First, the FAA is supposed to represent aviation safety AND promote the industry. This dual role really needs to stop. They really can’t do both effectively. In this particular case, they failed at both tasks.

But AA needs to shoulder the bulk of the responsibility for this mess. They overreacted to what amounts to a non-existant problem. The key phrase in their letter to the elite flyers was that they grounded the aircraft because they “thought the FAA would order them to do it anyway.” Excuse me? The FAA is not the Wizard of Oz, they are reasonable people and you can talk with them about airworthiness, at least when I was dealing with them. If the regional director (who is new to this position) doesn’t want to negotiate, then go over his head. Get Congress involved. We’re not talking about a minor inconvenience here, this grounding will ultimately cost tens, if not hundreds of million dollars.

The primary issue behind this grounding was NOT safety of flight. The original AD was complied with shortly after it was issued. This recent grounding was solely based on how the wires were tie-wrapped and fastened. The original intent of the AD, which was to inspect for any chafing, repair as necessary, wrap to prevent it, and fasten to preclude any movement, was dealt with in 2006. THERE WAS NO WORDING IN THE AD REGARDING THE SPACING OF THE TIE-WRAPS OR THE POSITION OF THE TIE-DOWN CLIPS. These recent inspections showed that the work performed in 2006 did not meet the approval of a SINGLE inspector. Can someone tell me how the OPINION of a single inspector, interpreting a two-year-old AD, should be more important than the needs of the flying public? Was any plane at risk? I don’t think so. And neither did AA. But they grounded the fleet anyway.

In my opinion, what AA should have done is take this issue to a higher level than the new regional director. They should have demanded that the repair they originally performed to be accepted as-is. Someone in the FAA had to approve the original work, and AA should have pulled that paperwork and showed it to the inspector and regional director and then asked for specifics on how they now don’t comply. Ask for a hearing. In the meantime, AA should have continued flying. What would the worst case senario been? The FAA would have fined them? Appeal it. AA complied with the original AD, making up new rules is absolutely and unquestionably absurd. AA should have made a huge stink about this, rather than dodging interviews and feeding bad information to their customers. If indeed the FAA added more requirements to the original AD, they need to be reeled in by the DOT. However, AA was probably afraid of mass panic had they continued flying with airplanes that the FAA had ordered to be grounded.

So, under a threat of getting their operating certificate pulled, AA caved and reworked all of their planes. This is really insane when you think about it. Not only from the standpoint of the maintenance cost (to fix something that wasn’t broken) but also from the lost revenue and ill-will with their customers. And how many of the reworked planes had any problems? Will that statistic be released by AA (or the FAA)? You’d think, after doing 10 or 20 planes, and finding nothing, someone at AA would have taken the whole issue up with the FAA again.

As for me, I don’t fly AA very much and now I will definitely not fly them until there is a complete and total purge of their management. The people running this airline seem to have no common sense or backbone, and worse yet, apparently don’t care about their customers. I hope most business travelers will send a really strong message to AA – we’re mad as hell, and we’re not going to fly them anymore!

Last summer, they let me down on my flight home from New Orleans; sticking me up in a hotel that was beyond sub-par at my own expense and not even providing an overnight package for myself or my better half. Needless to say, we didn’t sleep a wink. After seeing the manner in which they have handled the grounding of the MD-80/MD-83 fleet, I can’t help but worry about THIS year’s vacation. My entire itinerary is booked on MD-80′s, and apparently one hiccup in the system can cause a whole airline to come to a screeching halt.

My ultimate question to you Chris, and others, is this: When is American finally going to realize that the customer is what’s keeping it alive? I know that you pointed this out in an earlier article, but I find it poignant to ask it again. If it weren’t for the loyalty of people like myself and the others that come back tirelessly, time and time again even when this big boy breaks his promises to us over and over again, they’d be crawling to the bankruptcy courts begging for mercy.

We’ve got Air Tran, Alleigiant, Alaska, American, Delta, Northwest, Southwest. United and USAir and that it now, right? You no longer truly have a choice in air carriers.

As for Jordana, I’m sorry you missed your cruise but EVERY SINGLE TRAVEL PROFESSIONAL recommends arriving a day early for a cruise unless you have 100% control over the travel, as in driving with multiple vehicle availability.

Stuff happens – and relying on a third party to get to there is a mistake. Don’t you think flying in the morning of a cruise is cutting it a little close?

Another lesson learned.

I mean, are we sorry that the “Titanic sank” or do we “apologize” (and I use that term loosely) for the lack of safety jackets?
-Just Curious

SirWired

I was scheduled to fly out of SFO to Miami on Wednesday on the red eye. I was packed, ready to go and then waited 40 more minutes past departure only to be told over the loud speaker that “we have some bad news, your flight has been canceled, we have no staff.”

I was to fly on a 757, so this obviously was a bi-product of all the other cancellations. They could not re-ticket me as I was scheduled for a cruise the next day that they could not get me there in time for. I am now out one night at a hotel, an ENTIRE cruise and a chance to visit friends I haven’t seen in 7 years. This incident seems like something they could have forecasted with all of the cancellations and I would have had more options to get to Miami!

This was following a horrendous trip with my 2 year old from SFO to West Palm that took 26 hours and included rerouting us, promising someone would meet us in Miami at the gate to get us to the destination (no one was there), waiting almost 2 hours in line and then being put on a super shuttle for 3 hours to West Palm Airport to PICK UP OUR OWN LUGGAGE! Customer service was nil and they had no power to do anything to help us- or so they claimed.

I am over it. This recent grounding of planes scares the crap out of me that they were allowed to be negligent with their fleet. They take full responsibility, but spin it like it’s more of a customer safety issue. If they really wanted us to be safe they would have kept up with their Preventative Maintenance. Now we all suffer. Thankfully, there were no fatalities.

If you read carefully, they only apologize for disrupting “so many people’s lives”. In other words, they are only sorry that it ended up being such a mess. They are not saying that they are sorry about the (lack of) actions that led to the mess. Neither are they acknowledging that they simply didn’t do a whole lot for their customers for the first couple of days. There is also no indication on what they are going to do to prevent more mess.

I am not an AA customer, but I would not be impressed by such an e-mail. Words are cheap, and e-mail is even cheaper.

I wasn’t traveling during this period, and my next trip happens to be on another airline because it is not a route that is easy to do on American. Maybe now they will find something with the Airbus 319-320-321 aircraft that UA uses so heavily.

I do think this is basically FAA grandstanding, but it disturbs me to see all this finger pointing while thousands of people have their plans completely fouled up. The traveler loses, as usual. When AS261 crashed and they had all the MD80 jack screws inspected it was less disruptive than for the spacing and direction of these insulating clips.

The lawyers will get to the bottom of what AA really did to help people – and the dichotomy between what they say publicly and what they said internally.

Chris- you are getting almost as cynical as I am =- go play with the kids for a couple of days and get some perspective – its not good for a young guy like you to be so cynical!