american airlines

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American Expands Lounge Access To Elites And Business Class On Short International Flights

by Gary Leff

world map in lounge
Jan 27 2021

There are fewer of these passengers today, with borders closed and testing requirements in place. Furthermore there’s very little international business travel. And frequent flyers with club memberships have been flying less as well.

So the real fight is for leisure passengers, many of whom haven’t been frequent flyers, and they’re mostly traveling to close-in destinations like the Caribbean and Mexico. And American is expanding airport club lounge access as a result.

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American Airlines Has Just Issued A Warning To Travel Agents About ‘Hidden City’ Tickets

by Gary Leff

Jan 26 2021

a memo has gone out from American Airlines to travel agents, available on its SalesLink platform warning them that the carrier is cracking down on a variety of ticketing techniques, including hidden city ticketing and ‘churning’.

Over the summer I wrote about American directly investigating customers for ticketing practices that violate the airline’s rules, and more recently confronting customers at the airport and demanding passengers pay up for their past sins against the airline. Now they’re warning tagents.

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Wide Open Business Class Awards To Israel From 55,000 Miles Each Way

by Gary Leff

inside airliner
Jan 25 2021

American Airlines is offering fantastic business class award availability to Israel. That’s notable even in its own right. You may not be traveling now, but book six months out. The world may look very different. And American no longer has any charge to cancel and redeposit award tickets, so there’s no risk.

There are several things notable about this award space that offer insight into how American is running inventory management for the AAdvantage program.

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American’s New Protein Box In First Class

by Gary Leff

Jan 20 2021

Last week American Airlines shared with its pilots that they’re testing what they call ‘tapas’ in domestic first class.

This test of new meals is happening on about 40 flights a day departing from Charlotte. It becan January 13 and runs through March 9, 2021. And, a spokesperson for American shares with me that there are two versions of this new meal, a “fresh new protein box and vegetarian box meal concepts.” Here’s what the ‘protein box’ looks like

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The Biggest Challenge American Airlines Faces Delivering On Its Clean Commitment

by Gary Leff

insideairplane
Jan 19 2021

For several years American Airlines has had a laser focus on ‘D0’ exact on-time departures. It hasn’t made them an on-time airline, but they’ve sacrificed cleaning, processing upgrades and standbys at the gate, and wouldn’t hold even the last flight of the day for connecting passengers.

Gate agents, used to getting called in for missing D0, and used to managers yelling at them as they try to get flights out, haven’t fully adapted to the need to prioritize aircraft cleaning in the Covid era on just pushing the aircraft back on time. Before the pandemic sacrificing cleaning to get planes out was the airline’s explicit policy.

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American Airlines Preparing For Retirement Of Doug Parker, Elise Eberwein

by Gary Leff

Jan 18 2021

According to an announcement by the firm that American Airlines tapped to find its new Chief Human Resources Officer, the role they’re hiring for will eventually report to Doug Parker’s replacement – who will be an internal hire – once Executive Vice President Elise Eberwein retires and the airline replaces Doug Parker as CEO with an internal candidate,

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Ignore The Snipes From Competitors, American’s Deals With JetBlue And Alaska Are Good For Consumers

by Gary Leff

outside airport
Jan 18 2021

By giving American strength in areas where they’re weak, we’re going to see a viable competitor:- especially against Delta and United in New York. Delta is the clear market leader in ‘actual New York’ and United is dominant at Newark. American-JetBlue together become a third competitor.

And with Alaska, American addresses its weakness in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest – and helps preserve Alaska as a strong competitor against Delta’s encroachment in Seattle.

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Don’t Expect American Airlines To Require Vaccination For Travel (They Won’t Require It For Employees)

by Gary Leff

Jan 16 2021

In November the CEO of American Airlines joint venture partner Qantas announced they planned to require vaccination in order to fly. U.S. airlines have had internal discussions about following suit. However I do not see how American Airlines could require passengers but not crew to have been vaccinated in order to travel.

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