Mar 01 2019

For many years there’s something that’s been referred to in airline parlance as the ‘flat tire rule’ — if you show up too late to get on your flight, your airline will put you on the next one without a penalty. After all, you may have had a flat tire on your way to the airport, why punish you further? Little is free in today’s airline world any more. In fact “standby” or wait listed travel is no longer free at most US airlines (and not all international ones offer it to begin with). At American Airlines only full fare passengers and elites can stand by for free, and that’s generally only for US travel — otherwise it costs $75 to stand by for an earlier flight. But what about when you miss your flight?…

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Mar 01 2019

It used to be that an airline would focus more on getting each flight to its destination as quickly as possible, believing it’s better to get passengers and aircraft where they’re going than cancel flights and let passengers off. That equilibrium was shifted in law, and airlines are now supposed to let passengers off of planes rather than holding them on the aircraft — even though it may mean more flight cancellations and mean people don’t get where they’re going as quickly.

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Feb 28 2019

American Airlines Vice President – Planning Vasu Raja says they’re considering flying to India — perhaps from Philadelphia. But airfares are too low, their Boeing 787-9s are slated to replace existing aircraft not to fuel growth, and the airline lacks a partner in India.

Oh, they’re also saying they plan to fly to Africa too.

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Feb 27 2019

Back in September when American Airlines launched their partnership with Zoës Kitchen they introduced new coach buy on board items from the Mediterranean chain that people seem to love.

At the time I shared that the airline planned to roll out a Zoës item as a pre-order option “similar in style” to the current cheese plate light alternative to the regular meal.

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