American Airlines to deliver free liquor to top customers

by Tom Johansmeyer on

American Airlines is stepping up to take care of some of its most loyal and committed customers. The carrier is going to start offering up free booze in its U.S. Admirals Club lounges beginning October 1, 2010. Look for the basics – “well-brand liquors, as well as beers and house wines” – the company said in an announcement. Premium alcohol and food will be available, but not free.

The company continues, in its statement, “Our customers have asked for free drinks and we are delighted to respond to their request by providing this service for our existing and new members at our clubs worldwide.”

[Image credit: AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee]


This comes on the heels of another perk offered in the Admirals Club. American put the word out on Monday that it was bringing new HP computers into the lounges “to offer members and guests the latest technology for their professional and personal needs.”

This is both nice and smart. In addition to improving the travel experience for its customers, American is focusing on those with likely the highest spending behavior, which means it’s rewarding its best passengers – a tactic that works well in just about every other business.

Airline extra fees: $2 billion in three months

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Airline fees are definitely not going away anytime soon – not after the second quarter it gave the airline industry. Carriers in the United States raked in $2.1 billion in fees and extra charges in the second quarter of this year, a 13 percent year-over-year surge. And, it was good enough to deliver the sector’s first profitable quarter since 2007.

Well, here’s the worst part for you: most of it came from checked baggage fees. This annoyance was good for $893 million in the second quarter of 2010, a gain of 16 percent from the second quarter of 2009. Reservation fees were good for $594 million, with ancillary revenue (e.g., frequent flier mileage sales and pet fees) reaching $618 million.

Delta benefited most from the fees that passengers hate most, at $682 million. American Airlines and US Airways were next.

[photo by cliff1066 via Flickr]

Barbados within reach: American Airlines adds nonstop flights from DFW

by McLean Robbins on

Texas residents will have even easier access to the sun, sand and fun this summer with the addition of new non-stop flights to Barbados courtesy of American Airlines. This new nonstop, three times per week service from the airline’s Dallas- Fort Worth (DFW) hub begins Dec. 16. Currently the airline provides daily nonstop service from New York-JFK and Miami International Airports.

The flights will run on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

“These new flights will provide our customers from the Central and Western regions of the U.S. easier and more convenient access to Barbados,” said said David M. Rice, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Tourism Authority.

Currently available for purchase, the flight will be operated with Boeing 757 aircraft with 22 seats in Business Class and 166 in the Coach cabin. December coach fares begin at $314.

Photo courtesy of Barbados.org

Update from the field: Mobile boarding passes still don’t work

by Grant Martin on

Gadling Labs is on the road this steamy August weekend, bouncing from O’Hare to Houston to Seattle and to Anchorage. It’s a good day for flying – there are unusually few thunderstorms barreling through the Midwest, our hangovers are light and the red vinaigrette in first class is a bit punchier than normal. Perhaps its the humidity on this Canadian Regional Jet of yore.

Following up on our post last week on the questionable efficacy of mobile boarding passes, we decided to take a pair of American Airlines and Continental Airlines passes out for a spin today.

Passing the TSA officer outside of the K/H wing in O’Hare, we fired up our handy iPhone 3GS and downloaded the boarding pass on the fly. Asked about the failure rate of mobile passes at this station, the friendly officer replied “About one in a thousand here.” That’s a pretty good hit rate, and it’s too bad that we’ve been one of those out of a thousand in the past.

Slipping through security (digression: when timed, we found that the new backscatter scanners process passengers at almost half the rate as the traditional magnetometers) and ambling over to the H5, it was far too early for boarding, so a little bit of browsing on our not-so-reliable Clear hotspot helped us pass a half hour.

And when boarding began? We were the second in line. Problem was, the iPhone tried to reload the Safari webpage when we opened up the browser, and now that our session was stale the boarding pass had disappeared. We were left with the image above, no boarding pass and a line of stuffy passengers starting to grow impatient.

Lesson learned! Always carry a paper boarding pass. And when downloading the mobile pass? Make sure to cache a local copy on your phone for later use – many sites offer the option to “save a copy” when the pass initially opens and this could save a lot of time and effort while in transit.

Next up? Trials with the Continental Airlines boarding passes!

American Airlines kills puppies

by Andrew Evans on

Seven out of 14 young puppies died yesterday after flying American Airlines flight #851 from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. High temperatures and long flight delays were likely contributing factors, though further investigation is necessary to determine the exact cause of death.

American Airlines says they ship over 100,000 live animals a year. Some airlines refuse to ship dogs in the summer months due to the likelihood of heat exhaustion. American Airlines claims to adhere to temperature restrictions of 86° F when shipping live animals, which in this particular case, were overlooked. News reports put yesterday’s morning temperatures in Tulsa at 87° F and climbing, while the plane spent over an hour waiting on the tarmac.

The Humane Society of the United States highly recommends against ever shipping animals by air unless absolutely necessary. The following guidelines specify that pets should not travel during the summer months or during any busy holiday travel season.

(Photo: Flickr/Richard Stowey)