American Airlines Is Nearly Done Updating Its Boeing 737s Into ‘Torquemada Configuration’

by Gary Leff

Dec 27 2020

While other airlines minimize their spending to conserve cash during the pandemic, American has been accelerating their capital spending to convert planes more quickly to this new standard. This is the wrong product at the wrong time: exactly the moment where there are fewer customers (so planes with more seats are less needed) and customers value space between them most (so reducing space between customers makes no sense).

American is nearly done. They have now sent 200 Boeing 737-800s in for densification. That’s two-thirds of the 737-800 fleet. But it’s far more of the active fleet.

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Why French Polynesia Hotels So Often Disappoint

by Gary Leff

Dec 26 2020

A correspondent shares his recent experience with an overwater bungalow at the Hilton Moorea. He found “the grounds are lovely, the staff was very nice, the breakfast excellent” (though service not proactive). However this was overshadowed by problems with his room and with the hotel’s service, truly creating a ‘stay from hell’.

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Here’s What Happened To The Class Action Refund Lawsuit Against American Airlines

by Gary Leff

Dec 25 2020

Several lawsuits were filed over airlines’ resistance to providing customers with refunds when either cancelling or substantially changing itineraries early in the Covid-19 pandemic, as required by U.S. law. A class action lawsuit against American Airlines has been resolved in a draw.

In my experience American Airlines was one of the few ‘good guys’ with refunds. The places to focus on are the airlines and online travel agencies which really did act badly against their customers – like United, JetBlue, Air Canada, and online travel agency sites.

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The Christmas Eve Safety Briefing That Makes Flights Awesome

by Gary Leff

Dec 24 2020

Many flight safety briefings are done by video nowadays, at least on aircraft equipped with inflight entertainment. But flight attendants used to do safety briefings live and on some aircraft of course they still do.

As long as all of the relevant information is included in the briefing, the particular verbiage isn’t dictated. Back in 1999, I think, I first heard “‘Twas the Flight Before Christmas” and it went something like this:

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