhouse at JFK and LHR, most flights out of JFK/LGA compared to the others) but acknowledge that the Delta halo is not always deserviced.

AA - Inconsistent at times but has outsourced most of their international flying to OneWorld partners to a greater degree than Delta and UA. Spent years building out an extensive domestic network but avoids competitive routes at all costs (see LAX and NYC as an example). Decisions such as removing seat back entertainment, lagging with free wifi, no plan to stand out from UA and DL in any area, and lack of building out a premium culture are biting them hard now and those are hard to fix. It's not expensive to offer fancy new bedding, really solid food in J, or even pajamas on intl red-eyes. It would put AA on the map for something positive and give them a base to build on.

Or when governments allow mergers to reduce 6 mainlines to 3.

Look at the results: a snack basket.

Recent travel experience totally corroborate with the above comments, the inconsistency of their cabin crew really damages the AA image, what little is left of the image.

Last week I flew three segments all in J/F. JFK to Miami in 789, the male FA on my aisle was just OK, he was rushing through service and while I don't think he's hostile, it was more like his mannerism, a kind of nervous energy. Meanwhile the other senior FA on the right aisle was lovely, she took her time with every passenger serving lunch and came down regularly with wines in hand for refills throughout. I wish I was in her aisle.

MIA to LAX Flagship Business on a newer Super Diamond Seat 788, I have to say, it was a glorious sunset while boarding and the mood lighting in the cabin really looked spectacular. For a second upon boarding it felt "premium" as the cabin just looked really nice while PDB was being served by a lovely senior female FA. Then the boarding announcement came on - it was sassy and not in a good way - the announcement was something like, "the lavatories are in the middle of the aircraft and not the back. Do not come to the back of the aircraft. No time in this 5 hour flight will lavatories magically turn up in the back so don't even try." I mean, ... is that about, why do you need to say it that way. It was just so unprofessional and really set the mood for the passengers in main cabin at least. The same senior female FA in my aisle did a lovely dinner service, she did not use the cart at any time during the flight. I had to specifically thank her for the wonderful experience (the food was alright, same AA fare but not bad).

LAX - Sydney in Flagship First. The purser worked F and he was a charming older male FA, old school but with a relaxed genuine friendliness. His boarding announcement was night and day from the MIA-LAX one. Not much to say about Flagship F other than if it's just marginally more expensive than J then it may be worth the upgrade. Other than the better bedding/space, apart from the friendly crew, F is not really anything to be excited about and certainly not memorable.

If travel now is about creating a memorable premium experience built on a brand image, then AA is severely lacking in these. Even if the cabin crew try their best in delivering good service, there's just not much tool for them to work with, there is not really an identifiable character/signature service element to the company. Then you have the occasional abysmal crew on top of a rolling delay, no wonder AA is where it is now.

I really wish AA would pull it itself together and turn itself around, and to prove Scott Kirby wrong. It's not completely hopeless yet.

Unfortunately, this thread is not setup to succeed, and there have been many threads of a similar thought process. We spin in circles as a result.

There is no question that AA is currently providing the best value for domestic miles redemption traveling. Should we be upset that they are filling the plane with cheaper award redemption? No, because these miles are good revenue, and partners like Citi are going to be happy that their members are getting great use. Does this hurt profitability? Maybe/probably.

Does this address AA in any premium setting? Nope. I know the J/F customers will be upset from so many perspectives and UA/DL are doing a much better job. There are many here that feel AA is lost because it is not adequately addressing the premium customer. Well, I am not in that echelon currently, so I am pretty happy with their Main/Economy product. But we know profitability of the premium customer can be very significant/better ROI.

I don't think there is any disagreement that AA management/board are not making the right decisions or are not making fast enough changes to improve the situation. In some cases, we as AA customers are benefiting in underpriced or higher value situations, but it does chip away at AA's long-term survival (if that is what the thread title question is referencing).

But, I think for many AA customers, DL/UA just don't offer enough convenient routes from the regions where we live to switch over. Otherwise, we would be flying DL/UA more often. I have seen many AA flyers who do use UA/DL have to take more inconvenient routing. I am not interested in that. For many AA domestic flyers, SWA would be a closer alternative, but their product doesn't work as well as it used to for many (or never did if it is the premium flyer). I think this is why Kirby is attacking Chicago so loudly because if he can get AA to give-up, he can own that market. Right now, AA in Chicago is just depressing his pricing power. This has nothing to do about the customer, just to improve his position. He wouldn't bother saying that about LAX (where he could potentially argue similarly), but it is not just about AA in that market.

There is truth in what is being said by these other executives, but let the customer decide. I don't need a CEO to tell me what is convenient for my travels. i am worried about AA, but I don't drive enough of the business to demand those changes.

The US 6 service declines started before mergers. Some of them eliminated free snacks in coach on domestic flights (like Northwest) just to save a few dollars. Disabling IFE on US48 flights to save on content licensing costs was another example.

AA just needs to pick one area to start improving and go from there (in the same manner that it’s easiest to clean a house one room at a time).

#1 should be improving employee morale. Treat the frontline workforce better, and make them feel like they are listened to/have a stake in the operation. Do modest pay raises for GAs and TAs (it doesn’t have to be a lot, just enough to make it clear that management gives a damn about them). Fix the operational/crew scheduling issues so FAs aren’t constantly exhausted/being run ragged. Allow for crew to stick with the same aircraft more often during a work day instead of forcing them to constantly dart from plane to plane (especially at hubs with tight connections like CLT or DFW). This has the dual effect of increasing FA/pilot satisfaction while also improving operations (fewer, “we’re delayed because we’re missing FAs or pilots).

If the employees are happier, it’s a lot easier to improve the product at every level, and command a better revenue premium. FFs/the customers that deliver for an airline’s bottom line remember bad employee interactions, and unhappy employees drive customers away.

Well, with regards to not competing on 'competitive' routes -- I would say that is on the bottom of things that I would care about. If it's well served, then enjoy the options and the low fares that usually come with that. Personally, I think AA's domestic schedule and route network is a real strength. For flyers such as myself (who do, sometimes need to go from a tiny airport in the middle of the country to a city like El Paso), nothing really beats what AA provides. I only have one regular route that is a bit of an annoyance on AA, but half the time AA is notably superior in its network and schedule, and most of the other half its at least on par with a competitor. Serving cities like El Paso well is an easy punchline to brag about it, but materially this is a real strength for some of us and that schedule has commanded some high pricing from me (I think my last trip to El Paso was $900 round trip, but it was such an easy, perfectly timed schedule with several backup options if I needed them).

The uneven soft product is definitely the thing to tackle. Most journeys are relatively good through and through, but the bad ones were real bad. AA needs to get a handle of the nasty divas in their ranks somehow.

Much of this thread reminds me of what the 18 year old airline geniuses on Airliners.net say. They root for their favorite airline the way normal people cheer for their favorite sports team, and are constantly looking for reasons to explain why the airline they cheer for is the best. The 18 year olds on Airliners.net who support Delta are particularly annoying - I feel like telling them to get out of their parents' basement and get a life.

I've flown on AA for 50+ years (the first flight I remember was on AA 66, a DC-10 Luxury Liner PSP-PHX-ORD-DTW in 1974, when I was 6), and I feel that although AA has made serious mistakes, like not filing Chapter XI in 2002 when United did, delaying the replacement of their MD-80s, and allowing jetBlue to build hubs at JFK and BOS largely at AA's expense, AA's problems are not a terminal illness.

Abandoning Vasu's failed policies and making improvements to the soft product like adding Bollinger show that AA is aware of their problems, and is at least trying to fix them. When the economy goes into recession, what AA needs to do is work with their unions to offer an aggressive buyout program that will enable AA to shed many of their senior flight attendants and gate agents that have become indifferent. AA also needs to do a better job of improving communication between management and public contact employees, so that employees who aren't burned out, won't become burned out like too many senior AA people are.

If AA can do this, then at least some of the premium customers they've lost will return, and the higher revenue the premium customers bring will give AA more money to gradually catch up to DL and UA.

My anecdotal evidence is that the older FA's tend to be the more service oriented FA's and it's the newer hires that tend to be on their phones in the galley. For the first time I can remember, I had the FA's pull the rear galley curtain closed of a 7M8 on Monday's flight. I didn't even know they had a rear galley curtain.

Within the confines of the unionized structure, short of pride in the airline and product, I don't know you encourage kinder service. You can mandate things like the second drink service on 1500mi flights. While that will force the tiktok stars out of the galley and save on future repetitive motion injuries to the thumbs, it won't make the service provided any warmer.

I do think the problems ultimately go up to the Board.

There was a good episode on the Air Show podcast a few weeks ago on AA leadership. One of the points made on the podcast was that current chair, Greg Smith, is ex-CFO at Boeing who was responsible for the cost cuts that have caused them so much trouble. Appointing him to the AA board in 2023 was an...interesting...choice. But of course the poor leadership goes back further than 2023.

I'll also say that they are in a real fix, even if they aren't "cooked." Besides stock buybacks, they spent a massive amount of money on a fleet that, to my mind, isn't well suited to capturing a lot of the demand that's out there. And then there's Oasis, where they spent big money making their product less competitive.

Alan Joyce laid out a road map for solving this problem. QF used to be on par with AA, Joyce took a sledgehammer to the problem.

If one side isnt playing ball, its time to kick them off the court. Unfortunately, AA keeps hiring morons in the C suite and board, who lack both competence and creativity.

AA needs to first start with operations. The front of the plane arrives the same time as the back of the plane. The front of the plane is often kept in the dark as to what's going on as the back of the plane. The front of the plane will miss a connection as well as the back of the plane if a late arriving flight has no gate or no marshal crew.

American Airlines Secures Top Position Among US Carriers In 2025 Global Airline Rankings

One Kirby's trash, well, you know the rest…

I don’t think customers are leaving AA to fly UA or DL if they live at an AA fortress hub. It’s about monetizing the premium cabins on domestic and international flights and the number of premium seats available to sell. It’s about getting that economy passenger to pay an extra $300 for first class or premium economy.

In competitive markets such as NYC, LA, and Chicago I do think some customers are choosing UA and DL over AA but that’s a function of both product and schedule. I know I’ve chosen to fly BA metal over AA on some trips, and chosen DL/VS and UA when price and schedule aligned.