Category Archives for Airlines.
With Southwest Airlines now selling tickets to Hawaii they should be flying high. Not only is this a new desirable market, it should support credit card acquisitions because customers can now spend their points for more aspirational destinations.
But the carrier has been hobbled by mechanics slowing down the airline and the grounding of the 737 MAX.
There are two things American Airlines believes affects premium passenger perception of service: flight attendants referring to them by name, and offering predeparture beverages.
American Airlines flight attendants are inconsistent about offering beverages prior to push back. And there’s no consequence if they don’t. If they don’t consider themselves to have time, they can skip it.
One flight, though, finally had a good reason not to offer them — and even to skip most inflight beverage service too.
British Airways pioneered lie flat seats in long haul business class. The seats weren’t wide or private, but they were classy with blue fabric and brown leather. I actually liked the old lie flat business class seat that I flew a decade ago (‘New Club World’) more than the current iteration that feels like a sea of impersonal corporate cubes (‘Next Generation Club World’).
The current seat is well overdue for a refresh. The basics of the current seat began rolling out in 2006.
Pakistan International Airlines, the worst airline in the world, stopped flying to the US in October 2017 after 55 years of service.
Their flight used to operate Lahore, Pakistan – Manchester, UK – New York JFK. They weren’t allowed to fly non-stop to the U.S. for security reasons. The US government wasn’t comfortable with a plane load of passengers getting screened in Pakistan and flying to the States.
American Airlines is the sole remaining US carrier serving Venezuela and there are few other airlines flying in and out of the country as well. As the nation has fallen apart, with mass shortages, rampant crime, and inflation over 5000%, American Airlines had found their Venezuela routes extremely profitable — because there was so little air service left.
With flight crews getting robbed by bandits airlines fly crews out of the country rather than overnighting, and try to refuel elsewhere as well.
American Airlines hosts a ‘state of the airline’ event for employees after its earnings calls. There senior management shares their vision for the company and employees can ask questions. In addition to those questions that are asked live, there are followup questions that get asked – and answered – in writing.
The airline has shared written responses to several employee questions, and some of those were interesting (to me).
Sixteen women headed out Thursday on American Airlines from Sacramento to a bachelorette party in Cabo San Lucas while first connecting in Phoenix.
As they were about to board their connecting flight they were stopped — the bride‘s mother appeared to be intoxicated. Her daughter excuses it because she was nervous flying for the first time “in over 20 years” which is why she “had a few alcoholic drinks before their first flight.”
In November American Airlines rolled out a schedule change — a plan to fly their Boeing 737 MAX to Brazil and to Bolivia swapping out Boeing 757s with lie flat business class for their new, least comfortable domestic aircraft. This was supposed to start in May.
I would love it if it were more possible to follow the facts and not the mob. We don’t yet know where the facts on the Ethiopian Airlines disaster will lead.
American Airlines pilots have come out in support of the 737 MAX. Contrary to the Chinese regulator’s lack of confidence in their pilots flying aircraft manually, they remain confident in their ability to operate the MAX, the performance of their planes has been exemplary, and their planes have a difference that they highlight from other MAX jets that may make them less vulnerable to mistaken Angle of Attack readings.
The Allied Pilots Association (APA), representing the 15,000 pilots of American Airlines, remains confident in the Boeing 737 Max and in our members’ ability to safely fly it.
The pilots for the world’s largest airline have the necessary training and experience to troubleshoot problems and take decisive actions on the flight deck to protect our passengers and crew.
Apparently American Airlines is performing an evacuation test on their Airbus A321neo, which is required before they’re certified to fly it in revenue operations.
There’s controversy over whether today’s more densely packed planes — more seats, closer together, with higher load factors — can be evacuated that quickly under real world conditions, but I’ve argued that misses the point. Evacuation standards need to be so stringent in order to account for the delays that happen when frightened passengers actually leave the aircraft in real world stress.
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 »
