American Airlines Orders 20 Supersonic Jets, Fly To Europe In 3.5 Hours Or Asia In 5 Hours

by Gary Leff

Aug 16 2022

Last summer United Airlines placed an order with Boom Aerospace for supersonic jets. Now American Airlines has placed an order, too. American claims they’ll have the biggest fleet of supersonic jets since their order is for 5 more planes than United’s.

American made a non-refundable deposit on the first 20. It’s unclear what non-refundable means: probably non-refundable in the case Boom Aerospace winds up in bankruptcy, but non-refundable if there’s never an engine for the plane?

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Pilot – Son Of The Airline’s Chairman – Sends Distress Signal By Mistake, Gets Intercepted By F16s

by Gary Leff

Aug 16 2022

An Airbus A321 from Madrid to Beirut operated by SkyTeam member Middle East Airlines was intercepted by Greek F-16 fighter jets after the pilot of August 10th’s flight 242, son of the airline’s Chairman and Director General, became non-responsive to air traffic control after signaling a distress code. Nothing was wrong, and the flight’s captain may have simply failed to communicate on the correct frequency.

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London Heathrow Continues Limit On Passengers, But American Airlines Says Things Are Getting Better

by Gary Leff

Aug 15 2022

Last month London Heathrow airport placed severe restrictions on the number of passengers who could fly out of the airport, in the face of staff shortages that had left to interminable waits, missed flights, and lost luggage.

Passenger limits were set to end September 11 but have been extended through October 29. Yet American Airlines is actually lifting is ban on nonrev passengers that had been implemented due to the caps saying conditions are improving.

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Unboxing The American Airlines ConciergeKey Welcome Kit

by Gary Leff

Aug 15 2022

Following the change to my account status, from Executive Platinum to ConciergeKey, I received a welcome email and then a phone call thanking me for my business. I was told to expect a welcome kit in about 3 weeks. In total it took 17 days.

On Friday I received an email that I had a Fedex package coming from “Specialty Print Communications” and that it would arrive by Tuesday. I googled them and saw they did work for American Airlines, so I knew this had to be my ConciergeKey package.

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6 Reasons Delta Flight Attendants Should Reject A Union

by Gary Leff

Aug 15 2022

The Association of Flight Attendants – Communications Workers of America (AFA-CWA) is trying to organize flight attendants at Delta. They are promising more money, less work and a pony. It costs them nothing to make promises, which are almost certainly not true. In reality, Delta’s cabin crew will pay for union representation, they won’t make as much money as they will under Delta’s unique model in the industry, and their work lives will be worse.

Every Delta flight attendant should ask, are cabin crew represented by AFA-CWA actually happier and better off at the myriad of airlines where the union represents them now – like United Airlines, Spirit, Frontier, and Mesa?

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Marriott, Hilton and Big Hotel Chains Are Jeopardizing Their Entire Business Model, How Much Is Left?

by Gary Leff

Aug 14 2022

When the Marriotts and Hiltons of the world actually owned the hotels that they marketed, there was better alignment of incentives for maintaining and extending their brands (and they found it much easier to deliver promises to guests on-property). An ‘asset light’ model where the chain simply rents out the brand can work – but needs a laser-like focus on defending and growing the value of the brand, not merely living off of and depreciating it.

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