Tag Archives for american airlines.
One passenger shared the meal they were served in first class on an American Eagle breakfast flight from New York LaGuardia to Atlanta. It looks like a broken up granola pieces sandwich and that’s what the passenger thought that it was, describing it as “the driest sandwich known to mankind” although they “thought it was chorizo too at first.”
It’s been tough to be an American AAdvantage member over the last several years if you actually want to use your miles to fly American. Since US Airways management took over in the final days of 2013, far fewer passengers have been traveling on American using their miles. That’s largely the result of a lack of saver award inventory.
The airline pledged to change that, and just released new numbers to the SEC that says how they’re doing.
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 United is still in testing.
While American moved forward with pre-orders for buy on board in coach, they didn’t actually extend pre-orders to first class on regional jets. That’s finally changing.
United has a program called ConnectionSaver to hold planes for connecting passengers where it won’t cause system or other passenger delays. United expects 25% of flights to arrive 10 minutes early (or more) every day. So holding plenty of flights still allows for on time arrivals.
American doesn’t defer to a computer for this. Their operations center can make the decision to hold a flight, for instance when there are a large number of connecting passengers they’ll have difficulty accommodating in the event of a misconnect. However there are 3 cases where gate agents are allowed allowed to hold the boarding door for customers past 10 minutes to departure.
When I made it onto the aircraft my first class seat was still empty. They were going to send the flight out with an empty first class seat, which was great for me, not great for the next person on the upgrade list.
We arrived on time and that makes American’s operational stats appear improved but the little pieces that matter to customers along the way are still a problem.
American Airlines had been winding down its partnership with Alaska Airlines. American viewed Alaska Airlines as a competitor once Alaska acquired Virgin America. They emphasized the substantial route overlap rather than the unique contributions of each airline.
Now they’ve done a 180 degree turn. But for this to work for American, can Alaska have such a generous frequent flyer program?
American Airlines has a new internal video for employees explaining that cramming more seats onto planes is good for business and good for customers too. Vasu Raja, the airline’s Senior Vice President of Network Strategy, says that densifying “both for our customers, for our team, and for the future of american airlines that’s an amazing thing.”
There are four basic arguments American makes. I don’t think they hold up well to scrutiny.
American and Alaska are partners again. The previously-announced March 1 breakup isn’t happening. Alaska Airlines is joining oneworld. And American will fly from Seattle to Bangalore, India (and Seattle – London).
Boeing projected recently that re-certifying the 737 MAX will take until summer. Once it gets government approvals airlines still have to bring planes out of storage and prepare them for service, and they have to train pilots on new procedures – which will take time in part because of a limited number of available simulators.
And yet American Airlines and other carriers have the plane scheduled back into service in June. CEO Doug Parker updated employees on progress bringing the 737 MAX back into service during last week’s Crew News monthly question and answer session.
American Airlines is the only remaining U.S. airline the claims to offer international first class. The top cabin on both United and Delta is business class. However there’s good reason to think American Airlines may eliminate the product, too. And there are clues in the new business class seat focus groups that support this conclusion.
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 »
