A veteran gate agent in Miami asked American Airlines CEO Doug Parker at last week’s employee town hall about the user interface Qik that she’s required to use — instead of working directly in Sabre like she used to — and she calls it “a Pinto car… it does not perform to the standard we’re used to. Qik is not efficient” and she says in Miami they call it “despacito Qik.”
There are amazing business class fares from the West Coast of North America to China and even Hong Kong at a deep discount.
There are great deals on Air China, China Southern, Xiamen, Delta, and Japan Airlines to Beijing and Chengdu and a bit more money to Hong Kong. Fares are available out of Vancouver, Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco.
American and its joint venture partners British Airways and Iberia, along with United and Air Canada seem to be battling it out with crazy low fares between the U.S. and Paris.
$149 each way is even cheaper than transatlantic discounter Norwegian’s fares at the moment, and you fly a mainline carrier.
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The latest American Airlines employee podcast interviews Holly Hegeman. She talks about how she got involved covering the airline industry, doing consulting for Bob Crandall and doing the airline’s annual report with him.
I’m pretty sure I found Flyertalk.com in 2001 from a link on Holly’s PlaneBusiness website so in some sense I owe the start of my journey — which began reading Thomas Petzinger’s Hard Landing over 20 years ago and by traveling as a newly minted frequent flyer and that was accelerated through my association with Randy Petersen — to Holly.
This past week American Airlines CEO Doug Parker held an employee question and answer forum in Miami. A pilot there expressed his frustration at delays, saying that they’re measured in “dog minutes” because each minute feels like seven. They finally get on their way and arrive at their destination only to find that they have no gate.
Parker offered an explanation for how and why they run into a lack of gates.
WineAccess.com is a wine shop I wouldn’t usually buy from. Their prices are a bit on the high side. However there are (3) stackable offers that make them an amazing deal right now.
You can spend $250, get back $50 from referral credit, and American Express has an ‘Amex Offer’ of $60 back on $250 spend. And you can earn miles for your purchase through a shopping portal too.
They were more than generous, perhaps too generous, and out of step with much of the world. So this doesn’t surprise in the least. I just miss the idea that a valued customer is a valued customer each and every time and it seems a last little thread of that dies when this dies.
This is a really cool opportunity. The brand new San Francisco Polaris lounge will be opening April 30th. Before that happens there’s a preview day on Friday, April 27 where the lounge is fully operational. And any MileagePlus member can redeem for a visit.
This ultimately amounts to three years of vitriol for nothing. It lets the US airlines claim they got something (of little value) while allowing the targeted Gulf carriers to go on about their business.
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 »
