American Airlines mid-year performance check
 

After another AA-induced travel debacle yesterday, I spent some time looking at all my 2024 AA domestic flights. Out of 48 flights, 18 of them have been delayed - some weather, many maintenance. That is 37.5%. I've had 4 trips where I missed the connection due to maintenance/crew, and one stuck overnight in CLT due to late outbound (weather- I and several others watched the connecting flight push back, as they didn't hold it).

It is sad thinking, but I am getting to the point where if I need to be in a hub city for a long haul international flight, I will most likely book the positioning flight at 6am the day before, just so if AA fails I will have some backup options across a full day.

Just curious if the AA frequent travelers are seeing similar performance numbers.

That is a prudent strategy for trips that involve "cannot miss" events.

For 2024, I'm at an 81% on-time rate (for me, this means the door being open at the arrival gate within 15 minutes of scheduled arrival).

The most recent DOT data is only for Q1, and shows that AA’s ops, in terms of cancellations and delays, were roughly similar to the same period last year.

However, the data also shows that some other airlines have improved vs last year, so AA is pretty much in the middle of the pack right now. Nothing to boost about but also not the total dumpster fire that was B6 and currently is F9.

AA has been awful for me this year. I don't track numbers, but around 20 AA flights total and at least half of them have been delayed, with at least two where rolling delays extended all the way to the following afternoon (long after I'd cancelled and rebooked on OAL). In many ways the most galling was recent delay PHX-SFO where it took maintenance more than 30 minutes just to show up after we returned to the gate at PHX. Total delay was around 3 hours, in the typical AA 20 minute increments.

It's definitely impacting my booking decisions, I am flying WN (which I really don't like) quite a bit more based mostly on AA reliability concerns.

If I have an 11 AM flight from DFW or ORD to Tokyo, I would prefer to be at the hub city the day prior regardless. The $100 hotel room the day prior buys quite a bit of insurance. One alternative is to book a flight the day prior with the expectation of a misconnection.

I don't think the issue is American Airlines, though. If I really need to be someone on a certain date, I arrive the day prior...

Four of my last six AA flights have been delayed, only one due to weather. The most creative excuse was that a cleaning crew accidently ejected the back door slide--2 hour delay, the usual 20 minutes at a a time. Another was rolling 20 minutes maintenance delays for over 2 hours until a local replacement plane was found/. The last one was caused by the incoming flight being cancelled for maintenance purposes, and then the replacement incoming flight was also delayed due to maintenance --total delay of almost 4 hours.

So far so good this year ( but flying to Europe and back end of July so will see). My Eagle flights have been generally early (one by 30 minutes) and my mainline flights either on time of a few minutes late but nothing to write home about. PHX being my home airport does make things easier but. . .one never knows what weather will do across the country. Also been upgraded or cheap purchase of FC on each flight and service was great (except one snarly, young FA based out of NYC. . .but goes with the territory). Overall give them a B+ so far this year, which is above the same as last year. Oh and bonus points for new AC food but the PHX lounges really (REALLY) need to be redone, DEN was amazing.

Maintenance accounts for only about 6-7% of all delays you must be very unlucky! WX & ATC and then the associated Crew issues accounts for the vast majority of all delays.

You made me curious. Out of ~20 flights, I've only had one mechanical delay (no missed connection but dang it took way too long to change a flat tire) and one weather delay (a pain but there was honestly no way I thought that flight was going to get out with the storms we were sitting in).

Overall, pretty good so far.

I mitigate by trying not to fly through thunderstorm prone airports late in the afternoon and keep layovers a bit longer than the AA computers would prefer. I can always chill in a lounge so the longer layovers are far less travel stress

Based on my Flighty account, 35% of my 2024 AA flights have been delayed (average 54 minutes) compared to 24% in 2023.

On a side note I recently got the AA delay hat trick - my DCA-ORD flight last month was first delayed for a late arriving crew, then for not being catered, and finally for an issue with landing gear. Eventually I bailed after realizing I wouldn't make the connection (originally 3 hours.)

Surprisingly only 23% of my AA flights have been delayed this year, as opposed to 34% last year. Tbf I haven’t connected through DFW since Feb, and weather at MIA and the northeast has been relatively tame this year so far.

So far this year I've been running about 80% on time arrival. Cancellation rate, however, is at 0% which is much, much better than last year. Since almost all my trips involve 4 flights, an 80% on-time rate means I'm sweating a connection almost every trip. The upside is that I've made them all (so far).

A review of my recent stats confirmed my general impression of problems. Of 26 AA segments from 1 April to today, I had to rebook 11 of them to other flights due to likely missed connections. There were delays on at least some of the other 15 flights but I don't have those details. Fortunately the app has been pretty useful in offering rebookings and preserving upgrades on the rebooked flights. And I have taken full advantage of the "golden ticket" and rebooked some flights multiple times.

So overall a pretty messy three months. I now find myself booking more defensively -- earlier in the day, longer connections, etc.

You know an airline is failing when they scold you for not buying travel insurance at checkout.😉