American Eagle Reviews

Pros

there is a lot of travel. a few benifits such as free travel, some discounts at resorts

Cons

work on holidays birthdays, school functions, game days, aniversary, family reunions. airline business is like riding a roller coaster....lots of ups and downs in the industry. it can be very stressful.

Advice to Senior Management

quit giving out the canned harvard business school answer for everything.

Pros

The best reasons to work for American Eagle is that you do get some wonderful flight benefits. You can use the benefits to fly anywhere American Eagle or American Airlines flies and that's just about anywhere in the world. I have to admit, if I hadn't been a flight attendant, there is a lot I would not have seen so far.

Cons

Flight attendants sometimes have to work really long days...especially when the weather is bad. I've had some days that were so long we were almost grounded for going over our max number of hours allowed to work by the FAA. The really short overnights are a bummer and most of them are anymore. There isn't always enough time to check out the cities you're overnighting in. And really early kick-off flights suck!

Advice to Senior Management

Stop driving your people into the ground and get them off of Reserve before they all abandon ship!

Pros

Working for a stable company with a parent company that has never gone bankrupt is comforting in a wild industry that has made little overall profit over the decades.

Cons

It takes 8-10 years to progress from a first officer to captain, with many senior captains electing to make a career at this airline. This career mindset represents good work rules, benefits, and pay, however progression for the newer guys is limited unless you're looking at a decade time scale. You must be satisfied with $35,000-$50,000 per year as a first officer, than you can progress to the low six figures when you finally attain captain status.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat employees more like people and less like numbers affecting the bottom line. Southwest airlines is a company to be envied in a industry that has taken massive pay cuts after 9/11 and sky rocketing fuel cost.

Pros

Flexible work schedules, excellent flight privileges and benefits package, typically supportive co-workers (but not generally at the management level), and a constantly varying work environment.

Cons

Broken corporate structure, embarrassingly low pay, disrespect and condescension from management, general frustration from airline passengers in these times translates to colossal frustration in your daily work environment, frequent hostile situations with customers, gossip-driven work culture due to inadequate management communication

Advice to Senior Management

You reap what you sow. If you micromanage your subordinates and address them as if they're idiots, you're going to find that your competent workforce starts acting like idiots. This is Management 101, and many of the middle managers at this airline have no knowledge of this. (Many of them also lack degrees or formal training since they "earned" their positions through frontline work. This does not necessarily make them qualified to manage.)

Pros

Flexible work schedule. More than two days off per week.

Cons

Inability to use travel benefits because of overcrowded airplanes. Management that is generally indifferent toward pilots and create a "me first" mentality. American Eagle is in the Aviation industry. The constant strife between management and unions. Constant requests for more help from the workforce and profits/bonuses are not shared.

Advice to Senior Management

Share any bonuses that are taken with your employess as many other airline executives have. The President of American Eagle is merely a figurehead says Bain Consulting, the position should be eliminated. The President of American Eagle should be a shared title as the President of AMR. Our President is not a effective leader. He does what AMR tells him and is not allowed much leniency in his "leadership" position.

Pros

Good travel benefits and competitive pay. The equipment and training is excellent. High standards of excellence throughout flight crew training. Excellent 401K and now even a Roth401K with good match. As a pilot your experience will be with some of the most experienced regional pilots in the country due to American Eagle's aged pilot group.

Cons

Very slow upgrade time. Unknown future with possible sale/spinoff looming. Many short overnights for flight crews with little rest periods. Poor communication and direction from management on all levels. Oil prices appear to be hurting the bottom line even worse than poor management decisions. The medical benefits are decent but are getting more and more expensive as with many companies. The costs seem to be passed along to the workgroup.

Advice to Senior Management

Better communication and better treatment for workgroups and customers. Practice putting employees first and customers a close second to see some truly productive work come from the company.

Pros

Time off. It is fun to fly airplanes.

Cons

Mangement has no vision and they do not care what happens to their employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Develop a strategic vision.

Pros

American Eagle had been a stable airline to work for. With the companies announcement of a divestiture, all bets are off. Mr. Bowler says that he is the President of Eagle and thus... in charge. When he has to "negotiate" with AMR, he can't, because he is really an AMR employee and subordinate of Mr. Arpy.

Cons

For pilots, very limited career advancement with almost no chance of upgrading to Captain within 10 years.

Advice to Senior Management

Start listening to your employees and give them the respect they deserve.

Happy employees will take care of the customers, which in turn, will build shareholder value. But hey, I don't have a Harvard MBA like Mr. Bowler.

Pros

The people are good to work with.

Cons

No growth opportunity because AA pilots are to AArogant to see the writing on the wall!

Advice to Senior Management

Quit

Pros

Well, you do get flight benefits if you an find an empty seat. As a pilot you get to fly some pretty nice equipment and once in a while spend time in a nice hotel and interesting cities.

Cons

Management has no regard at all for employees, there is an adversarial relationship between labor and management. You really get the feeling that your bosses hate your guts and would rather you were not there. Employee morale is worse than anyone could imagine.

Advice to Senior Management

Leave and foul up someone else's company, I hear Walmart needs assistant managers. I don't know how you sleep at night with the mess you've made of this place.