Originally Posted by V169

Unfortunately not--clipped this from another forum


Yesterday morning, I woke up to learn that American Airlines filed bankruptcy.* I pulled up the New York Times, and sure enough – top story.
Now, to you, this probably isn’t a big deal.* Another huge corporation bites the dust. Err wait, no – “restructures”.* But, it doesn’t really affect you.* If I were in different shoes, I wouldn’t think much of it either.
However, it just so happens that my dad flew for American Airlines for 24 years.* That name, American Airlines, has had major personal significance all my life.* I grew up wearing sweatshirts with their logo.* And, earlier this very month – two weeks ago, in fact – my entire family ventured to Chicago to hop on a 7:40am flight to LAX on my dad’s retirement flight.
We had a really special experience.* We bought Starbucks muffins for every passenger, my dad stood in the aisle and gave a 3-minute speech about being grateful for his career, loving his family, and how he’s going to miss the crew members.* Everyone clapped, and then they shook his hand as they walked off the plane – and that was after two fire trucks gave my dad the “water canon salute” as he taxied the plane into the terminal.
It was a proud moment for all of us.
And then I heard the news yesterday morning.* My dad got out right at the nick of time, right?* Well… not exactly.* You see, retirements at American don’t actually lock into place until the first day of each month – meaning, my dad was technically 48 hours away from his official retirement.* And, so were 150 other senior pilots who [thought they had] retired this month.
You see, by filing for bankruptcy on November 29, American Airlines “saved” itself about $100 million – and by “saved”, I really mean “stole” – from the people who have worked hard and been loyal for years and years.* The executives knew exactly what they were doing.* And, they made that decision.
My dad lost a great deal yesterday – including his morale – and will be going back to work at American Airlines.
I’ve never been in the shoes of those executives.* I’m confident that they face some tough decisions.* But, when it really comes down to it, they made a decision that cost loyal, hardworking people so much – and much as a result of their own poor management decisions.