Should United’s CEO Fly American When Traveling With His Family?

by Gary Leff

airline cabin
Sep 04 2021

An airline’s CEO gets unlimited free travel, naturally. But United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby is unique. He and his family don’t just get to fly United for free. They can fly as much as they want on American Airlines, any flight in any class of service, as well.

That’s because Kirby was let go as President of American Airlines and immediately became President of United – in a move I hoped at the time would make both airlines better (it’s benefited United). This paved the way for Kirby to become CEO at United.

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Did Shoe Bomber Richard Reid Win In The End?

by Gary Leff

airport security
Sep 04 2021

Richard Reid, the “Shoe Bomber”, is a British career criminal who converted to Islam in prison and came a member of Al Qaeda. He attempted to blow up American Airlines flight 63 from Paris to Miami on December 22, 2001. The plot was foiled by several factors, from high humidity to Reid’s own perspiration dampening the fuse along with another passenger smelling smoke.

He was arrested, charged, convicted and eventually given 3 life sentences plus 110 years in prison without the possibility of parole.

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United Airlines Had To Track Down Passengers They Let Skip Immigration On Friday

by Gary Leff

Sep 03 2021

Friday afternoon’s United Airlines flight from Dubrovnik to Newark was delayed about an hour and a half on departure. On arrival passengers were let off the aircraft and staff opened a door into the terminal instead of directing passengers to immigration and customs.

The mistake was caught quickly, and as one passenger on the flight put it, the airline worked to “round up all of the people that headed off into the terminal.” Passengers were then held “until they figure out what to do next.”

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How Would You Feel Boarding This American Airlines Flight?

by Gary Leff

Sep 03 2021

A passenger passes along a photo from on board Thursday’s American Airlines flight AA3145. The SkyWest Bombardier CRJ-700 (registration N716EV) was headed from Phoenix to Santa Rosa.

This 18 year old CR7, ex-Atlantic Southeast and ExpressJet, moved over to Skywest in December 2018 and sat in storage until Feb 2021. And the interior looked like it should never have been taken out of storage.

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