Last month, the Envoy team at McClellan-Palomar Airport (CLD) in Carlsbad, California celebrated their first-ever win of the American Airlines Customer Cup for the first quarter of 2026 (1Q26).
The Customer Cup is presented quarterly to stations grouped into similar size and operational likeness across the entire American Airlines operation. The Cup program rewards teams for their outstanding performance in key metrics like Safety, On-Time Departures (D0), On-Time Turns (T0), Mishandled Baggage Ratio (MBR) and overall customer satisfaction.
Because of how competitive this award is, winning it is even more meaningful to the team at CLD, as they’ve only been operating there for a little over a year. In fact, Envoy’s work at the airport allowed American to bring their commercial flight operations back to that area for the first time in years, with daily flights on Embraer 175 aircraft operated by Envoy.
“I’m so proud of our team for bringing this award to our station, especially after being in operation for such a short time compared to others in the organization,” said Envoy CLD General Manager Danielle Edwards. “It was also great to see some members of our leadership team come out to spend the day congratulating and celebrating our whole team for this exciting win.”
The station is small but mighty, servicing four flights a day to and from Phoenix (PHX). Many of their flights see premium customers from the San Diego area who prefer the smaller airport experience.
“The addition of our team at CLD, as well as American’s commercial flight operations as a whole, has been a great benefit to our customers in the Carlsbad area who prefer to start their travel at a local airport,” said Envoy Regional Managing Director of the West Region Timarty Stitt. “To see their work get rewarded with this Customer Cup win really just helps confirm the excellence that this team puts forward every day to take care of our customers.”
Here’s to your first win, and many more to come – congrats, Team CLD!
What is the Customer Cup?
The Customer Cup is a quarterly award and celebration organized by American Airlines to recognize stations that demonstrate the strongest performance in Customer Experience.
How do you win?
Each station across the AAG network – both domestic and international – competes against others of the same size and operational likeness. Stations are measured by performance in several metrics, including:
- Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Feedback and Overall Airport Experience
- Departure Dependability (D0)
- Turn Dependability (T0)
- Baggage Performance (MBR)
Other criteria – such as injury rate and equipment damage – are also taken into account to ensure we’re recognizing the top-performing stations each quarter.
What do stations win?
Winning stations receive the Customer Cup and an employee appreciation budget to host a party and recognize the efforts of employees at that station.
