What makes American Airlines different from its competitors?

  • Jul 30, 2024
What makes American Airlines different from its competitors?

American Airlines distinguishes itself by offering a set of values that are unique among its competitors.

American Airlines has been in operation since 1930 and is among the biggest airlines globally. It is also a member of the OneWorld alliance. It has a large number of routes within the country and worldwide; the airline covers nearly 350+ destinations in more than 50 countries. Yet, what makes Americans unique from their counterparts such as Delta, United, and Southwest?

Here are some of the key factors that make American Airlines unique:

Size and Reach With a fleet size of nearly seven hundred airplanes, it remains one of the largest airline companies in the world. It has this sizeable fleet, which helps it reach hundreds of destinations all around the globe. For domestic travellers, American Airlines offers a multitude of flights within United States, while for international travellers, it has flights to Europe, Asia, and South America. The airline can exploit the fact that it is a large airline in the sense that it could be in a position to look for ways and means of how best it can arrange the routes and the aircraft, and in addition to this, it can make the best of the resources that it has by making sure that it is doing things efficiently.

Loyalty Program American has one of the biggest and most utilized franchises, AAdvantage, a frequent flyer program. AAdvantage was initiated more than four decades ago; it was the first travel-based Frequent flyer loyalty program. American’s travel rewards program has grown to more than 100 million members who can earn American and partner flights, hotels, car rentals, and more; the accumulated points can be redeemed for free flights and upgrades on American and other OneWorld airlines. The vast membership ensures that American get constant business from their clients.

Flagship Products These include American’s ‘Flagship’ products to enhance customer satisfaction and hence increase its revenues.

This includes Flagship First international first Class, where passengers are offered lie-flat seating, gourmet meals, fine wines and alcoholic beverages. Products: Products in the Domestic First Class include higher level of service delivery, quality meals and amenities/kits. The Flagship Lounge is a special type of lounge service where passengers can get an exclusive lounge with enhanced services and facilities. Endeavoring to offer top-end products, these flagship products pull in high-value customers and define American.

Enhanced Premium Economy One of the critical aspects of positioning is the availability of choices that reflect the needs of different types of fliers. In recent years, American has been known to announce the complete overhaul of the Main Cabin Extra, which is the premium economy product. This ranges from wider seats with legislated space to better dining and food and beverage services and sleeping accessories such as casper bedding and ThisWorks kits. This makes it possible for economy passengers to pay for a better-quality service instead of travelling in discomfort, which is beneficial for American in that they get an additional source of revenue.

Hub Strategy In case of transporting goods, American uses a hub-based system to achieve an optimal network. Some of the key hubs are DFW, CLT, ORD, LAX, JFK, PHL, PHX, MIA, and Washington, D.C. As is seen, operating significant flights via centralized hubs assist in managing operations, thereby cutting overhead and deadheads. It also allows a customer to access over hundreds of spokes or destinations quickly and effortlessly. Hubs also allow flexibility in timetabling and rerouting of both crews and aircraft. Operating hubs has been maintained through mergers, though American have understood the importance of the latter.

Innovation Investments As for the competitors, American has not stood still and also expands its activity aimed at enhancing the customer’s satisfaction. It was among the first US airlines to offer satellite-based connectivity for Wi-Fi across their thin and wide-bodies. Today, nearly every airplane provides connectivity through broadband to meet the customer’s connection needs while in the plane. American also lacks any charge to its passengers, even in Apple Music inflight streaming services.

The airline has come a long way in adopting self-service for convenience and to minimize the interaction between the host and passengers. Self-service check-in machines, self-service baggage drop, mobile check-ins, and touchless notifications enable customers to avoid long queues and reduce physical contact. American also introduced the concept of the digital health passport, VeriFLY, before the federal guidelines were set.

Cutting-Edge Jets During the process of moving towards these more efficient models, the company wants its customers to have new experiences. American Airlines received Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner in 2021 with enhanced cabins. These feature industry-leading Business Class Suites, its own large Premium Economy cabin and in-flight entertainment and connectivity for every passenger. The airline has also recently restarted some routes with its flagship A321T aircraft, including between New York and California. This is a transcontinental plane that has fully lie-flat Flagship Suite seats in the first class with direct access to the aisle.

Strong Partnerships Thus, American could expand globally and connect to other continents thanks to their membership in OneWorld over twenty years ago. Its numerous joint ventures with British Airways, Iberia, Finnair, and Japan Airlines across the Atlantic and Pacific is made possible by antitrust-immunity grants. This enables the partners to coordinate timetables, tariffs, frequent-flyer programmes and many more offering smooth connectivity, value proposition and cost-saving opportunities. Of particular importance to American is how it can spread its networks and options for the flying public through partnerships with Alaska, JetBlue and Gol within the Americas.

Inclusive Culture American strongly believe in the promotion of people of all genders and ethnicities,  and people with certain choices in life are embraced and accepted. More specifically, it has shown significant improvements in LGBTQ sensitiveness, being ranked 100% by the Human Rights Campaign’s Equality Index. It also has eight diversity employment networks and seven diversity and inclusion councils globally. An inclusive corporate culture and embracing diversity make it possible for the brand to be attractive to diverse talent and show that the company cares for social justice.

Conclusion

We have 9 decades of history here at American and we have created advanced concepts that have reinvigorated air travel time and again. Today, the airline uses its scale, partnerships, hubs and other advantages to future-proof it in the industry. Exquisite service quality, customer loyalty, the company’s employee-centric approach, and investment in different technologies and sustainability make American Airlines a leading carrier in the United States aviation industry, that is virtually a duopoly. Of course, external factors such as fuel price increases and economic volatility result in unpredictability, but America has demonstrated stability repeatedly. The industry as a whole is still well-anchored to continue soaring even higher in the future.

Book your American Airlines ticket now and experience comfort and reliability. Call +1 833-902-2090 to speak with our travel experts.