Tag Archives for american airlines.
At an employee event this past week American Airlines CEO Doug Parker was asked about the Black Lives Matter wristband he was wearing and he offered, “I understand it’s somewhat controversial because of the organization but the words are what I care about and I’ve been wearing it since the murder of George Floyd.”
Update: This was caused by a data matching error at Capital One Kyetra Bryant flew American Airlines from Charlotte to Denver over Thanksgiving. She and her companion checked in at a kiosk and paid a checked bag fee. She says the charge appeared on her bank statement as “African American, African service charge.” Hey @AmericanAir What is an African American African service charge??!?!? pic.twitter.com/UmR0sBGLPT — A Simp Named Slickback (@___seeryandavis) January 29, 2021 At first it seemed like perhaps a ‘rogue kiosk’ is at fault (because while American is unable to manage processing confirmed upgrades online, they have rogue AI kiosks) or… American Airlines appears to blame Mastercard, The customer alerted American to the offensively labeled baggage fee on her bank statement in mid-December. We were disturbed by what we saw and immediately launched an…
If there’s a chance customers might choose another airline because they can be confident that airline’s employees have been vaccinated against Covid-19, American would be forced to do the same thing in order to stay competitive according to the carrier’s CEO.
During American’s “State of the Airline” presentation and question and answer with employees, Managing Director of Flight Service Brady Byrnes explained that they’re working through what’s next for meals and are talking with the flight attendants union “about what is the right timing both from a customer and from a crewmember perspective.”
The purpose of American’s current Charlotte meals test is to “kind of understand when we do reintroduce full service, what products we should be offering, kind of streamlining the service for our flight attendants and really making sure that our customers enjoy it.” The return to service is going to be streamlined.
American Airlines started letting customers pre-select their meals online when they’re flying in premium cabins back in the fall of 2012. Delta didn’t roll out this feature until early 2019 and going into the pandemic United was still in testing.
The airline offered meals pre-ordered between 30 days and 24 hours before a flight, selecting from items that are offered on board anyway. Most meal service on domestic flights was scrapped, though, early in the pandemic.
American Airlines stock went on a speculative tear as investors guessed that the Reddit ‘Wall Street Bets’ forum might turn their attention to the heavily-shorted airline stock after the GameStop play ends, or even sooner.
But the GameStop play is unique, a short squeeze like nothing we’ve seen since Volkswagen in 2008. It isn’t something that happens every day, at the drop of a hat, because a collective hedge fund on Reddit decides a stock is the next meme.
In December Congress passed a $15 billion airline payroll bailout, requiring airlines to bring furloughed employees back to work and pay everyone December 1 through March 31, 2021. Per furloughed worker this was the most expensive jobs program in history (at over $1.1 million annualized per job) and American says it’s only spending 10% of the $3 billion it received on furloughed workers.
American’s flight attendants union says it was told to prepare for a new round of WARN Act notices, so we may be starting layoffs all over again – and they along with another union are asking the government for a third airline bailout. Maybe this time most of the money won’t go to shareholders and creditors instead of workers.
Twenty passengers headed to Hawaii were kicked off a flight by American Airlines on Sunday. Ten adults and ten children (ages 3 to 13) were on board a Salt Lake City to Dallas Fort-Worth flight when, they say, a gate agent flagged one of them for inadvertently letting their face mask fall beneath their nose.
American Airlines seems to be gearing up for another run at is single most profitable investment: lobbying in Washington DC. They haven’t been formally engaged by the government over domestic Covid testing requirements, suggesting such a plan may be farther off or less real than some have speculated. And they continue to bring on a lot of new aircraft, seeing that as effectively costless because of cheap financing.
On this morning’s American Airlines earnings call, still ongoing, Chairman and CEO Doug Parker opened saying he wasn’t going to comment on recent moves in their stock.
Their stock has been rising with 29% of its float currently shorted and worldwide attention being paid to GameStop.
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 »
