Originally Posted by
BrazilBusDriver
I do think the company is making some moves with regards to IT modernization (new cloud authentication and the prettier, but glitchy new booking interface both come to mind), however, there's no plans to move away from SABRE that I'm aware of, so I don't know how far that will move the needle. AA's websites are effectively web front ends for SABRE queries and commands. They're just prettied up, user friendly ways of inputing them. They aren't the first company to be tied to legacy IT, and it's not a problem that's unique to the airline industry. Moving away from something that works is risky, but eventually it'll probably become too cumbersome to update enough to remain relevant. I don't envy the person that has to make that call, there's a chance the project fails spectacularly.
With regards to IFE, I believe the company's take is that "customers will complain about it, but they won't pay for it". This industry has been rife with that sort of customer behavior, although the jury is out as to whether that holds with the shift in preference to premium experiences/products and away from lowest possible ticket price. Conversely, they obviously believe customers will pay for operational reliability - including baggage handling, and seem to be investing appropriately.
As much as I want to unflinchingly support our FAs and Gate Agents, they do have a pretty big impact on whether people will return, especially when things go wrong. There are certainly some bad apples, and they should be dealth with appropriately, however, I'd suspect many aren't given the tools they need to actually help people. To paraphrase your thought, 'I think you'd get a lot more buy-in from the FA and GA groups on going the extra mile if the company showed it actually cared'. But there are also little things, like pre-departure beverage service, that mean a lot to our best customers that more than a few FAs I've spoken to don't want to do regardless of the time available. That's not smart, it's taking money out of all our collective pockets when that customer decides to go elsewhere.
Look this is a great job. Best job I've ever had. But as someone who has worked for several major airlines it's pretty obvious that American Airlines doesn't care. Not about us or the passengers. AA is the epitome of big corporate America. The Walmart of aviation. They don't care one whit about people. As long as the company is profitable and self sustaining (even if profits are meager) they will plod along and make no changes. They will have loss leading products and winning products that balance each other out. They will invest the absolute minimum into the product and the employees that they have to. This is why the employees don't care and it's a vicious circle. Nobody likes Walmart but everyone shops there and the company still makes money. That's AA's take on the airline industry.
American is Walmart.
United is Target.
Delta is Apple.