American Airlines Has a Customer Satisfaction Problem

For the first time in recent history, a key American Airlines customer satisfaction metric dropped, year-over-year, an executive admitted Thursday. According to American's surveys, fewer customers were "likely to recommend" the airline to friends, relatives and colleagues in 2018 than in the previous year. "We weren't pleased," American President Robert Isom told investment analysts, declining to share information about the airline's net promoter score trends. What's the problem? Well, America's biggest airline frustrated some of its customers in 2018, with many complaining about reduced legroom in economy class, tiny bathrooms, sometimes spotty Wi-Fi, and inconsistent service delivery. But speaking Thursday on the airline's fourth quarter earnings call, Isom, an operations expert, blamed something else. He said the airline irritated customers last year because it wasn't as reliable as it should have been. "We know the biggest point of concern and issue with our customers,"