AA Newhire Class Told get ready
 

March 17 Newhire Class got email to be ready for Class in June or July. Some good news might be happening.

Great news.

So no furlough???

I would not go that far. Airlines have been known to waste money as people get caught in the layers of middle management. I will take it as an encouraging sign though.

If this is true, how is this thread not blowing up? To be sure, this is confirmed?

Confirmed.

Memo from the company to the March 17 class

Hello and happy Wednesday! Hope you all are doing well and staying healthy. Fingers crossed that we are seeing a light at the end of this tunnel! We have some new information for you on bidding your base and fleet. We don’t yet have all the details, but we wanted to share what we do know.

Bidding – Vacancy Run, Initial Assignment and Training
To help us place you where you will most be needed, the decision was made to not include this class in the September 2020 Vacancy Run, and to instead, have you all bid for your base and fleet once the vacancy award is complete. The base and fleet bidding will be accomplished virtually, similar to the way the Benefits and Pay briefing was conducted. I don’t believe I will have the bid options for the class until after the vacancy award is finalized, but we will send them out as soon as we receive them.

We are still trying to figure out how we are going to conduct your Orientation and Basic Indoc, given the group size limitations that are currently in place. We know that it will look and feel different than it would have pre-pandemic. For planning purposes, we expect to begin bringing you in for training in mid-summer – details to be determined.

thank you for your time and other data. I appreciate it. Good for you guys!!

this is awesome. I hope guys in the industry take note of how the company has handled guys they could have easily jettisoned.

I have had my gripes about AA in the past. That said I am proud of how AA treated this class.

I said something to this effect on some other thread, but American Airlines (AA) has definitely bought some goodwill with me recently.

(There’s a subtle joke in my post also.)

so your proud that AA is saying take the class or turn down the class because in OCT you will be the first ones furloughed? Why force them to make that choice. If it was me I would be forced to stay at my current job and turn down AA.....that’s crap.

Wouldn’t this indicate they don’t anticipate furloughs? I mean logically since it’ll cost them more money to bring them in.

Yes I am. These guys are already on the payroll from March. If AA had pulled the rug from them a lot of them would have already resigned from their previous employers and would have been without a job in March. So here they have their seniority number got paid for six months. If they had cancelled the class the class would have had like 4-5 days notice. It’s not like they were just given a CJO this class was the last class through the door in March.

DUI Dougie is pretending everything is fine is dumb

waste of money to train them

once again his employees will be broadsided if furloughs occur

ceo said he is not looking at bankruptcy...he better be at least considering it as a leader.

history repeats itself

time for a new leader

Would you rather be furloughed from a regional or a Legacy? They are ALREADY on property, which means they already resigned from their previous employer.

What? This has nothing to do with furloughs. These are folks who in many cases had quit their previous work. The goal is to get them a seniority number, even include them in some of the bailout payments, then even if furloughed they should be able to get unemployment which may be lengthened the way it was last time etc.

You realize that if you've quit your previous employer you do not get unemployment?

I just see this a courtesy to a group that might otherwise have ended up totally hosed (and will still end up pretty hosed given most left from higher seniority to lower). Am I missing something? Why does this mean there would be no furloughs?

That said, AA does seem to be doing a fair number of early outs compared to other airlines. This class would have been TRIVIAL to drop entirely to save some $$ by the company - they are def not "needed" at current staffing needs.

I think we are all feeling this way. American/Parker is doing it right.

Youre not missing anything man. There’s a lot of haters out there who want AA to fail. Being furloughed sucks! But I rather be furloughed from a Legacy then from a regional. Let’s hope we avoid furloughs all together.

This no one got hired recently this is just training our last class. I think some people have latched onto this as proof we won’t furlough. We are 1328 over staffed for next summer but if you furloughed all 1300 half would need to be back within about a year to be ready for 2022 summer. If you just keep that demand static with 2021. Between early outs and regular retirements we lost over a 1000 pilots this year already. Add understaffing to the mix and well who knows.

All you guys and gals with positive comments need to stop and listen to all the haters (Other airline and those unhirable). AA is hiring as many as they can so they can liquidate. The airline will be broken up. All wide body aircraft will go to Skywest and Alaska, narrow bodies will go to Mesa and Delta. I know this, because I have an in at the airline, and I'm not just a pilot, but am a super super smart analyst, and I'm rich, and tall........... and my wife is hot...... and ....... Oh and by the way **Sarcasm Alert** for you other super smart pilot/non-pilots.

not sure who you work for, or if you even are a pilot, but I am way more proud of how AA has handled this particular situation as opposed to UAL and DAL. UAL literally cancelled a class just a few days before it was suppose to start. That means all those pilots were left hanging cause they probably had already left/resigned from their previous employer (classy). Then UAL sent out a 4000+ displacement announcement (leverage grenade for concessions). DAL is doing the same, making sure to infest fear throughout their pilot group and trying to capitalize on a unnecessary downturn. DAL is taking this as an opportunity to gut profit sharing and all the other pilot group weighted items in the contract. AND BOTH OF THEM OFFERED GARBAGE LEAVE OF ABSENCE AND EARLY OUT DEALS COMPARED TO AA, NOT EVEN CLOSE!

So yeah we are proud AA has at least TRIED and NOT EXPLOITED this made up crisis. They are extending a lot more good will and partnering than the supposed best (DAL) and UAL. Maybe it doesn’t work out, maybe it does, but at least they tried. Definitely trying to build a bridge unlike the others. AND SWA has an offer coming out soon on LOA’s and Early-outs. It’s far beyond what UAL and DAL did, but still NOT as good as AA’s.

Your characterization is off the mark. They didn’t “FORCE” anyone to make a choice. They made a decision to not have the classroom portion of training 2 days prior to the start date, the Sunday night before a Monday travel day, Tuesday class. Everyone had already made their choices. AA could have easily not brought the class on board at no cost to itself, but at great personal cost to those who had already resigned from previous employers/separated from the military. AA chose people over the company. And they did this before the CARES Act when they thought that the cost would come out of their pocket. Since then, the have offered voluntary personal leaves to anyone in the class that wants fly elsewhere while they await training (that has to be approved by the VP of flight ops and was) and for any military to take mil leave and even revoke retirement or return to active duty.


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YeAA! You tell him!!

Reinstating the new hire class is a good sign. I seriously doubt they would invest the time and resources if they anticipated having to put them back out on the street in October. It wouldn’t make sense to train them if they thought that would be the case.

Even if they get furloughed, running this class through training is pretty beneficial to them personally. It at least gives those guys and gals a free 737 or 320 type rating. Seems like a pretty generous deal by the company that could’ve just kept them on the sidelines with nothing to show come October 1.

We may very well furlough, go bankrupt, shutdown, or all the above. But, kudos to the company for taking care of our fellow pilots.

Yeah. I think buying extra pens is a no right now.

At least get some facts to back up your hyperbole.

Delta has not so much as touched profit sharing let alone “gut”ted it. It’s in our contract. Neither have they offered a pilot-only early out program. Ours should be out next week. Delta knows AA set the market on this. If they are in real need of a good ERP they’ll make it worth it to take.

No such good news at AAG HQ today...

UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 8-K
CURRENT REPORT

May 27, 2020

Management and support staff (MSS) team:
Since the start of this pandemic, each day has brought a new challenge. Our team has tackled every obstacle with incredible tenacity while staying true to our mission to care for people on life’s journey. While navigating this pandemic, we are committed to three goals:
1. Ensuring adequate cash to weather the downturn;
2. Reducing our cash burn by removing as much expense as possible; and
3. Restoring confidence in air travel.
Although our pre-pandemic liquidity, the significant financial assistance provided by the government, and the cash we’ve raised in the capital markets provide a foundation for stability, we need to reduce our cost structure, including our most significant expense - the cost of compensation and benefits. And we must plan for operating a smaller airline for the foreseeable future.
We have already taken steps to prepare for this new reality, with nearly 39,000 team members electing to take a voluntary leave or early retirement. Fleet retirement accelerations are underway, and we will fly roughly 100 fewer aircraft next summer - mostly widebodies - than we had originally planned. Additionally, running a smaller airline means we will need a management and support staff team that is roughly 30% leaner.
A more efficient leadership team begins at the top, and we are restructuring all levels around key future leaders and functions, beginning with our officer team. We will announce a reorganized officer team soon, and those leaders will be restructuring at the next levels shortly thereafter.
In addition to the plans to reduce our MSS team by 30%, we are also announcing other cost-saving measures. These include:
• Suspending the 2020 MSS merit program;
• Requiring MSS to take 50% of their vacation by Sept. 30 and suspending the vacation rollover policy so that no unused vacation days roll
into 2021; and
• Canceling the 2020 L5 and above short-term incentive plan, which was scheduled to pay a portion of the target as a result of meeting
operational metrics.
As part of creating a more efficient management structure, we are opening a new voluntary early out program for MSS team members. Details can be found on Jetnet here, and the window to volunteer will remain open through the end of the day on June 10.
Once volunteers are known, leaders will then finalize the remainder of their go-forward MSS teams. If there are not enough early out volunteers, we will have to take the difficult step of involuntary separations. Those decisions will be communicated in July, though impacted team members will remain on payroll through Sept. 30, 2020, and will receive full pay and benefits through the expiration of the CARES Act Payroll Support Program. While no severance will be paid, in addition to full pay through September, we will also provide these team members with one year of D2R travel status as well as access to COBRA health coverage for 18 months. We offer this transparency and timing so those who may be impacted can make the best decision for themselves.
Once we ensure we have the right size and structure in place for our MSS team, we can begin the work for our frontline team, recognizing that we will be a smaller airline, with fewer routes and fewer flights. While we are still working through the details of our future schedule, we plan to open a new voluntary leave and early out program for frontline team members in June. We will have additional details on these programs in the coming weeks. As we have previously stated, our preferred outcome is to properly size our frontline team for the future without having to implement involuntary furloughs. This is a goal, though, not a commitment, and a stretch goal at that. We will be working with our unions in the weeks and months ahead in hopes of developing programs to facilitate that goal.
In difficult times it is even more important that we stay true to our purpose of caring for people on life’s journey, even when that journey is a very difficult one. There is no doubt this is going to be a painful time for all, especially for our departing colleagues, who have given American Airlines their all and are leaving through no fault of their own. They deserve our respect and gratitude. Most of all, they are owed our renewed commitment and our collective effort to return American to profitability and growth as quickly as possible.

Thank you,

A lot of people wonder why American is signaling no layoffs and plenty of cash to pay senior pilots 200k a year to sit at home, while United and Delta set up to be 30% smaller airlines. Is American really that different than United and Delta? The answer is no. They’re all in similar circumstances.

Just recently Doug Parker said American Airlines would never lose money again. I’m not saying anyone in aviation has a good crystal ball, just that Doug Parker’s crystal ball is horrifically bad. No doubt American will need to furlough in October 1.

It has been long term knowledge that middle management needed to be trimmed at AA.

Perhaps that could happen, not saying it can’t, but at the present time, AA is not planning a pilot furlough if they are running a new hire class. If they anticipated a furlough, running a class would be a complete waste of money.

I see this as a good sign. Also, I checked a few flights for next week to list for non rev, and they are almost full, and all Airbuses. This is a good sign that traffic is returning as the shutdowns lift. I’m sure the company is analyzing all this in making their decision to run a class.

One thing I haven’t seen mentioned here yet. AA has a labor cost advantage to Delta and United as we are still operating under a BK era pilot contract. As much as we hate it, our absence of new contract may be a blessing in disguise until out of this crisis to keep pilots from furlough.

AA has the smallest and most seasonal long haul operation of the big 3. A robust domestic network with only 2 fleet types, not to mention the dominant carrier at DCA, we are in a position to take advantage of a rebound if it happens.


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Well here is the thing the early outs save money I have no idea how much but they clearly save money over furloughs. Otherwise Doug would not be doing them we are governed by spread sheets. We were chronically understaffed prior to this mess and more then 1000 pilots are now gone from out property. I would not surprise me one bit if we furlough in October but I’d guess a 1000 or less. (We are overstuffed by 1300 but I would imagine we would carry a buffer. If you look out two years from October most of not all of those furloughs will he backs because even with 800 buyouts we still have an additional 1100 over the next two years. We would be 10-15 percent smaller next summer if we do absolutely nothing from where we are.

And apparently it was just retracted, stating it was a mistake they don’t know when they can expect to be trained yet.

It looked to me as your early retirement spread the costs out over a longer period of time at a minimum and depending on the age of who took it was probably close to cost neutral medium to long term. Looked like a win win at first glance without knowing the actual numbers. Nice work. Hopefully you can get some more. Thanks for setting the bar.

You've got to be freaking kidding me. Seriously?

I read on one of the delta thread each 777 displacement was gonna cost like 800k with the training cascade. At 200k a year roughly the most expensive early outs at 600k and savings of 200k. It also saves us training guy that will reach their new equipment with less then a 12-18 months to go. We are skinning the same cat just starting at the opposite end.

i wish i was, someone just posted an email from training stating this. Disappointing to say the least.

I mean they retracted the mid-summer claim for training. The entirety of the rest of the email remains (get ready, start reviewing, we’re formulating a plan for your return after bid results post).

still good news, it’s not like they said “sorry nevermind, you’re all released”

AA is not bringing back pilots for training this summer. There was an error in yesterday's email.