American Airlines Reviews in Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL Area

Pros

Benefits of working for an airline....Discounted travel all over the world for me, family. Plus, I do have an amazing group of coworkers. And, I think if you are

Cons

Working at an airline right now if very difficult, but the situation is what you make of it. You have a positive attitude even when travel is rearing it's ugly head, I find that passengers tend to react well to you. We are also in negotiations right now, and having taken paycuts, it is hard to keep morale high when management takes bonuses.

Advice to Senior Management

Hypocrisy will be the down fall of this airline....Management took bonuses, while Continental's CEO deferred his salary for the rest of the year to help his airline get back on it's feet. Our mantra was to "Pull together, Win together" [or something to that effect] to survive this downtime, and then they take bonuses while we work longer hours for less money, etc. I am all for sacrifice, but it starts at the top.

Pros

Excellent group of co-workers who seem to care about the company. Everyone in my division (MCLA) I met was extremely friendly and helpful. This is a great group of people that truly seem to care.

Decent travel benefits (assuming you're flexible). This is especially true for international travel. Domestically it's easier to buy a ticket.

Cons

Complete lack of direction from management. There is no vision for what this company could become and no plan to get it there.

Lots of middle managers not doing anything to move the company forward. There were managers in my area that had 1 to 2 employees reporting to them. It seemed anything over 5 employees was reason to hire another manager.

Pay isn't comparable to other companies.

Advice to Senior Management

Show some leadership ability. Think about the long term success of the company, not just the quarterly financial results.

Pros

American Airlines offers travel privilege on its flights. Unfortunately, the flights are so full that a trip can turn out to be a nightmare....stranding the employee at a connecting city....this benefit has become one that employees use with less frequency. My co-workers are great. Management is the problem

Cons

Senior management is a band of thieves. They are constantly rewarding themselves for substandard performance. Recently, federal regulators imposed significant fines against the corporation. The responsible senior management personnel were not held accountable.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen and respect your employees. Resign and move on. The environment at the corporation has not changed...and that is what it needs....change. A top to bottom purging of senior management. This company will fail if senior management is not replaced. We need leaders...not bean counters.

Pros

there are no longer any good reasons to work for this company
if it were not for the senority system the majority would have already quit :(

Cons

the management team treats their employees with complete contempt
they are failures at running a sucessful airline and they are theives
the employees continue to work under contracts which provided for paycuts in order to avoid bankruptcy.
 the management team takes huge bonuses while the airline fails in every competitve measure known in the industry

Advice to Senior Management

quit
employees first
it is the management philosophy which has made southwest the best carrier in the industry

Pros

As major airlines go, American because of its employees, is still one of the best majors out there. It has the economies of scale that are important in the industry and a very recognizable brand name. As an airline it also operates to a very high degree of safety vs other carriers. American has a great route system, and fairly new equipment. Its' infrastructure is better than any other major too. Especially its' maintenance capabilities and facilities.

Cons

The most frustrating thing about American is the total disregard for the employees by Senior management. Employees are treated as a liability not as an asset like Southwest Airlines values its' employees. This coupled with a high degree of distrust and hate for Senior Management makes for a very depressing work environment.
Also in many cases, various departments within the company excell at the expense of another department. This is unacceptable and would not be tolerated by say, the Penske Corporation..
Senior management is arrogant and cannot be trusted at their word. Worse, management is unrestrained by a Board of Directors who are nothing but "yes" people. Senior managements' continual "nonaction" in dealing with the problems that face the company are a real concern. There are far too many Vice Presidents and managers and decision making is affected by this.
This disfunctional corporation seems to do all it can to drive passengers away. Those in management who work in "the office" are oblivious to the realities of "the line" and what really goes on on a daily basis. All they see are the charts and graphs but not the carnage of the real world.

Advice to Senior Management

Be honest for a change! Embrace and value your employees. Listen to them. They have more of an interest in the company than you do. They make it work, not you. Accountants cannot quantify a satisfied employee. One need look no further than Southwest Airlines to see the value of a satisfied employee. Employees working within a corporate culture and environment of working together with management pays huge dividends. Clean house. Get rid of all the cronies who put the company in harms way to begin with and get new blood.
You can change things but it's you that has to do the changing first. Do something new and different. Lead by example! Your actions speek much louder than your words.

SHAPE UP OR GET OUT!