People Can Fly Those Cancelled American Airlines Flights Now

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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People Can Fly Those Cancelled American Airlines Flights Now

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Glitches of one kind or another meant that some American Airlines Group Inc. (NASDAQ: AAL) flights would not have pilots over the holidays, a blow to many people headed home for the holidays. American announced it had suddenly solved the problem and everyone who wants to fly can. It is another example of how technology can get in the way of customer satisfaction.

Management at the airline announced:

Earlier this week, American Airlines shared that a processing error resulted in some concern as to whether our flights over the December holidays would have adequate pilot staffing. We are pleased to report that together, American and the Allied Pilots Association have put that worry to rest to make sure our flights will operate as scheduled. By working together, we can assure customers that among the many stresses of the season, worrying about a canceled flight won’t be one of them. In short, if Santa is flying, so is American. Much appreciation to APA President Capt. Dan Carey and our 15,000 professional aviators who are doing their part to cover the holiday schedule and beyond. As always, when there’s a need, the American Airlines team comes together to take care of each other and our customers.

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The problem had two negative effects on the company. It served to make management look less than competent, and it worried a number of customers that their holidays might be ruined. Even if there was never a real chance the flights wouldn’t fly, a typical passenger had no idea of that.

The public’s view of technology has already been damaged by data breaches, car electronics features that are too hard to use and drones that are so numerous that government officials worry they might make passenger air travel dangerous. All those pilotless planes have something to crash into.

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Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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