Unaccompanied Minor Flying Seems to Be Up From the US to Mexico

by Gary Leff

special services card
Jun 20 2018

There’s been a lot of chatter and possibly ill-informed speculation amongst Ameircan Airlines flight attendants about the number of unaccompanied minors being up on their US-Mexico flights.

There’s been some disagreement over whether this is the result of the federal government deporting children on American Airlines flights, or parents proactively sending their children out of the country out of fear they might be captured and held in separation from their families.

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American Says Regional Flights Returning to Normal, Still Cancelling Large Number of Flights

by Gary Leff

american promo
Jun 20 2018

Supposedly American is unable to program waivers based on flight number or regional carrier. They could have issued a waiver for Charlotte but that would have meant that some customers unaffected by American’s major outage could have benefited with fee waivers.

They chose to inconvenience well over 100,000 customers on cancelled flights, not counting myriad more on massively delayed flights, instead of allowing fee-free changes for passengers flying through the most affected airport — chancing that someone somewhere not flying PSA might benefit from the waiver a cost American money. Shameful.

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American Explains How They Choose Regional Jets for Routes: “Trial and Error”

by Gary Leff

american eagle plane
Jun 20 2018

Even though the carrier says they’re trying to simplify their fleet, operate fewer aircraft types and subfleets, they’re doubling down on flying similar competitor products.

Their regional partners, including wholly owned carriers like Envoy Air and PSA, fly CR7s, Embraer 140s and 145s, and even CRJ-200s. Regional jets with 50 seats and below don’t offer a first class cabin. While most of American’s regional fleet offers internet, most lacks seat power.

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American Airlines Says 767s Will Go to the East Coast to Retire

by Gary Leff

airline cabin
Jun 19 2018

Back in March American Airlines Chairman Doug Parker described the Boeing 767 as a bad customer experience and suggested they needed to retire the aircraft sooner. Indeed shortly after that the airline announced a big order of Boeing 787s.

According to American’s Vice President for Planning, “As the 767 is retired, as it’s going through the process of retiring it, we will bring it increasingly into the East Coast to go die and fly fewer trips into other hubs.”

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Flying on Separate Tickets? On American You’re Still Protected if Flights Go Wrong

by Gary Leff

american airline plane
Jun 19 2018

It’s usually risky to fly one itinerary on separate tickets. That’s because when you’re on one ticket, if you face a flight delay or cancellation the airline responsible for the irregularity has to get you to your final destination. But if you’re on separate tickets they usually don’t — they just have to get you as far as the end of the ticket you’re flying them on.

But it’s not always a risk if you know about this American Airlines policy.

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Management Layoffs Coming at American Airlines

by Gary Leff

american and us tails
Jun 19 2018

When American Airlines and US Airways merged four and a half years ago many legacy American Airlines executives departed. Several management level staff that were holdovers from American before the merger left two years ago, presumably eligible for bonuses based on the length of time they had stayed on.

In any merger of this size there are initial promises of cost savings, and personnel is one area where those need to be delivered.

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American Airlines Sued For Failing to Return Leased Aircraft

by Gary Leff

airplane in hangar
Jun 19 2018

Keeping track of aircraft is hard. Three years ago American Airlines flew the wrong plane to Hawaii. The aircraft they flew wasn’t certified for extended overwater operations. There wasn’t actually anything unsafe about the decision, but it didn’t match the minimum equipment required. The airline simply dispatched the wrong aircraft by mistake.

Now comes word that American kept leased aircraft beyond the expiration date of their agreement according to a lawsuit filed by Wells Fargo in the Southern District of New York.

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