What Doug Parker Should Say To American Airlines Employees And Customers Right Now

by Gary Leff

May 07 2020

American Airlines hasn’t been perfect, but it’s charted a path different from United and even Delta through the pandemic. They’ve generally honored refunds for cancelled flights, rather than choosing to illegally conserve cash the way United and others have attempted to do, and they’re plotting a course to avoid employee furloughs.

But they’re not capturing the value from these moves because they’ve failed to craft a narrative for the airline around being a better company, that frames them as the underdog and motivates employees and generates customer loyalty going forward. American Airlines can change that.

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Four Things The President Of Emirates Believes About The Coronavirus Crisis in Aviation

by Gary Leff

emirates business seats
May 07 2020

Emirates President Sir Tim Clark is set to retire in June after 35 years with the airline and 17 as in his current role.

The 70 year old, who began his career at British Caledonian in 1972, gave an interview offering his perspective on where the airline industry is headed as it grapples with the coronavirus crisis. There are four key takeaways – including a challenging view of the virus itself and why it means we don’t need to remove seats from planes.

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Atlanta Airport Once Again Vies For Most Corrupt In The Nation

by Gary Leff

delta airplanes on tarmac
May 07 2020

Atlanta’s airport is the most corrupt in the country (although in fairness Detroit may be a close second).

In Atlanta if you want to open a restaurant you donate to a political campaign and pay the former mayor’s daughter. The airport’s former manager was fired for being insufficiently corrupt, and then the city council buried the payments that bought his silence. Now a new bribery scandal and a guilty plea.

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Not Wearing A Face Mask On A Plane Is 2020’s Emotional Support Animal

by Gary Leff

May 06 2020

Up until this year anyone who claimed to need emotional support had been exempt from the rules about what kind of animals to bring, how many, and at what cost. We saw pit bulls, horses, turkeys, and birds of all kinds.

It turns out that exemptions to requirements for wearing a face mask work exactly the same way that bringing an emotional support animal onto a plane used to.

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American Will Store Its A330-200s “Into 2022” – But Won’t Retire Them

by Gary Leff

May 06 2020

During the American Airlines first quarter earnings call last week they discussed the option to retire their fleet of 15 Airbus A330-200s. I speculated back in March that the A330-200s might leave the fleet.

However American Airlines has told employees that they are parking but not retiring these aircraft. Do not expect them to come back soon, though, because they are being stored “into 2022.”

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Six Reasons Earning Miles For Your Savings Account Makes More Sense Now Than Ever [Update: New Bonuses]

by Gary Leff

May 06 2020

A Bask Savings Account is unique because it lets you earn large amounts of American Airlines AAdvantage® miles, and keep earning miles, without spending any money. You can move money in and out of your no fee account as you’d like.

And a Bask Savings Account makes a lot more sense than ever in the current environment, and especially because opening the no fee account before the end of April gives you access to bonus offers that will expiring.

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Is United Airlines President Scott Kirby Blackmailing The President?

by Gary Leff

May 06 2020

United has gotten a lot of attention for taking government money to save jobs while at the same time planning publicly to furlough workers and to terminate non-union employees without severance.

Is United’s Scott Kirby painting a picture of job losses one month before the election to leverage the President to support a second round of bailouts for the airline industry?

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