I always prefer an aisle seat because I want to be in control of my own destiny. I can lean into the aisle for extra room (but watch the drink cart!) and I can get up for the lavatory whenever I wish. Crucially, I also have at least one armrest I don’t have to fight for.
This means giving up being able to gaze out the window (lost Instagram opportunity), and an obligation to get up when someone else wants to use the restroom, but those are easy tradeoffs.
American Airlines hasn’t fully integrated its operations for the amount of beverages they’ll stock on board. American Airlines used to actually stock fewer beverages than US Airways. And they reduced beverage catering in Phoenix down to the old American Airlines levels.
Fortunately that’s being reversed and come “late August” we’ll start seeing more beverages catered in first class across the system.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
American Airlines CEO defends flight attendants with their noses in their phones, but contends American has “the best [flight attendant] instructors in the world, getting the best training and are learning how to be great at customer service.”
American Airlines flight AA383 from Chicago to Miami caught fire in late 2016 as it was preparing for takeoff.
Somehow I never saw one of the most incredible videos of the event: dash cam from an emergency truck responding to the incident.
American’s regional carrier PSA, which it owns, cancelled 3000 flights in a week when their computer systems in Dayton, Ohio melted down.
American Airlines is patting employees on the back for how they handled the crisis.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
The single most important factor in whether or not you have a good flight is having an empty seat next to you. The food or snacks seem better. Flight attendants seem friendlier. It’s less stressful overall.
So regardless of your size, if you feel more comfortable buying extra space, it’s something to consider especially when the price is right. Airlines don’t just sell extra legroom seats — who knew they sell extra width too?
First Hawaiian bank, owned by a French banking group, is pulling out of its relationship with domestic banking there due to regulatory risk even though there’s no indication of money laundering. This makes cashing paychecks from the US military base problematic.
Western Union has one branch in the capital, which may leave residents taking a trip hundreds of miles by boat or air to receive funds from the rest of the world.
Southwest, Delta and United telephone customer service has been compared to ringing up the IRS.
During irregular operations, bad weather events, calling an airline is much worse than usual – because everyone else is calling too. I’m used to hearing that “we’re experiencing unusually high call volumes” all the time as an excuse for not investing in customer service. It’s actually true during storms or other outages.
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 »
