American Airlines delays start of Chicago-Beijing flights

by Scott Carmichael on

Yesterday, American Airlines was scheduled to start a new non-stop route from Chicago O’Hare to Beijing – but a last minute snag has forced them to delay the launch. American had requested a preferential take-off and landing slot from the Chinese Government, but was handed slots for a 2:20am arrival, and a 4:40am departure – making the whole thing pretty useless.

American Airlines is working behind the scenes to negotiate a better schedule, and as of right now, the first Chicago-Beijing flight should leave on Tuesday May 4.

Customers who were supposed to be on the inaugural flight are being offered a full refund or free date change to the later flights. Of course, nobody knows yet whether those dates will stay put, or what the final departure and arrival times are, so keep checking AA.com for updates.

American Airlines expands mobile boarding pass system to 19 new airports

by Scott Carmichael on

Yesterday, American Airlines announced on Twitter that their mobile boarding pass system has been expanded to 19 new airports.

The system allows you to receive an email link to a mobile boarding pass on your (smart)phone, and to save the image to your device. At the security checkpoint and boarding gate, you simply show your phone, and allow the bar code to be scanned.

Now, this all sounds great on paper, but I’ve had my fair share of problems getting it to work correctly – the scanners at the checkpoint don’t always work, and when you are in line at the gate waiting to board, you’ll need to be sure you can pull up the image quickly.

When your phone goes into standby, it can take 20 seconds or more to get back to the image. Also, on the iPhone I’ve noticed that the image needs some zooming to work correctly. Back in 2008, our very own Grant Martin was one of the first to take the system for a spin – and had similar issues.

Still, paperless boarding is the future, and eventually the minor issues will be resolved, which means you no more late night hassles to find a working printer at your hotel.

The airports participating in the mobile boarding pass system are: Albuquerque (ABQ), Atlanta (ATL), Austin (AUS), Charlotte (CLT), Chicago O’Hare (ORD), Cleveland (CLE), Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW), Denver (DEN), El Paso (ELP), Houston George Bush Intercontinental (IAH), Jacksonville (JAX), Las Vegas (LAS), Little Rock (LIT), Los Angeles (LAX), Memphis (MEM), Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP), New York LaGuardia (LGA), Oklahoma City (OKC), Orlando (MCO), Phoenix (PHX), Santa Ana/John Wayne/Orange Counte (SNA), Salt Lake City (SLC), San Antonio (SAT), San Diego (SAN), San Francisco (SFO), Tulsa (TUL), and Washington Dulles (IAD) airports.

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American Airlines to remove free blankets – wants $8 to keep you warm

by Scott Carmichael on

Well, I hate to say that it is now “official”, but American Airlines really has entered into the territory of the low cost carrier – by charging for their blankets.

The new charge goes into effect on May 1st, and is just another fee facing passengers.

According to the airline, they are introducing the fee based on “customer surveys”. Unless that survey asked passengers for ways they’d like to receive less service for the same amount of money, I’m not sure where they got the kind of input that would force them to remove free blankets.

Of course, removing free blankets wouldn’t be so bad, if the airlines managed to keep the temperature on their planes at a comfortable level – alas – even though you are sitting inside a computer operated fly-by-wire jet plane, technology still has not evolved enough to keep the cabin comfy.

The new charge will apply to flights two hours and longer from the US to Canada, Mexico, Hawaii, the Caribbean and Central America. Shorter flights don’t get blankets, and long haul flights are apparently safe (for the time being). I guess the time has come for us all to bring our own Snuggie?

As always, we love to hear from our readers, so what do you think?

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American Airlines is being watched by the FAA

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Three strikes have led to increased federal attention for American Airlines. The last month hasn’t been kind to the airline. In two instances, planes bumped wingtips with during landings in Charlotte, North Carolina and Austin, Texas and another overshot the runway in Jamaica. The FAA released a statement on Friday indicating that it would review these situations in case they’re symptoms of a larger problem. American Airlines, of course, is cooperating with the FAA in this matter.

And, this comes on top of the airline’s customer service debacle, in which a flight attendant threw a nutter over a passenger’s request for orange juice (still no word on whether disciplinary action or litigation has occurred).

This doesn’t change my perspective on American as the one to beat in 2010. A little extra FAA scrutiny doesn’t change much, and if the airline comes out the other end with no problems – and, better, resolutions – this extra look will soon be forgotten.

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American Airlines is the one to watch in 2010

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Could 2010 be the year for American Airlines?

Well, it’s hard not to see the light at the end of the tunnel after a decade of unusual airline severity. The market was shaken several times by terror attempts – including the attacks of 9/11 – economic pressures from the dotcom meltdown and the recent financial sector only made matters worse. Energy prices hit some peaks along the way, which, according to Joseph Lazzaro of our sister site, BloggingStocks, determines the fate of the U.S. airline sector.

But, AA in particular? The guys with the flight attendant who through a nutter over orange juice?

The stock is up 90% since June. To most travelers, this is not just irrelevant, but boring … until you think about how these matters can impact your experience on an airline. When a company is profitable, it has an easier time serving its customers. And, employees tend to relax a little bit, as profits and stock prices tend to be good signs that jobs won’t be disappearing (at least not in large amounts).Also, I use stock price as a proxy for intangibles, like brand strength, customer loyalty and other factors that are hard to quantify. At the end of the day, the price determined by investors takes all this stuff into account, giving customers and passengers a feel for how the airline is likely to treat it.

So, cast aside the recent high-profile debacles of this airline, including its recent runway faux pas in in Kingston, and think to the future. After all, everyone’s screwed up. United has its guitar-playing victim, and Northwest (and, as a result, Delta) watched a plane overshoot a destination. In a business where every player is scraping the bottom of the barrel, American may rise above, even if only slightly.