There are a couple of very striking things I notice about the world’s powerhouse airlines and particularly those who are not only surviving but thriving:  They are heavily engaged in building global networks and constantly tweaking their domestic and/or regional networks to support these global networks.

Witness these airlines:  Delta Airlines (who is arguably doing it better than anyone else at present), Emirates, British Airways, Air France | KLM, Lufthansa.

These airlines in one form or another have acknowledged that change in their regional networks is a constant process and that reaching around the globe is necessary.

What the US Airways / AA merger won’t have is a truly global network.

American Airlines has relied upon its Oneworld partners to provide this to them and that has reflected poorly on American Airlines.  Domestically, it makes them appear to *need* these partners rather than being the case of providing a seemless service product around the globe.  The only routes in which AA works on itself are to Europe and those routes involving the UK have been half maintained by British Airways still.

Consider that British Airways supplies almost half the seats between DFW and London Heathrow and this is on a route to and from AA’s most valuable hub.   Chicago to London sees British Airways supply more than half the seats.  In the New York to London market, British Airways supplies 7 of the 12 flights and even a greater proportion of the seats.

On the Pacific routes that AA does have, the partnerships of flights and capacity with Oneworld partners is a bit more equitable.  Partners do about half of the capacity from my look into things.   But it is notable that it took QANTAS to put a 747-400ER on a route between Dallas and Australia and that it is QANTAS who is enjoying that revenue far more than American Airlines is.

AA has some good core strength to Europe and South America.  US Airways has the same strengths.  There will be consolidation in this area.  Expect New York, Philadelphia and Miami to be the gateway cities in this merger.

Expect Charlotte, NC to be downgraded to a domestic hub.  Charlotte’s few European routes will transfer to Philadelphia and/or New York and/or Miami.  Charlotte’s Caribbean and South American flights will transfer to Miami (and rightly so) and a some to DFW.

Expect Los Angeles to be the West Coast gateway city and Phoenix will be downgraded to a domestic hub with passengers route to Dallas for flights over the Atlantic and to Los Angeles for Pacific flights.

But that is what I expect them to do with the resources they have today.  What they will also need to do is build core strength to new destinations with aircraft freed up from consolidation.  USAmerican Airlines will need to deploy more strength to Asia and it should strongly consider operating flights to the Middle East and Africa.  They will even have an opportunity to perhaps explore South Africa as an opportunity through its South American flights.

And whoever gets the 787 first, QANTAS or USAmerican, direct routes to Sydney and Melbourne need to be established from DFW.  There should be multiple frequencies here.

Make no mistake, I do think Parker & Company is the right management team but they need to find a risk taker on the AA side to do strong business development in the above named areas.  This is a weakness on both sides but much more so among the US Airways team.   If the entrepreneurial spirit for this business development does not exist on either team, they need to hire it as soon as possible.  I would hire a senior level executive from a multi-national airline as fast as possible and give him or her a budget of resources and money significant enough to build a strong revenue stream from these weak spots.

And I wouldn’t wait to do it.  The longer USAmerican waits to address these core foreign route weaknesses, the more Delta will capitalize on them and the more chance there is that United will regain momentum.

Consolidate these foreign strengths quickly and immediately go to work on route development to destinations outside my core strengths.  I would also stop relying upon Oneworld partners to give me circuitous and service unequal routes to these places.

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When US Airways and American Airlines merge, there will be a great deal of talk about synergies and how they are complementary.  And if it isn’t about that, it will be people talking about how they aren’t complementary and that this is a shotgun wedding.  Everyone will be critic and that includes me.

So I’m going to do it now.

I have actually liked the idea of an AA / US Airways merger for a while.  I do see US Airways bolstering AA’s domestic network in certain areas.  What I never liked was the idea of an AA executive running the show because the first thing that would be done is a shutdown Phoenix and probably Charlotte, NC, too.  That’s what American Airlines executives do when they merge an airline.

Many will see Phoenix get drawn down into insignificance in this merger because of AA’s focus on Los Angeles.  I disagree.  I think you’ll see a distribution of flights and the network between the two cities.  I think Los Angeles will be used for a West Coast gateway to the Pacific and Asia but I think Phoenix will continue to be used to focus domestic connecting traffic in the Western United States.  It’s a more practical hub to use for that.  Los Angeles and particularly LAX is not the airport to use for that kind of thing.  You use LAX to connect traffic in California and to foreign destinations.  You don’t use it to connect traffic to Tuscon.  Bottom line:  I think both remain hubs.

Dallas and Chicago stay right where they are.  They probably add some flights but nothing really changes in a big way.

Charlotte, North Carolina stays.  It fits much better into the Southeast United States as a connecting hub than Miami.  Miami is a miserable place to connect to anything but the Caribbean & South America.  Charlotte is a great place to connect to cities all over the Southeast and will help AA bracket both Delta and Southwest Airlines in that area.

Philadelphia will remain a hub and may see more traffic connecting there for foreign destinations.  New York is a miserable place to connect for anything including foreign destinations.  Philadelphia will remain a strong domestic city and we may well see some expansion of flights to and from this city from AA strongholds.

New York City remains much as it is with some increased network feed to AA flights to Europe and foreign destinations.  The new airline isn’t going to cede ground even more in this city and it has an obligation to work to feed its Oneworld partners there.

Miami is named as an AA hub.  It’s really more a gateway city just like LAX and New York City are.  Miami will neither increase nor decrease in importance.  I expect more domestic feed to Miami to connect to foreign destinations but that’s it.

There isn’t really much route overlap between the two airlines.  There isn’t much consolidation to see from this merger.  This will be about redistributing resources to maximize revenue opportunities and domestic routes will get shifted around and replanned around new opportunities.

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AA 777 Livery

Terry Maxon at the Airline Biz Blog of the Dallas Morning News has photos of the new 777-300ER in the new livery colors introduced by American a couple of weeks ago.  It isn’t quite as jarring as that of the 737-800 we’ve already seen.  That said, I still think it’s a very ugly tail and in conflict with the logo now in use.  I still like the silver and I still think the stylized eagle implies a star more than an eagle.

Alaska Airlines

Alaska Airlines had a captain faint while in the cockpit on a flight over Oregon.  The first officer declared an emergency and landed the aircraft on a priority basis in Portland.  Another captain ferried to Portland and flew the flight the rest of the way.  The captain who fainted was an industry veteran with a current medical certificate.  He gained consciousness in the cockpit and removed himself from the cockpit to the back of the plane where he was tended to by an onboard doctor.  The only real problem here is if Michael O’Leary of Ryanair gets wind of a 737-800 being landed by a single pilot.

All Nippon Airlines

All Nippon Airlines (ANA) says that its losses due to the 787 grounding are now up to just over $15million.  Once the final effect of the grounding is known, ANA (and other airlines) will likely enter into discussions with Boeing over compensation for their losses.  No doubt Boeing will see this an opportunity to book more orders for aircraft.

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Short version:  Non-disclosure agreements keep getting extended for more talks.  Conventional wisdom has it that most issues have a solution framework and that there are perhaps one or two sticking points.

First, who owns how much of the new entity.   The word on the street has the offer amounting to 70% of the entity being owned by AA creditors and 30% being held by US Airways shareholders.   Part of me says this is a touch inequitable but it might be palatable enough for US Airways shareholders to do the deal.

Second:  Who runs the show.  Doug Parker would seem to have the inside track based on his performance at US Airways but apparently Tom Horton (and possibly others) are making an argument for Tom Horton to be Chairman and CEO or, at the least, Chairman, of the new company.  This argument is based on the fact that Horton & Company have run a large international airline before and . . . Parker & Company has not.

Financial analysts see the consensus that this is not what should happen.   The key risks there are that Tom Horton has no employee support and particularly none from unions and lacks a certain credibility with this plan to grow capacity as much as 20% in saturated markets.  I’ll go one further:  Horton and his team have never focused on the revenue side of the business.   It’s always been about managing money and assets as opposed to growing the business.

Parker & Company have a strong reputation for returning value to shareholders, managing their operations closely and responding to problems with solutions that work.  Moreover, Parker & Company haven’t exactly been managing some 20 airplane LCC carrier either.  US Airways may not be quite the size of AA but it’s no small entity.   It’s the 10th largest airline in the world by fleet size (AA is 6th).  In Revenue passenger miles, US Airways is 11th and AA is 2nd.

US Airways does fly a number of international routes.  They just don’t fly to quite as many destinations or with as much frequency.  It’s not like Doug Parker doesn’t know how to establish a route to a South American city.   His team established a route from Charlotte, NC to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and made it work.  That’s saying something and I want to see what they can do with AA resources.

I also think that the Horton Team just might have overplayed their hand recently with these rapid fire introductions of branding, uniforms, aircraft liveries, etc.  These acts were, in my opinion, designed to help bolster their argument that they should be in charge.  Now I think they are starting to sound shrill and I think many who care (such as the unsecured creditors) aren’t impressed with this team putting the cart before the horse several times over the past 2 months.

At this point, I rate a merger probability as nearly certain.  I think that the most that will be given to Tom Horton is a non-executive Chairman role (such as Glenn Tilton) set to expire after a few years.  Maybe.  If he stops futzing around.  I think many very capable AA executives will be retained.  I think some won’t be.  The truth is that there is a rich garden of talent at AA that can be mined.  There is a reason why Virgin Atlantic hired their next CEO from AA and why Virgin America got theirs from AA too.

I think we’ll hear the merger announcement sometime between now and February 15th.  That’s a pure guess on my part based only my sense of timing and mood in this affair.

The only thing that could make me happier in that announcement would be the news that that awful livery will be stopped and redesigned immediately.

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American Airlines announced yesterday that they will be developing new uniforms for its service staff.  Pilots, flight attendants, customer service agents and others will be given a new look and AA has engaged the designers Ken Kaufman and Isaac Franco to do the work.

This isn’t about the need to urgently rebrand the airline.  This is about AA attempting to create a story to send their message to the  unsecured creditors that everything will be OK if they permit a stand alone bankruptcy exit.  AA and its executive team has been working frantically from a PR point of view to send this message and particularly so this month.

The problem is that it is becoming rather shrill.  Yet, they manage to do this while choking off US Airways with a non-disclosure agreement.  That NDA doesn’t prevent US Airways speaking privately though.

What bothers me is how they’re working so hard to stay on script and timing without paying attention to feedback.  For instance, the overwhelming poor feedback on their livery would, in my opinion, ordinarily ask for a pause in the efforts.

But that’s the problem with the current team:  They are extremely deaf to critical feedback and particularly so when it comes to external sources and even external stakeholders.  If I’m a member of the UCC, I’m going to be annoyed with the persistence being shown here without regard to putting first things first.

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I think it kind of got missed that the CWA union election for passenger service agents did not succeed for the union.  About 6000 agents voted (out of approximately 7800 agents total) and the election did not pass by about 150 votes.

Did AA win?  Actually, I think not.  These kinds of elections are very difficult for unions and unions have to show real value to people who need every bit of their paycheck to live on.

If the US Airways merger does happen, expect another election potentially.  US Airways passenger service agents are represented jointly by two unions:  The CWA and Teamsters.

This issue isn’t over, the first couple of chapters in this story have merely been completed so far.

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Terry Maxon at the Dallas Morning News made a post about Mike Boyd responding to American Airlines’ rebranding and livery change. The short version is that Boyd was scathing in his criticism of American Airlines management for doing this now.

And it mirrors some of my own feelings posted earlier today.

If one considers the priorities just prior to and during bankruptcy, rebranding efforts should have been suspended upon entering into bankruptcy.  I assure you millions of dollars were spent on it leading up to the unveiling of the new livery.

I do think AA needed rebranding ultimately but whether it got done today or a year from now wasn’t really important.  Delivering a great customer service product is the priority right now.

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So, it’s been a couple of days now and I’ve had time to reflect more and time to look at the new AA logo and livery again with fresh eyes.  Here are my final thoughts:

1)  I think they *nailed* it with the silver paint for the fuselage.

2) I think the “blade” aka the stylized aircraft tail next to the name is growing on me some but I still think what is supposed to represent an eagle’s head actually implies a star more.  It’s a touch too stylized, in my opinion.  That said, it’s OK and I think that it is strong enough to be associated with the name going forward.  As people see it, they’ll tag it as AA.

3)  Hate the tail more than I did yesterday.  I simply think it is way too generic and has no connection to the history or branding of American Airlines.

4)  As much as I think the billboard title on the fuselage was absolutely the right way to go . . . I just don’t think it stands out enough against the silver fuselage.  It needs a different color, I think.

It’s interesting to me that when asked if this branding would be redone in the event of a merger, Tom Horton said he didn’t think so.   Well, I think it would be.  I think you would see the silver paint retained.  I think it’s possible the logo would be retained in some form.  But I think there are two things you would see the US Airways crew change immediately.

The tail of the aircraft would be cleaned up considerably.  The billboard “American” title on the fuselage would be made bolder.  And the fact that Tom Horton’s good friend Doug Parker hasn’t paid a public compliment to AA over the re-branding kind of indicates that they are, at best, lukewarm to the concept.  US Airways did issue this statment:

“We applaud our friends at American as the new brand elements and livery mark the culmination of a significant amount of work and coordination, and clearly those efforts have produced a compelling result.”

Make of that what you will.

Does AA need a new brand?  Yes.  Did it need one *today*?  Nope.  There were interim solutions that could have been employed.  Does this new brand move them forward?  Logo wise, yes, I think they’re there mostly.  Does the livery do anything for them?  No, I think if you parked that aircraft at a major european hub it would be lost in a sea of Euro Styling and particularly with those colors.  Heck, I kind of wonder how it would stand out taxiing through Atlanta’s airport.  I see a livery done by committee rather than a leader and its notable that they say this has been in the works for 2 years.

To misquote a certain financial analyst at JP Morgan Chase:  “Really Tom?  Is this all you’ve got?”

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Update 04:  Best funny comment I’ve seen so far is:  “So, I see AirFrance and Pepsi had a Cubana love child??”  Seen on Airliners.net.

Update 03:  I am amused.  I’ve seen it suggested on Terry Maxon’s blog that the livery is inspired by Greyhound (which gave me a good laugh but no doubt really isn’t true.)  On a third pass over the livery, now I’m feeling like it was designed for the United States Postal Service.   What I’m not getting is any strong connection to the history of American Airlines.  It didn’t inspire me forward and it didn’t connect me to all that is positive about AA’s history.

Update 02:  So far, I am not seeing much in the way of positive response to this livery.  I expected quite a few people to immediately dismiss it but I also thought I’d see some people speak out for it.  Not yet.

Update 01:   It would be very easy to see the US Airways logo embodied in that tail design, I think.  What I’m referencing is the bar representation.  I suspect Doug Parker would be OK with it mostly.

I also think that the billboard title is less obvious than it could be against that fuselage.

I’m still digesting it, however.

Here it is.  A screenshot of their new livery captured from American Airlines’ website.

I think this new livery is going to spark a lot of controversy.  My own thoughts:  My first reaction to the tail wasn’t good but it’s already growing on me.  I don’t like the highly stylized “aircraft tail” symbol in front of the billboard titles for American.  For some reason, it reminds me of Lan Chile.  I also don’t like how they’ve extended the red bars of the tail down below the horizontal stabilizer.

My first reaction is to give this a B or B+.  I feel like I’ve seen better created by amateurs online.  But let’s digest this one first before going all Pulp Fiction on it.  I actually liked THIS and THIS one more.

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There is now news chatter that AA is unveiling their new livery at DFW airport this morning at 9:00am.  More as it shows up.

Reportedly it will be on a nearly new 737-800 done in Victorville, CA.

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Jeremy Clarkson is an automotive journalist who writes and serves as the presenter on the original UK based Top Gear automotive show.  He’s known for his outbursts from time to time and his outbursts tend to be very dramatic and almost always offend someone.

It would appear that American Airlines lost his wife’s bag recently and Clarkson took to Twitter to chastise them.  You can see a story about this HERE.

But here is a sampling of his Tweets:

“American Airlines. Literally the worst thing…….in the world.”

“People of the world. DO NOT USE American Airlines.”

“If American Airlines was a country, it would be North Korea.”

And people think I’m rough on them.

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American Airlines’ board of directors met on Wednesday but don’t expect a merger announcement quite yet.  I think there will be a merger.  Frankly, I think there is a very high chance of a merger.  But I also think that the details of the deal still have to be worked out to everyone’s satisfaction.  Tom Horton will be arguing that shareholders will get more value with a standalone exit (I’m not sure I agree here if one considers what is likely to happen with a mediocre operation over the 3 years following bankruptcy exit).  I think a better guess for an announcement will be around late January.

Delta Airlines is set to acquire regional airline Pinnacle as it is already providing its Debtor In Possession financing.  Pinnacle entered bankruptcy and Delta needed that airline to stay afloat and operating.  Whether the airline is integrated into Delta and Delta managed, I can’t say for now.  I suspect that Delta will become the majority owner and seek to install an executive to finish making Pinnacle a viable entity.  At that point, I would expect Delta to spin off Pinnacle again.

US Airways is setting new records (again) for revenue and passengers.  While they expect a $35 million hit against 4Q earnings because of Hurricane Sandy, I would expect that their earnings report for December to, once again, shock and delight investment analysts.  This is where US Airways is making its best argument for a merger with American Airlines:  Investment analysts, shareholders, etc all want this management team in charge of American Airlines because it performs and does so under the worst of network circumstances.

Delta Airlines opened up 300 flight attendant positions and got 22,000 applications for the positions.  That’s about 73.5 people per job applying.  (Take note flight attendant unions:  People want those jobs and readily accept the entry level conditions.)

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It is a fairly open secret that American Airlines has some re-branding effort going on for the airline.  The current expectation is that we’ll learn what this is when AA unveils its new 777-300ER later this month (according to current plan).  I noticed that AA’s 777-300ER was sitting, untouched, on the ramp of the former Delta, now American hanger located on the east side of DFW airport.  Sorry but the aircraft looked just as it did in other photos.  It’s grey with a whiter tail section that extends downward through the rear fuselate/tailcone area.

Re-branding an airline doesn’t happen very often (except in United Airlines’ case) and particularly not often in AA’s situation.  There are fans who don’t want to see AA change their branding and logo but I think most agree that AA is fairly long overdue at this point.

And they have a functional reason for doing this as well.  Airbus aircraft can’t kept polished easily.  The metal used on their fuselages pretty much requires paint.  In addition, other aircraft that AA is set to receive such as the 787 have fuselages that aren’t even metal.  So it’s time for a new look.

In another life, I did a fair bit of marketing and branding work although for very small companies. Like everyone else, I’ve always tried to consider the message that was being sent with a new look.  In the airline world, a re-branding often takes on more and more “white” on the fuselage with billboard titles becoming more common as well.  Most want to signal a global presence or a brand identity that has not downsides in other countries.  As a result, the look ends up being a bit generic these days.

I’ve thought about what AA might want to signal with its re-branding vs what it likely is going to signal.  I think whatever is unveiled with be extremely modern with strong design cues that harken to the history of the airline.  I think we’ll see a silver or grey fuselage with bigger, bolder titles in a single color and some dashes of red and blue thrown in.  It will be modern in its typeface and almost certainly global in its look.

But I would be very, very tempted to go a very different route with those aircraft.  I would want to signal an element of “cool” and harken back to the days when an airline was truly full service even in coach.  I would want people to seek me out because I was both trendy and retro at the same time.  I would use some variation of these aircraft:

1950’s/1960’s Red Tail Logo on a modern 757

1960’s Astrojet Logo on a modern 737

I would paint the aircraft a metallic silver and use the 757 scheme (the first image) and I think people would go wild for it.  It would signal all the romance and service of the airline world of the 1960’s and 1970’s and there would be no doubt as to who the airline was when it landed at either a domestic or foreign airport.

Or imagine the lightning bolt cheatline on a silver metallic paint job but place modern billboard American Airlines titles across the top of the fuselage.   Use the 1950/1960 red tail scheme as it appears on the above 757 as well as the later 1960 logo that is used on the above 737 Astrojet and even today’s logo as well.

It will never happen.  It’s far too risky and bold for today’s corporate airline world.  But I think it would be a great move and I think it would have a great effect on the traveling public.

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Virgin America is going to be flying into Newark Liberty International Airport in the near future with flights from Los Angeles and San Francisco.  It’s a destination that Virgin America has coveted for some time but which has been unable to get into due to slot restrictions at the airport.

The real surprise, to me, is who they’re getting the slots from:  American Airlines

American, through its bankruptcy proceedings, is terminating existing leases of its slots to both United and Porter Airlines and making those slots available (plus additional slots direct from AA) to Virgin America for the exact same price.

Given just how much Virgin America has attacked American Airlines on certain routes, I’m rather surprised at this development.  This development potentially puts pressure on American Airlines on transcontinental routes between NYC and SFO/LAX.  American doesn’t have dominance at Newark and certainly isn’t the dominant airline in NYC at this time.

The dominant airline at Newark is United Airlines and certainly so for that route between those airports.   Between SFO and JFK, both Delta and United have more dominant positions but AA is certainly not a minor player either.  Between LAX and JFK, American Airlines is the dominant carrier but only barely so with Delta and United also being major players.

So I can make a few interpretations here.

First, American sees United as the competitor to fight with on these routes and wishes to make trouble for United in the form of Virgin America.  Why AA doesn’t wish to add frequencies into and out of Newark, I do not know.  There are several trunk routes that presumably would fit neatly into AA’s system for that airport.

Second, American has traditionally viewed even upstarts like Virgin America as a threat and gone to great lengths to price them out of markets.  AA has most recently done this when Virgin America entered the DFW market with flights from LAX and SFO.  So perhaps American views Virgin America as insignificant competition when compared to the SuperLegacy landscape.   Personally, I wouldn’t be quite ready to write off Virgin America when you give them access to an airport in the NYC area that plays very well into their strengths.

Third, I now wonder if American (primarily CEO Tom Horton) is starting to eye Virgin America as an acquisition.  This isn’t quite as far fetched as it might seem.  Virgin does have some valuable landing slots (although many are currently leased) into slot constrained airports.  Virgin is also run by a former American Airlines CFO, David Cush.  And Virgin has the equipment that American has decided to adopt for its future:  The Airbus A320 and A320NEO.

Virgin America has done poorly and even I think it’s time for Virgin to seek a partner.  Their value isn’t much at this point given that they’ve never earned a profit and their position has worsened in the last year.  An acquisition of Virgin America would essentially be an asset purchase to get their hands on aircraft faster.  Virgin America has nothing in terms of infrastructure, IT, leadership or service product that AA wants or needs.

Right now, I think that AA wants Virgin America alive to provide competition to the airline that best represents trouble for it:  United Airlines.  That competition can hurt United in the near term and allow some breathing space for AA to gets its bearings and start competing with United again.  If I’m right, I would not be surprised if the next market we hear about Virgin entering is Chicago.  Virgin has wanted to fly into O’Hare airport for a long time as well but hasn’t been able to get decently located gate space thus far.

It could be one other thing:  This could be part of a strategy to form partnerships with Virgin America and a closer partnership with jetBlue to give both Delta and United more trouble.  Virgin America competes hard with United on the West Coast and on trans-continental routes.  It also competes heavily with Alaska Airlines on the West Coast and Alaska Airlines has been moving closer and closer to Delta.

On the East Coast, American’s partnership with jetBlue has worked out OK and expanding upon that partnership would put some pressure on both Delta and United as well.  Since this strategy benefits two of the Cornerstone markets of AA, this may well be the purpose.

For now, we’ll just have to watch this play out.  If a US Airways / AA merger isn’t consummated, I’ll be ready to bet heavily on a partnership approach to building the AA network upon bankruptcy exit.  This may well be Tom Horton’s method of not engaging in a merger where he is ousted.  He may well be ready to argue that AA can do as well or better in this approach vs a merger.

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In the conversations that take place regarding the US Airways / American Airlines merger opportunity, naysayers within both companies frequently end up being the pilots.  The minority groups of these pilots like to ask for (demand) firm agreements on seniority integration and point to Doug Parker and his team being unable to achieve seniority integration for US Airways pilots since the America West / US Airways merger of 2005.

That’s really not true.  The history there is bloody but it really is the fault and responsibility of the pilots involved that combination.  Here is what has happened:

America West and US Airways pilots were both represented by ALPA.  As such, when the merger occurred there was a mechanism in place at ALPA to arbitrate such a seniority integration.  There were many issues but the overriding viewpoints on each side were centered around a couple of things.  America West pilots felt they deserved to have their seniority (and job opportunities) guarded to some fair degree because it was their airline that was consuming US Airways which had been in bankruptcy not once but twice in the same decade.  That was a reasonable viewpoint and it could have been handled by using “fences” to protect some percentage of jobs for those pilots.

US Airways pilots wanted a date of hire seniority integration because their pilot group had some very old, very senior pilots who didn’t want to be knocked down from the premium pilot opportunities.  Since these pilots had agreed to major wage concessions in two bankruptcies, they felt they had given enough at that point.  This wasn’t entirely reasonable but it wasn’t entirely unreasonable either.

In the arbitration discussions, US Airways representation basically went “hardline” and drilled in on a date of hire seniority integration and avoided discussing any ways to come to a compromise using mechanisms that would give each side some protection and some opportunity.  Fencing routes and/or aircraft was one way this could have been handled and the most senior of each pilot group could have had their retirement protected reasonably well.

But the hardline negotiations on the part of the US Airways group led to the arbitrator having to make a tough ruling that blended each group with a relative date of hire integration.  This solution had some fairly junior America West captains sitting in front of some fairly senior US Airways captains (as an example.)

US Airways pilots went livid and used the nuclear option.  They held a new union representation election and formed a new independent union called USAPA.  They were able to do this because they actually outnumbered America West pilots.  Essentially, US Airways pilots didn’t like the binding arbitration and had a rare opportunity to stick it to everyone and did so.

This breakaway and the lack of seniority integration has been litigated in court ever since between the two pilot groups.  Doug Parker and his executive team have very wisely stayed far, far away from this problem the whole time.  They’re not even sure who they should legally engage in negotiations with and have (rightly) offered the opinion that the pilots had to get their act together first.  The pilots have been unable to do so for more than 5 years.

Frankly, my own opinion is that a court should have made a decision that looked like this:

• The pilots may organize in any way they wish including creating an independent union.  However,
• The pilots must integrate according to the ALPA/Nicolau seniority integration arbitration decision before anything else occurs.  Binding arbitration that results in a decision should be enforced otherwise binding arbitration isn’t binding.
• After the seniority integration is implemented, the pilots may work out their contracts and future seniority issues among themselves and with the company leadership.

Under that scenario, no one gets their cake and the chance to eat it too.

Now, there is a reason why most pilots actually view the US Airways / AA merger as a good thing.  There is now federal law which governs a seniority integration which didn’t exist when America West bought US Airways.  This law works fairly well.  Not perfectly but it does get the job done and that’s important.

American Airlines pilots are very senior and know that under that federal law they’ll do pretty well.  If they do pretty well and the new airline is successful, their future is pretty secure and that’s what a pilot wants.

America West pilots know that they’ll do pretty well because the merger framework pretty much raises their incomes to levels never thought of before because the baseline for those wages will be AA pilot wages.  Even if they lose some positions in seniority, everyone makes a lot more money.  Best of all, USAPA almost certainly goes away as a union and that is an emotional win for America West pilots.  (I would argue that while USAPA is pretty awful as a union, they aren’t exactly upgrading big with AA’s Allied Pilots Association.)

US Airways (Old) pilots are very senior and know that they’ll do pretty well under the federal law as seniority integration goes and they, too, get a big raise.

All three parties in this know that they don’t have to deal with a multi-year mess of seniority integration if this deal is made because the McCaskill Bond statute provides adequate framework for a fairly timely seniority integration.  No union leadership in this battle has to “fight” because there is only so much that can be fought for under the law now.  Notice that in the United / Continental merger there really wasn’t much “fight” between the unions as there were few areas where any “fight” could occur.

So despite the naysayers predicting a mess of seniority integration, that’s not really true.  It will happen and the worse case scenario is that everyone gets a pay raise and gets a fairly secure future with an airline that can compete globally.  More so, Doug Parker and his team also know this and also know that if they present a deal that gets everyone a bit of what they want in a worst case scenario, they’ll be integrated in fairly short time.  They can do this deal and succeed in the labor area without much fear and most creditors know this by now.

Filed under: Mergers and Bankruptcy by ajax
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A few weeks ago, American Airlines introduced a new fare structure and I recently had time to view AA’s fares and the structures on their website for travel between Portland, OR and Dallas, TX.

Airlines and particularly American Airlines, have tried to change how fares are priced before and generally with little success.  Other airlines are reluctant to engage in fare pricing structure changes that don’t give them parity or advantage against other airlines when it comes to bottom line price.

What American Airlines is doing is creating new fare structures that are based on bundled services they can sell individually.  These are not new fees, they are fare structures and it’s important to remember that.

I’m not a fan of the way fees have been introduced at most airlines over the past 5 years.  In some areas, I think the approach has been OK.  For instance, I think charging for food and alcohol in economy class was ultimately a wise move for two reasons:  First, food is one of those things that is taken whether it really is desired or not and that raises costs.  When you charge for it, you get only those who truly want it requesting it.  Second, by charging for the food, the airline can plan for a demand and not board too much food.  If you add more food to a flight than necessary, costs go up as a result of weight (yes, weight of that food does cost money in terms of fuel) and as a result of wastage.

I like charging for the advantage of boarding early.  It’s a fee that I’ve willingly paid on Southwest Airlines because I’m a tall, big man and having the advantage to get settled into a seat and make myself comfortable is worth money to me.

Charging for seat position is something I’m largely neutral on.  When the seat truly is an upgrade, I think charging for it is fine.  When you’re charging for exit aisle seats just because there is inherently a couple of inches of more legroom because it’s required, I don’t like it.

I do think that airlines need to address family needs with fees for boarding early and seat position.  I would suggest a reduced cost fee that covers families with 3 to 5 traveling.  When a family larger than 5 is traveling, they’ll often split up anyway.  3 to 5 allows two parents with a kid to get an optimum seating position for travel and as many as 2 parents and 3 kids can situate themselves optimally.

I hate baggage fees.  I think these are wrong on many levels and could be structured very differently with better results for all concerned.  First off, I think charging for any checked items is wrong.  Passengers are inherently traveling which means they must carry some luggage.  I think the first bag checked on any airline should be free.  I think that airlines should adhere to a strict policy of allowing a coat and one personal item to be carried onboard for free.  If you want to carry on additional luggage, it should be $30/bag.  If you want to check more than one bag, it should be $20 / bag.  Those who want the convenience and assurance of carrying on their luggage should pay considerably for it because it is a convenience.  Checked baggage isn’t a convenience, it’s a reality.

At first glance, I like what AA has done.  You can buy a base fare with no added services involved and conduct your travel just as you have been.  You can buy up and get a free checked bag, the ability to change your ticket without fee and priority boarding.  That’s a $68 increase in fare cost and is named Choice Essential.  Let’s break out the values of that:

• The checked baggage each way we know is worth $50 ($25 / bag each way).
• Group 1 priority boarding is probably worth about $10 if we use what Southwest charges for a similar opportunity.
• If the first two items have a value of $60 total, then the “insurance” against the need to change your ticket is worth about $8.00 and that strikes me as about right for such a thing.

So is it worth it?  I actually think it is.  This is a fare that I would likely pay for most of my trips.  I really think this adds value appropriately and it’s a bundle structure that other airlines should consider emulating.

There is an $88 fare upgrade (Called Choice Plus) that offers same day flight change and a free premium beverage in addition to the already named advantages.   This bundle has potential for business travelers but I think that the real value in this is the opportunity to do a same day flight change.  For today’s business traveler, I’m not sure this is much value, however.

Today’s airline road warrior generally is able to change their ticket for different travel anyway.  Even if they aren’t, the costs accrue to their companies rather than themselves and that means a traveler isn’t inclined to be worried about those fees in many cases.  Furthermore, that same road warrior typically carries their briefcase/purse and a rollaboard onto the airplane so they can bypass the baggage claim at their destination.  (Longtime readers will know that I think this is silly behavior but let’s not digress.)  In addition, many frequent fliers have arrangements that already permit them one or more free checked bags.   So when it comes to Choice Plus, here is what I think your real values are:

• Checked bag:  No real value (to most users)
• Ability to change ticket:  $8.00 (we’ve valued this above already)
• Group 1 priority boarding:  $10.00 (we’ve valued this above already)
• Free Premium Beverage:  $8.00 (this could vary but that price is fair at the least.)
• Same Day Flight Change:  $62.00 ($88 minus the above values of $26 equals $62)

I’m not feeling this “choice” as a big value.  Some business travelers might find it a value to be able to change their tickets and that value might go up depending on how AA treats its frequent fliers at various status levels going forward.

Bottom Line:  Choice Essentials feels like a pretty good bundle for both the business and casual traveler.  I like it on many levels.

I would like to see more bundling and I think fare bundling can work really well if airlines get their IT systems together to handle this.  It’s a good first start but I do think there are other opportunities out there to create more value bundles that work for more people.

Filed under: Airline Fees by ajax
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I’ve watched this unfold much as anyone else has and there is one peculiar observation I have.

Am I the only one to notice that Doug Parker & company have largely kept their mouths shut in the merger process while virtually all other parties keep trying to find ways into the public eye?

Am I the only one to notice that AA CEO Tom Horton seems to be working overtime to speak about this merger opportunity?

We continually here Tom Horton portray himself neutrally when speaking to news media.  Yet when he has an opportunity to make a company communication, there is always a tone that leads me to believe that he’s less than happy with the merger idea being pressed upon him.

And it is curious to me that Horton’s “private” comments about the merger opportunity get leaked to the press pretty frequently whereas Doug Parker and his team really have largely just kept their mouths closed.

I’m tempted to think that Tom Horton protests too much in this and tend to interpret his behavior as somewhat desperate.  This may in fact not be the case at all.  The truth is, what’s going on behind closed doors is pretty much unknown by all.

But the more I notice Doug Parker’s silence, the more I think that he’s managed to pretty much corner this deal and it is his to lose at this point.

Filed under: Trivia by ajax
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I’m often struck by how many successful investors have often described their choices in who to invest in being based upon their own personal experiences with a product.  Time and again, one of these people tries a product and realizes that someone has something worth betting on.

For those who may invest in American Airlines and particularly at this time, I would ask that you try the product out.  Read my trip reviews found HERE and HERE.

Don’t fly in First Class.  Don’t schedule a trip known to AA management.  Buy an economy class ticket for a flight of a duration of 2 hours or more and make a decision based upon your experiences and contrast those experiences with those on other airlines.

American Airlines may have largely fixed its cost problems but it hasn’t addressed its service problems at all.  Service will be what determines the airline’s ultimate success.  Service is what attracts revenue, not cost cutting.

Consider the value proposition AA is offering in comparison to other airlines and particularly those it is competing against.

US Airways may have its problems but it doesn’t have AA’s problems.  It attracts customers on price and it keeps them by doing what it contracts to do.  It competes against the likes of Southwest and Delta all the time and it makes money.  It makes money because it does deliver on the service and value propositions.

Ask yourself if the status quo that exists today at American is the status quo that wins in the marketplace here in the United States.  Consider that despite having a very senior and very well paid service staff and crew, Southwest accomplishes what AA can’t every day.  It does it day after day and has expanded its revenue growth and still has managed to earn a profit.

Contrast the experiences with Delta who is arguably kicking everyone’s butt in the business currently.  It is these intangibles that have always determined the success of an airline.

Yes, it’s important to be competitive on costs but you can’t win if you can’t compete on the service and value side.

Now, ask yourself if the status quo is who should be running American Airlines going forward out of bankruptcy.  Some say that the executive team has changed and that it is leaner and more responsive.  I would argue that we simply have Version 3.0 of the same leadership the airline has enjoyed for 15 years and that this version shows no evidence of being anymore sensitive to the service and value side of the business than the previous regimes.

AA needs new leadership and it needs leadership that can change those service and value propositions.  Even if that leadership is not US Airways management, those in charge today need to go and new people need to come in and change the airline to a model that wins.

Filed under: Airline Service by ajax
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Let’s get on with the second part of this trip review:

American Airlines Flight 1905 (EWR – DFW)
Scheduled Departure Time:  05:05pm  Actual Departure Time:  Cancelled
Scheduled Arrival Time:  08:10pm  Actual Arrival Time:  Cancelled

Yes, it was cancelled.  Here is the actual flight:

American Airlines Flight 2705 (EWR – DFW)
Scheduled Departure Time:  07:10pm  Actual Departure Time:  07:49pm
Scheduled Arrival Time:  10:05pm  Actual Arrival Time:  10:24pm

I was monitoring my flight status from the start of the day as well as the flight status of several family members.  My flight suddenly showed cancelled at around 1pm of that day and I had to call AA to find out what was going on.

After spending yet another frustrating 10 minutes fighting through the goo that is AA’s voice activated system for determining what you don’t want to do, I got a reservations agent.  After a couple of minutes of working with this agent, she determined that she couldn’t help me because the trip was booked on AAdvantage Miles.  So I got transferred to a new agent.

I did not find this funny.  To battle an automated system for 10 minutes and then to work with a reservations agent for another 10 minutes only to be told “please hold while I get you the AAdvantage desk” is just not amusing.

The next woman indicated that I had been re-booked on the next flight out.  I was OK with this since it meant I was still departing the same day and just  a couple of hours later.  I wasn’t amused by the fact that my seat had changed from 10A to 25E.

Me:  “Let me get this straight.  You’ve cancelled the flight and think I’m happy with sitting in seat 25E which is in the back of the aircraft and in the middle?”

Res Agent:  “Sir, it isn’t in the back of the aircraft.  It’s actually in the middle of the aircraft.”

Me:  “I’ve flown the MD-80 aircraft since you guys put it into your fleet.  Seat 25 is just a couple of rows from the rear galley and a middle seat isn’t amusing to a man who is 6′ 2″ tall and 270lbs.”

You be the judge.  Here is the SeatGuru map. I’m just going to note that row 25 has 24 rows in front of it and 7 rows behind it.  But apparently AA thinks it is in the middle of the aircraft.

After an interesting exchange between myself and the AAdvantage agent which involved holding for a while while she checked on things, I got Seat 12A offered to me.  Much better.

Arrival at EWR (Newark Liberty International Airport) found me once again stepping into the swirling mess that is AA right away.  The gate agent found it difficult to print 2 baggage tags for my bags because, at first, she couldn’t find me on the flight at all.

TSA had a Priority Access lane that, once again, didn’t save me any time at all.  Particularly so when TSA is permitting people left and right to claim imminently departing flights and by-pass the line.  After several had done this, I began to suspect that locals have figured out that this is the real way to have Priority Access.  I can’t prove it but I do suspect it.

As I arrived at the gate, I checked my flight status app on my phone and saw that the flight had a new flight plan filed for a delayed departure.  I approached the gate agent and asked about the delay and was told that I didn’t know what I was talking about and of course the flight would leave on time.

Roughly 10 minutes later, maybe less, this same agent was announcing that there would be a delay in the departure because the aircraft suffered a bird strike on the inbound approach and had to be inspected prior to going back into service.

It was another 25 minutes before I saw any mechanics go out to the aircraft to look at the airplane.

Once we boarded, the exact same Dance of the Privileged Passengers took place.  In fact, it was as if I was back in Dallas leaving for Newark 2 days earlier.

Let’s take a moment to reflect on what it means to carry your luggage on to the aircraft.  I am an ardent supporter of checking bags on flights.  Baggage doesn’t go getting lost with any meaningful statistical frequency.  I have been flying since 1968 and in all of that time my baggage was lost exactly once.  I’ve guessed that I have traveled roughly 3 to 4 million miles in that time.  It isn’t worth taking your life’s possessions on board, it really isn’t.  I can’t tell you how often I arrive at an airport, wait for my bag at the baggage claim and then find myself walking past those who didn’t check bags as they wait for their rides curbside.  This makes you people look silly.

But if you insist on carrying your luggage onto the aircraft, observe the rules.  For instance, one personal item (purse, briefcase, etc) and one bag means that.  It doesn’t mean, for instance, a purse, an oversize rollaboard that doesn’t fit and 2 large boxes from Macy’s.  And, no, I won’t remove my small briefcase and light jacket from the overhead bin so you can park your possessions in various places throughout the aircraft.

American Airlines:  If you’re going to have rules, you’re going to have to enforce them.  Or remove the rules and let the games begin.  I actually think you would earn more revenue and experience fewer delays if you charged someone $25 to bring their rollaboard into the aircraft.  Seriously, charge *those* people for carrying luggage.  You’ll stop the chaos in boarding and earn more money, I would wager.  Offer one free checked bag, charge for additional checked bags and charge for a carry-on.

After the flight took off, we had another Chatty Captain who described in painful detail how we were going to fly the entire route and that we would be pushing against the jetstream the entire way so we would likely run very late.  In fact, the return trip took about 1 hour longer than the one going to Newark.

The truth is, my trip back to Dallas was very similar to the one to Newark.  Right down to lethargic flight attendants doing a beverage service.  Out of sheer curiosity to find out what would happen, I asked for a sandwich again.  This time, I did get one (Roast Beef) but only after taking the chance to remind the flight attendant I had asked for one when she leaned over my seat to reach the person behind me.

The sandwich was . . . OK.  Nothing special but I could taste meat and other items and it was filling enough.  About what I expected for my money.   I was satisfied with it and would argue that a better sandwich would, in fact, require a higher price.

Arrival at the airport found us disembarking from a gate that was inexplicably many, many gates away from an open entry/exit point in Terminal A at DFW.  While walking towards the indicated open exit point, I asked some service agents how much farther did I have to walk to the exit, 6 or 7 more miles, and they just laughed heartily.  What is annoying is that I checked the gates near the open exit point.  All but one were empty.  In other words, AA could have parked their aircraft near an open exit point and prevented a long hike late in the evening.

Once I had my baggage and walked past those who had carried all theirs onto the aircraft, I was able to flag a Parking Spot van immediately and get to my car in just 8 minutes.  I was home just 50 minutes after arriving at the airport and I live a great distance from DFW airport in the Metroplex.

Summary:

• Boarding experience:  B-
• Flight Crew experience:  B- (hey, I got my sandwich)
• Onboard Seating experience:  D (Because there is no reason for this discomfort on a airliner today)

• Departure / Arrival experience:  C+  (routing your flight through the jetstream was just stupid.)

Final thoughts:

On both flights I was struck by one thought over and over again.  I don’t ever experience this kind of poor attitude, poor behavior, and awful service when I fly Southwest Airlines.

Nominally, when you fly American Airlines you are supposed to be flying a full service airline.  When flying Southwest, you’re supposed to be flying a cut-rate airline.  In fact, the opposites are true.  Let’s compare:

Aircraft Quality

Southwest has clean, well maintained and fairly new 737 aircraft.
American Airlines has some new 737 aircraft but after having them for over 10 years, I’ve yet to have flown on one.  I am always on a MD-80.  That isn’t chance, that is because they can fly them from DFW to just about all points in the US and because AA has a stranglehold on the DFW O&D market, they know they can impose this condition on its customers.

Aircraft Seating

Southwest has extremely comfortable leather seating with more average seat pitch than just about any legacy or SuperLegacy airline.  Yes, they’re updating their seats to fit more on the aircraft and I will say that time will tell if these are as comfortable.  They could be and I do have some faith that SWA knows it’s wise not to diminish the seating experience for their customers.  American Airlines on the other hand just has the most outdated, uncomfortable seating available.  It’s that simple.  There might be some seats on the 737s or 777s that are better but that doesn’t describe the vast majority of the fleet.

Service Staff

Southwest’s staff tends to be moderately friendly, fairly interested in solving a problem and ready to help.  Onboard, their flight attendants are usually the right combination of “in charge” and “service oriented”.  Yes, they’re only serving a minor snack and beverage but they somehow make it seem important that it be done timely and right.  American Airlines service staff are surly, resentful and fairly uninterested in solving a problem or even having the correct facts about a flight.   Flight attendants onboard tend to be very senior and very resentful of passengers and their situation.  They are clearly uninterested in serving beverages or food.  I’ve had more than one scold me with “We’re hear primarily for your safety!”  No you aren’t.  You’re there to be in service of the customer and to act in the event an emergency requires strong supervision of passengers.  98% of the time spent performing your job is to keep the passenger happy.

Value

Look, Southwest isn’t “cheap” anymore.  That said, they are competitive on price and when you consider the experience, the convenience and the ability to get someplace on time, they’re high value.  They don’t charge for checking bags and what they do charge fees for makes sense and are priced appropriately.  American Airlines is just bad.  Their fares are high, their service value is the worst around presently.  It’s that simple.  There isn’t a value proposition to flying AA in my opinion unless you’re burning unused air miles.

Tomorrow:  A suggestion for investors in American Airlines

Filed under: Airline Service by ajax
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For long time readers, it will come as a surprise that I flew American Airlines anywhere.  Relax, this was a trip made on award points. I confess that I did regard this as an opportunity to re-check my thoughts regarding travel on American Airlines.

I scheduled myself to fly from DFW (Dallas / Fort Worth) to EWR (Newark, NJ) for my brother’s wedding.  When checking the schedule, I noticed right off that, once again, the flights available for this route all included what I like to refer to as the Ubiquitous MD-80.  Mostly MD-83 aircraft.

I despise the American Airlines MD-80 fleet.  They are old, very old, compared to virtually any other legacy airline fleet in the United States.  They are not well kept aircraft and lack any cabin updates that would be described as meaningful.  Their seats are extremely dated and you have to love (not) a seat that you can sit on and actually feel the support structure through the cushion.

It’s true that I’ve always liked the 3-2 seating configuration in this aircraft because only 1/5 of all seats are middle seats instead of 1/3.  That said, I readily acknowledge that the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 fuselage is not the most economical around and should have drifted away to retirement about 20 years ago.  China’s COMAC who is building the ARJ21 should take note.

There is a reason why the AA MD-80 fleet is seeing more and more mid-air engine shutdowns and other problems that are cancelling and grounding flights.  It isn’t well maintained.  Yes, the MD-80 is built like a brick outhouse but if it isn’t maintained in the manner of, say, Delta, it starts to deteriorate badly.

On my outbound trip, I watched another AA MD-83 lineup and do a full power take-off while we waited on the ramp for our turn.  This aircraft was a former TWA aircraft as it had the “TW” suffix to its registration.  It made it about 1/4 of the way down the runway, clearly suffered a problem as it appeared that thrust on the aircraft wasn’t equal and suddenly the aircraft did a rejected take-off and quite quickly took a high speed exit from the runway.

If AA pilots are feeling frustrated by this aircraft, I feel your pain.

So, let’s kick off the outbound segment of this trip.

American Airlines Flight 1554 (DFW – EWR)
Scheduled Departure Time:  11:40am  Actual Departure Time:  12:12pm
Scheduled Arrival Time:  03:49pm  Actual Arrival Time:  03:45pm

Arrival at DFW airport was smooth and I almost always use The Parking Spot on the north side of the airport because A) it’s far less expensive, B) I can get into the terminals as fast or faster than DFW long term parking and C) I can remember the name of the place.

I made it to the terminal and checked both my bags and then found myself killing some time because I actually arrived faster than I even planned thanks to a quick driver at the Parking Spot.  The terminal was fairly crowded and I’ve come to despise the bottlenecks at DFW known as the TSA.

DFW’s design isn’t TSA friendly and I get that it is expensive to run many entry points to DFW but, hey, that’s the design of the airport and better to accommodate it or redesign it.  In AA’s case, they just live with it.

I entered the line with AA Priority Access privileges and despite bypassing roughly 2/3’s of the crowd, it still took me approximately 15 minutes to pass through TSA.  I find it disappointing that after 11 years we still are removing shoes, belts, jackets and other items of clothing to get through security.  Even more disappointing with the new(ish) scanners in lieu of being sexually assaulted.  Yes, I used the scanner.  The backscatter scanners are quick(ish) but really don’t save anyone any time since we’re still removing our clothing, our jewelry, our wallets and our dignity.

The Dance of the Privileged Passengers aka boarding the aircraft was somewhat delayed and when begun, it was slow due to gate agents more interested in frantically locating standby passengers than, you know, filling the aircraft with those who were there.

First hint for AA:  Manage your standby passengers better and when you have more than 30 people waiting to go standby, make the call for the passenger once, maybe twice and move on to the next.  Don’t spend 10 minutes making repetitive announcements requesting that Johnny Doe please come to the counter for his standby ticket.  If Johnny isn’t interested enough in getting on the flight to be standing at the ready to get his ticket, move on to someone who is.

Despite Priority Access for this flight, I boarded after roughly 1/3 of the flight had already boarded.  It’s shocking how many people boarded for first class.  I counted 21 people going through as first class passengers.   The problem with that is that there are only 16 first class seats on that aircraft.  Right, so the gate agents weren’t really paying attention to whether or not it was someone’s turn.  I suspect this was true as well for Executive Platinum and Gold passengers given the number of those who went through.

Next hint for AA:  Don’t do this Dance of the Privileged Passengers unless you are truly willing to enforce who gets on by status.  Otherwise, it becomes a farce in which the dishonest are awarded with early boarding.  Although, one does question the sanity of a person who wants onto an AA flight early.

Passengers boarded in a disorganized and frantic fashion while literally claiming overhead bin space for their overstuffed carry-on bag as much as 5 or 6 rows away from arriving at their seat.  I boarded with a small briefcase and jacket.  Many seemed to be carrying considerably more than intended by current rules.  For instance, I’m pretty sure that a large purse, backpack and carry-on rollaboard was a bit over the line.

The flight finally departed the gate, struggled to the runway 100% full and did an exceptionally high powered takeoff to the north that took a fair bit of runway nonetheless.

We climbed fairly quickly, achieved cruise altitude pretty quickly and after the Chatty Captain finished his lengthy description of his flight plan, the flight attendants went to work doing their beverage service.

This beverage service was amusing to watch.  I was in seat 12A which was the 6th row back in economy. With 2 flight attendants working this service, you would expect it to move along reasonably well paced despite the full load of passengers.

You’d be wrong.  I timed it.  It took 38 minutes to reach me and offer me a beverage.  I requested and got orange juice and asked if there was food available.  There was in the form of either a roast beef or chicken sandwich.  I was hungry and asked for the roast beef sandwich while trying to offer my credit card.

I’m still waiting for that sandwich.  Folks across the aisle from me aren’t waiting for theirs.  Theirs came roughly 5 minutes after their request.   Another hint for American:  If you want to sell things on board and earn extra revenue, then deliver what’s been requested.  Furthermore, don’t make it hard to get later.   Seriously, you have to act like you want to sell the stuff to get people to buy it.

The aircraft arrived in New Jersey quickly taking just 2 hours, 33 minutes as a result of some very fast tailwinds that day.  Somehow my butt was still quite sore after what is a fairly short trip time.  I believe it was the metal structure it was riding on due to very worn cushion material.  I’m not one of those guys who minds thin cushions.  I don’t.  Airtran had fairly thin cushioning but it was cushioning.

Summary:

• Boarding experience:  B-
• Flight Crew experience:  C
• Onboard Seating experience:  D (Because there is no reason for this discomfort on a airliner today)

• Departure / Arrival experience:  A (but you got lucky with a high speed jetstream pushing the aircraft AA.)

Tomorrow, the return trip.

Filed under: Airline Service by ajax
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