Very interesting piece on the woes of American Airlines

[Bazz]

This piece from Examiner.com today. VX gets a mention for being part of the reason AA's transcontinental service has suffered.

http://exm.nr/SXXMKS

Wow !!!!

...lifetime, confirmed first class air travel for themselves and family members which even entitle them to bump regular passengers from flights if there are not enough empty first class seats to accommodate them.

And there was me thinking they stopped issuance of the AAirpass ?|

Interesting! However, I do believe that AA despite being in ch11 is recording better Finacial results than VX.

That's an incredibly poor, one sided, trash trawling over the decades piece that is worthy of the daily heil. Now, don't read me wrong, AA's execs are not blemish free, but it has the highest labour costs in the industry, intractable unions, by all account staff taking wildfire action that is severely damaging the perception of the airline to flyers, and a woeful cost structure.

IMO AA's execs' major mistake was not to restructure in the mid-noughties under C11 as UA and DL did for example. But to say it's all management fault, when its pilots and mechanics are slowly destroying the airline themselves, is a bit rich.

I think part of the problem regarding all American legacy airlines profits reducing (not just AA but UA and DL etc...) is the completly different perception of low cost travel stateside. Here in the UK lowcost travel is seen as a low option that everyone loves to hate (Ryanair) no-one is loyal and they get their money through very cheap (and very expensive) fares. The experience of often not pleasant but gets you from A to B as cheaply as possible

Over in the states it's a different story with the majority of flying pax loving WN and will stay loyal even though it is a low-cost option. Many people fly WN for the experience. There are very few places in the US that you can't get to by flying WN. Initially Ryanair said they based their business model on Southwest but now it's clear that they are completly different!

May not be correct but just what I have picked up on!