Tag Archives for american airlines.
Last week four American Airlines passengers were downgraded on a flight from Charlotte to Honolulu because they ‘arrived at the gate too late’ even though they were there 25 minutes prior to departure. Their seats were given to employees or relatives or employees to enjoy instead.
The gate agent who did it was wrong, but there’s a confusing rule that should be clarified.
Leisure travel isn’t just vacation, it’s also “visiting friends and relatives” or ‘VFR’ for short. And those passengers tend to check a lot of luggage. What’s more, the mix of passengers traveling has changed. Business travelers don’t tend to check nearly as much luggage. So the same number of passengers as before on a plane comes with more luggage now than it used to.
American Airlines has adjusted some baggage fees in the Mexico, Caribbean, and Latin America market, perhaps most notably increasing third checked bag fees to $200.
A week ago I wrote about why codeshares are great for airlines, not customers, and why you should almost never book one. There are edge cases, but in general they’re a hassle – whether because you need to get rebooked due to a schedule change or even just have a seat assigned.
What prompted me to write about this is that American Airlines, despite its close alliance with JetBlue in the Northeast, is unable to assign seats on JetBlue flights. American’s workaround wasn’t working, so now there’s a new one.
Did you know that eight years into the American Airlines-US Airways merger, not all work groups were on a single system, and the merger wasn’t ‘complete’?
American was one airline to passengers long before it was a single airline to employees. The airline’s systems for tracking aircraft maintenance were still separate – until last week.
American is working through whether it’s feasible to operate large widebody aircraft – Boeing 777s – from other hubs on their flights to Charlotte. They’d gas up the 777s, which can fly to Asia, with full tanks of fuel in places like Dallas. Then they’d siphon out the gas for flights that need to depart from Charlotte.
Russian hacking group DarkSide appears to be responsible for the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack which caused the shut down of the pipeline which supplies over 2.5 million barrels per day of oil to the Southeast especially but also to the northeast.
We are already seeing scheduled re-fueling stops for the longest flights out of Charlotte. American Airlines has scheduled its Charlotte – Honolulu and Charlotte – London flights with fuel stops for Tuesday.
Today American Airlines introduces new amenity kits with Shinola bags and fragrance items from D.S. & Durga. These are available now on London Heathrow flights (Dallas-Fort Worth; Miami; Chicago O’Hare; Los Angeles; Charlotte; New York JFK; Philadelphia; Seattle) and “will roll out across other long-haul international and transcontinental flights throughout the summer.”
In addition, there are limited-edition MD80 desk clocks for sale from Shinola with the American Airlines logo and without. Shinola wall clocks will appear in some Admirals Clubs this summer.
The airline maintained that social distancing on board wasn’t necessary because of HEPA air filtration, downward air flow, cleaning regimens and masking. Yet they continued blocking some seats to maintain distance for flight attendants.
That policy ended, too, on May 1.
An interesting story American Airlines upgrade story – compounded by terrible customer service – tells me it’s worth reminding that American Airlines does not offer any way to upgrade to premium economy before the day of travel and that no American Airlines upgrade instrument will cover the cost of a premium economy upgrade.
This is actually a good thing because it means that all advance upgrades, and upgrades paid for with a certificate, still skip over the premium economy cabin.
It wasn’t until after TWA flight 800 that the U.S. government began requiring passengers to show ID. President Clinton wanted to be able to announce something to look like he was doing something after the event, since initially there was speculation that the explosion was terrorist-related rather than an accident.
Airlines have wanted customers to show ID for a long time because they don’t want their tickets to be transferable.
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 »
