American-Airlines

When I look at flight attendants I do not see mere mortals. I see heroic flying immune systems. When the zombificating superflu does eventually strike, those who survive will no doubt be ruled by former flight attendants and elementary school teachers. In the meantime, they'll somehow continue working in a "flying petri dish" as some airlines continue to refuse H1N1 as an excuse to rebook.  More »

American Airlines is beginning to experiment with turning flights into shopping opportunities, reports the New York Times. We're not just talking about in-flight purchases of Sky Mall schwag, either: the paper reports that limousine services, tickets to theme parks and Broadway shows, and train tickets are some of the offerings being considered or currently being tested.  More »

Dustin Curtis complained to American Airlines about its poor website user interface. A designer within the company reached out to him to apologize, say how it was hard sometime to design well at a large company, but that better designs were coming down the pike. American Airlines then fired the designer. Authenticity can be a hazard to your job health.  More »

Reader Jeremy says that his attempts to be polite and have everything taken care of for someone who was doing his organization a big favor were made more difficult by a secret, unpublished "prepaid baggage fee" that American Airlines attempted to charge him.  More »

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 »