AA has a video to tug the heart strings pointing out that the most disruptive event n their 94 year history is upon them: American Airlines: You Are Why We Fly No mention that the only reason they are surviving this storm is because of a massive $5.8 billion government fund injection. Four billion is in the form of grants and the remaining $1.7 billion as a low-interest loan. The airline also plans to apply for a further $4.8 billion loan from The US Treasury Department. American is one of my least favourite airlines in …
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Tag Archives for American.
Dodging National Closures – Last Plane to Bangkok
I was in the USA for family reasons on a long arranged trip and was in the Northern suburbs of Philadelphia, USA. My Home base is in the northern suburbs of Bangkok, Thailand. Having worked in public health, I monitored the virus carefully. As the infections accelerated flight cancellations, lockdowns and compulsory quarantined accelerated. I decided to cut short my US business and get back to Bangkok. This was a rather nerve wracking trip as I tried to dodge the virus, country closures and airline shutdowns. Booking Finding a way home from Philadelphia proved to…
Virgin Atlantic Sucks- COVID19 Fail
II try and avoid these type of posts but I have become so disillusioned with Virgin Atlantic. Imagine if in December, I had bought a non refundable airline ticket through Virgin Atlantic. Imagine if I changed my mind about the dates and wanted to change or refund it Would I deserve that option? A big fat “no”. I get that. I support that. Imagine, however, if since I bought the ticket that the world changed completely? Imagine that a new and scary virus emerged. A virus that results in thousands of deaths airports being shut…
Airline closures and suspensions- Status of Key Airlines
The travel industry is in a really tough place right now. I can’t see how airlines will survive without government financial aid. Every airline is making major changes. The tally is one airline shut down forever, six who have suspended all operations for a period of time and several who have made massive cuts to operations. What do you need to do? Whatever they are doing, if you are tickets, then you and/or the airline will probably be making some sort of changes to flight time, date or destination. If you have booked through a…
American ditches Fleet, Network and Frequency
Sunday evening March 15, I fly to Dublin, Ireland with American Airlines. Little did I know when I booked my trip that this would be the very last day for that flight until at least May. Flights from Charlotte, Philadelphia and Phoenix to London Heathrow, Dublin and Manchester will be suspended on March 15 and the return trips back to the USA will be flown March 16. These are part of a 75% cut in American’s international capacity which will be accompanied by a 20% cut in its domestic capacity in April and…
Eighty Times around the World
Jules Verne’s character Phileas Fogg traveled by steamer, train, elephant and horse around the world to demonstrate it was possible to do so. It took eighty days. Today, I completed my 80th navigation of the globe. This is a touch over two million miles (3.2 million kilometres), a feat which has taken me just over half a century of flying. This is what it looks like: I have flown to 62 of the 80 countries, I have visited. The rest I have reached by bus, train, car and in one case foot. Importantly, my travels…
Who has flown every One World Carrier?
I am curious to know how many people have flown at least one flight with every one of the 13 member carriers of the One World Airline alliance? There cannot be many fliers who have can claim to have checked off every One World Airline. As of now, I have now traveled with every One World airline except for S7. This alliance has taken me 37 times around the world, a a total of 1.5 million kilometres (968,000 miles). Altogether, that has been aboard 582 flights. From Hobart to Helsinki and Hawaii to Hong Kong…
Upgrading my Qantas experience-How I get Top Elite status in three round trips (almost)
I was sitting down to lunch a few years, with the family when my airline called to tell me my flight to Auckland was cancelled and I would miss my connection to Samoa. As a result, I would get to my holiday 24 hours later than planned. The good news was if I could get to the airport within the hour they could get me into the earlier flight. My brother in law drove me very quickly through Sydney streets to ensure I made this flight. Not only did Air New Zealand book me onto…
Measuring Star, Skyteam, One World – Which is the “BEST” airline alliance?
Every airline passenger will have seen the name and logos of the three big airline alliances carrying almost two out of three of the world’s airline passengers. The names “One World“, “SkyTeam” and “Star Alliance” adorn planes, airline marketing materials, boarding passes, in-flight magazines and airport signs. All three of the big US airlines (American, Delta and United) are linked to one of the alliances. In Europe, it is the same with their three biggest airline companies. There are also three smaller and newer alliances: U fly, Vanilla, Value. I list of all the members…
Auf Wiedersehen Air Berlin- what went wrong?
Next year should be Air Berlin’s 40th birthday. From a small charter operation founded in 1978, the airline grew to become Germany’s second largest, and Europe’s seventh biggest. 8,600 staff work for the carrier which up to recently, was flying to 42 destinations with a fleet of 114 planes. I have a small soft spot for the airline, its staff, history and most of all its home base, my second favourite city in the world. But nothing seems to be going to save Air Berlin. The airline has been in trouble for some time. I…
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