If you are flying American over the holidays you need to know this

Yikes! Flying back home on AA after a Christmas visit with family.

Incompetency.

I bet a lot of those pilots who requested and were approved for the time off will now end up flying and getting paid quadruple overtime to do it. AA will find enough pilots for their long haul and longer domestic flights because they don't want to have to refund anyone or pay to move the passengers to other airline's flights. I would only worry about the shorter commuter type flights being cancelled if any are.

Thanks for the heads-up, Alan. I'm flying to a sports event on December 28 and can't afford to be delayed for 24 hours or longer. I'm on an American Airlines frequent flier one-way ticket and have no idea what my rebooking priority would be, other than "not high". Your post allowed me to make a back-up, refundable reservation for use just in case.

I have avoided American during Robert Crandall's leadership and in the years since then. We had a very negative experience with my pregnant wife flying from Hawaii to Nashville--with no food all day and ridiculous connection flights.

This is REALLY poor. American seems to want to copy Ryanair's lead from earlier this year? The pilot's union is fighting AA's response to getting pilots scheduled for vacation to fly anyway by paying them at rate of 150% of their salaries.

This is really bad. Thanks for the heads up.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/todayinthesky/2017/11/30/american-airlines-says-holiday-scheduling-snafu-nearly-solved/910028001/

Sounds like this is getting resolved quickly.

The pilots' union does not agree whatsoever with AA's assessment that all is fine especially since the union was blown off by AA when it posited a "solution". USA Today put that on the bottom of the artlcle.

The union said the company’s proposed solution violated its contract
because American “unilaterally invoked a solution for crewing affected
flights.” The union added: "By not including APA in developing
collaborative solutions to this critical holiday scheduling failure,
management’s actions contrast with their handling of previous
scheduling failures involving other work groups."

For now, customers are left to wonder where the situation really lies
after the two versions offered Thursday by management and the union.

The Wall Street Journal reports that AA's plan is in violation of the pilots' union contract.

Capt. Dennis Tajer, spokesman for the 15,000-member pilot union, said
the group has filed a grievance alleging that American unilaterally
reached its solution in violation of the pilots’ contract and without
communicating with the union. As a result, Allied Pilots said the
union can’t guarantee to its members the promised payment of overtime
on all the open trips.

Ticketed AA passengers are screwed as of now.

American Airlines announced all of its flights are now fully staffed.

AA Has Enough Pilots