Tag Archives for american airlines.
At American Airlines some of the required hours didn’t get paid during the mid-May pay cycle, and in fact many flight attendants whose scheduled flights were all cancelled received $0 checks. Others who got some pay appear to be missing hours. Many American Airlines employees will have to wait to get paid because the airline’s pay systems weren’t programmed to handle the way they’re currently paying employees.
According to the Senior Vice President of Air Operations at the American Airlines wholly-owned regional carrier Envoy Air, “all of the E-175s and E-145s that we parked as a result of COVID-19 [are expected to be] returned to service by June 3.”
In addition all of the 20 Embraer 175 regional jets that had been operated by Compass are being brought into the Envoy Air fleet “over the next few months.” The first one, aircaft N208AN, was sent to Abilene for conformity checks by Eagle Aviation Services prior to entering revenue service.
This past week American Airlines CEO Doug Parker hosted a Crew News question and answer session with employees. He’s been doing town hall-style employee chats since he was CEO at America West and this was the first one done virtually. Instead of live questions, he had an executive who framed ‘frequently asked questions’ from pilots, and separately from flight attendants.
In the flight attendant session Parker laid out American’s philosophy on pricing which is that they will match low fares in the market, but they will not lead discounting. And he explained they won’t even always match fares anyway – because the people who have been traveling recently are the ones who need to regardless of the fare.
American continues to spend money they do not have in order to squeeze more seats onto planes that they cannot sell. American is densifying aircraft to prepare for a future in which passengers demand the ability to buy more space for themselves.
That’s odd enough. Once they complete this retrofit, they go do it again to fix the flawed first class they continue to install.
American Airlines hasn’t been perfect, but it’s charted a path different from United and even Delta through the pandemic. They’ve generally honored refunds for cancelled flights, rather than choosing to illegally conserve cash the way United and others have attempted to do, and they’re plotting a course to avoid employee furloughs.
But they’re not capturing the value from these moves because they’ve failed to craft a narrative for the airline around being a better company, that frames them as the underdog and motivates employees and generates customer loyalty going forward. American Airlines can change that.
During the American Airlines first quarter earnings call last week they discussed the option to retire their fleet of 15 Airbus A330-200s. I speculated back in March that the A330-200s might leave the fleet.
However American Airlines has told employees that they are parking but not retiring these aircraft. Do not expect them to come back soon, though, because they are being stored “into 2022.”
American Airlines suspended all food on flights under 4.5 hours back in March to accommodate social distancing requirements. Then on May 1 they introduced a snack bag and bottle of water for all customers as they board the aircraft on flights that are between 900 and 2199 miles long.
Now American is testing a snack box to bring back some food to first class, that doesn’t require flight attendant preparation. Here’s what’s inside.
The point of shoveling out billions of dollars of airlines was to get airlines through the worst of the depression in travel so that workers all still had jobs, and to keep workers whole until then. That’s not how United Airlines is using the money, and American Airlines CEO Doug Parker calls them out for it.
United is likely correct on the law, Parker correct on the intention behind it. The way the CARES Act was drafted was sloppy, allowing United to take billions in government grants while reducing employee pay, pocketing more money to protect shareholders than the law intended. If airline’s had made clear how they’d behave after getting the bailout, it would never have passed.
Earlier in the day Citibank shared that the companion tickets earned from their American Airlines co-brand business card (after $30,000 spend in purchases each cardmembership year, at card renewal) that expire in 2020 will be extended to June 30, 2021.
Barclays has shared that their American Airlines companion tickets – offered as an initial bonus on new consumer cards, and earned from spend on their Red, Silver, and Business cards – will have their expiration extended as well.
Citibank is giving a credit of 50% of the annual fee to AAdvantage Executive cardmembers. This is the card that comes with American Airlines Admirals Club membership.
Citi and Barclays American Airlines companion tickets are also being extended.
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 »
