“Just because it’s a “bonus” doesn’t mean it’s not earned,”
Nobody said that.
It’s bad PR. Does that concept sink in at all? You are an engineer. Try to think like a marketing person. There’s a big downside to this.
It's always bad PR to pay people management bonuses, because despite what you say, it is all about class warfare.
Does the fact that these bonuses are lower than in past years mean nothing to you?
Does it matter that this is for their past performance compared to other airlines?
Do the headlines say AMR execs get smaller than normal bonuses after a year of falling stock values? No. AMR is getting blasted for giving their executives any bonuses at all.
Yes, the troubles that they are having now are coming at a bad time, but they can't delay paying their people for the work they already performed.
If you try and run your company to avoid populist attacks from the media, you'll run your company into the ground.
AMR gets attacked EVERY year when they release how much they hand out in bonuses, and they always will.
It's actually probably not a bad marketing ploy to take the public relations hit all at once. While the grounding of their planes due to following what FAA inspectors would allow, not what they were supposed to be doing is something they might possibly been able to avoid. Getting attacked for giving management bonuses isn't something they can avoid, and I doubt the release of these figures is really significantly effecting their popularity with travelers who are already about as pissed of as they could be.