Dec 13 2018

Yesterday United Airlines made a big announcement of new flying from San Francisco. Today American Airlines is out with their own announcement of new flying as well.

American is expected to grow at both Dallas Fort-Worth (in 2019 with new gates coming online) and Charlotte (in 2020 with new gates coming online) and at Washington National (by operating larger regional jets at the dreaded gate 35X is replaced with a new regional concourse). The airline says these are their most profitable hubs.

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Dec 13 2018

American Airlines will let you buy back your status if you aren’t going to requalify. On the one hand it’s expensive. On the other if you were going to mileage run to reach the status level, this saves you time.

American may realize their prices are too high, or at least that they have plenty of time to market to members in different ways. If a member doesn’t buy, why not put elite status on a clearance sale?

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Dec 12 2018

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 contained information I did not know (although in some cases may have assumed).

Where do they want to fly bigger planes? Will they be updating business class seats on certain aircraft? How far along are they installing satellite wifi?

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