Tag Archives for american airlines.
That time between 24 hours in advance of departure – when check-in opens – and when the flight goes under airport control has just seen some changes to how upgrades work on the back end. An internal memo from American Airlines lays it out, and I reproduce it below.
American Airlines widebody aircraft find themselves in a variety of countries, taking on a variety of cargo, and with passengers bringing on things that they probably don’t want to disclose to customs. Planes get infested with a variety of insects. American has a new procedure for dealing with cockroaches in particular – and only on their widebody aircraft.
An American Airlines Boeing 737 captain lays out proper flight etiquette – and that it’s going to be enforced – before every flight. One passenger caught the soliloquy on video, titling it “Thank you for coming to his TED talk.”
Here’s the thing. This pilot is right in every single respect.
Aviation watchdog, whose sources inside airlines are generally impeccable, says that there are murmurs of a closer relationship between oneworld carriers American Airlines and Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific. This would be surprising to me.
American Airlines flight attendant Elizabeth Braley shared an incident that happened on her way home after an international trip. A red sedan cut her off on the road several times. The driver seemed to be “trying to run [her] off the road.” The crewmember tried to avoid the sedan, to get out of the way, and to otherwise flee to safety. But, she says, the driver kept at it.
Finally the sedan pulls up next to the flight attendant’s car and yells insults at American Airlines and throws things at her. She “almost wrecked” multiple times.
Social standards have evolved. Who is flying is different in the airline’s telling, it’s less corporate travelers and more leisure travelers. So it may be appropriate to update the airline’s image – something many other airlines are ahead of American on. And that’s something that will be taken up for flight attendants as well as passenger service agents.
Smaller regional jets don’t have overhead bins that will hold regular-sized carry on bags. On those planes, passengers usually tag them at the gate and drop them off at the bottom of the jet bridge before getting on the plane. Those bags are then returned to the jet bridge on arrival – customers don’t have to go to baggage claim to collect them. It’s (usually) a much faster process.
One problem airlines face, though, is that while people put their names and other identifying information on checked bags, they often don’t tag their carry on bags.
American Airlines has shared with employees that it won’t be retiring any more aircraft types through 2030. In total, they’ll take delivery of 23 new planes this year, and they will consider an order of new narrowbody aircraft for 2027.
The American Airlines flight attendants union has sent out a message to members instructing them not to engage in “self help” meaning job actions that hurt the company, without being released from negotiations by the National Mediation Board.
This message comes with a bit of a wink and a nod.
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom’s caveat that updating the contract could come quickly – or it might not – was clearly intentional. It won’t be a matter of just substituting in new, higher pay rates. This suggests they’re going to be negotiating and re-negotiating other language in the deal as well.
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 »
