Archive for the 'American Airlines' Category
May 06 2008
Fuel cost have caused Oakland and LAX to lose existing and planned service: American is pulling out of Oakland after serving the city for more than 60 years. Oakland has also lost service from ATA, Aloha and Skybus in the past month or so.
JetBlue said that it will not launch planned service between LAX and NY/Boston. Passengers who have booked those flights will have the option of flying out of Long Beach. That sigh of relief you heard was Virgin America.
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May 02 2008
American Airlines recently lost a lawsuit filed by skycaps in Boston who claimed they had lost wages because of American’s $2-per-bag charge for curbside check-in. American’s subcontractor for skycaps then raised hourly rates for skycaps to about $12-14/hr, from the $5.15 per hour they used to receive (along with a hefty set of tips).
In response, the airline has forbidden skycaps in Boston for accepting tips from customers. Seems a bit petty, no?
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March 19 2008
As my mother reads this website, I’ll just say this: A woman is suing American Airlines because the passenger in the seat next to her was doing something to himself that people typically don’t do in public and the resulting aftermath was reminiscent of a scene in There’s Something About Mary. American denies responsibility, though their old slogan “Something Special in the Hair” (or was it Air?) seems fitting…
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February 25 2008
A passenger died on an American Airlines flight from Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, to JFK on Friday after she complained of feeling ill. She twice asked a flight attendant for oxygen, and twice she refused the passenger’s request. After other passengers began to get upset, they attempted to administer oxygen, only to find that the oxygen canisters were empty.
You might have guessed that her death was the worst part of the story. Well, close. The worst part is after she died when they dragged her body to the first class cabin, put her on the floor, and covered her with a blanket. Upgrade, my ass.
(Update: American Airlines says the oxygen worked just fine. Well, not fine enough to save the passenger, but they said that the canisters were not empty.)
(Update 2: Let me give a shout-out to AA’s PR department for keeping me/us updated on this. Here’s their official position) :
American Airlines on Monday said it did administer oxygen and applied a defibrillator to a 44-year-old woman on a flight Friday from Haiti to New York who later died before the plane landed.
“We are investigating this incident…but American Airlines can say oxygen was administered and the Automatic External Defibrillator was applied,” the company said in a statement Monday.
The airline didn’t say in its statement whether the medical equipment worked, only that they stood behind its functionality.
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February 21 2008
American Airlines launched service between Flint and LaGuardia last August and, surprise surprise, shortly thereafter Northwest announced the same flights. Incredible! As you are probably thinking, Northwest didn’t want that route, they just didn’t want anyone encroaching on their lucrative New York to Detroit market (Flint is about an hour north of Detroit). Well, if that’s what you were thinking, you were probably right: American announced that they are dropping the route after seeing their planes flying about 40% full.
This was also the first time I’ve seen airport officials (in this case, Flint’s airport officials) complain about new competition. Even they knew that Northwest was only coming in to drive American out. Which is, as I noted 45 words ago, exactly what they did. To be fair, Northwest says they are “committed” to the route, which means that they’ll wait about 60 days before they cancel it.
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January 03 2008
2 passengers who were stranded for 8 hours on an American Airlines that had been diverted to Austin, Texas, have sued the airline alleging false imprisonment (among other charges). The highlight of the suit? "The toilets became full and would not flush, and the stench of
human excrement and body odor filled the plane,"adding that passengers were deprived of medication and "suffered hunger,
thirst, anxiety, physical illness, emotional distress and monetary
loss." How does that differ from a normal flight? (The writer’s strike is now affecting my own writing, clearly.)
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September 07 2007
You may not need exact change to buy that drink on your next flight on American…
The carrier is testing cashless flights (different from the profitless flights they tested from 2001-2005) out of San Francisco for 3 weeks, accepting only credit and debit cards for in-flight purchases. I’m certain this will mark the beginning of the end for onboard cash sales (I know, this isn’t earth-shattering news. But I thought you’d want to know anyway).
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August 23 2007
Since Spirit has invaded American’s south Florida turf, AA has launched a number of fare sales designed to annoy them. They announced another yesterday, including these fares:
Fort Lauderdale or Miami to:
Nassau, Bahamas: $34
Port-Au-Prince, Haiti: $69
San Pedro Sula, Honduras: $59
Managua, Nicaragua & San Jose, Costa Rica: $69
Fares are good midweek through December (for the most part).
To be fare, Spirit has low fares in this range quite frequently, but they don’t offer the far superior schedule American has (nor does American have 2 1/2 hour red eyes from Central America — I’m certain you really don’t want to leave Managua at 1am to arrive in Miami 2.5 hours later.)
American Airlines and Great Deals | No Comments » Print This Post
August 02 2007
Give American Airlines some credit here: The carrier says that they will test on-board wi-fi on its 767-200s beginning next year. The CEO of the company providing the technology (AirCell) says that airlines can break even if they charge $10 to use it. Not too shabby…
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July 26 2007
American Airlines has launched a real live fare sale (not one of those so-called fare sales where the fares aren’t any better than usual) between south Florida and Latin American and/or the Caribbean. How cheap?
Miami - San Pedro Sula, Honduras is $49 each way
to Nicaragua? $59
Guatemala? $69
Costa Rica? $69
Whew, they sure are annoyed with Spirit.
Fares are good through early December, with regular Thanksgiving blackout dates. Oh, and you need a 3 day stay.
American Airlines and Great Deals | 3 Comments » Print This Post
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Oakland to Lose AA, LAX to Lose JetBlue