Had a call the other day from the Executive Office.

I've already flown 35-40k miles this year so it wasn't from a travel slowdown.

Wondering if it was because I had a two hour maintenance delay that led to an international missed connection, although they didn't say anything about it until I raised the issue. This is my second international issue in 2019 so I presume my Helix score is through the roof and that they are calling people with high helix scores.

I primarily raised concerns that D0 needed to be applied with common sense -- I didn't appreciate being at the gate 15 minutes before departure and having it locked up when the next flight wasn't for 24 hours -- and that there were another 15-20 people on my flight alone. I also expressed disappointment on the Oasis seating as being uncomfortable.

Otherwise, I commented that I'm happy with AA.

When I checked in for a flight last week, I stopped the GA from stapling the baggage receipt to the BP & asked her to put it on the back. She promptly handed both to me & said, in a somewhat panicked tone, that I had to do it myself & if anyone asked how the receipt got on the back, I had to tell 'them' I did it. Said mgmt. is forbidding them from doing that now on the grounds that it prevents pax from reading the CoCs.

I said to her if this is what Discount Dougie is focusing on, no wonder AA is the mess it is.

Since there was no one around, we ended up chatting for about 15 mins-she's a 30+ year LAA employee who was almost in tears out of frustration for how the airline is being run. Said 'they' make us go to customer service classes, but then tie our hands when it comes to actually providing good customer service, which I have no problem believing. The issue of the 14% profit sharing that DL gave it's employees also came up-lots of frustration around that, which I understand, as well.

Whomever comes in after Discount Dougie & his minions is going to have a heck of time cleaning up the mess he has created.

AA Executive Liaison Team
 

So I'm sitting here in my home office and my phone rings. AMERICANAIR comes across the display. Hmmmm...why are they calling me I ponder. I immediately answer and it's a Mr Chuck so and so from the ELT. He called me to ask me how my experiences has been as an EXP and what would I like to see changed. He asked me if I have a few minutes. I said "certainly". :D

1. I told him I have suffered a high amount of mx delays systemwide just about every week. He then was about to tell me a story of why this is happening with the max problems. I told him I know max problems have been an issue with plane availability and this has most likely hampered your efforts on retiring your mad dogs but just about 99% of every delay has been on your 738's.

2. SWU. I indicated we now only get 4 SWU's a year which is down from just not a short while ago. He said "first off I apologize and as we speak have deposited 2 SWU's in your account. Wow! ^^

3. C availability. I told him not even a year ago redemption of SWU at booking was far greater than it is today and with with a few exceptions is very rare. I told him this prevented leisure travel I would have otherwise booked when C was available (last year PEK and BCN trips).

He told me "It is Doug Parker's number one mission is to reduce mechanical delays". For what it's worth he said my comments would be posted to an executive forum to be reviewed. What and if that means of course is uncertain but nonetheless I am impressed of the proactive nature of the call. Nice work AA ^

I get those calls yearly as well. I complained about SWU as well since they come in pretty handy from LAX-HKG-LAX. They just said. "Noted".... lol Glad you were able to get something out of them!

I've gotten this call a few times — the AA employees are always very nice and understanding — but wow to getting two SWUs out of it! I certainly know what I'll be responding with next time I get this call :D

I was floored with the SWU deposit. I want to make sure people know here I didn't ask for any nor was this remotely expected.

I hope he takes the C availability stingyness with serious concern up the chain. Unlike mx problems, this seems like to be a relatively quick and easy fix.

the C availability is by design. MX issues should be easy to solve - with the youngest fleet, yada yada

Wow - I got this call last week and did not call back (yet). The SWU deposit noted above makes me now plan to!

Since I've not received one of these can I ask if someone does can you please bring up the deceptive sale of "first"/"business" class tickets on domestic flights that are in reality "economy fares with an instant upgrade"? Both UA and DL did away with this nonsense and file these fares as first class and not "upgrades", only AA does this anymore and its not only deceptive but really the question should be asked "why do you want to screw over the people who pay for FC"

If I get called ...
 

Or: Letterman's Top 10 on "Why I have gone agnostic".

1. AAdvantage is no longer a loyalty program. Loyalty goes both ways, and AA is showing us none
2. CK has gutted EXP. I understand it, I don't have to like it
3. Reduced SWU "grants" 8 to 4. Seriously?
4. Zero C availability when you try to use SWU. Maybe that's why we get 4 now?
5. "Moving target" awards chart-Copy cat management thinking, again
6. Most TATL/TPAC and many domestic FA's are ROAD-Retired On Active Duty. Service is a crap shoot, and management is a slave to to its unions at PAX expense.
7. AA TATL/TPAC fares not competitive if ... one is not held hostage to a mileage program. No explanation needed.
8. Management focused solely on bottom line/profitability/stock price at the expense of self loading cargo (revenue). Perhaps management should actually USE their product, incognito.
9. Y gives one less room than sardines in a can.
10. FA's hawking credit cards like barkers in front of New Orleans "Gentlemen's Clubs".

YMMV, and I truly hope it does.

You don't need to wait for them to call you; you can always send this feedback to Customer Relations via the AA "Contact Us" link on their web site. You can also call AAdvantage Customer Service and ask to have someone on the Executive Liaison team call you.

See above. You don't need to wait for them to call you.

There used to be perennial debates about why AA kept CK as a parallel set of benefits and not its own status tier. I think that was the right choice, because as you say, it has devalued EXP in favor of a tier with no defined criteria. Having CK as a parallel set of benefits seemed to serve the purpose just as well as having it be its own tier, without devaluing EXP.

AA management will continue making their product more miserable until revenue drops as a result. AA management believes that with only three legacy carriers, they can be as cheap and nasty as they please without losing business.

Even F on an Oasis configuration is super tight, with tiny lavatories that even thin people have trouble using.

So I found out the 2 gratis SWU’s must be used by 1/31/20. Well my travel for the year is already budgeted out and planned. So I look at a random weekend in January for a three day weekend trip to any European city. ZERO C availability for any city DFW-XXX or even any other hub—XXX.

This is JANUARY. AA: I want to give you my money to fly somewhere for a weekend but you won’t get it because you don’t release any C inventory. Ugh what a bottom of the barrel airline.

The Doug giveth, and the Doug taketh away.

or

The thriil of victory and the (immeadiate ) agony of defeat!

"Goodbye, cruel airline!" Queen of Coach
 

(Sarcasm) Why should I have to go on a diet to fly AA, in case I need the bathroom?