Tag Archives for american airlines.
The American Airlines retrofit plan of its Boeing 777-300ERs is called Project Olympus. These Boeing 777-300ERs are getting a lot more seats – and a lot more premium seats – 84 to 114 total premium seats, without losing any coach seats. In order to do this, it means that current seats have to be squeezed and so do lavatories.
Here’s an American Airlines first class passenger with their own idea about what the purpose of a hot towel is. Normally passengers get one. This passenger asked for two and went to town with them.
The one thing I value most from Executive Platinum is – I suppose – not something that many flyers factor when making their decision. As often as I’ve had challenges getting where I’m going with American, the ability to put backup flights in a reservation during irregular operations has made a huge difference getting me to my destination close to as-planned.
An important thing to know is that if you buzz because you’re boarding before your group is called, the gate agent can clear the flag on their screen and allow you to board. If you’re traveling with a family member or friend on a different reservation, for instance, it is actually policy according to the airline that you should still be allowed to board together in the earlier group.
Aer Lingus is an oddball airline. Geographically Ireland is well-placed for connections between the U.S. and Europe, in addition to serving a major tourist destination. They’re owned by the same company as British Airways and Iberia. However, they’ve historically had a stronger partnership with Untied Airlines than American Airlines.
Even though the Airbus A330-200s were parked four and a half years ago, that fleet is still only about 13 years old on average. It was larger in quantity and newer than the 9 orphan -300s which were certainly on the way out, even without the pandemic.
These planes were ex-US Airways, from shortly before taking over American, and had just been retrofit to offer premium economy before being parked.
There’s something special about flying a widebody aircraft domestically. These are larger and usually more spacious planes, designed to take passengers across oceans. Many passengers simply find them more enjoyable.
Sometimes the middle seat passenger is the one who’s just out of luck. Even worse is if the couple talks to each other throughout the flight, leaning over the stranger between them.
Often gratuitous bag checking – the can of beer, the loose deoderant – is done by passengers taking advantage of their free baggage allowance. Of course, just because you can doesn’t mean you should! But who’s in for showing up at an American Airlines ticket counter, insisting on checking 5 liters of water for free?
Having to share power in coach has become more of a problem as passengers increasingly rely on their devices – either for inflight entertainment (because American Airlines flights lack screens) or to connect to the world (Delta’s free wifi).
But how about this passenger in first class who seems to need more than one outlet for themselves – and deprives the passenger behind them?
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 »
