May 17 2018

Security wait times hurt an airline’s business for short haul flights. Having to get to the airport early means that total travel time can take as long or longer than driving. In the Northeast for instance Amtrak has taken a lot of business away from the airline shuttle routes between Boston and New York and between New York and DC just because of the need to turn up at the airport earlier.

So if airlines can convince you that total travel time is less than you think — a ‘security wait time guarantee’ — you may be more inclined to buy tickets for those flights.

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May 17 2018

A couple of weeks ago I wrote that British Airways would be joining TSA PreCheck.

Then the updated list of airlines went live on the TSA website — and British Airways wasn’t on it. The strange thing was BA had sent out a memo saying they were going to launch. BA went into damage control mode saying this was misinformation, with non-denial denials.

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May 16 2018

Delta has extensively praised Donald Trump. Now a lobbying group working for United, Delta, and American has taken out full page ads in the New York Times and New York Post praising him.

They’re happy, it seems, that they’re getting nothing out of an agreement with Emirates, Etihad and Qatar. Delta should be happy because out of this effort they’ve improved their competitive position against American.

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May 16 2018

American Airlines President Isom told employees on Friday how the airline sees themselves in New York. And it’s a departure from how the airline talked about New York when US Airways first took over.

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May 16 2018

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.

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May 16 2018

One of the most frequent questions I’ve been getting over the past couple of months is how come I can’t book American Airlines awards on the British Airways website?

This is just a website issue. The space is available to British Airways members, and the impediment is easy to overcome.

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May 16 2018

The 2018 IdeaWorks award availability study is out.. The top line that’s getting reported is that Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards offers the best award availability. Another key takeaway is major improvement in American Airlines award availability.

Both of those conclusions can be somewhat misleading.

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May 16 2018

American’s President Robet Isom says the airline has done well with Tokyo, Seoul, and Hong Kong flights but that China has been hard. Chicago – Beijing, which they’re cutting, “is a route that we’ve lost tens of millions of dollars for years and years and years.”

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May 15 2018

American Airlines first class passengers board in group one. But group one isn’t first. ConciergeKey members board first, before group one.

But what about the people they need to wait for?

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May 15 2018

American Airlines President Robert Isom told employees in a Dallas Fort-Worth question and answer forum on Friday that everyone should expect higher airfares because “in the long run higher fuel prices are passed on [to customers] through higher prices.”

American has consistently said they believe airfares rise with fuel. With fuel prices rising, American says your tickets are going to cost you more. Are they right?

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