Rostering
Customer needs dictate a lot of the roster changes and there are many. Much less recently due to the lesser amount of flying in general this year. Due to the Hajj it is a bit busier now. Some of the rostering people where previously quite useless. Again it looks like on certain contracts rostering is working relatively well these days.
Every now and then one has a flight that just dissapears from the roster, given to a union pilot from a certain rock in the Atlantic with financial trouble so that he can take his girlfriend on a flight who now suddenly is also an employee with ID cards and all. Can contractors take family or friends with us? No, not a chance.
There are some serious shortfalls with the company mostly the HR policy and divide and conquer method of having different employee groups and not providing equal opportunities to everyone has bitten AA hard and will continue to do so until the ownership of the company realises that fairness will work better and happy employees produce more than unhappy ones.