American Airlines flight attendant accused of smuggling pet rat

In a strange story, an American Airlines flight attendant has been accused of smuggling pet rats onto an international flight last year. Yes, you read that correctly- smuggling rats!

In February 2012, an American Airlines pilot claimed that Louann Giambattista was hiding pet rats inside her underwear and pantyhose on an international flight. Yikes! In a separate incident on that same day, another American Airlines colleague of Ms. Giambattista claims to have witnessed her feeding a pet rat a bread roll on a flight to Miami.

Ms. Giambattista was questioned and searched upon landing but no rats were ever found. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were notified and she is now subject to searches by federal agents every time she flies. She is now suing the airline and seeking damages for “debilitating anxiety” caused by the ordeal.

It is hard to imagine that two separate colleagues on separate flights would both make up the same lie about Ms. Giambattista. But I am not here to make that judgment. As I said, strange story indeed.

American Airlines to fly large Embraer Regional Jets

Those of you who fly regional routes on American Airlines will soon be able to fly on bigger regional jets. American Airlines has reached a deal with Republic Airways to establish a fleet or larger regional jets.

The fleet will include 53 Embraer E175 jets to replace the old CRJ’s. The new aircraft will feature a two-class configuration, with 12 seats in first class and 64 seats in coach. It will also include American’s premium-economy Main Cabin Extra seats with extra legroom.  

This is very good news for American Airline customers. These jets are much more comfortable and spacious than the cramped spaces in the tiny CRJ’s. The new jets are also much more fuel efficient, which is of vital importance for airlines trying to cut costs.

I am looking forward to the day when all other airlines follow suit and upgrade to the bigger jets for short haul regional routes. Be on the lookout for the new jets to be phased into operation beginning mid-2013.

Three biggest U.S. airlines to offer internet service on international flights

The three biggest American airlines have announced that Internet service will soon be available on international flights. United, Delta, and American Airlines have all announced that they are a few weeks away from having their first international flights with internet connection.

Passengers can already enjoy internet service while flying over the U.S., but the air-to-ground signal used by those planes does not work overseas. To make this service overseas possible, the airlines are installing satellite-based systems.

Those of you who are now looking forward to streaming Netflix or watching YouTube videos on an international flight will most likely be disappointed. While speeds on airplane Internet connections are getting faster, they are most likely only good enough for basic Web browsing and emails. However, most of the international Wi-Fi systems will have computer servers on the plane with movies and TV shows that passengers can view for a fee.

This news should bring a smile to the faces of many business travelers who will soon be able to access important business emails while traveling internationally. All three airlines will have this service within the next 2 months, with fees for this service yet to be determined.

American Airlines introduces self-bag tagging

On November 14^th, American Airlines introduced self-bag tagging for travelers flying out of Orlando. This comes after a successful trial run at Austin Bergstrom international Airport earlier this year. According to American Airline, check-in times were reduced by as much as 55% in Austin.

The way it works is that travelers are allowed to use a kiosk to print and attach baggage tags. The traveler enters all their flight info, pays any necessary charges, and then prints their tag and attaches it to their bag. They then take their bag to a drop off area and show ID to an airline representative.

American plans to expand self-bag tagging to Chicago O’Hare and Washington Reagan Airports in the coming months. The airline also expects to debut this service in up to 8 more U.S. cities within the next 2 years.

There are still many travelers who remain wary of the self-serve options and its uncertainties. One issue in particular is that of lost and mis-routed bags due to passenger self-service error. What happens then? Is the passenger at fault? Does the airline take responsibility? Nobody knows.

The truth is that there is a first time learning curve for airlines when it comes to dealing with this new service. Bags get lost or mis-routed fairly regularly when trained agents from the airlines are tagging the bags. It is only natural to assume that this would be compounded by your every day traveler tagging their own bags.

This self-bag tagging system sounds good in theory but it feels too impractical. I am a firm believer that the customer/client should be able to choose when they want to serve themselves and not be forced into it if they desire to interact with a real person. It is, after all, the "Service" industry.

Virgin America to launch status matching program

Good news for travelers who have status with American Airlines or United Airlines: Virgin America has announced a status match program. Flyers from United Airlines and American Airlines’ frequent flyer programs can receive matched status through Virgin America’s Elevate Gold and Elevate Silver Status now through April 30, 2013.
 
United’s Mileage Plus and American’s AAdvantage flyers will get to enjoy nearly all of the benefits currently offered to Elevate Gold and Elevate Silver members. Some of these benefits include: priority check-in, free checked bag allowances, priority security clearance and boarding, and private discounts. Furthermore, if you apply for the Elevate program, you will have the opportunity to retain your status through the end of 2013 by earning points on flying Virgin America, Virgin Atlantic, and Virgin Australia. 

If you have never flown Virgin America, now is a great time to familiarize yourself with this popular airline. Virgin America has won many awards, including 2012’s “Best Domestic Airline” by Conde Nast Traveler. Virgin America  is usually among the top rated domestic airlines year in, year out.

To book a flight on Virgin America contact your POTHOS travel team.

Delta, American, and United Airlines adding more lie-flat seats

Three domestic airlines have decided to add to their availability of lie-flat seats on transcontinental flights. Delta, American, and United airlines have all announced plans to add additional full flat-bed seats to its Business Class.

Delta has announced that beginning in March 2013, it will be offering 26 full flat-beds in its Business Class on its Boeing 767 aircraft and 16 full flat-beds on its Boeing 757 aircraft operating between New York and Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle.

American Airlines has also announced plans to upgrade seating. Starting in November 2013 they expect to receive orders of new Airbus A321 aircrafts that will feature a first class cabin with 10 to 20 fully lie-flat seats. The A 321’s are set to replace American’s Boeing 767-200s currently flying between New York and both Los Angeles and San Francisco.

United Airlines is also in the midst of modifying its premium class seating for flights between New York and both Los Angeles and San Francisco. United plans on replacing 12 United First P.S. seats with 28 new 180-degree lie-flat seats. These newly upgraded seats will be enjoyed by customers starting in January and United expects a complete rollout of the seats by October 2013.

A huge collective sigh of relief can be heard across the country by frequent cross-country fliers. The domestic skies are about to get much more comfortable for those who can afford it.

US Airway flight attendants hold protests

US Airway flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight-Attendants-CWA (AFA), held protests at four airports yesterday (November 14^th). The flight attendants are protesting after management failed to negotiate a single contract for the more than 6,700 flight attendants. America West and US Airways merged in 2005 but the merger is still incomplete and flight attendants are working under separate contracts in separate operations.

The major gripe for these workers is that while US Airways profits continue to soar, pre-merger America West flight attendants have not seen a contract improvement since 1999. These workers are continuing to work on outdated contracts they reached during the airline’s bankruptcy.

US Airways flight attendants protest at Charlotte Douglas

This unified protest shows that the flight attendants are willing to take action to see change. In the event of a strike, US Airways flight attendants would utilize CHAOS tactics- which stands for Create Havoc Around Our System. This would include intermittent strikes called without warning to the traveling public or management.

This becomes a big issue as Doug Parker, CEO of US Airways, eyes a merger with American Airlines. He must first work with his current US Airways employees and settle the unfinished business from the first merger before concentrating on a second merger with American Airlines. A strike does not seem to be imminent, but with its flight attendants compensation roughly equivalent to what it was in 1996, US Airways should focus on keeping its hard working employees content.

Woes continue for American Airlines

These are troubled times for American Airlines. After a difficult September, American Airlines’ parent company, AMR Corp, posted a $238 million loss for the quarter.

American Airlines suffered massive delays and cancellations in September due to an issue they blamed on pilots. With that delay starting to clear up, American now has another issue to deal with. They are now inspecting 47 Boeing 757 airplanes to check for loose seats. On two separate American Airline flights, passenger seats came loose midflight. This has lead to over 21,000 delayed flights and more than 1,300 flights cancelled all together.

This recent string of woes for the airline will continue, as they have already announced a reduced flight schedule by 1% through November. They also boasted an anemic 59% on-time arrival rate for September. Customers are definitely taking notice, as the number of passengers flying American Airlines fell 4% in September. Business travelers are especially weary of flying American. With the uncertainty over cancellations and delays, business travelers simply cannot take the risk of flying American and having it possibly affect their business.

With all of the current problems American is having, they are working hard on solutions to try to win back customers. It won’t be easy but they are finally starting to move in the right direction. They have at least improved on-time arrival rates through October, although they still trail most of the major airlines in that category.  American needs to do much more if it wants to turn its misfortunes around.

Only time will tell if American Airlines can turn this around and win back customers, but they still have a long way to go.

Government Fines American Airlines $900,000 for Tarmac Delays

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) fined American Airlines a total of $900,000- $650,000 of which must be paid in the next 30 days to the FAA and up to $250,000 can be credited for refunds, vouchers, and frequent flyer mile awards provided to the passengers on the 15 American Eagle flights that were excessively delayed (in violation of the three hour rule).

The three hour delay rule (namely the steep fines that accompany it- as much as $27,500 per passenger) may be even more disruptive to even more travelers than sitting uncomfortably on the tarmac for 10 hours. Airlines are far more likely to cancel the flight all together if there is concern for being delayed. Better to avoid a huge fine and put passengers out than have to deal with disgruntled passengers AND a massive fine.

According to the Associated Press, "between May 2010 and April 2011, the first 12 months after the time limit was in effect, airlines reported 20 tarmac delays of more than three hours, none of which was more than four hours long. In contrast, during the 12 months before the rule took effect, airlines had 693 tarmac delays of more than three hours, and 105 of the delays were longer than four hours." These number seem great, though they do not reflect the much higher percentage of flights that are canceled as a result (many of which might not have actually experienced any tarmac delays at all)- better safe than sorry.

More on this from AP: http://news.yahoo.com/airline-fine-may-send-flight-cancellations-soaring-222545569.html

Best Major Airlines for Business Travel

Business Travel News publishes annual rankings of the major airlines for business travel, which can be telling signs of on airline's overall quality for travelers. This year's results are based on a poll of 406 travel managers and buyers who spend at least $500,000 a year on flights booked in the United States. The rankings only include the five largest domestic airlines.

Here are the 5 ranked from best to worst according to BTN's airline score, which is comprised of data gathered from 10 different categories:

1. Delta Airlines*
BTN airline score: 3.14

2. United Airlines/ Continental
BTN airline score: 3.12

3. US Airways
BTN airline score: 3.07

4. American Airlines
BTN airline score: 2.94

5. Southwest
BTN airline score: 2.9


*This is Delta's first time at the number one spot.

For a more detailed report of this information, see this: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44876792/ns/business-us_business/

Expedia fires salvo at American

In a rare cooperative alliance move, Expedia announced that, in light of the AA action against Orbitz in not making its inventory available, that Expedia would drop AA fares and selections to a second click thru level (non preferential display). This is a preemptive move that is almost unprecedented.

In response, American Airlines spokesman Ryan Mikolasik called the action "discriminatory" and "unwarranted."

"This is especially considering that American has taken no action against Expedia and continues to operate in good faith with Expedia," Mikolasik said.

Mikolasik said American would explore its options to "correct" the situation.

It is against distribution contract to actively refuse to sell one airline, it is not illegal to make it non preferential.

I think that all consumers and the distrubution model for airline ticket sales should be watching closely AA's actions and respond as a collective market to communicate and express their feelings about AA's decisions. We cannot support efforts that we believe are fundamentally bad for travelers and the open market. I acknowledge that airline, as any business, can make many business decisions without influence and that is their right. However, with air service being a fundamental back bone of our economy, we have to pay attention to airlines decisions and how they affect the market. In this case, their business obligations go beyond the boardroom and shareholders and reachs our entire nation/economy.

American Airline's pulls inventory from Orbitz

You can no longer book American flights on Orbitz or Orbitz for Business!

A court ruling authorizing American Airlines to withdraw its content immediately from Orbitz is merely the opening salvo in a bigger battle that may extend to other GDSs and airlines.

Reaction to yesterday’s ruling by the Circuit Court of Cook County in Illinois was swift and came from all quarters of the travel sector.

Paul Ruden, ASTA's president for legal and industry affairs, said that although the ruling did not spell the end of the case, it was "not a good sign." predicting similar moves “before long”.

"What the ruling effectively does is give American Airlines the freedom to execute its threat to remove its inventory from Orbitz, but it is putting at a risk a great deal of its business," he said

American Airlines responded within hours of the decision, discontinuing the listing of fares on Orbitz and Orbitz for Business.

Travelport, which owns a 48% stake in Orbitz Worldwide, said although the motion for a preliminary injunction was denied, the case will continue on its merits until the request for a declaratory judgment is adjudicated. Orbitz said it would continue to seek an arrangement with AA to distribute the airline’s tickets.

Revenue earned on American Airlines tickets and the associated ancillary products – including destination services, car, hotel and insurance – booked on our Orbitz.com and Orbitz for Business sites accounted for approximately 5% of Orbitz Worldwide's total revenue for the nine months ended Sept.30.

Ruden said AA must either believe it can recover the lost Orbitz business through other channels or does not consider this revenue to be significant. He also said the general public would in some cases not even realize that American Airlines’ fares do not appear in the Orbitz search results.

"The general public isn’t aware of the Orbitz-American Airlines issue and also doesn’t know which carriers fly in which market, so I think they may well lose business as travelers use Orbitz for their fare searches," Ruden said.

The Business Travel Coalition meanwhile said single-supplier direct connect proposals, like that of American Airlines, can cause "massive fragmentation of airfares and ancillary fees, depriving consumers of the ability to compare the total cost of air travel options across all airline."

Describing the battle as an "unprovoked assault" on Orbitz by American, BTC Chairman Kevin Mitchell alleged that the airline has repeatedly changed its rationale for why its direct-connect solution is needed.

"The failure of these shifting explanations to convince airline industry stakeholders to embrace the unproven system then led to a new strategy from American Airlines of blunt threats aimed at Orbitz," Mitchell said.

The Consumer Travel Alliance added its voice to the fray, criticizing American for its "heavy-handed attempt" to prevent consumers from easily searching and comparing its fares against those of other airlines.

CTA Director Charlie Leocha said the move would prevent comparison-shopping and "hide the real cost" of travel.

GDS company Sabre Holdings put its support behind Travelport, saying American's actions will make it "much harder and more costly" for agents and consumers to easily comparison shop among airlines, which will result in increased prices for consumers.

Travelport predicted AA’s plans to "force a more restrictive" distribution model would result in "inefficiencies and added costs" and would be "detrimental" to airline customers, travel agencies and consumers. American Airlines denied this.

"In today's competitive marketplace, it is important for American to be free to customize its product offerings to improve the customer experience as well as distribute its products in a way that does not result in unnecessary costs," said Derek DeCross, American's vice president of sales.

DeCross added that the airline would continue to provide its fare content to travel agency partners, both through GDSs and through American’s own direct connection powered by Farelogix.

While there is no charge for using American’s direct connection, there is an initial technology cost to integrate agency’s systems with the airline’s direct connection.

It is interesting for me to remember that, when launched, Orbitz was the development child of the airlines (just like the GDS's were orginally developed by the airlines as the distribution channel) and the darling of the beginning of OTA's (online travel agency's). It was the first and "go to" website for leisure and shortly after, business travelers.

I urge all consumers (individual's and businesses) to recognize that when the airline try to drive you to only their website/distribution network, you are NOT guaranteed of the lowest fare! This practice is not good for the open market. Only travel agencies can give you the fair & unbiased picture.