Category Archives for Airlines.
American Airlines was first among U.S. airlines to offer premium economy and expand it across their fleet. They introduced premium economy awards on their own flights back in January.
Now British Airways premium economy awards can be booked using AAdvantage miles. We can expect American to expand premium economy award redemptions further on other partner airlines as well, though they haven’t given a timeline for when to expect this.
What most people do not realize is that airlines do not edit films. They do not have the right to edit films. Studios or contracted third parties make edited versions available and just because kissing is removed from a film doesn’t mean the airline objected to kissing.
After each quarterly earnings call American Airlines leadership gathers with employees for a ‘State of the Airline’ in which Doug Parker opens with an update on the airline and then opens the floor to questions. One of the most popular subjects is route planning – where will American Airlines fly? – and so Vasu Raja, the airline’s senior vice president of network planning, fields many of the questions.
This week – through Friday, November 1 – American Airlines is testing a new ice cream bar as a snack on two of its London Heathrow flights. That’s right, economy class passengers get an ice cream bar and it’s made exclusively for American Airlines, according to an internal company memo.
Checked baggage is always ‘at risk. American Airlines is now reimbursing a Tulsa passenger for $1000 after her lost luggage turned up on Facebook Marketplace, being sold by a baggage worker there. The passenger had them ‘dead to rights’ too – the bar code on the new Patagonia jacket being sold matched her receipt for the purchase, she says.
For American Airlines CEO Doug Parker the retirement of the MD80 was symbolically the end to the old American.
Instead of MD80s with more legroom in first class, Main Cabin Extra, and coach the new American is Project Oasis with poorly thought-through seats up front, seats with very little padding in back, and seats closer together across the board.
American Airlines has just announced two new flights to New Zealand – Dallas Fort Worth – Auckland and Los Angeles – Christchurch. Since Air New Zealand abandoned its non-stop U.S. – Christchurch flying this will be the only flight between the U.S. and New Zealand’s South Island.
Both flights are non-daily and seasonal, and add to American’s seasonal service between Los Angeles and Auckland (which will see a slightly expanded winter 2020-2021 season starting October 7).
Andrew Nocella, United’s executive vice president and chief commercial officer – who came to United with Scott Kirby and who was responsible for many of the negative changes at American Airlines once legacy US Airways management took over – offered some important observations about their customers at the airline’s media day.
American Airlines has added a second daily Dallas Fort-Worth – Rome flight for a limited summer season, July 2nd through August 17. That’s a peak of peak travel period.
While the pre-existing daily flights, AA239 and AA240, appear to rarely if every offer award or upgrade space (as we have come to expect from American Airlines), this new flight appears to have upgrade but no award space open every single day and indeed open with enough seats for the whole family.
Back on August 22, a Smartwings Boeing 737-800 took off from Samos, Greece. Flight QS1125 was headed to Prague with 170 people on board. About 100 nautical miles northeast of Athens the aircraft’s left engine shut down while at 36,000 feet.
The crew tried to restart the engine while descending to 24,000 feet. The engine wouldn’t restart. The captain decided not to declare an emergency.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
