American Airlines Awards San Francisco International Employees for Improved Customer Service

FORT WORTH, Texas, Aug. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- American Airlines employees at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) celebrated another customer service victory this week as the airline announced the top five airports to be honored for improved customer experience and innovative problem solving for the second quarter 2011. The program is called the "Customer Cup," and the winners are announced each quarter.

"The Customer Cup was created in an effort to build some friendly competition across our network, while at the same time encouraging our stations to focus on improving processes, projects and interactions to deliver a better customer experience," said Mark Mitchell, American's Managing Director – Customer Experience. "We recognize five stations each quarter that make measureable improvements in the areas that matter most to our customers."

Customer Cups are categorized and awarded by market size from largest to smallest stations according to flight activity. The award recognizes stations for their performance in serving customers at the airport across six primary customer touch points, including gate interactions, the boarding experience, delays and delay management, onboard interactions, baggage handling and baggage resolution. SFO was awarded the Customer Cup for improving internal customer satisfaction ratings in a number of key areas including on-schedule operations, in which the station improved six points year over year. Other winners this quarter include Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Kahului Airport – Maui (OGG), Montreal-Trudeau Airport (YUL) and Jose Maria Cordova International Airport – Medellin, Colombia (MDE).

American employees in San Francisco are dedicated to providing customers with the best service possible. The focus of the team is to better understand what is important to the customer, and with this quarter's customer service award, the team is again recognized for their continued dedication to American customers flying through SFO. The station recently took home the Customer Cup in the fourth quarter 2010.

"We are grateful for winning the Customer Cup again because we know it comes right from our customers," said Denise Marrs, American's General Manager – San Francisco. "We appreciate our customers flying into and out of San Francisco who recognize our hard work and we will continue to focus on improving daily."

The Customer Cup is part of a broad focus on improving the experience for its customers. With more than 250 employee teams across the network, the airline encourages all employees to bring forward ideas and solutions to improve the travel experience. With stations competing for the Customer Cup honor quarterly, employees who contribute earn network bragging rights and a party in their honor for working hard to improve the airline's customer service rankings.

"A good customer experience is the basis for building customer loyalty," Mitchell added. "The Cup is a great way to credit employee accomplishments. Because of employee commitment we can deliver positive travel experiences around the world."

About American Airlines

American Airlines, American Eagle and the AmericanConnection® carrier serve 250 cities in 50 countries with, on average, more than 3,600 daily flights. The combined network fleet numbers more than 900 aircraft. American's award-winning website, AA.com®, provides users with easy access to check and book fares, plus personalized news, information and travel offers. American Airlines is a founding member of the oneworld® Alliance, which brings together some of the best and biggest names in the airline business, enabling them to offer their customers more services and benefits than any airline can provide on its own. Together, its members serve approximately 900 destinations with more than 9,000 daily flights to 145 countries and territories. American Airlines, Inc. and American Eagle Airlines, Inc. are subsidiaries of AMR Corporation. AmericanAirlines, American Eagle, AmericanConnection, AA.com, and AAdvantage are trademarks of American Airlines, Inc. (NYSE: AMR).

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The address is http://www.aa.com

SOURCE American Airlines