Posts about American Airlines
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—>The FAA has been investigating American Airlines for a while now over allegations that it wasn't repairing its planes properly, and yesterday the Wall Street Journal reported that the agency may widen its investigation, and even bring charges against individual employees who signed off on substandard repairs. More »
—>If you're planning any air travel on the busiest post-holiday travel days this year, prepare to pay $10 in an extra, uh, "fuel surcharge" on Delta, American, and United flights. Fuel is super extra expensive on November 29th, January 2rd, and January 3rd, you know. More »
—>If you thought you could escape American Airlines' increased domestic baggage fees by only flying abroad, think again: AA is raising checked bag fees for some international flights to Europe and India. More »
—>Every once in awhile we post a sad story about someone's 85-year-old grandmother being left at the gate because nobody came to push the wheelchair. This is one of those stories. The difference, however, is that in this case American Airlines left the woman at the gate, apologized, got her a hotel, brought her back, and left her with a Skycap. She missed the second flight too. More »
—>Kim is less than enamored of her recent American Airlines flights. Late arrivals made her miss connecting flights, her baggage decided to branch out and travel on its own for a while, all because she missed a different flight a couple days earlier: More »
—>Despite lowered fuel prices, American Airlines just can't seem to figure out how to make money. That's too bad for you — because you'll be paying higher bag fees. More »
—>Canine companions now have a place to do their business before boarding American Airlines flights at JFK. We think the fire hydrant was a nice touch, don't you? More »
—>What does it take for an airline to retain customers these days? Here's a tip: given the graying of America, try not treating elderly people with medical emergencies like crap. Livejournal user urzepatriz details how American Airlines added insult to his or her grandfather's injury. Literally. By bumping him to coach on a cross-country flight after an injury sustained during the trip required major surgery and left him unable to bend his knee. More »
—>If you're looking for the most legroom, look to the low fare carriers because the big airlines are cramming more and more seats into coach, says the WSJ. More »
—>London police arrested an American Airlines pilot twenty minutes before he was scheduled to fly 204 passengers from London to Chicago. 57-year-old Captain Joseph Crites was four-times over the legal alcohol limit and reeking of booze when he tried to enter his Boeing 777's cockpit. More »
—>When airlines said that baggage fees were successful, they weren't kidding. Collectively, they pocketed an extra $1.1 billion in luggage fees in 2008. American and US Airways led the pack — collecting $278 million and $187.1 million in bag fees respectively. More »
—>Ah yes, the Philadelphia Airport. You'll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. A baggage handler has been charged with two counts of theft after a woman noticed that $550 worth of clothes (with the price tags still on) had mysteriously wandered out of her luggage. More »
—>A man who paid nearly $400,000 in the late 80s for two lifetime passes from American Airlines is now suing the company, claiming they illegally revoked the passes after a supposed rule violation. The passes allowed him and a companion to travel anywhere they wanted in first class for the rest of his life, but AA canceled them after claiming he made "'speculative reservations' for companions." More »
—>Nobody told 74-year-old Mrs. Reynolds her American Airlines flight was canceled until she was on-board the wrong one. Her tale of sprinting, being stranded, and customer service failure, inside... More »
—>No longer distracted by high oil prices, airlines now claim that they're starting to focus on customer service. Two of them, American and United, think that their biggest issue is dirty planes. Wouldn't it be great if that were true? More »
—>In an attempt to improve margins during tough times, American Airlines will now charge fees to non-passengers, The Onion reports. (Thanks to ubermex!) (Photo: joyosity) More »
—>Inside, email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses for over 100 different companies to inject your customer service complaints into their corporate executive offices, and get it well on the way to success. More »
—>American Airlines has changed its mind about its liberal anti-porn-filtering policy and will, indeed, attempt to stop that guy in a trench coat from downloading naughty content. More »
“Who would have thought, after 30 years, that we’d be a flying 7-Eleven,” Becky Gilbert, a three-decade veteran of the industry told me during a break in our training session in Fort Worth. More »
—>It's true, you're all going to the same place, but American Airlines has decided to debut new dedicated lanes available only to the "elite" members of the AAdvantage program, full-fare coach customers, AAirpass holders and passengers in business and first class. The lanes will direct these desirable individuals swiftly through the airport from check-in to boarding — including security. More »
—>It's one thing if American Airlines loses your baggage, but what about your wife's body? What do you do then? One Brooklyn man was faced with this grim dilemma when he arranged to have his wife's body flown to their home in Ecuador after she passed away from pelvic cancer. American Airlines lost the body, and it went unrefrigerated for 4 days, according to the New York Post. More »
—>Here's some updates on the post about reader Josh, whom Orbitz wanted to make pay for a ticket they never sold him and he never used. Turns out that between when he sent his original letter to us in February and when we posted it, Orbitz sent him to collections. But now that his story got on here and Digg, Orbitz's ass-covering machine has been activated... More »
—>UPDATE: Orbitz Sent Reader To Collections For Ticket They Never Sold Him More »
—>A TSA employee used sensitive avionics equipment as a ladder while attempting to break into 9 American Airlines planes to test how well they were secured. The TSA agent was able to break into 7 of the planes, raising questions about the security of the aircraft, but also managed to ground the aircraft — causing at least 40 flights to be delayed at O'Hare. More »
American Airlines has launched broadband internet service on nonstop flights from New York to San Francisco, New York to Los Angeles and New York to Miami for a fee of $12.95 [Bizjournals] More »
—>The FAA is not pleased with American Airlines. They say the airline should pay $7.1 million in fines for deferring maintainence and not complying with employee drug testing requirements. AA says the fines are too severe and will appeal. More »
—>Tired of taking heat for refusing to waive extra baggage fees for soldiers, American Airlines has finally caved. More »
—>American Airlines is revamping its frequent flier program to include a fee to upgrade economy class tickets to business and first class. In addition to 15k frequent flier miles, AAdvantage members will, starting Oct. 1, have to pay between $50 and $350 for an upgrade. More »
—>Travel expert to the stars Christopher Elliott has a new column that explains 4 new or grotesquely inflated airline fees and some ways to get around them... More »
—>Let's say you are in the military and have to undergo some training before you are deployed to Iraq to fight in a war. Let's also say that this training requires to you bring 3 bags of equipment. If the airline you're flying charges a $100 "excess baggage" fee, but waives the $15 first checked bag fee, and the $25 second checked bag fee... is that "generous?" More »
—>Some airlines still call it "Rule 240" and others a "contract of carriage" but no matter what the name, it still means the same thing: power to the traveler. But which airlines still use it and how much does it protect a traveler? More »
—>Here's further proof you should never get on an airplane these days without a handful of energy bars and one of these: over 100 passengers of an American Airlines flight out of Miami were diverted to Dulles after it had pretty much closed up for the night, and consequently they were stuck for almost two and a half hours on the tarmac, then had to wait until after 4 a.m. to get their luggage this morning. The flight was supposed to land a little before midnight last night. "We regret the inconvenience, but the decision has to be safety first," an AA spokesman told WTOP News. More »
—>In a letter signed by 12 CEOs, the US air travel industry has called upon you, their customers, to help them lobby congress. What's the problem that they need help solving? Oil speculation. Read the letter inside. More »
—>Can it actually be unsafe to fly a plane full of seething, rage-filled passengers from Florida to New York? Apparently so. Flight 1908 from Miami to LaGuardia was delayed because the flight crew didn't arrive on time. When they did finally show up, the angry passengers started to boo. More »
—>For the third month in a row American Airlines is the worst airline when it comes to arriving on-time, says the Department of Transportation. Only 67.3% of American's flights arrived within 14 minutes of scheduled arrival. Also remarkably tardy were United Airlines and Continental. More »
—>American refunded Josh's airfare after canceling his flight to New York, but not his $15 checked baggage fee. Though the fee is listed in their system, American won't issue a refund unless Josh sends a formal request letter along with his baggage claim receipt to Tulsa, Oklahoma. More »
American Airlines could be laying off 900 flight attendants. [Dallas News] More »
—>Here at the Consumerist we get a lot of emails requesting more "happy stories." While we wait for some to happen, here are 13 headlines we would love to write. They are in no particular order. More »
American Airlines is cutting flights at most regional hubs. [South Florida Business Journal] More »
—>On Monday, an American Eagle flight which was in the process of taxiing at the Raleigh-Durham Airport in North Carolina turned around to kick 2-and-a-half-year-old Jarett Farell (pictured left) and his mother Janice off of the plane. According to WTVD, the unhappy toddler was crying loudly and after a few warnings, the decision to turn the plane around was made. Janice Farell contends that the crew was very short-tempered and unsympathetic toward her and her son and that everything would have been ok if it weren't for the flight attendant who kept upsetting Jarett. American Airlines claims they did nothing wrong. Details, inside... More »
—>AJ writes in to let us know that he too was lied to by American Airlines. They canceled his flight(s) from Pittsburgh to Austin (by way of Dallas). He called the 1-800 number but was met with a CSR who used "bad weather in Dallas" as an excuse, and told him there was no way to get him to Austin on time. More »
—>The bad news is that because of high fuel costs, United Airlines and US Airways will be following American Airlines in charging a $15 first-bag fee. The even worse news is that most of the remaining airlines will probably follow suit with the exception Southwest who locked in their fuel prices several years ago. Since the airlines are attempting to cash in on baggage fees, SmartMoney offers some tips on how to avoid them. The tips, inside... More »
—>Here's your third "Elite 8" match-up: #3 Wal-Mart VS #43 American Airlines More »
—>Reader S knows his stuff when it comes to his rights as an airline passenger. He was flying on American Airlines (AA) and takeoff was delayed. AA said it was because of thunderstorms in Dallas. He called a friend in Dallas and they said "there isn't a cloud in the sky." AA later revealed the flight was actually delayed because they were waiting for a fax. It's understandable why AA lied. Since this was something they had control over, it meant they owed several things to the delayed passengers. By lying and saying it was due to the weather, they could escape their obligation. The flight finally took off but reader S missed his connection and had to stay overnight in a hotel, a hotel room that American should have paid for. Inside, the letter S executive email carpet bombed after two customer service reps refused to listen to his story on the phone and an online form sent back a robotic received reply with no real results. More »
—>Two phone numbers for reaching American Airlines Executive Customer Service when normal customer service fails. More »
The bracket has been updated as we prepare for Round 4 of our Worst Company In America contest. See the full-sized graphic, suitable for framing or forming the basis of informal office betting pools, inside... More »
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—>An American Airlines passenger says they had to sit through an entire flight in a seat soaked with urine from a previous passenger, the Fort Wayne Observed blog reports. Here's an excerpt of the complaint letter they emailed the airline: More »
Before leaving home, Shawn's bags weighed 44 pounds. At Chicago, the airport scale said they weighed 44 pounds. When lifting off from Phoenix, the airport's scales said the bag weighed 52 lbs, incurring at $50 fee. When he landed in Chicago, he weighed the bags again at the check-in counter. 47.5 pounds. "Her bag had lost 4.5 pounds on a 3 1/2 hour flight,” Shawn told Elliot.org. After writing a complaint letter, Shawn received a $50 voucher from American Airlines who defended their fraudulent scale by saying they were in "full compliance with the policies for scale calibrations." So apparently the policy allows for defrauding passengers. The voucher is nice, but I would want my actual money back. And what of all the other travelers who didn't pay attention or didn't complain? Pure profit. More »
—>Forbes Traveler has put together a list of the top 10 most annoying airline fees, and it's a good one — or is it a bad one? Airlines are feeling the effect of skyrocking oil prices and they're trying their best to pass the costs along to you, their customers, without driving down demand. The result? These delightful fees. Gotcha! More »
—>Scott McCartney, who writes the Wall Street Journal's "Middle Seat" column, has some thoughts about what consumers can expect from airlines, now that oil has hit $130 a barrel. He says that "he change in oil prices from a year ago to today translates into $24.6 billion in added fuel costs for passengers and cargo airlines on an annualized basis," which is more than the airline industry has ever earned— its best year saw $5.3 billion in earnings. More »
This is Round 43 in our Worst Company in America contest, Time Warner Cable vs American Airlines!Here's what readers said in previous rounds about why they hate these two companies... More »
—>American Airlines has just announced that it will begin charging a $15 fee for the first checked bag starting June 15. The airline also said that it would raise fees for things like "reservation help" and "oversized bags." More »
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—>Every day, American Airlines gets up in the morning, looks in the mirror, thinks about the $3.3 million dollars it lost yesterday, brushes its teeth and gets ready to lose another $3.3 million. Fortune says the hemorrhaging began in January, and while red ink is no stranger to the airline industry, they're running out of things to cut. More »
—> Thinking of taking a trip but can't remember which airlines are bankrupt and which ones are part of Delta? We know it can be difficult—that's why we've put together a little cheat sheet to help you get through this time of uncertainty. More »
—>American Airlines has canceled 570 more flights today, upping their total number of cancelled flights (this week) to A BAZILLIONTY. (Ok, 3,000.) More »
—>The trouble continues at American Airlines! They've cancelled 933 more flights today. This raises the total number of flights canceled this week to 2,500, as the airline struggles to perform a backlog of neglected safety inspections on its MD-80 aircraft. More »
—>American Airlines has announced the cancellation of upwards of 500 flights as they inspect the way a bundle of wires are attached to the MD-80 aircraft. These new inspections stem from FAA concerns about the way American handled the last round of emergency inspections. More »
—>Two seniors who bought $753 roundtrip tickets to Rome ended up paying nearly $10,000, thanks to flight delays and airlines reneging on their promises. The Lopilatos had a flight on American Airlines from LAX to JFK, then continuing on to Rome on Alitalia. The flight was scheduled to arrive in New York three hours before their flight to Rome, but it didn't and they missed the flight to Rome. At first, American got them seats on a plane to London and then on to Rome on British Airways, for free. But then all of a sudden the seats were gone and now the tickets were $2,065 each. Not wanting to miss their tour group, the couple agreed. Then when they went to come back from Rome, Alitalia canceled their return flight because they missed the outbound, another $2,000+ in return tickets. When they tried to get refunds, each airline blamed the other and denied liability. How to avoid the same thing happening to you? Fly nonstop. More »
—>Reader Drew is currently stranded at Dallas Fort Worth airport and would like to speak with someone from American Airlines on the telephone. Unfortunately, we're the only ones he can reach. More »
—> A woman has filed a $200,000 lawsuit against American Airlines alleging the flight crew failed to protect her from a passenger who moved into the seat next to hers while she was sleeping, then "masturbated to her" and—well, you've seen "There's Something About Mary"? Yeah, that. More »
—>American Airlines managed to rebook all but five passengers after canceling one of its four daily flights from Chicago to London. The five still needed to get to London, so American rustled up an empty plane and invited everyone up to business class. Seems nice, but Friends of the Earth is outraged that American burned 22,000 gallons of fuel for five passengers. Great customer service or eco-scandal? Vote in our poll, after the jump. More »
—> Yesterday's story of the death of a passenger on board an American Airlines flight continued to unfold throughout the day, and now CNN has posted an article that addresses some of the questions people were asking about in-flight emergencies in general. CNN spoke with several experts in the area where medicine overlaps with the airline industry to find out how airlines prepare for the inevitable really sick passenger. More »
—>American Airlines is disputing reports that the oxygen tanks were empty and that the aircraft's defibrillator did not work on a flight in which a 44-year-old Brooklyn woman died of complications from heart disease and diabetes. More »
"First customer service sent a 1 hundred dollar voucher.. then the secretary to the CEO sent a 500 dollar voucher... thanks for posting this it really helped." - Juliana's update to her EECB to AA sent in July 2007. More »
—> A 44-year-old Brooklyn woman was returning from vacation in Haiti when she began to have trouble breathing. According to her cousin who was on the flight with her, she was refused help twice by the flight attendant, then she was brought two oxygen tanks with masks—but both were empty. Her cousin requested an emergency landing, but before they could touch down in Miami she was dead, so the plane continued to JFK. The airline isn't commenting on why the emergency tanks were empty in the first place. "After the flight attendant refused to administer oxygen to Ms. Desir, she became distressed, pleading, 'Don't let me die,' Mr. Oliver recalled." More »
—>The first sign that Russell Petrie was too drunk to fly was probably when he boarded the plane and yelled "let's party and have some drinks!" More »
—>Reader Tom writes in to let us know that American Airlines will no longer rebook you on another airline in the event of a delay or cancellation. He attempted to lay the old "Rule 240" on them and was told that Rule 240 had been changed to "Rule 18"... whatever that is. More »
American Airlines flight attendant throws two snack bags at a passenger's head, then dumps water on his head, dripping down onto his cashmere sweater. By way of apology, AA gave him 5,000 bonus miles. [Elliot.org] More »
—>You don't need to hire a forensic meteorologist to dispute an airline's so-called weather delay and get the compensation or rebooking you're deserved, sometimes you just need the internets! Here's how Jasmine did just that with a recent flight on American Airlines:
My last canceled flight was blamed on the weather. I called a friend with the internet, had them look up the weather at my destination and en route (which was fine). I went back to the desk and said, "The weather is fine. You sure there aren't other problems?" That's when then he said that it was the weather AND technical problems with the plane... More »
—>American Airlines told Justin that they could not accept his American Airlines credit card due to a bug in their spiffy new booking system. Justin wanted to charge a trip to Disney World on the card, which unlike standard credit cards, is supposed to work exclusively for purchasing tickets with American Airlines. More »
—>"What is ya'lls experience with dealing with AA when the passenger has a case of appendicitis? My sister is going under the knife in London right now, and was admitted to the ER 6hrs before her scheduled flight back to Seattle. We've called AA and they say no chance of getting any sort of re-booking, rebate, coupon, or whatever because she was listed as a "No Show" for the flight. We called the airline before the flight to inform them of the situation." More »
—>If we had an award for most pissed-off consumer ever, it might go to Kate Hanni. After being stranded on the tarmac by American Airlines in 2006, she started a group called "The Coalition For An Airline Passengers' Bill Of Rights," which, since we first reported on it, has grown from a blogspot blog to a full blown lobbying group that has a tipline and issues press releases. More »
—>The Associated Press is taking the Transportation Department to task over data that seems to contradict its own findings. American Airlines operated two flights that have been late over 70% of the time for 3 consecutive quarters, making AA eligible for a total of $50,000 in fines, says the AP, but the DOT has failed to act. More »
—>The New York Times is taking a look at American Airlines' recent effort to improve their checked baggage operation. Who would have thought that dirty printers were causing lost baggage?
Workers at American found that printers that produce adhesive tags for bags were often dirty. That made bar codes hard to read, leading to misdirected bags. Regular wiping of the printer heads helped, but even with a clean printer, the bar code readers are only about 90 to 92 percent accurate, said Denise P. Wilewski, manager of airport services for American here. More »
—>When a storm forced American Airlines to divert 130 planes from Dallas-Fort Worth last year, the airline tracked the diverted planes not with an advanced computer system, but with a legal pad.
Lacking any automated system for keeping track of all those diverted planes, Mr. Dillman and his colleagues furiously scribbled down details of where they had gone, how long they had sat there, and whether pilots had enough time left on their daily work limits to keep flying when the weather cleared. More »
—>An American Airlines passenger was found sitting on a jet bridge at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, covered in salad dressing and missing a shoe, according to the Star-Telegram. More »
Google's motion to dismiss a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by American Airlines has been rejected. American Airlines claims competitor's advertising is being "triggered" by their trademarked search terms, such as "AAdvantage." [ComputerWorld] More »
—>In an attempt to turn their planes into flying concession stands, American Airlines will be testing several new "for sale food options" this holiday travel season (on select flights only.) More »
A passenger on the flight, Lane Harris, told MSNBC that he credited the pilot for bringing the plane in as smoothly as possible, although the landing was rough. More »
—>Several airlines are taking small steps to reduce the infuriating delays that have plagued carriers during their no-holds-barred fight to remain profitable. Airlines are still cramming their planes full of paying consumers, but they are hoping that building more ground time into schedules and changing the way flights are diverted will alleviate some complaints. More »
—>US Airways managed to hold on to something as the floor dropped out of a few other airlines' on-time percentages... so let us introduce our new punching bag: Atlantic Southeast Airlines! More »
—>American Airlines was fined $231,000 back in June for unsafe work conditions at Chicago's O'Hare airport. The conditions included fall hazards, electrical and fire hazards, hygiene issues, blocked exits and storage of oxygen and acetylene cylinders. More »
But a ray of hope is peaking over the edge of the wing, Arpey says the airline is exploring making it possible for passengers to deboard if they've been waiting on the tarmac for over four hours. How generous! More »
—>According to the Associated Press, an American Airlines flight was grounded after passengers complained about 6 men who were speaking Arabic. The men had been hired by a company called Defense Training Systems to train Marines at Camp Pendleton. More »
—>The Wall Street Journal bought day passes for several US airline lounges and reviewed each one to see if the lounges were really worth the hefty price of admission. Here is a summary of the results: More »
—>American Airlines has sued Google over search terms that include words that American Airlines has trademarked. For example, if you search Google for "Aadvantage," American Airline's frequent flier program, Google will display a link to the program, but also show ads from competitors. More »
—>According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics complaints about airlines were up 47.2% in the first six months of 2007. More »
—>The Chicago Sun-Timestakes a look at the difference between American Airline's new in-flight WiFi service and other failed services that came before it. What will be the big difference? Technology. Unlike more pricey satellite services American will use technology that uses ground-based cellular phone sites to provide internet. More »
—>American Airlines will test fee-based broadband on its transcontinental flights early in 2008. If you hate listening to other people talk on the phone, don't worry—they're going to block Skype and its ilk. More »
—>American Airlines thinks the solution to their customer service woes is a web form that limits submissions to 1,500 characters. Each submission gets a tracking number, which American Airlines executives mistake for a resolution. From the Star-Telegram: More »
It's expensive to run an airline, which is perhaps why American Airlines in-flight radio offered to interview Freakonomics co-author Steven D. Levitt for the price of $3,995. [Freakonomics] More »
—>American Airlines faces fines of up to $231,000 for unsafe work conditions that include fall hazards, electrical and fire hazards, hygiene issues, blocked exits and storage of oxygen and acetylene cylinders, according to the Chicago Tribune. More »
United and American Airlines introduced new business class seats. United's let you lie completely down. [Upgrade Travel Better] More »
You'd be hardpressed to find it on their site or listed anywhere else online, but American Airlines does have an email for addressing customer inquiries: Customer.Relations@aa.com. (Thanks to Lina!) More »
—>Travler's friend site Elliot.org has these great customer service "cheat sheets" to help you if you have a dispute with your airline. CEO contact info, how to hack their phone trees, email addresses, phone numbers, mailing addresses, it's all there. More »
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To Whom It May Concern: More »
—> American Airlines is offering no interest no payments for 6 months on airline tickets purchased through an offer on their website. This means that, essentially, one can purchase an airline ticket in the same way that one purchases, say, furniture or a camcorder. More »
—>American Airlines pissed off the wrong people when they stranded several flights at Austin International Airport in December. Now the Coalition for Airline Passengers Bill of Rights, which started as a blog full of irritated consumers from those flights, has grown to 15,000 members and is holding press conferences. Today they've issued the first "Airline Strandings Report Card," in which they detail not only the failures and successes of various airlines, but also highlight the inaccuracies of the Department of Transportation's statistics. More »
—>Time magazine has an article about the state of the passenger's bill of rights that is currently attached to the FAA authorization bill and is making its way through the Senate. More »
—>According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the following flights are the 10 worst flights in existence. They're regularly scheduled and they are late 92-100% of the time. Avoid them like you avoid drug-resistant TB. More »
—>Effective December 15, 2007, American Airlines frequent flyer miles will now expire after 18 months of inactivity, down from three years. Your account will get reset, at that point, If you haven't nudged your account since Jun 15, 2006. Apparently, whatever one airline does, either up or down, others follow suit. United and US Airway also recently introduced 18 month frequent flyer lifespans. — BEN POPKEN More »
—>Cheater! Copy-cat! American Airlines has resigned their website "based on focus groups" and by "focus groups" they mean, "Southwest Airlines' website." More »
—>Stop us if you've heard this one before, a flight was diverted because of severe thunderstorms and passengers were left to sit on a grounded airplane for 8 hours. By the time they arrived at their destination, they'd been on the plane for 11 hours. Sound familiar? It happened again. The snacks and drinking water got scarce. Someone ordered pizza—"50-70" slices for 200 people. More »
—>In the never ending battle to see who can widen the disparity between coach and First Class the most, American Airlines has stepped in with the following new First/Business Class Only amenity: A weird-looking iPod wannabe media player thing. Yeah, really. More »
—>This has to be the weirdest press release we've ever read, and that's really saying something. More »
—>The Trans-Atlantic deregulation agreement known as "Open Skies" has airlines chomping at the bit—even though the start date is still 11 months away, according to USAToday. The agreement will allow any US airline to fly anywhere in the EU and any EU airline to fly anywhere in the US. So, will you be flying Aer Lingus from Cleveland to Dallas? Maybe. Will it be cheaper? More »
—>Hallelujah, American Airlines has eliminated the gender-gap they created last week with the introduction of a powerless pink "women's" search box. Women are now directed to American's front page, where they must cope with the powerful, feature-rich man search. More »
The passenger, Taisuke Matsuo, 66, apparently had a heart attack on an American Airlines flight from Tokyo to Chicago during the first leg of a trip home to Indianapolis, according to the lawsuit filed Monday by his wife, Carolyn D. Watts. More »
—> American Airlines has altered their adorable pink "women's" search box, it's now blue and looks almost like the boy's search box except for the lack of scary tools. More »
Check the latest carry-on regulations, find advice on travel safety and wellness, and pick up tips for a stylish and efficient travel wardrobe.Psssst. Women like clothes. Mention that on the site. This is awesome. They're totally going to fly our airline now. Make the search box pink, and get rid of all those "tools," women hate tools.—MEGHANN MARCO More »
—>If it's the airline's fault that your flight is delayed or canceled or you missed your connection, whip out a copy of their Rule 240. More »
—>An American Airlines pilot was acquitted of the charge of attempting to operate a plane while under the influence of alcohol. The cause for acquittal: Sleepdrinking! More »
—>Several airlines canceled flights today due to snow and ice in the northeast, with JetBlue canceling twice as many as the next guy. More »
Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority spokesperson Lynne Lowrance said an American Airlines employee took Gore and two other passengers from the airline's ticketing counter through a door in the baggage claim area where only "badged employees" can enter. The door led to a tunnel and then to a ramp that accessed an American Airline's gate beyond the airport's security checkpoint. More »
—>American Airlines is abandoning a policy that prevented coach passengers from using the first class lavatory on all its flights. After 9/11, the TSA added a rule stating that on all international flights to the US, passengers were allowed access to the lavatory in their own seating section and no other. More »
—>American Airlines will answer every New Yorkers prayers by extending service to Atlanta, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Louisville, Raleigh-Durham and Cincinnati. Crain's thinks service to these bastions of municipal greatness will be enough to start "a battle for the New York area's airports." That can only mean one thing: price war!
The airline has been quietly expanding its New York service over the past two years, adding five new markets last year and four new cities in 2004. It's most recent push is to grab business travelers, offering new lie-flat service on international business class flights out of New York starting in May. But being the "strong, silent type" only gets an airline so far.We never though of American as either strong or silent. More like that giant asthmatic neighbor rifling through their garage shouting at the squirrels. More »
United is following Delta's lead in another round of fare hikes this week. American also went along for the ride,as airlines raised fares $3-$5 each way. Up, up, and away. —MEGHANN MARCO More »
- Now things started getting serious. The lady next to me announced she had Diabetes, and began to beg the stewardesses for something to eat. She was shaking uncontrollably, and her husband looked really concerned. Her meds were in her luggage. The stewardesses found an old crusty bagel, and a milk (which she spit out instantly as "spoiled!").
Death can strike without warning, making it hard to get a good deal on an airline ticket for the funeral. When this happens, ask your airline about a special "bereavement fare." More »
We love getting tips about nice things happening to good people. No, really. We do. American Airlines misplaced the flight crew for one of our readers' flights, delaying he and his wife for a really, really long time at O'Hare. Then the magic happened. Without complaining, or contacting American Airlines in any way, Larry got the following email. More »
—>Good old Jason Kottke, hero of the internet, has posted a couple links to some folks who've discovered a way to replicate the "buy lots of pudding, get frequent flier miles" plot-line from P.T. Anderson's Punch Drunk Love, which, in turn, was based on "a caper well-known within the frequent flier community when David Phillips purchased over 1.2 million frequent flyer miles for just under $2400, which has allowed him and his family to fly to over 20 countries for free." More »
—>Gari N. Corp sends in these weird "Good job!" chits American Airlines mailed him. More »
Having conquered the imminent threat of self-immolating shampoo, airline safety has returned to "iron-clad" status. Yeah right, all the terrorist need is a credit card with the same as someone flying that day. Using such a card, one can print a boarding pass and get on the aircraft. Creating the card would require access to a credit card writer, which hasn't proved an obstacle for numerous identity thieves and ATM hackers. More »
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—>Weave a circle around you thrice and shut your eyes with holy dread. Those gay guys in the row ahead of you are kissing on the airplane! More »
—>American Airlines is foaming at the mouth about its depction in the recent ABC telewhatever, The Path to 9/11 More »
—>When Ra K. broke up with his girlfriend, he wasn't just torn away from her sweet caresses... he also lost nearly a grand, all thanks to American Airlines. More »
—>The next time you fly American Airline's friendly skies, you might want to bring a mouse trap. More »
—>Somehow sensing that things were not going to go well, a Livejournaler by the name of Ovid liveblogged his travails in trying to go from JFK to the emerald isles. His travels are undercut by American Airlines' inability to change a tire, which causes a chain reaction of unfortunate events not unlike a butterfly flapping its wings in Tokyo and causing global warming. More »
Here's the results of our week-long investigation into how fast it took airlines to pick up the phone. More »
All week we've been calling the airlines to see how long it takes their customer service reps to answer the phone. Here's today's rankings: More »
Midwest, while once again the loser, performed slightly better today. More »
Nothing can stop us from calling up all the airlines and comparing how fast it takes a carbon-based life form to pick up the phone. Not even the tinkly pianissimo of Midwest's hold line. We foil all the automated response system's attempts to pry out more information about an actual ticket using the short circuit shortcuts provided by GetHuman. More »
We're calling the major airlines this week to see how long it takes them to pick up. More »
The statistics train keeps on rolling. We called up many major airlines this afternoon and here's how long it took for them to pick up. More »
—>A Maryland woman claims her luggage was 'covered in blood' when she retrieved it from the carousel. More »
—>Here's your favorite posts of the week to reminisce over a glass of vermouth and an old corsage. Here's looking at you, top stories. More »
—>Brad tried to board his American Airline flight only to be told he was already in the air and would have to purchase another ticket. When he refused, the boarding agent accused him of stealing. More »
A humanitarian aid group en route to Haiti suffered from a scheduling change made by American Airlines and had to pay $450 in hotel bills. American Airlines (AA) refused to offer hotel vouchers in return. More »
