Tag Archives for american.
American has some of the most complex routing rules of any frequent flyer program. They do not publish those rules publicly. So it’s important to lay out what goes into determining how many miles an award costs, so you know what to expect (and how to save your miles).
You need to know about maximum permitted mileage, the most direct routing rule, and the prohibition on travel between two regions via a third region unless there’s an exception allowing you to do so.
Airlines don’t like it when you check a bag to a connecting city rather than to your final destination. It turns out though that you can short check bags, it’s just tough. Generally speaking airlines will let you do it on connections of 6-12 hours, and will require you to do it on 12+ hour connections (they don’t want to hold the bag that long).
I was interested to learn the official American Airlines policy for short-checking bags, and unsurprisingly it’s very much linked to hidden city ticketing. The policy was just updated last month,
When you check your bags with an airline you expect that it will arrive at its destination. While the TSA has carte blanche to open your bags, the airline isn’t supposed to. When it happens it’s a huge breach of trust.
However acrimonious labor negotiations at American Airlines seem to now be affecting passengers, as a customer reports finding a union flyer in a checked bag after picking it up last Thursday at baggage claim.
American’s first Airbus A321neo is about to enter commercial service on Tuesday, April 2. They have 100 of the ‘new engine option’ planes on order (22 of these deliveries have been deferred). It’s being outfitted in a new ‘dense’ configuration along the lines of the American Airlines 737 MAX, which has the airline’s new standard domestic interior.
In a communication to employees the airline is highlighting five features of the new aircraft.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
According to the Points Guy website American Airlines will no longer issue infant tickets when you redeem miles for awards on any of their partner airlines except British Airways.
If this were accurate it would be huge news. I had heard nothing of the sort, so I decided to test it out.
On American Airlines flight AA535 on March 25th there were more than passengers in the first class cabin.
I’m guessing standard compensation for a bee sting is around 5000 miles or a $100 travel credit.
American classifies their hubs in three tiers. They’re reducing capacity most at their disfavored hubs.
About a month ago I wrote that despite speculation I don’t believe American Airlines will fly to India for four reasons.
These are the same reasons, by the way, that I’m skeptical about rumors of American launching Los Angeles – Manila.
When American changes from a legacy Boeing 737-800 to a retrofitted ‘Oasis’ plane with a different configuration, most passengers keep the same seat numbers even though those seats are completely different.
You might have purchased a premium or Main Cabin Extra seat and won’t be in one of those seats anymore – which largely seems like a fail on American Airlines’ part.
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 »
