Tag Archives for american.
The first Boeing 787-8 that American Airlines received is the first one to be receiving a premium economy retrofit, and will become the first one in the fleet with only 20 seats up front.
On September 4, American’s Boeing 787-8 registration number N800AN arrived at Chicago O’Hare from London Heathrow. Then it flew the next day to Everett, Washington’s Paine Field. And it’s been sitting in the Pacific Northwest ever since.
American boards earlier than the time they put on boarding passes for a couple of different aircraft types. This is a known issue at American, and one they’ve chosen not to spend on the IT to fix. It’s one reason you may show up at the designated boarding time and find your flight halfway boarded.
It’s been over 3 years since I wrote about American’s ‘Goldilocks Problem’ boarding planes too early (before stated boarding time on boarding passes) and updating customers about delays too late.
I find that American won’t post flight delays until boarding time for an aircraft, even when those delays are blindingly obvious. And they won’t update delays until revised departure times have passed. That’s an issue because it wastes customers’ time.
Six months ago I reported that American Airlines was in the market for used Airbus A319s.
There was a rumor at the time that American would pick up these narrowbody aircraft from Frontier Airlines but then time passed and nothing happened. Now it seems that American Airlines is receiving its first ex-Frontier A319, registration N922FR.
Twenty police vehicles along with a helicopter were deployed in the chase. Inbound aircraft were diverted and more than 80 flights were cancelled at the airport.
Politics aside Papa John’s is probably the best of the large pizza delivery chains. Thank goodness the pilot didn’t order Domino’s or Pizza Hut, that stuff is just nasty.
So whatever you think about the controversy surrounding the ex-CEO of the chain he’s the ex-CEO of the chain, it’s ok for pilots to order pizza from them in large quantity, there’s no reason to self-immolate with other chains’ cardboard with red paint.
At the end of June American Airlines CEO Doug Parker told employees, “We’re not going through the whole fleet and adding a bunch of seats to airplanes or taking out larger bathrooms and putting in smaller ones.”
That wasn’t true. Not only is American Airlines taking delivery of new Boeing 737 MAX aircraft with more seats squeezed into the same air frame than ever before, they’re going through their existing fleet of Boeing 737-800 aircraft and “adding a bunch of seats” (from 160 currently up to 172) and “taking out larger bathrooms and putting in smaller ones” (in order to fit more seats).
The problem airlines face is that charging for things that are included in a ticket now, or raising fees, is really just a price increase. And passengers may not be willing to pay more, some may stay home or drive.
If a price increase meant more money for the airline, airlines would raise prices.
There are some amazing Hawaii fares out there in coach, such as $246 roundtrip. And the deals aren’t just from the West Coast either.
These aren’t mistake fares, it’s a fare war. Several airlines are in on it, and there are great Hawaii deals from several US cities to several destinations in Hawaii.
American Airlines is a lot stricter with same day confirmed changes than their competitors are.
Only Platinum Pro, Executive Platinum and ConciergeKey members can same day change for free, everyone else pays $75. You have to keep the same number of stops and keep the same connecting city or cities. You can’t connect in Dallas instead of Chicago. You can’t move to a non-stop flight from a connection or vice versa. And you can only make a same day change when specific inventory is available.
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 »
