American Airlines

Please Fasten Your Seatbelts and Turn Off Your Transistor Radios

While much has changed in flying over the past hundred years, much has remained the same. While today‘s passengers, in most cases on most flights, are welcome to use their smartphones during taxi and in airplane mode or connected to in-flight Wi-Fi once airborne, it was not that long ago that passengers were told to keep them turned off once on board the aircraft.
Recently I came across a “Welcome Aboard” …

American Airlines to Offer Employees Profit-Sharing

American Airlines to Offer Employees Profit-Sharing

American Airlines, which was the only airline among the top four in the U.S. not to offer its employees profit sharing, has reversed course.
The company, the world’s largest airline, had been steadfast in its resolve not to offer its employees profit-sharing although it gave them significant raises following its 2013 merger with US Airways.
The profit-sharing program will pay 5% of pretax profits to non-management employees based on this year’s earnings.
“We …

Lobby Bar – March 11: BMWs of the Future, Zero Gravity in Copenhagen, and Cooking in Thin Air

Lobby Bar – A Contemptible Consolidation of FBT News and Views
Juvenile Joe. Jonathan Spira flies from Heathrow to Copenhagen while eating a Danish. The flight attendant was out sick, so an 8-year-old boy was called out of his seat to assist with the in-flight service. He was doing fine until something possessed him to try to open the emergency exit mid-flight, upon which he was relieved of his duties.
Bar none. …

AA CEO: New International First- and Business-Class Meals to Debut This Year

AA CEO: New International First- and Business-Class Meals to Debut This Year

American Airlines said Wednesday it will offer “refreshed” in-flight meals in international business- and first-class cabins that are similar to what the airline is currently offering on its new non-stop flights to Sydney, Australia.
The announcement was made by AA CEO Doug Parker, who presented at the JP Morgan Aviation, Transportation, and Industrials Conference on Tuesday.   Parker emphasized that the airline will further differentiate first-class meals from those offered in business-class …

AA Pilots Union Calls for Immediate ‘Cultural Change’ to Stop ‘Negative Surprises’

AA Pilots Union Calls for Immediate ‘Cultural Change’ to Stop ‘Negative Surprises’

American Airlines pilots union openly criticized the company and its management while calling for change in a letter to CEO Doug Parker last week.
The union, which was an early backer of the airline’s merger with US Airways when it was first proposed, reminded Parker that the merger took place in part thanks to the support of its unions and that the promise of “cultural change” was being cast aside.
Noting that …

Lobby Bar – March 4: Rainbow-Colored Passports, Build-a-Bed Workshops, and Flying with Kids Now Encouraged

Lobby Bar – A Glamorous Aggregation of FBT News and Views
Henry VIII. Jesse Sokolow travels to March in the year 1910, where he observes Le Canard making its debut flight. Jesse’s head was officially in range of the plane’s cruising altitude of 7 feet, and he would have been decapitated had he not quickly pressed the “return to the present” button. Nowadays, planes cruise at about 30,000 feet, so only …

American Airlines Flight Attendant Charged in In-Flight Fire

American Airlines Flight Attendant Charged in In-Flight Fire

An American Airlines flight attendant was arrested by the FBI and charged with intentionally setting a fire during a flight.
The flight attendant, Johnathan Tafoya-Montana, allegedly set fire to paper towels in the rear lavatory on a flight from Dallas to Detroit on February 1 with the intention of getting credited as a hero by putting it out.
Documents filed in U.S. District Court state that the flight attendant set fire to …