Is American Airlines a five star airline?

American Airlines is a major airline with its head office in the USA, and it is a member of the One World Alliance. Having a vast network of operations that cater to several destinations within North America, South America, Europe, and Asia, American is one of the leading legacy carriers in the United States of America. Nonetheless, the airline has experienced some problems within the last few years, and it became questionable whether Era still has high customer satisfaction rates and service quality standards. What does all this mean, you ask, for the

flagship American Airlines and does it give you a real five-star airline as it should?

In considering whether an airline achieves a five-star ranking, factors such as quality and standard of services, seats, entertainment, airport lounges, first- or business-class offerings, catering, and hospitality all play a role. Some of the top five-star carriers, including Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways, are recognized for offering the best experience to passengers in every aspect of the entire travel process.

However, to some extent, American Airlines lacks the efficient organization of business processes in certain aspects. Based on the ratings for world airlines in terms of quality, American Airlines was ranked at four on a scale of five when it ranked at five before the merger. In more specific details, the airline had received low scores in regards to seat comforts, entertainment options during the flight, and worth the money it charges compared to its competitors. The company also complained of a decline in treating its customers and handling passengers during difficult operational conditions.

One of the challenges faced by American is maintaining the quality and standard of its services across its extensive network, which comprises well over 6,700 daily flights. For a company that operates several hundred airplanes, there is a potential for variability to emerge, and a passenger’s experience on American may be significantly different from his or her experience on another airline. To maintain five-star hospitality and cabin products on such a scale,, one cannot help but admit that it is challenging. Nevertheless, other players in the large network carrier sector are successful in achieving a more satisfactory level of customer satisfaction.

As far as premium cabin products go, American Airlines also pales in comparison with other world-class airlines. Among the new offers, it can be noted that its new Flagship Suite Business Class is obviously competitive on key transcontinental and international routes. However, it is not made available for the whole fleet; some planes continue to feature old, fully flat business-class seats and services. The same goes for premium economy, which is only offered on a selection of American planes. Having such product differentiation on seats within a cabin can be counterproductive and confusing to passengers regarding what they should expect in terms of service.

The domestic product that this five-star airline has to offer is not up to par; there are few international first-class services, such as full meals, amenities, and comfortable seats, compared to international business class. Since many passengers are willing to purchase first-class tickets for over three hours’ flights, increasing the standard here would help to improve the perception of Americans. One more aspect that American Airlines could probably boost to show the superiority of a five-star airline’s hospitality is the priority of lounge access and experience, especially in the key focus cities like New York and Miami.

Of course, one could argue that American does boast some strengths that nicely fit its branding as a global airline. Its frequent flyer program is also still popular, providing members with good rewards and privileges in addition to the opportunity to redeem miles for international trips. American also maintains one of the youngest and most efficient fleets among the US network carriers, with hundreds of new narrow- and wide-body aircraft on order as of the first quarter of 2016. Any reinvestment thus has the potential to signify the airline’s intent concerning the improvement of products and services. It also had some of the best COVID-19 safety policies during the pandemic, according to The Points Guy in their 2022 rankings.

In other words, on average, American Airlines is slightly below par and does not meet the high standards that define five-star global airlines accordingly. Because there are some aspects of long-haul premium services that truly are spectacular, it’s difficult to justify nominating American as one of the world’s better airlines when there are problems with short-haul economy cabins and a seat and lounge product that is somewhat lacking.

Nonetheless, it is evident that American seems entirely committed to further expansion of its fleet, superior cabins, and enhanced products for all passengers in the years to come. It is especially good to see these improvements also extending towards first-rate hospitality and reliability at every point of customer contact; if American can continue to make this kind of progress, it will be hard to argue that the airline is not on the right track to becoming a five-star, premium carrier of the future. Currently, passengers should be able to look forward to a reliable and high-quality flying experience across most of America’s route map, although the offering may fluctuate slightly compared with the very best global airlines.

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