Tag Archives for american airlines.
At the end of last week American Airlines President Robert Isom held a town hall meeting with pilots, a recording of which has been reviewed by View From The Wing. Isom outlined the airline’s aircraft fleet plans for 2021.
Platinum Pro members can have choose a confirmed international upgrade, miles and other choices – and get new higher-tier oneworld alliance benefits. Executive Platinums can choose several options like miles and a club membership instead of confirmed upgrades if they’d like – and get the Platinum Pro choice, too.
Booking an American Airlines flight may now be the most convenient way to get Covid-19 testing at home whether you plan to travel or not (and current ticket purchases generally don’t incur change fees if you choose not to travel).
How important are airline frequent flyer programs? United, Delta, and American Airlines have each mortgaged their frequent flyer programs for between $6.5 billion and $9 billion apiece. Stifel analyst Joe DeNardi says that without the ability to attract this cash, both American Airlines and United Airlines would be in bankruptcy.
Speaking on a panel at the Loyalty Summit online conference on Wednesday, DeNardi made this bold claim – but one that’s backed squarely by the numbers around cash burn and how much airlines have raised.
Current American AAdvantage head Rick Elieson interviewed former American Airlines Chairman Bob Crandall at the Loyalty Summit. Crandall spoke about innovations at American, from computer reservation systems to launching the AAdvantage program, the failed launch of a hub and the need for transparency with customers.
He believes “a substantial share of business travel will not come back” and shares how he’d approach the business as a result.
The new American Airlines safety video was supposed to debut back in April. It was delayed due to the pandemic. They queued it for December rollout, but decided it wasn’t a good time and tried to pull it back.
Many of the employees featured in the safety video are… no longer employees. They’ve been furloughed since the video was shot.
Back in April I shared details of the new American Airlines safety video. The airline held off releasing it because of the Covid-19 pandemic. I only posted an 18 second snippet to offer a taste, looking forward to the airline’s planned release.
Now, however, the video is playing temporarily on 70 aircraft so I’m happy to share it in full.
The two airlines submitted copies of their agreement to the Department of Transportation for review on July 22, 2020. The review requirement isn’t just for codeshares and frequent flyer program tie ups as announced but also for “long-term wet leases involving a substantial number of aircraft” – a wet lease provides not just planes but also crew.
There are active discussions around what to do with the Airbus A321T premium configured fleet and a report suggests that there’s a plan to rip out the interiors and replace them with the standard domestic ‘Oasis’ offering.
The A321T offers 10 first class, 20 business class, 36 Main Cabin Extra (extra legroom coach) and 36 economy seats and is used on premium cross country routes. Moving to ‘Oasis’ would mean these planes would lose seat back television, a lot more seats would be squeezed in, and there would no longer be a lie flat business class or first class product.
The Boeing 737 MAX is officially allowed to fly again in commercial service. A lot of things need to take place before that happens, but while Southwest Airlines plans to take 4-5 months to get the plane back in the air, American Airlines is far more aggressive – planning to fly it again on December 29th.
Employees of American Airlines and its wholly-owned regional carriers (Enjoy, Piedmont, and PSA) and of the American Airlines Credit Union are being invited to take one of five ‘flights to nowhere’ on the Boeing 737 MAX before it re-enters commercial service at the end of December.
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 »
