What the Integration of American and US Airways Really Looks Like — and What Agents are Saying

by Gary Leff

Oct 17 2015

Things went very smoothly this morning departing Austin the morning that US Airways transitioned to publicly become American Airlines. Computer systems were working, passengers were getting processed, flights were taking off. My own flight pushed back on time and even landed almost 15 minutes early in Phoenix. Not everything went as planned, though…

Agents went through training at various times. One that I spoke to had just done her training, she wanted to be fresh for the cutover. Another who trained in August told me she assumed that she would go to training and that would be it — she was surprised to be emailed her account credentials immediately after, and she had two months to practice.

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The US Airways Brand is (Mostly) Gone, But for Employees it Will Live On Awhile

by Gary Leff

Oct 17 2015

Today the US Airways brand has been mostly retired for customers. The US Airways frequent flyer program was folded into American AAdvantage back in March. What were once US Airways flights are now American Airlines flights.

For employees though US Airways continues to live on in a very real way. Here are the US Airways systems that still need to be merged over the coming year.

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First Look at American-US Airways Combined Operations Today

by Gary Leff

Oct 17 2015

I’m flying to Phoenix and back today to see how well the American Airlines-US Airways integration is going. Today is the first day of the combined operation where there’s no longer US Airways flights, only American flights and American reservations.

I decided to start the day early to see how things looked at the very beginning. And my goal was to fly on a legacy US Airways route, to a US Airways hub city, to get a real feel for how the US Airways side of things (the stuff that’s actually changing) was operating.

Here’s how everything is going as the day opens on the American-US Airways integration.

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Delta is Increasing the Price of Lounge Passes – More than You Think, and Not for the Reason They Say

by Gary Leff

Oct 16 2015

Delta has increased the price of lounge passes from $50 to $59, but they’ve tucked in another change. Lounge passes are now good for only one visit — you can no longer buy a full day’s worth of visits for that price. So the real comparison is what a single visit pass used to cost, which a year ago was just $25 and then $29.

Oddly if this were about crowding they wouldn’t charge $59, they’d charge $60, since they would want the price to seem more expensive. It’s about maximizing revenue.

Not only does most of the world have better lounges, they don’t charge elites for access at all — and it’s purely an historical accident that lounges come with paid access in the U.S. to begin with.

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An Inside Account of How Amex Lost the Costco Deal, and What it Means Going Forward

by Gary Leff

Oct 15 2015

Bloomberg ran a long piece purporting to tell the story of how American Express came to lose to Costco co-brand deal, and along the way details the challenges American Express faces to its business model.

It begins with narrating the cultural differences between American Express and Costco and then suggests that an insult may have caused American Express to lose the deal.

American Express says the deal ended for purely economic reasons, and I suspect that’s right. I’ve suggested that as costly as it was for American Express to lose Costco, it would have been more costly to retain Costco.

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American Airlines Flight Delayed By Bees

by Gary Leff

Oct 15 2015

Yesterday Jeff P. emailed me from the gate area of American Airlines flight AA70 from Dallas to Frankfurt. The flight was delayed in a little over an hour because “approximately 1000 bees have swarmed the cargo door and the crew can’t access it. A beekeeper has been called in.”

Apparently they had two swarms of bees, and a beekeeper had to be called in twice…

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AMAZING FARE: $646 British Airways Business Class Roundtrips to London from Several US Cities!

by Gary Leff

Oct 15 2015

Stack a British Airways sale, the $400 AARP discount (anyone can join) with the 10% BA Visa discount and you have dirt cheap business class US-London.

Alternatively you can take advantage of a promotion to use British Airways Avios at 2.5 times their usual value when partially paying for a ticket. 30,000 points saves ~ $750 and stacks with the AARP discount.

This is available from several US cities but must be purchased by 11:59pm Eastern October 16.

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