For several years, American Airlines has strived to operate reliably. They’re now doing that. But it isn’t enough.
Customers won’t choose an airline that doesn’t get them where they’re going. But those are table stakes. Delta and United have pursued a premium strategy. American isn’t. But with American’s high costs, they need to earn a revenue premium for their product. That means customers need to spend more – on premium products, and choosing them over competitors.
The airline’s first quarter losses, and continued financial underperformance compared to Delta and United, show that improved operations aren’t enough. They’re just a start. Airline management, though, doesn’t seem to understand this.
At their internal “State of the Airline” discussion with employees following the carrier’s first quarter earnings call on Thursday (a recording of which was reviewed by View From The Wing), Chief Operating Officer David Seymour declared “we deliver a reliable operation because it is the cheapest operation to run.” (Emphasis mine.) CEO Robert Isom stepped in, “most efficient.” And Seymour corrected himself with “least expensive.”
Isom laid out that he believes their operation provides them with an advantage – even though they aren’t outperforming Delta.
Operational excellence, based on what we’re doing, what we’re going to do, I think it’s a competitive advantage because I don’t believe other airlines – maybe other networks will be up there with us – but I don’t believe that other smaller airlines can invest the way that we do, and can utilize this sense of operational excellence the way that we can. It’s a strategic advantage.
Six years later, Isom is still focused on competing with Spirit and Frontier not Delta and United.
American does deserve credit for their improvement! There’s no question it isn’t easy, and Isom observes they are doing it in spite of their suppliers.
From a CEO’s perspective, that’s my feeling, that we’re being let down by a lot of those partners we’ve depended on in the past. …It’s never been harder to run an airline, certainly in my experience over the last 30 years of being in this business. And I’ll tell you why.
Every day we’re expected to produce a product that’s 99.9% reliable. We have to do that inflight, we have to do that from a maintenance perspective, pilots you name it. Well today I tell ya we feel alone in terms of what we have to do, in the respect of the partners we have to deal with. Every day we have to make up for deficiencies in this broader supply chain.
Everyone knows Boeing issues. I wish Boeing was the only partner that we had to deal with, but that’s not the case. It’s companies like Honeywell that can’t support. Many cases we can’t trust air traffic control to have the appropriate staffing.
We have to every day be this buffer of all these variables…every day and still produce this 99.9% product and 100% from a safety perspective.
CFO Devon May talked about how American is hedging its reliance on Boeing as a partner. They placed a large aircraft order last month, and May suggested that their “MAX 10s should be delivering at a time when Boeing does have it all together again. Those start to deliver in 2028. If for some reason Boeing is delayed, we have a bunch of Airbus options we would shift into.”
But while there was talk of planes, and labor costs, and route networks there was no actual discussion or description of the airline’s product or experience in executive remarks. That’s striking since it was literally just six days earlier that they had announced their new business class meals and amenities to go along with seats that will eventually come with Boeing 787-9 deliveries.
Credit: American Airlines
Chief Commercial Officer Vasu Raja observed that “85% of the actual customers on our airplanes want something more than the cheapest fare, and AAdvantage is how we give that to them.” They now believe customers aren’t buying on fare alone – but they aren’t focusing on the experience.
Instead, CFO May talked about the ways they’ll drive down costs – fleet utilization, more use of technology to get better labor productivity, and getting better deals from suppliers by centralizing purchasing and moving away from operational efficiency in purchasing to savings.
It seems to me what AA is trying to do is bring down the cost of domestic first class. In doing this, they hope to sell more first class seats and give away fewer upgrades.
“ improved operations aren’t enough. They’re just a start. Airline management, though, doesn’t seem to understand this.”
Wasn’t this obvious when AA made status achievable purely with credit card spending? If everything is premium, nothing is premium.
These people must be blind to the general view of AA among people who purchase extensive premium travel. I will book absolutely anyone other than AA and I flew them exclusively up until 7 years ago. I purchased $20k worth of tickets last week and never even searched their website. I live within 3 hours of two non-fortress hubs and could fly anyone. I would love to fly their partner airline but that would require me to fly AA first and I’m not going to do that. I really don’t think any contract is going to fix the attitude of employees at AA.
David P, you’re probably correct. And I might be their target customer. I fly first and purchase the least expensive fair that I can get.
That almost always means AA. And I have no complaints. Just flew from CLT to LHR and back, and the service was great.
So I hope they are able to make their approach work, because it works for me. And I can’t be the only one.
This affirms that AA is in a race to the very bottom. Leadership within the company is a little wacko! They are clueless although the writing is on the wall. The largest airline on earth is an embarrassment for the most part.
Really American……I have been a loyal flyer for years and have platinum status. I can no longer justify trying to reach elite status with AA. Your companion pass is not worth the paper it is printed on..easier to qualify for SW companion pass for a year! Also your CEO makes HOW MUCH?????
It was pretty clear when America West took over American, they should have just kept the name America West. AA has over $70 billion in debt, and has major balloon payments coming due in the next few years. Parker and crew thought that interest rates would stay cheap for ever and could keep refinancing debt, and using cash on hand to buy back stocks. From the early days of America West buying AA they made it pretty clear they want to be more like Spirit and Frontier and anything “premium”. Parker even commented at the time (AAs new 777-300) was way to fancy and needs to be changed to a less premium product. AA will never earn enough to pay its debt. AA IMHO will likely be the next Pan Am and disappear from the skies within the next 5-7 years or sooner with a major economic down turn
AA lost that battle when ULCC America West took them over.
You can drive down costs or CASM by shifting capacity away from regionals to mainline.
Bit idiotic AA wants to do the opposite. No wonder their CASM is higher than UA/FL
“American West Airlines”
American needs a new strategic playbook. Being a massive domestic network carrier with a focus on the sunbelt isn’t doing it for AA. It’s cost structure it increasingly problematic (labor and fuel ate into the $12 billion revenue so deeply in Q1, it is a astounding). Operational reliability is eroding and is today not as consistent as it was six or nine months ago. The wide body delivery delays and the heavy maintenance coming for the 77Ws and 77Es is going to put new pressure on the carrier. The implementation of 787s on more JFK routes (CDG, MAD, GRU, HND) + DEL has the potential to wreak havoc on those routes during NY originating delays. AA needs new marketing and a new direction. Sadly, it is run from the US/HP notebook. Both really terrible airlines service wise and not versed in global operations. Yes, US had a decent TATL and Caribbean network but it was for the most part a regional airline.
Been flying AA since the TWA merger. It’s been like being on final decent the whole time. I used to fly them exclusively out of San Francisco but their constant drop in service makes me choose other’s regularly. I tried in vain to fly them to NZ in Feb but couldn’t find a layover that wasn’t like 10 hours in DFW or LAX. There cutback on First Class seating has me looking at alternatives constantly.
I recall US Airways being a half decent airline. The worst, yes, but not so bad to actively avoid. If
US $99
AA $119
UA $119
DL $119
Then I’d always fly US.
Now if
AA $99
UA $119
DL $119
Then hello, UA or DL!
Don’t you want to serve the masses? The cheaper, the more customers you get. There are fewer premium passengers out there than cheap point A-B passengers.
@ Gary — Of course they are, Delta is the most premiumest airline ever.
@ Mike Pearce — They will simply declare bankruptcy again and extended their hand for a federal bailout. They aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
I’m continued to be puzzled in why consumers perceive United or Delta to be “premium”, or more premium over AA. The only thing I can think of is the difference of TV screens on domestic fleet. Apart from that, from the point of view of a domestic “first” class traveler, none of United Clubs have showers (except for the only one in EWR) to fresh up before a meeting on a red-eye. Has anyone seen what Polaris serves as meals?! United also outsourced its call center to the Philippines, while they’re constantly apologetic, those agents simply aren’t well-trained enough to solve a problem that prompts a phone call in the first place instead of self-service on the app. Those don’t seem premium at all. As for Delta, its operation reliability aren’t that much better these days, and you see small service cuts, such as removal of meals in economy on the transcon routes, or simplification of domestic Delta One to one-tray service. Delta is really good at branding, or you can say, gaslighting, consumers to perceive itself as premium, just like Starbucks positioning itself as a premium coffee chain.
Gene says:
April 28, 2024 at 11:45 am
@ Mike Pearce — They will simply declare bankruptcy again and extended their hand for a federal bailout. They aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
This is correct. I mean, I just got off their partner, BA. free flowing champagne and somewhat chatty flight attendant, but the video entertainment options were limited, and the electrical power outlet to power my cell phone did not have electricity–and this was even after the flight attendant admonished me to unplug my bare charger cord even though my cell phone was detached from the phone. This poor equipment never happened to me on AF, QR, KL, DL, or EK.
And now my connecting tiny AA regional jet is delayed an hour. After I rushed through security and told security to keep my forgotten full bottle water…
This analysis will soon seem as silly as your argument last year that AA was in danger of going Chap. 11.
I would submit that NO ONE who actually regularly flies all 3 of the major US airlines in multiple classes (like I do) could say that one of these airlines is materially better than the other two. For the typical passenger, there is no difference at all. They are the same. Anyone who doesn’t select the airline that will get them to their destination the fastest and at the lowest cost is a fool (I’ll ignore for the moment the idea that you might choose a certain airline for a flight for frequent flyer benefits over the carrier that is cheapest and fastest).
So this whole “premium” discussion is nonsense. Yes, you can try to milk your reputation (to the extent anyone knows this) for being “premium” for awhile, but nobody is going to fall for this. Yaking about it won’t matter; if you want to be “premium,” you have to spend more money. Nobody in the US thinks this will actually work, because the evidence repeatedly indicates it doesn’t.
@Chopsticks “I would submit that NO ONE who actually regularly flies all 3 of the major US airlines in multiple classes (like I do) could say that one of these airlines is materially better than the other two. ”
poppycock
there’s meaningful variation in:
seatback ife vs not
functional internet or not, and at what price
friendly service or not
decent food, quality of seats
ground experience especially lounges
that said, there are limits to the variance because the big carriers are all using government-owned airports, security screening is done by the government in most airports, and air traffic control is performed directly by the government. even putting doors on business class seats requires express approval by the FAA, and that’s entirely apart from certifying an interior.
so there are limits to how differentiated an airline can be but people do choose airlines based on more than schedule, price, and reliability. indeed, vasu raja himself in this piece is quoted as saying that 85% of customers want to buy more than the lowest fare.
As a long time AA flyer, EP and 1+M miles, I would argue that they haven’t largely fix the reliability issue. We all agree the soft product is crappy experience this year is that the schedule and reliability is crappy as well with almost at least 1 flight on a trip delayed and the schedule/routing requires a stop in a hub l, usually with ab unrealistic transfer time.
Gary,
it is no surprise that some, mostly AApologists, want to believe that there is no difference in service.
In reality, of the items on your list, the biggest difference is human service.
Of the big 4, Delta has long had a much greater focus on taking care of employees and customers – and the success of that strategy is apparent in the degree of labor peace and higher customer service metrics that DL has had over its nearly 100 years compared to its legacy carrier peers.
Southwest was born 50 years after most of the industry at that time and learned alot about employees and customers and they have succeeded because they have generally delivered better than the legacies.
United got very lucky to have Oscar Munoz if even for a very short time because he broke the cycle of employee discord that was no different than at American.
AA has never had an “Oscar.”
And all of the talk about the loss of high value customers that afflicts AA now is directly because AA management post 9/11 tried to perform a DIY out-of-court restructuring but never got costs down; DL and UA (plus NW, CO and US) all did what they had to do in chapter 11 and became much stronger.
AA has never recovered from its high costs and loss of service that resulted post 9/11.
Add in that Parker, Kirby and the rest of the ex-HP bunch never figured out how to turn AA around; Kirby got lucky enough to be passed over at AA and got the UA gig. Parker bailed and much of AA is still trying to figure out how to succeed.
AA’s high labor costs and lack of ability to capture premium revenue is what still drags them down and has pushed AA out of the most competitive markets in the US.
AA labor’s incessant inability to get on the same page w/ mgmt – who can’t articulate a vision – poisons whatever goodwill AA might have with customers.
Now that even AA’s joint venture partners are trying to distance themselves from AA’s policies and other foreign carriers are now saying what DL and UA execs have said for years which is that AA does more to help DL and UA than anything DL or UA could do for themselves.
Who knows what the future holds for AA but lots of people’s lives are wrapped up in whatever happens.
As strategy scholar Michael Porter wrote, in his famous article, “What is strategy?,” “Operational effectiveness is not a strategy.”
AA is a poor airline- well below UA and DL in hard and soft product, with no apparent plans to do anything about that. I say that as a plat, but primarily based on CC and flying good alliance partners like BA.
another point needs to be made.
Many people lump DL and UA together as if they are twins; there are not.
UA always had enormously more potential than it showed; the same was true for AA – and still is true.
The “come to Jesus” moment for UA was the Dr. Dao incident which highlighted how rough UA’s culture was. Let’s not forget that UA pilots were willing to burn the company down – not unlike Eastern – when contract talks bogged down as dot bust morphed into 9/11. UA engaged in the most costly bankruptcy in airline history and didn’t begin to turn things around until the CO merger – which resulted in years of fighting between the two sides. It took Oscar to bring both sides together and for Kirby – who made plenty of mistakes in his career – to begin to realize UA’s potential. He has simply had aggressive plans which were beyond the ability to deliver.
UA loves to say it would have made money if Boeing didn’t screw up the MAX situation – remember that UA didn’t want to ground its MAX 9s after the AS accident and did so only when the FAA required it.
But UA, like AA, hasn’t lifted the pay of its flight attendants and it is certain to pay at least what DL pays which will now include retro.
And UA isn’t generating the profits that DL delivers so is paying much less in profit sharing even for employees that have similar contract terms as DL employees.
UA is moving faster in the direction of where it needs to be than AA but UA is not generating financial results on par w/ DL on an apples to apples basis.
No one in top management should ever use the word “cheap” (or any derivative) when referring to their product. Perhaps Mr Seymour could use a thesaurus.
Longtime AA EXP 3MMer and also UA 1K for five years. 1K has been a better experience. Sadly UA’s schedule doesn’t work as well, me being Dallas based just flew them last week. But I’d rather fly UA than AA. The UA app is eons ahead of AA. Dallas is a major global business hub. We deserve better than AA.
What throws me is the niwits on The Board who keep backing glaringly inept CEOs who just want to relive the “glory days” of AmericaWest through AA as an ultra low cost carrier. This concept has failed year after year. Is there any particular reason that this monumental failure would suddenly reverse itself and prove to be a great idea?
Multi-year Exec Plat who flew AA exclusively for a decade. I status matched with Delta and the end of 2023. Sure it only matches to Plat Medallion but I’m already knocking on the door of Diamond. AA lost me forever with their combination of high prices a Spirit/Frontier level quality. I’ll pay a little more but am getting far more value for my dollar with Delta. Adios AA.
I have Executive Platinum Status with AA and lowly silver Status with United, and had Gold Status with Spirit, and Diamond Status with Frontier and I can say without a doubt that American Airlines treats me the worst of these four airlines.
The hard product may not be drastically different between the various airlines minus the fact Spirit and Frontier’s seats don’t recline and I am eligible for extra legroom with United and American, but what sets all of the airlines apart from American is the human aspect. Spirit and Frontier flight attendants are attentive and friendly and go above and beyond when I fly them which makes the flight more enjoyable.
When I fly United, they don’t waste my time like American does. What I mean by that is when United has a delay instead of saying the flight will board in 5 minutes when they inbound aircraft is 2 hours away like American does, they list a new scheduled departure time. This allows me to go the lounge and get work completed or eat at an airport restaurant without concern for missing the flight. In addition, the United app will allow me to change to another flight. The gate agents are friendly and don’t look at you with disdain and wish that there were no passengers at the gate. Also, United will hold planes when it makes sense so one doesn’t miss their connection while American will close the door in your face with a smile.
Being taken care of feeling appreciated as a human and a traveler is what sets pretty much every airline apart from American Airlines. Often it isn’t even the gate agents or flight attendants fault that they are so stressed and unhappy but rather the fact that they are not given the tools to do their job as successfully as their counterparts at other airlines. I have had some truly amazing flight attendants on American Airlines but then other parts of the operation do boneheaded things which makes me once again feel frustrated with American. Things such as almost always having someone sitting next to me in the middle seat on an aircraft that is only 50% full even though plenty of other rows are empty and these seats are assigned by the gate agent. Gate agents at other airlines from my experience try to keep seats open next to elite passengers when possible but not American. Or a few months ago when I flew Flagship First from the South Pacific to my home airport and the airline delivered my bag on an earlier flight at a different baggage claim from the baggage claim we arrived at. One bag was on the baggage belt and the other was 2 terminals over and I had to walk outside in the freezing cold with all of my luggage to obtain this other bag because the baggage agents refused to transfer the bag from one terminal to another. This was not a premium experience. When I complained to American Customer Service I got a simple apology that this sometimes happens and to suck it up.
‘
Needless to say United along with other airlines continue to gain more and more wallet share from me and I’m likely to let my Executive Platinum Status lapse this year even though I have maintained it for over a decade.
I get it that I am not AA’s target audience . I purchase and fly premium cabins . Things like seat comfort and inflight experience matter to some of us . A multi year EP and 2MM , I finally gave in and went all in with UA. No more cc spend or flight purchases with AA. Got UA biz and personal cc. I couldn’t be happier . I even purchased a UA PassPlus subscription. I still can’t believe that AA actually got rid of its annual AAirPass program . Customer wants to give you a significant amount of money upfront and the possibility of some free breakage and AA says no thanks .
What’s most perplexing is that AA doubles down on a strategy that continues to lose money . Yes , customers want AAdvantage, but some of us don’t want it bad enough to forego a competitive million miler program . This idea that reliability and network are the product and all else is noise simply isn’t producing results .
And as far as network strategy is concerned , I am no expert . However , AA seems to indicate that they focus on connectivity to get folks from smaller stations to big cities via their hubs . A nice sound bite but not always true . Take for example , BWI . Want to go to Europe or India or Middle East from BWI – good luck . AA scrapped connections from BWI to JFK and PHL . Thus , it’s fly South to CLT which has a limited Europe route network, or backwards to ORD . Flying South or West to go East is not convenient- especially when the last flight to ORD arrives at 1pm making for very lengthy connections. DL offers convenient connections to JFK and BOS from BWI . The UA hub at IAD is a longish drive but far more convenient than the AA alternatives , as is taking a leisurely train ride from Baltimore to the EWR train station. I feel valued , appreciated, and welcomed at UA .
American is asking 500k in miles one way for a business or first class ticket
Unless using married segments or last minute reduction of that redemption cost if unsold
All for dry chicken as the premium experience
Just a few years ago that would be 110,000 miles one way
What fool even if wealthy would pay 500k in miles at which point just pay for your ticket and fly Singapore Qantas or Emirates etc
AA is smoking something to believe their has product and experience are worth that
Unfortunately today American wouldn’t understand what premium is if they tripped and fell on premium and it hit them in their face sadly
The food was better on a trans con 25 years ago.
I really had a laugh out loud moment recently when Allied Pilots (APA) published the article entitled, ‘1995 Just Called – America West Wants its Business Model Back’.
The last sentence of paragraph two reads, “Not mentioned once: defending the cornerstone cities that American Airlines’ historical business plan was built on, which produced a revenue premium.
APA seems to forget that phrases such as “cornerstone cities” and “revenue premium” were the lingo of the L-AA (AMR) senior management….the senior management that APA failed to back through its Trojan horse support of Parker/US Airways.
Tom Horton had a plan to restore some of the élan AA had been known for, but lost to a decade of deterioration as the balance sheet weakened. Horton had a flight plan to lean into the long-haul flying that APA suddenly cherishes.
APA had a true “forest for the trees” moment in bedding with Parker/US Airways. The evidence was there to be seen pre-merger:
(1) US never had a strong corporate sales organization.
(2) US never ventured much beyond the hub flying that 80% (IIRC) of their network was comprised of. Adjusted average stage length (of haul) did not even double over a nearly 20 year period.
(3) Outside of the early adoption of a functional online res platform, US has never been much of an innovator in terms of pax ex, operations, marketing.
(4) Excepting the hubs, US’ niche was to slightly undercut fares offered by the bigger players on competitive routes. Essentially, US acted as a spill carrier.
(5) Onboard pax ex (hard product, some elements of soft (i.e. catering, premium seating amenities) was somewhere between that of the peer mainlines & the LCCs’.
Now post-merger, in addition to adaptation of much of the US playbook as outlined above, they’ve:
(1) hired a network planner whose playbook from his days at UA was a heavy domestic network reliance on RJs.
(2) summarily dismissed an senior executive – subsequently hired by a network competitor, who then proceeded to recruit from AA other senior managers – in possession of confidential & proprietary knowledge of the internal stratagems employed by/planned by AA.
In short, yes, AA is losing the premium battle. To be certain, AA will gain additional premium cabin dollars by writ of having larger F narrowbody F cabins / C widebody cabins as aircraft are retrofitted. But losing the “premium battle”, in context, is yield derived by the value proposition on offer to customers. From that perspective, the AA of AMR days – days where, in some instances, pains were taken to differentiate AA from the competition – is dead & lost.
well said, aaway.
There is no mistake about why AA is in the condition it is in today. There are a healthy number of us that saw this all coming when Parker sweet-talked AA labor into a coup that ended AA as it existed for its first 80 years.
The real question is simply how this all will play out. AA still has high labor costs; cutting labor costs even in bankruptcy will not work because the airline industry is in a unique position where there is a tight enough supply of skilled workers that no large airline can survive w/o paying high costs.
DL and AA carry many of the same small and medium O&Ds and UA is trying desperately to bring into that game while WN is beefing up its corporate sales and winning big in the corporate travel market.
Do the big 4 ultimately collapse into the big 3?
How long might that process take?
Alot is consistently flying AA have been waiting for something to change. These new planes (and especially new interiors) were supposed to be that “dangling carrot”. Really annoyed that they aren’t coming soon now, and that AA pushed off many of them for years. Ridiculous.
Network planning suffers from inconsistency/constant on-again-off-again.
@aaway nailed it. APA sold a good company down the river because they were too self-absorbed to see it differently. Tom Horton had a good plan and truly meant for AA to be the premium carrier that it was historically. Such a shame.
@aaway was 100% bang on with their amazing comment.
They didn’t even give Horton a chance, and that was the one thing Crandall requested of them…
The days of Tom Horton and Virasb Vahidi focusing on the customer and being a premium carrier are over. A top heavy US Airways management didn’t have the experience of running a legacy, and experience is everything in the industry.
The champagne popped after that merger was approved suddenly doesn’t taste so good…
I have a mostly favourable view of American, flying them almost solely from JFK to LHR and LAX. Wide body planes or A321 TransCons, good food, good lounges — great at JFK — and good service — at least to London. I don’t see that either Delta or United can be seen as remotely premium on these routes, flying clapped out 757 and 767-300 aircraft. Food, lounges, and service are average, though United has good lounges but appalling food and service in Polaris. And it is Delta/Virgin looking for 500,000 miles for return reward flights, not AA or BA.
There’s so much to love about American (miles are worth more, no stupid IFE equipment jamming the underseat space, good partner award steals) but as a 150k mile butt in seat a year pax, the IT issues (changed flight? Maybe it’s a flight credit. Maybe it’s a trip credit. Maybe it’s a stack of McDonald’s Monopoly game pieces from the 90s. WHO KNOWS!) and NYC strategy (jetBlue is gone and you have to move on with your life as a single gal. It’s hard, I know) make it a hard sell before you even get to the subpar offerings in the lounge and onboard.
It’s unfortunate because a stronger American gives Delta competition in NYC (shup up, United, no one is going to Jersey except people from Jersey) and United competition in DC and Chicago. And both in LA.
@nji248 “I’m continued to be puzzled in why consumers perceive United or Delta to be “premium”, or more premium over AA. The only thing I can think of is the difference of TV screens on domestic fleet. Apart from that, from the point of view of a domestic “first” class traveler, none of United Clubs have showers (except for the only one in EWR) to fresh up before a meeting on a red-eye. Has anyone seen what Polaris serves as meals?! United also outsourced its call center to the Philippines, while they’re constantly apologetic, those agents simply aren’t well-trained enough to solve a problem that prompts a phone call in the first place instead of self-service on the app. Those don’t seem premium at all. As for Delta, its operation reliability aren’t that much better these days, and you see small service cuts, such as removal of meals in economy on the transcon routes, or simplification of domestic Delta One to one-tray service. Delta is really good at branding, or you can say, gaslighting, consumers to perceive itself as premium, just like Starbucks positioning itself as a premium coffee chain.”
BINGO. Especially the last two sentences.
People commenting on these threads and others like it are passionate and probably 1000x more attuned to the airline industry than the average FF. That said, I’ve been Diamond on Delta and have had high status on United and American. My extensive travels place all three of them at a three-way tie…I have three separate horror stories for each one.
Reality versus the rhetoric and passion you hear on these blogs are often worlds apart.