Support the Escort program at this link
Thank you tto Unted Airlines who helped create a mileage accoont for this program but many tickets still need to be bought and we need your support.
Email from Margaret Whitehead to all escorts: April 20, 2022
Hello Everyone,
This is one email I did not want to have to write and have put it off longer than I should have, hoping that the powers that be at AA would have a heart after all. Over two months ago I was advised by American Airlines that AA will no longer allow our medical escorts to use A12 passes while on our trips. I was given the name of the person to whom I should address any questions about this and of course I wrote her right away and explained our program and why it is so important that we have positive space passes.
I heard nothing back from her so I wrote her again, then Nancy Rivard wrote her, then Kathy Garza, one of our escorts who works in customer service at ORD contacted several different people at AA about this. AA has yet to respond to any of us. Because of the complexity, especially of our CDG trips, there is absolutely no way we can do these trips on our D2s. So unless something positive happens within the next 10 days we will be forced to close our program that we’ve had for the past 26 years. This is truly sad.
Tami Shobe with Children’s Medical Missions has counted on us for years to accompany her children back and forth to CDG where we meet up with ASF escorts who then accompany them back and forth to Burkina Faso. Recently she purchased a round trip ticket for one of our escorts to take a child back to CDG but she cannot continue to do this. Therefore, her program will be severely impacted when we shut down. We also had our own mileage bank that AA gave us before Covid; however, this has been discontinued also.
I really don’t know what else to do since AA won’t even respond to us. I do not want to have to close this very worthwhile program but have no choice at this point. I am certainly open to all suggestions any of you may have that might allow us to keep it going. If you would like to help us out with this, the name of the person I was told to contact is: MARIA BAEZ, Community Relations Account Manager. Her email is: maria.baez@aa.com. I’m sure she would love to hear from you, read your personal stories, and enjoy your photos made on these trips.
I actually developed this program and it has certainly been one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. I have met so many wonderful, caring people through this program and you will remain in my heart forever. The very last thing I want to do is shut it down. There’s always the possibility that AA could have a change of heart so let’s give them until May1 and see if anything positive happens. It’s in your hands now. Meanwhile, feel free to contact me for any additional information about our program.
Warmest regards,
Margaret Whitehead
AAI Children’s Medical Escort Program
404-202-3276
So the bottom line is we will have to start buying tickets for our medical escorts anf for that we will need your support.
Click HERE to send support
We received countless heartfelt letters from those selfless volunteers who partticipated with this important program. Here is a sampling:
Laetetia Alger
My name is Laetitia ALGER. I am a proud American Airlines Flight Attendant and Volunteer for Airline Ambassadors.
I refuse to write this letter with the spirit of a lost battle.
Instead I want this letter to be read and understood as a praise for the company and the volunteer program I believe in since I joined AA in 2014.
I am French American. Before moving to New York I used to live in Paris, work for Air France and volunteer for Aviation Sans Frontières (Aviation Without Borders). As I moved to the USA in 2013 I left a part of me behind. Upon starting my career with American airlines in 2014 I finally filled that gap. I felt complete again when I returned to the airline industry and devoted my free time to volunteer with Airline Ambassadors.
Everyday I work for a company whose goal is to be “connecting People”, “connecting the World”, “connecting Cultures” and “connecting Businesses”. It is the heart of our mission. Everyone counts and it is one of many definitions of who We are at American Airlines.Therefore I cannot imagine that today the “people to people” relationship no longer has value. We cannot be who we are without the “People”, without our customers and their reasons to travel and connect with others.
American Airlines values the UNICEF program and many others. The Children’s Medical Escort Program should not and cannot be let down. It is critical as it is the ultimate opportunity for families with sick babies, sick children and sick adolescents to envision a future with dreams. From one end to the other, every single person is devoted. Doctors, nurses, flight attendants, host families, hospitals…authorities (embassies, consulates, airports…) and airlines are equally important. We don’t have to live in a war zone to understand what “insecurity” and “death” mean. American Airlines plays a key role in the survival of this specific program.
Parents trust us and trust each one of us to be that unique person who will care for their precious child like he or she is our own. With Aviation Sans Frontieres and Air France I have mainly travelled to the beautiful continent of Africa for 10 years. I was either at the beginning or the end of this incredibly powerful chain of HUMANITY. Hope for a Future with Health should not be a luxury. I have been a witness to unique and powerful intimate moments between parents and children when leaving for a Healthy Tomorrow and returning after weeks and months with a “repaired heart”, walking on their feet thanks to a prosthesis, smiling without fear of being looked at with disgust because of the Noma or tumors… The list can go on and on. I saw parents kissing and talking to their children like it could be the last time. Every moment is a celebration of LIFE. Unfortunately some cannot equally celebrate with a peaceful mind.
I am here in New York now and I am so THANKFUL for having the opportunity to be part of Airline Ambassadors. I wish I could physically take you on one of our journeys for a “Chance to save Lives and Live a Better Tomorrow with Health”. You would not only see but feel what I can’t use words for. Yes, one not familiar with the program might not grasp the unique and undeniable power of the role we play behind the scenes. The unknown is stressful. When I “escort” I do not look for the child or baby to look like a trophy. I want them to be relaxed, confident, and dreaming of a world where they will live and grow to become extraordinary adults. Sometimes we are noticed by passengers and other times it is just the two or three of us (if more than one child because the demand for help is high and we do our best to optimize the trips with all the scheduling around for flights, medical appointments, surgeries, visas…), and other times we are incognito. What matters is that we get safely and in a timely manner to the “life changing place” (hospital) and return as soon as possible to Loving parents who had to trust us all with a part of them in a country where the language, the culture and habits are totally different.
I am HOPEFUL that American Airlines will not break the powerful and strong chain of Life which exists for decades between Airline Ambassadors and Aviation Sans Frontieres, and the French Authorities at CDG airport where we receive fantastic support during escorts. We need American Airlines to remain committed to our cause. We need the A12 passes.
I have held many frightened hands. I have looked into many “questioning eyes” yet so grateful for the HOPE they were allowed to dream of. Each smile and each tear (of suffering or joy) is forever in my memory. Please, do not terminate a unique program to which employees and passengers are so proud of. We cultivate our legacy of a strong, breaking barrier and innovative airline. Yes, it is a business but we cannot exist without Humankind. As we build bridges to connect with the world, please let’s keep and strengthen what we have today. We should never miss an opportunity to BE and DO better but not become “opportunists” when talking about fighting, defending or being involved in a cause. We should not sit and wait for the next unfortunate catastrophes or war zones to be who we are : Strong, Committed and United.
I unfortunately do not have the pictures I took during the past two decades. They would surely have been “nice” testimonies of the past and the successes. However I am here today and available to talk and share any information you would like. If anything is to be remembered from the couple years we just lived under the pandemic, it is that we need to care and fight for a healthy Heart and Mind. We need to support each other and be attentive to each other everyday.
Hoping my words will reach your Heart and Mind, I wish a long-life to our relationship American Airlines & Children’s Medical Escort & Aviation Sans Frontieres.
Beautiful day to You and The Only the Very Best in Every Step we make.
Respectueusement,
Laetitia ALGER LGA base
Michelle Burge
Dear Brady and Maria,
I have been an Airline Ambassadors’ volunteer for over seven years–Human Trafficking awareness and Children’s Medical Escort. I’ve been notified by Margaret Whitehead, coordinator of AAI, that American Airlines is no longer going to be providing positive space seats for us, and that’s why I’m writing to you.
I joined AAI to help with safe and reliable escorting of children in need of medical treatment. It’s not so much I have a passion for this type of work, rather it’s the unique opportunity of being a flight attendant to do what others outside the industry cannot. In fact, I plan to continue volunteering with AAI into my retirement–because I can!
Why is American Airlines considering the discontinuance of A12 passes? AA should feel proud and honored to help serve in this humanitarian effort–because it can!
Sincerely,
Michelle BurgebbbORD FA 623899
Aicha Touahria,
Bonjour, hello,
My name is Aïcha and my seniority with AA is as old as the American Airlines Ambassador program. I chose to be part of this program because I have come to see first-hand the transformative power of accompanying children and their families as they journey through surgery. I work in CDG which is the first connecting point for children who mainly come from Africa with the help of ASF (aviation sans frontière) and AF (Air France) who gives free confirmed tickets to their employees in order to escort children.
I want also to underline the fantastic help of French Police authorities who accept to let children connect via CDG without Shengen visa (agreements signed in 2005).
Each day, children across the globe are obtaining repairs for cleft palate, receiving casting or tendon releases for clubfoot, and getting airfare and taxis covered so they can get to the hospital for surgery to correct their congenital disease. This work happens because each of us have committed their lives to something deeply meaningful and important: we are providing health care to the underserved throughout the world and AA is playing a tremendous role.
This program appears in many forms. Some of us are surgeons, others are nurses and social workers. Some of us are host parents, others, like me, have helped a child board a plane. Some of us raise the funds necessary to support the program. Some of us are host events to marshal the time, talents, and treasures in service of this mission. It’s a teAAm effort, and regardless of all those different roles, I have witnessed how all of us work has transformed the lives of so many children around the world. And it’s also very clear to me that it has also transformed mine.
The work is unfinished and may never end. This feeling led me to recall a prayer called “Prophets of a future not our own”. Here’s a brief excerpt:
“We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development. We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
We may never see the end results, We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.”
In pediatric surgery, each of us accompany children during moments of transformation early in their lives. Yet it’s just one moment – you don’t always see them after surgery when they are confident in the new school clothes they can now wear, excited about the new employment they can now take on, or relieved that the pain they had been suffering has finally subsided. Our work may seem incomplete, and without “end results”. But that’s ok: each of us are serving children for a future we cannot see. You are prophets of a future not your own.
Children need us and we all need to work together to achieve our goal: a futur for each child regardless the color of their skin, their religion or their nationality.
Please help us to continue helping children and their families in need.
I am so proud to wear my AA uniform while escorting children so passengers can figure out how AA is generous and philanthropic.
Thank you for your help and your support.
Terry Drew Karanan
Dear Beth, (Base Manager in PHL)
As you may know, I just received my 20-year pin and acknowledgement from American. While I am grateful for this recognition, it saddens me to think that another program which preceded me by six years is being allowed to drift away.
As my PHL Base Manager I’m asking that you give your attention to the email below as a personal favor to me. Then, if you have any suggestions, please contact Margaret Whitehead at Airline Ambassadors Intl?. I don’t pretend to know what the “powers that be” might have in mind, or why AAI has not yet heard from the Company. Perhaps Maria Baez, the Community Relations Account Manager that AAI was told to contact isn’t the right person? If she isn’t, who is?
Thanks, Beth, and I look forward to seeing you again when I return to flying in July.
All the best, Always
Terry Drew Karanen PHL-FA,
From: Steven Hirth <shhirth@shhirthassoc.com>
Date: Fri, May 13, 2022, 3:15 AM
Subject: Brava
To: brady.byrnes@aa.com <brady.byrnes@aa.com>
Dear Mr. Byrnes, (AA VP Flight Service)
Most people will write to you and share a complaint/criticism of something negative about American Airlines. This is not such an email.
Typically, I travel/fly 200+ days annually and globally. Most of the flights I take are not with American Airlines, for a variety of reasons. On Monday, May9th, I and my significant other did fly with American Airlines from JFK to CDG. With the entire flight we were not so impressed. What impressed us though is Ms. Laetitia Alger. BRAVO to you for having a team member like her.
Since I can compare her professional services to other flight attendants with other companies, Ms. Alger is hands down one of the best I have encountered.
Her professionalism, politeness, attentiveness to me and Ms. Zaridze is to be applauded and lauded. She could not achieve this without having your support and encouragement.
Ms. Alger also shared some time with me to educate me about what American Airlines is doing for and with Airline Ambassadors International. In her honor, Ms. Zaridze and I shall make a donation. Helping children/families get the best medical care possible is so important and psychologically having a caring and compassionate “Ambassador” like Ms. Alger be a part of the journey towards good health is a tribute to her and to American Airlines.
Enjoy the coming weekend and may you and American Airlines find and retain more team members like Laetitia Algers.
Cordially,
Steven H. Hirth, Founder & Principal. H. Hirth & Associates
Financial Sherpa, Shaman & Schadchen
Global Strategists and Investors One Rockefeller Plaza
Kirstin Perkins
I’ve been following all of the emails and it just breaks my heart that American has chosen to not support this amazing program any longer. I actually left American in January; I have been so disappointed in the decisions this company is making…just so you know, they have also de-funded many military initiatives as well.
The photo below is on aa.com and in my advantage account… They have an option for customers to donate miles to a variety of different areas and AA then disseminates those miles to various charities. This wouldn’t cost AA anything to include AAI as a beneficiary…maybe an avenue to look into?
Have you also looked into other airlines?
Fingers crossed something can be done; I absolutely love this program!!
Best Regards,
Kirstin Perkins