AW was actually pretty decent. They had a decent first class with meals and employees who rallied behind the brand. US? Agree. Lots of 30+ year ****ed off entitled employees. The pilots were/are just flat out tired of always losing and had just given up, it was sad to see. At one point they cared but had had the care beat out of them over the years.

Sadly, around year seven or eight, that started happening to me.

Who did APA back after chapter 11 with their Board vote? Sorry, Tom. But then you got Dougie and Scott! Scott's pretty smart! What's he up to now?


......oh.

Seems like a few opportunities missed.

You UAL boys getting a hard-on over your boss are a strange bunch.

Jetblue has the highest customer satisfaction score in the industry (AA and UA are basically tied) and they’re on a fast track to Bankruptcy. You have any other BS theories??

Nothing you posted above is accurate to why AA is underperforming. Your previous 3-4 posts have made accusations that are so incredibly inaccurate I question if you’re an actual pilot at American.

United’s satisfaction scores are significantly better than American’s (and improving).

JetBlue is not competing for business or premium leisure travel. Their yields are low. That’s why they are failing. You can’t have low yields in high cost markets.

Who else has low yields? American. In high costs markets. That’s why Delta and United are crushing American - it’s as simple as this: passengers will pay more to fly on those airlines than they will to fly on American.

This translates into lower credit card revenue also. Brand loyalty matters, and our brand sucks.

Not according to J.D. Power


Almost this entire post is (once again) not accurate, but I don’t care enough to keep correcting your every post—don’t expect another reply when you attempt to throw more sh*t at the wall about employee morale and hope it sticks.

I think what you’re attempting to illustrate is JetBlue doesn’t compete for corporate contracts and to be frank neither does American (resulting in lower yields)—all thanks to our current management strategy—that’s why we’re 4 percentage points lower than our two main competitors on profit margins. (With our current revenue that’s roughly $2.5 billion lost profit per year).

Lmao when is the last time you called OPs for a ramp crew or a new gate and it actually affected anything. I just get Madea saying “Roger they’re on the way”

30 minutes later still no ramp crew.

Got it, so a new CEO will magically fix everything. Nothing we’re doing is wrong, it’s all management’s fault. Thanks for the insights, best of luck with that mentality.

Dude wtf are you going on about? You know good and well that calling OPS for wing walkers doesn’t make a lick of difference. They knew we were coming 200 miles ago when I sent the changeover. They know we are waiting for a gate. Our stations just refuse to hire any more than the bare minimum ground crew to run the operation.

Some stations are notorious for this. Tampa for example. There are 25 people running around the ramp acting like they don’t see or hear a 321 sitting waiting to park and somehow nobody can locate a pair of wands. Every. Time. OPS responds ‘Oh they should be on the way.’ meanwhile we are blocking the alley for 20 minutes while 3 other flights are trying to push.

What about when you are all ready to push but the baggage door stays open until D+5. We can complain all we want but it doesn’t matter. The operation moves at its own speed regardless of what we do.

Are you serious?

That is like saying there aren't captains taking planes with inop APU's in DFW and the northeast right now.....

I think a lot of people are overlooking the basics. AA is still digging its way out of its debt hole from the preCOVID fleet renewal. Total debt is currently $38 Billion (https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-t...gs-transcript/) vs United total debt of $27 Billion for United (https://ir.united.com/static-files/e...d-86c244320239)and $16.3 billion for DL (https://ir.delta.com/news/news-detai...s/default.aspx).

Servicing an extra $10 or 20 BILLION dollars in debt is ABSOLUTELY gonna take a bite out of your profit, even if all other factors were the same. It’s as much as a billion dollars reduction in annual profit.

While this is true, what makes this double whammy of a gut punch is Delta and United are doing their fleet renewal through cash and still raking in the profits. So no increased debt as they take on new planes and still kicking our butt financially. Granted a downturn may change their paying cash for the new planes plan and take on debt, but they are in a good position to do so.

I am skeptical of United's growth marketing of how every plane on the books is growth vs replacement, but even if that changes and most of the planes turn from growth to replacement, United won't be hampered like we are with their fleet renewal.

can’t say they’re not trying. Growth in passenger revenue per available seat led all network peers for the 4th straight quarter (coinciding with the corporate travel strategy flip flop). Long hill to climb but at least they’re focusing on the right stuff (now).

To me it all screams reactionary.

During the domestic travel boom following COVID, they try to appeal to the low cost customers. Make the service as cheap as possible in order to offer the lowest price possible. Now the money is in the premium market, they now react to that. By the time we actually dig out of the hole to get money from the premium side of the business, bet that will start to weaken like domestic travel has.

AA is a rudderless ship with no vision, taking it where ever the wind blows. But since it is such a big ship with small sails, it takes the wind forever to get it to change direction and gain momentum. So by the time that happens, that wind dies.

Unlike what WiFi will accuse me of, I still care. I do my best with the resources I have been given. Want me to SET more? Give me more MAX's. I have SET the NG's and according to the CEFA app, it barely makes a dent given how long and how high I need to keep the running engine at to get moving or accelerate up hill. I want us to succeed and haven't given up. But that is how I see AA right now under current management.

I am not sold on how Kirby is viewed. I still see United's success as mostly Oscar's credit. Kirby is just good enough to take what Oscar gave him to keep it going. I am not confident that Kirby would have made AA a financial powerhouse if he was chosen over Isom. He would maintain course here just like he has maintained course at UAL.

So when do we start telling people to go to United or Delta again? Or better yet, when do the several new threads asking for career advice jumping from AA to another legacy come back?

Every quarter the same guys on APC act like this is some big surprise. It's been like this since I've been here. I do what I can on the line to make things as good as they can be for the crew, the pax, and the operation (in that order). Beyond that I have no control, so why get my heart rate up over it?

Exactly.

The failure to expand or maintain a competitive international presence was solidified in 2019/2020. They need revenue today. We could place a historic widebody order today and still lose money for years. They've got to slow the leak before they start adding more water to the pool. Any improvement in international presence/revenue in the short term will have to come from the XLR, 787 deliveries, and 777 refurbishments.

I’ve had three flights this week that have delayed boarding because the APU was shutdown on a short turn.

Sadly this occurs commonly. Anyone who says it doesn't is clearly not a line pilot.

That's it. As long as 70% of revenue is domestic there is only so much premium to sell and it doesn't have the margins that long haul premium does. It's a shame the XLRs and 787-9s are taking so long, it's a shame the extra row of first in the smaller Airbuses isn't being prioritized, same with the 777-300 cabin refresh. As you say it's all we've got so it needs to be rushed.

You can count on it in DFW.

Again, in fairness,much of the AA mainline fleet got parked in the desert during COVID while the debt service and age related depreciation continued without any noticeable revenue being produced. United’s new aircraft have gone straight into revenue service.

Although I agree that their new aircraft won’t be all growth. They have some elderly 319s and 757s that they will be retiring.

You can also count on the PCA blowing hot air. This is just representative of what is really wrong with the company: the lack of middle management. It should be someone’s job to ensure the PCA actually work.

This is so true. Many middle managers I've interacted with have bad attitudes or just frankly don't seem to care. Why do we keep promoting these people? There are plenty of employees who actually care, but those don't seem to be the ones getting promoted.

If I had to guess I would say because ass kissing, covering and political savvy is how one advances in a corporate environment. Being competent at the required tasks of the position doesn't seem to rate at all. That's doubly true if one has a reputation of making suggestions for improvement (since those tacitly imply the current management isn't perfect).

Witness today's absurd backpatting on SotA which didn't include any slides about future aircraft delivery schedules or more international routes. But we do have great new lounges for people waiting for their flight to Cedar Rapids.

that’s a pretty awesome win right there. They deserve all the hype.

*Sarcasm*

Why did you A3 home from training? You are entitled to A1 home from training. You most likely would have been sitting in first class because you would have been ahead of everyone on the revenue upgrade list.

Actually it's A1 only on the first and last day of training. During breaks it's A3. Either way - A3 should still be UPG0 (but below A1 UPG0).

ah I figured they were going home after recurrent or possibly a landing sim. Didn't consider long course training. Good catch.

AA has lost money in Asia and essentially broken even in the TATL category except for one year, and that was the year we made $7b.

And that was back when we still had the 330's and 75/76.

Go watch the Isom interview on youtube. Corporate revenue is up 10% while industry is flat.

Dude that’s so lame to say.

Cue the AA roast fest

I mean let's be real. United furloughed in 2003 and 2008. I have buddies who got furloughed twice. Both times they went from hiring to furloughing within a couple of months. They're the worst about that. They would have furloughed in covid too if the pilot group hadn't voted to take pay cuts to save the furloughs. They have gone all in on international WB especially Asia and that's going to be the first canary to die in the coal mine on the next downturn. Japan and China are the largest players in that theater and both of their economies are garbage.

AA ain't no gem but because we're all in on domestic. We'll never score big profits but it's also never going away. We'll just keep stumbling along and offering some token International flying. SWA and the ULCCs are on the rocks too and that's going to be good for us. They are our competitors not UA and DL. Let UA and DL battle for king of the hill we'll just keep making money flying Hank Hill to Midland.

No doubt. they've been very reactionary, and thats on the record. Isom said in 2018 that "Spirit and Frontier were the most profitable airlines in the industry and we need to be mindful of that." That model was what we chased and we're still seeing the effects of that. Now of course they're aggressively making the switch to premium and high end customers to chase DAL/UAL because thats what's working....but international growth is constrained by the shortsighted COVID decision to retire the 75/76 and 330 and (not their fault) delays of the 78's and XLRs.

That being said, considering our present position, he's got a point that we have a larger growth runway in future years in the premium/intl space than the other network carriers. So we can all hope. XLR's coming. new credit card deal starts next year. More 78's on the way and 773's getting new interiors. Still hiring pilots for growth. Let's see where things stand by end of 2026....

Honestly, I don’t care about being “king of the hill”. I’m just a stakeholder in AA doing well and want to see AA be the most profitable it can be.

AA management needs to find direction and vision, because right now we are just good enough which isn’t “good enough”.

If you don’t want to be on the winning team and enjoy the perks that come with that like “profit sharing” okay…

I’m not a management cheerleader. I do my best when I show for work and I expect management to do the same.

I’m sure you’re a cool guy to fly with but your constant mudslinging of the DL and UA cheerleaders comes off super petty even though their “my dad could beat your dad” banter is lame too…

Difference is they are on the winning teams right now.

No you don't get it. I make fun of the cheerleaders because this is just a job not an identity and too many pilots make all about their whole identity.

Do I want AA to succeed? Of course. I need the checks to keep clearing for at least 10ish more years. Do I believe we will ever be the most profitable of the big 3 and offer the best premium product? Not a chance. But I go to work and do my job and let management do their jobs. I don't worry about crap above my pay grade. As long as the pay checks keep cashing that's what I'll keep doing.

Now if you're 30 years old and working here you may have a different perspective. I'd be worried too. But you have options.

👍

filler

According to the financials American just filed, their 2025 Q2 revenue was $14.39B and last year 2024 Q2 was $14.32B. That's a 0.4% increase.

What is he comparing the 10% to? Here is the link to AA's filing. https://americanairlines.gcs-web.com...ancial-results

Just look for "total operating revenues".

I'm not an accountant, just watch the interview

Start at four minutes in
https://youtu.be/jfQhTxz4QhM?si=wE3QWkB6CHj42une&t=240

United has had 2 furloughs since the 1970s. 9/11 and GFC. AA and CAL also furloughed for 9/11 and GFC as did other airlines. Also there is nothing inherently magical about United or any airline that "it" likes to furlough, etc. United last 2 furloughs were different management teams. I laugh when someone says "I don't want to go to United because I am likely to get furloughed. United has hired around 26,000 pilots since 1985 and only about 2,500 have been furloughed, yes some were furloughed twice. That means that the odds that a United pilot was furloughed was less than 10%. Some of the 9/11 furloughs were back after 18 months and that was their only furlough.

United's quarterly free cash flow is higher than AA's annual FCF.

If anyone is going to furlough it's not going to be UA.