American Airlines pilots: We are tired of apologizing for our embarrassing company

ctab5060X said:
However the company would want it broken down.

I've tried to make it a habit of being at a point up front where I can step away and help the lead FA greet the Executive Platinum, First/Business Class, etc.

I've come to not like being just another voice over the PA and like the face-to-face interaction with our customers.
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I've had the FA's stop at my seat and acknowledge I held an AAirPass. That was kind of nice. The FA's that surprise me were coming through the door (not at my seat); Mr. Holbert, it's nice to have you back. But the all time winner was; Mr. Holbert, it's nice to have you back. Are you still drinking red wine?

For Marriott's highest level there would usually be a gift and note waiting in the room when I checked in. The gifts were not expensive but often nice. At ABQ it would often be a small piece of Native American art, a candle or something. More often it was candy.

Hertz, Avis, They don't give a shoot if you rent once a year or 60 times a year. You get a newer car, that's about it.
 
I was wondering when this article would pop up on here.

All I will say is that it IS in fact embarrassing how poorly ran the American operation is. My examples are too many to list. But it is one or two things every trip I've had since I started working for an AAG regional. Auto-board has been a disaster, for one. I dunno, every mainline pilot I talk to is pissed, and so is every regional pilot in the AAG system. Doug sure is creating a hostile pilot group, that unfortunately already have up a lot of its leverage for "best pay in the industry".
 
I don't drink the kool aide from mgmt and I don't drink the flint tap water from a union.
No one I fly with is angry. No one is bitching about anything really. Light bitching is as good as it gets in the airline industry. There have been some rough days during ice storms that crippled our main hubs, could've been handled better, but it's hard to cancel every single flight out of your main (LUS) hub and not have disruptions. That's said, IROP needs improvements. Some of the inconsistencies in how LUS ans LAA are handled contractually will go away with FOS and the blurred lines will go away. The company has motivation for this as well as the pilot groups. To paint AA as similar to a regional is doing a disservice to someone who is on the fence of making a career move. Take a look at delta and their pilot group who is allegedly angry, despite having the contract others strive for. I'm not suggesting that any pilot group be satisfied with where they currently at contractually, I'm just trying to shine some light for those that are on the outside looking in.
 
chrisreedrules said:
I was wondering when this article would pop up on here.

All I will say is that it IS in fact embarrassing how poorly ran the American Eagle operation is. My examples are too many to list. But it is one or two things every trip I've had since I started working for an AAG regional. Auto-board has been a disaster, for one. I dunno, every mainline pilot I talk to is pissed, and so is every regional pilot in the AAG system. Doug sure is creating a hostile pilot group, that unfortunately already have up a lot of its leverage for "best pay in the industry".
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MikeD said:
The correct term is "sport bitching".

You're welcome. :)
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Nice! It's like the military, if you're not complaining about something, you're not trying hard enough. Show me someone who doesn't complain about work and I'll show you someone who doesn't know any better.
 
fholbert said:
Are you saying you have small hands?

one-tiny-hand-kim-jong-il.jpg
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Lol!!! Yes, yes that was it, also my big head and little arms to go along with that. During the Jurassic period I was an apex predator- now, you try getting that large cranium to fit on the flight deck of a CRJ and the stares from passengers and crew alike, like I am going to try to eat them - Curse you Steven Spielberg and your Jurrasic World Movie, you have set the cause of dinosaurs back at least to the pre Mesozoic period you bastard!!!!
 
ctab5060X said:
@jskibo

One thing I wish AA would do is give the Captains a list of the Executive Platinum passengers and their seat assignment before boarding. I would make it a point to try and personally thank each of them for their continued loyalty to American Airlines.
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You can ask the gate agents, and it should take them all of two seconds to give you a list of all the EPs and Keys on a flight. Did it for every flight I ever did at Eagle.
 
I friend of mine apparently had the chief pilot from one of American's bases show up in his line at a job fair.

Interesting times.
 
ozziecat35 said:
What always annoyed me with this management group was their fettering image protection by middle managers to keep top brass from seeing issues. Case in point;

Circa 2009/1010 era, ozziecat35 is a relatively seasoned ramp team lead for US Airways based in Phoenix. We are short staffed on this particular ramp (what's new) with lots of gate swaps / etc. 'Ol Dougie boy comes in from PHL on one of the hub flights, and you'd think Jesus Christ himself was arriving with the double teams and 4, count them 4 ramp managers "supervising" (read micromanaging) the arrival gate. You see, we can't let Mr. Parker see what's actually happening, we want him to see that the PHX ramp is an efficient operation. We'll ignore the 4 other flights on that ramp that got chalked in late and thus departed late because those crews were cannibalized from those gates for the dog and pony show down on A11. "Hey, Alpha 3 lead, how come your San Diego flight pushed 20 minutes late?"

-uh huh.

/endrant.
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Years ago I flew Dougie from DCA to CLT. We landed at the start of the big afternoon push (you know... the one where Lufthansa was trying to get out along with a bunch of other 330s). We land on 18R and taxi in. The lineup for 18C is a mile long but they send us right across. Planes are parked all over the ramp along the grass line but we are told to bypass them all to the north line. We get there, switch freqs in time to hear a very angry German asking why he isn't allow to push. We get cleared right to the get. Every jetway and parking spot has an airplane at it, most with tugs attached and crews waiting to go. They held ALL movement on the ramp until we got parked (by a gate manager). There were about 15 rampers waiting to unload the bags, a fuel truck parked at the wing, a catering truck and TWO lav trucks along with just about every inside supervisor that worked at the airport. Parker sticks his head up front to thank us for the ride and says something like "I keep hearing horror stories about the north ramp, but I've never seen it a problem before so I just don't know what to think." Ummm... duh.

JetDoc said:
Their "regional" partner Captains are tired of apologizing too. The Eagles Nest at LAX is a joke.
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LUS regional captains have been apologizing for the last 10 years, as far as I know. Probably longer than that.
 
BobDDuck said:
LUS regional captains have been apologizing for the last 10 years, as far as I know. Probably longer than that.
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That was the worst part about the whole regional thing. My most frustrating days were when I was fielding a legitimate complaint from a passenger and the only response I could come up with was "yes, I agree with you and I apologize, but there's nothing we can do about that.

After the 5th or 6th IOR to the company without seeing any changes you kind of give up, which isn't really my style.
 
From a consumer standpoint, Delta wins hands down. The he Delta app works well on my iPhone, I use it all the time to buy tickets. The American app sucks, worthless for buying, changing tickets.

Same thing with the Hilton app. It's so much better than the Marriott app, I've become a Hilton • just for the app.
 
L3 has used AA to fly us recently, really bad customer service, especially when they lost my bags. If they treat customers bad with a valid problem, how do they treat their employee's?
 
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