American Airlines passengers: Get double elite miles

by Grant Martin on

Now that the economy is low and demand is tapering off, airlines are doing whatever they can to encourage passengers to return to flying the friendly skies. Sure, oil has come down from it’s all time high of $5000/barrel, but without passengers to fill airplanes, some equipment has to be shelved, and that’s never good for profit.

What to do? Incentivize. A deluge of fare sales including dirt cheap tickets to Barcelona, Tokyo and Moscow have all hit the charts this past week, and the few of us with the travel bug have been booking tickets like madmen.

Other promotions include American Airlines recent Double Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM) bonanza. You might remember that Elite miles/points, the nifty little jobbers that get you points towards Elite status are fairly hard to come by, and those that maintain status often have to do Mileage Runs to keep up their quota. But with this promotion, passengers can earn double elite points through June 15, effectively reducing the number of miles to earn Gold, Platinum and Executive Platinum to 12.5, 25 and 50K respectively. Heck, I might even take a gander at that.

You can sign up for the DEQM promotion here using the code DBEQM. Check out American’s elite info here.

Man sues American Airlines for revoking his lifetime travel pass

by Jeffrey White on

A man from Chicago is suing American Airlines for $7 million after the airline allegedly revoked his lifetime travel pass back in December.

Steven Rothstein paid $250,000 back in 1987 for lifetime, first class travel aboard AA and a few years later ponied up another $150,000 for the right to bring a companion along.

In December, AA revoked the travel pass, saying Rothstein was fraudulently using his passes to make reservations for his friends.

Why is Rothstein suing for $7 million? He says since AA no longer sells lifetime tickets, the alternative cost for buying first class tickets for the rest of his life would be worth about $7 million.

The sky is falling!: Nope, it’s just plane parts

by Jamie Rhein on

Imagine this. You’re going about your busy day without much thought about what’s going on above your head and then Bam! There’s a bit of an explosion and pieces of metal start falling, some the size of a BlackBerry–others bigger. Not as big as a house, but bigger than a BlackBerry.

“Was Chicken Little right?” you might ask yourself and whoever else is close by, providing those people weren’t beaned by the falling objects.

This scenario is similar to what happened yesterday when an American Airlines flight out of LaGuardia heading for Chicago had an engine explode. Luckily, the plane was designed to fly on just one engine so the plane headed to JFK and landed safely.

Also, luckily, the engine parts fell over an industrial area. Instead of landing on Jimmy and Susy playing on their backyard swing set (although it is still cold out so perhaps they wouldn’t have been out in the backyard), the parts landed on top of a warehouse and scattered across a parking lot, cracking windshields and one of the building’s skylights.

Can’t you just hear the “My words!?” and “What the heck?!” of the people working inside the building? Particularly when they went outside and saw the small pieces of titanium like metal scattered every which way.

There is an investigation to find out what caused the explosion. The McDonnell Douglas-80 plane had 88 passengers on board who now have an interesting story to tell about the time they helped make the sky fall.

The airline’s take is that these things happen. True, but a bit unnerving. I’ve been on three planes that have been diverted because of engine trouble. I wonder if anyone had to duck and cover down below? [via wcbstv.com]

10 tips for smarter flying


5 steps to smarter packing

Age old question of chicken or beef ends up in Court of Appeals

by Scott Carmichael on

Chicken or beef? It’s the question almost everyone on an International flight will end up hearing at one point (unless of course you are flying up front, where you’ll probably get more choices).

Millions of people answer this question every year, and are presented with a meal that is somehow meant to represent their choice.

On an American Airlines flight from Zurich to New York several years ago, passenger Pierre Delis was only offered one choice – beef or beef?

The normal reaction to the lack of chicken would be to roll your eyes, perhaps even mention to the poor flight attendant what a horrible airline she is working for.

Not so with Mr. Delis. His lack of a chicken option escalated into a verbal battle, and ended with the flight attendant getting a punch in her stomach.

Now, punching a flight attendant is never a good idea, but to do so when the plane is airborne is turns the whole thing into a nasty mess. Mr. Delis was arrested and convicted of “simple assault”. He was sentenced to “time served” and was told to pay a $10 court fee (I’d say he got off really easy).

Not content with having a criminal record, Mr. Delis has been battling the ruling for years, and his case finally came to an end this week when the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan unanimously ruled that his conviction should stand. His argument that he never intended to injure the flight attendant was not sufficient to change the mind of the Court.

Man can’t wait for plane to reach the gate – opens door and jumps down slide

by Scott Carmichael on

It’s starting to look like we’ll soon need a “stupid passenger of the week” segment here on Gadling, because there certainly does not seem to be a shortage of material.

The stupid passenger for today was on his way on American Airlines from Charlotte to Dallas Fort Worth when the plane was waiting for a spot at its assigned gate.

Apparently this wait was a bit too long, so instead of grumbling and complaining loudly like most of us do, he got up, ran to the front of the plane and opened an exit door.

Of course, if you have paid attention on your flights, you’ll know that doors are still “armed” until the plane is at the gate, so when the door was opened, it deployed the emergency slide.

This handy getaway was just what this idiot needed to get off the plane and walk to the terminal.

The man has not yet been charged with any crimes, as the airport police are awaiting the results of his psychological evaluation, because apparently you have to be pretty insane to pull a stunt like this.

If he is deemed “sane”, he may be in for a whole bunch of nasty charges, varying from tampering with safety equipment to trespassing on the ramp. Then of course the is the matter of American Airlines presenting him with the bill for replacing the slide, which will run anywhere from $15k to $35k, depending on any damage he caused.