Tag Archives for american airlines.
I wrote on Thursday that American Airlines could find itself in chapter 11 bankruptcy. It wasn’t a prediction that this would happen, or a claim that it’s somehow inevitable. Instead it was an explanation that it is now thinkable because of their vulnerable financial position combined with high fuel prices, increasing labor costs, and looming recession. If these stars misalign for them, they’re the most likely big airline to take that hit.
Three successive rounds of taxpayer bailouts and the recovery of the airline industry should be good news for American Airlines, as it is for other U.S. carriers. However American remains in a more precarious financial position than its competitors and has less maneuvering room than other airlines do facing the headwinds that are on the horizon for the industry.
American’s financial statements show liabilities that are greater than their assets and they face four major challenges that could make things worse.
When a flight is delayed, and finally arrives at its destination, crew may announce that passengers without a connection should remain seated to let those with a connecting flight get off first, to give them a running chance of making their connection. Almost no one complies, ever.
Passengers in a hurry trying to get off as quickly as possible, ahead of passengers in rows in front of them, can be a source of conflict too. Here’s a woman trying to get by other passengers as they deplane – and the other passengers are having none of it. I’d bet the woman looking to get off wasn’t as polite in asking as she might of been, but they appear to be acting like real jerks.
There’s apparently a pigeon nest on the jet bridge at Philadelphia’s American Airlines gate A11. Cabin crew say they reported it “a month ago” but nothing was done.
Video shows a couple of pigeons making their way down the aisle of an American Airlines Airbus A321 as flight attendants encouraged them to deplane.
You can now choose the level of protection you’re comfortable with when flying, and in most areas of life, but there’s generally no longer a mandate for how others must protect you. For those at high risk that increases the need for good quality masking.
Being nice is in your best interest. I thought of this when I saw the story of a passenger who was trying to make a connecting flight after her inbound aircraft was delayed.
She says she ran to the gate with her baby. Apparently she was traveling with other family members, the flight was about to close and she got into an argument with the gate agent. When she took a photo of the agent’s name tag, the agent instructed her colleague to close the door early. Another passenger arrived, they opened the door back up for that passenger.
American Airlines makes companion upgrades free starting Thursday. That’s officially the end of 500 mile electronic upgrades (‘stickers’).
If you have any 500 mile upgrades left in your account they’ll each be converted to 250 status-qualifying Loyalty Points. However if you have any purchased 500 mile upgrades in your account you should contact American and ask to have them converted to 5000 redeemable miles instead.
American and its pilots union have been in negotiations over a new contract. The latest company offer is for a raise of roughly 17% by the end of 2024. The union’s new President says they knew their members are going to get paid – the real negotiations are over work rules and quality of life issues.
Their negotiating strategy seems to be to trash the airline in the media, with a mix of charges that have a grain of truth combined with nonsense.
About a month ago I came up with 6 reasons to fly American Airlines rather than Qatar Airways on the New York JFK – Doha route, now that American serves the routes. Fly America Act – government travel and you have to stick with a U.S. carrier Price – American is cheaper for a given trip Your corporate deal requires it – what are you going to do? To use systemwide upgrades – better to fly American business than Qatar economy American has premium economy – a great option for passengers not in a position to fly business There’s sometimes semi-decent web saver award pricing on American, useful for times when Qatar redemptions aren’t available Qatar Airways is so obviously the better experience on average, but I thought that there were also edge cases worth…
Back in March American Airlines named Julie Rath to head the AAdvantage program or at least the customer-facing parts of it. This is the shortest tenure at the helm of AAdvantage that I’m aware of.
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 »
