Rick Seaney flew American Airlines in the past week and none of his flights were on time.
One flight was canceled, one was late by about 30 minutes, and the other two had delays of over two hours, said Seaney, founder of FareCompare.com, which tracks airline ticket prices.
Seaney and thousands of other passengers on American flights have found themselves stuck in the middle of a dispute between the Fort Worth-based carrier and its pilots.
"From a customer perspective, all you really want is to leave on time and arrive on time and have your baggage be there when you land," he said.
But for the past two weeks, that hasn't happened for many American customers.
American says pilots are intentionally delaying flights by writing up last-minute maintenance items before departure or taxiing slowly. The airline threatened to take its union to court to stop illegal work actions. The Allied Pilots Association says it is not behind the work slowdown. On Thursday, union President Keith Wilson told members to "cease immediately" any alleged behavior.
With one-third to one-half of American's daily flights arriving late, industry analysts are starting to compare American's pilot dispute to that of Eastern Airlines, which ended up liquidating in 1991 after years of labor issues and financial mismanagement.
Passengers have turned to Twitter and other social media to complain about long delays and cancellations, with some swearing they will never fly American again.
"Service is what airlines sell, and if that becomes that much more difficult, that much more of a burden on their passengers, they are going to continue to lose customers," said Mike Davis, a business professor at Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business.
In September, American announced the work rule changes it was going to impose on pilots after the bankruptcy judge allowed the carrier to reject its labor agreement.
And then the delays began.
The carrier trimmed its September and October capacity by 1 to 2 percent, blaming more flight crews calling in sick than anticipated and an increase in maintenance requests before departure.
"This conduct is also seriously misguided, as it threatens the financial and operational prospects of the company just as (it) is in the process of righting itself after a decade of losses and competitive disadvantages," Denise Lynn, American vice president of people, wrote union leaders Wednesday.
Lynn also said that American will go to a federal court to get an injunction if the slowdown continues.
The APA said it felt "sucker-punched" by Lynn's letter and plans to reconvene its board of directors for a meeting Tuesday.
American's pilots are currently conducting a strike vote, even though the union cannot legally strike under the Railway Labor Act.
Wilson said legal counsel has advised the union that American would likely be successful if the carrier asked a federal court to issue an injunction to stop the slowdown.
"Based on the recent experiences of other pilot groups, it's clear that we would be seriously disadvantaged if we are forced to conduct ourselves under a restraining order," the union's Wilson said. "There is no strategic advantage whatsoever for APA to be placed in that situation."
Since American began implementing work rule changes Sept. 16, American's on-time performance has averaged 51 percent compared with the industry's 88 percent, according to Jason Goldberg, a partner at The Leading Edge Aviation Consulting Group. Cancellations are up an average of 7 percent in that same time period.
