American Airlines announces mass layoffs

Dozens of American Airlines employees protested in Miami International Airport against the announcement the airline made to cut around 14,000 jobs in the upcoming months. So far things are looking cloudy for the giant subsidiary of parent group AMR who filed for protection of bankruptcy in November last year. Personally, I'm not so big about the already existing analysis on the current travel situation around the world and that is why I'd rather give my impression as a customer.

"Thank you for choosing American Airlines"
yw !!

Since the beginning of commercial airline industry and for some time, flying was for the rich and wealthy, meaning that it was a luxury even for middle-class. Then aviation got regulated and with the help of low gas prices, flying became accessible to almost everyone in our planet. Now, high gas prices and poor operation from these businesses apparently are making flying a luxury again. So what is going on here? 

It looks like the Airilnes had a successful (or almost) model that worked for a while, and now since they have been caught of guard with rising costs of wages and salaries, capital expenses and bad planning, have no other option than to take it on the passenger to make up for their mistakes. American Airlines is a particularly special case because we are talking about the third biggest airline in the world, and to think that they are on the verge of bankruptcy means that even though their revenue is in the billions figure, their expenses are even higher. So what has been their solution? Let's make the passenger pay.

I flew with them last year three times and I have flown with them regularly in the years, first of all because when it comes to delivery of service, you can say I'm quite pleased with them, and secondly because I have a bunch of frequent flyer miles I expect to cash in someday. Most of my friends fly AA too, so I have about enough information on pricing updates they have implemented. One of changes I have noticed in their pricing is... well, what am I saying, there are changes all over the place.

AA's new updated website. Seems to me the website probably was a bargain too.

1) Departure/Arrival dates: If you want to change a schedule date on a purchased ticket, there is no $100 fee for doing it. No sir-ee. Now it TWO HUNDRED Dollars. Not $125, not $150.... no no. $200! ... and you better be serious!

2) Second bag: After several changes like they were trying to come up with the right thing to do for the passenger, well if you want to check a second bag you have to pay... wait! Depends on where you're going. It can vary from $30 to $50. If by any chance you have to check a third bag.... $150! ... and you better be serious!

Everytime I see this sign it has a new face... I mean price

3) Online vs Phone fares: This is my personal favorite. If you make a trial to book a flight online, say from New York to Rome for example, and you get to the check-out page on their website, let's say the ticket costs $789. Hold it right there and call an AA agent to try to book the ticket by phone. He will tell you a totally different price. Not only that. He will tell you that he doesn't have access to the online prices from the website, and very politely (not) he will tell you that if you don't want to book the ticket on the phone then go ahead and buy it online. It's funny because when that happened, the guy sounded as if he had 3,000 guys on hold waiting for him eager to buy the ticket. 

I want to be fair: it's not all about AA. A friend of mine wanted to fly to Panama and he somehow got to Copa Airlines' website, which showed cheaper prices than AA. However once he got to the "Proceed to Place Order" page, he noticed there was an additional charge to the ticket that actually drove the price even higher than AA's. The extra charge was called "Charge to compensate fuel rise". This is no joke... I'm serious as I can be. Are you kidding me? So since gas prices go up, the passenger has to make up for the increase? Are there any words for that?

Please sir, teach those
newbies how to run
an airline business

I honestly believe that someone has to take a new approach to the entire airline business model. It's quite evident that things aren't working the way they are. It's one thing to take Southwest's approach to make a company work, but it's another one to impose the passenger to pay for the bad planning the company did. Maybe Sir Richard Branson can share some of his strategy, as Virgin Atlantic is the only well-known airline business with remarkable profits. And to think he was denied purchasing the Concorde. I just hope Virgin doesn't turn to be another ponzi scheme and here I am talking good things about them.

To make matters more interesting, gas prices are expected to soar this year, which can only meen airline fares will likely go up as well. So let's see if AA's massive layoff will be enough to save the business from an inminent test that is coming to them.