Brady Byrnes, Senior Vice President of Inflight and Premium Guest Services at American Airlines, is responsible for catering and premium cabins at AA, but he believes that “it doesn’t really matter what you serve on board.” This view explains a lot…
SVP of American Airlines: “It really doesn’t matter what you serve”
Byrnes made these comments earlier this year in a CNBC interview about in-flight catering (how ironic). I missed these comments, but NonstopDan mentioned it in a recent (very bad) review of American Airlines 777-200 business class (which parallels my own recent bad flight from Los Angeles to New York in “Flagship Business”). I put the video before Byrnes’ clip:
“It really doesn’t matter what you serve. The most important thing for our customers is that the business runs on time.”
(Here is the full CNBC clip)
But is Byrnes wrong? Isn’t the most important thing that a customer arrives safely and on time?
Yes, of course.
But it is not a mutually exclusive situation. On the contrary, a safe and punctual service seems to me to be given…the kind of things that don’t deserve praise, just like my son shouldn’t be praised for doing his chores. That’s expected!
Maybe I’m just low-class and too easy to please, but I find the food on American Airlines to be pretty good (maybe because I fly United Airlines so often), but I hear complaints about it all the time.
On my last flight from LAX to JFK, the breakfast may have been acceptable, but it showed me that Byrnes really seems to believe that the only thing that matters is punctuality. Yes, my flight was actually on time. But my seat controls were broken, my seat itself was broken, my power port was broken, my screen was broken, and the flight attendants were surly and inattentive… what a joke.
I’m pretty savvy with miles and points, and I also travel pretty flexibly, which means I rarely pay top dollar for an airline ticket. But I pity the people who pay thousands or even tens of thousands for transcontinental or intercontinental business class tickets and get the service I got.
A lot can be achieved with a little thought and creativity… and I believe that many passengers on the fringes of society – those passengers who actually have choice when purchasing their tickets – would strongly disagree with Byrnes… and AA’s stagnant profitability, propped up only by its loyalty program, seems to bear this out.
DIPLOMA
I would argue that while the vast majority of people don’t buy their tickets based on the food and drink served on board, it does play a role in how travelers form a qualitative assessment of an airline. The phrase “fool once…” is true: you may be able to fool a passenger once, but if the overall experience is poor, it doesn’t matter how early the flight arrives. So yes, what you serve on board does matter.
Image: American Airlines
