American Airlines Check In Options

American Airlines (AA) is one of the major carriers of United States of America. It provides a range of options for easy check-in for passengers. This is to enable them to obtain their boarding passes without hassles, without being in long queues at the airports.

American Airlines online check in is available from 24 hrs and up to 45 or 90 minutes before departure of  domestic or international flights respectively. 

AA mobile check in is also available within same time limits as online check in. 

While at the airport, passengers can use the regular check-in counter or the kiosk machines kept nearby to perform check in. Before entering the airport terminal, passengers can also avail the curbside check in services. 

If you are new to airport or flying for first time or you feel there might be an issue with the chek-in process, you can seek assistance from a personal representative all the way during check in process. 

Sri Lankan Airlines Codeshares with AA

AA now has another codeshare partner, this time in South Asia. Sri Lankan Airlines, the official flag carrier of Sri Lanka, has entered into this mutually beneficial agreement with American Airlines. Interestingly, this carrier was also the first one to join oneworld Alliance from Indian subcontinent in May, 2014.

This will make Sri Lankan Airlines fifth partner of AA from oneworld Alliance. In beginning, designator UL code will be added to AA operated flights from Dallas/Forth Worth, New York JFK, Chicago O’Hare and the European getaways of Frankfurt and Paris. From these destinations, flights to connections of Sri Lankan carrier and Colombo will be connected. Though AA will not add its own code in starting, it will do so in later phases when AA code would be placed on its extensive network in South Asia for American Airlines customers.

Interjet is the new Codeshare Partner of American Airlines

Interjet airlines, one of the fastest growing airline of Mexico, has reached a codeshare agreement with the American Airlines. The agreement gives a push to the raid expansion plans of Interjet which is currently serving 38 destinations in Mexico and other destinations across US, Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Mexico shares its northern borders with America and there is good connectivity between the two countries. With the cementing of this agreement, AA will be able to expand its reach to 5 cities of Mexico from its capital Mexico City. These cities are Villahermosa, Merida, Tuxtla Gutierrez, Huatulco and Oaxaca.

Since it is the traffic from southern American states which makes for a good proportion of air traffic to Mexico, this agreement will enable the travelers to travel to different Mexican cities on one ticket.

Other partners and alliances of AA can be seen here. 

AA Will Not Move Away From Miles Based FFP

American Airlines is set to merge its frequent flyer program with that of the US Airways early next year. However, unlike the other mergers of the major US airlines in recent times that have changed the basis of their loyalty programs from miles-based to spending-based, AA will not move in same direction. There has been some mystery over this issue for quite sometime now, as AA was not telling its plans. But, in a recent statement, AA has made it clear that the merger of respective plans will be continue to be based on miles flown criteria only.

Here are some of the highlights of the new program:

1. Leisure travelers will benefit the most.
2. Occasional flyers of US Airways and Dividend Miles members will fly occasionally.
3. Those US Airways fliers who fly more than 25000 miles will feel the change.
4. There will be no more complimentary upgrades for US Airways silver, gold and platinum members. For flying more than 500 miles, they will have to pay more miles. For less than 500 miles, all levels will get free upgrades but only on North American flights.
5. Only topmost level fliers, who fly more than 100000 miles per year, i.e. US Airways chairman’s preferred and American executive platinum members will get upgrades facility.
6. The tier of US Airways passengers who fly 75000-100000 miles a year, will disappear. This will be merged into AA’s Platinum and US Airways Gold members.
7. Those who fly both airlines will be able to merge their accounts into one early next year, whereas those US Airways fliers who do not have AA account, will have one created.

American Airlines 3rd Quarter Profits at $942 million

World’s largest airline in terms of passenger traffic is leading the pack of American airlines in terms of profitability. American Airlines, along with US Airways, has made a record of sorts by declaring a profit of $942 millions in third quarter this year. And, if one is to go by what its CEO Doug Barker is saying, the next quarter is expected to see even more profits and, therefore, this year will see full profits all through.

There are a number of reasons why this has turned out to be so. At first, there has been a lowering of the Jet Fuel prices all over the world.  This has helped the airlines to reduce its costs. Aviation fuel, also called jet fuel, is the largest single head which contributes to the prices of the tickets.

At the same time, there have been good yields. This means that the passengers have paid more per mile flown. The airline has been able to charge average or higher tariffs because of another contributory reason that there have been mergers going on in the US aviation sector which has led to reduced competition enabling them to command better prices from the passenger.  Mergers have also led to rationalization of the flight routes, controlling expansion of fleet and trimming of expenses.

No meals on AA short haul flights from September 1, 2014

AA is now doing which was most often the rule of low-cost carriers (LCCs). American Airlines has taken a cue from the LCCs which means that it will no longer be serving free meals to first and business class passengers on flights of less than 2 hours and 45 minutes of duration. However, some of the most popular short haul flight routes will be exempt from this general rule. So, next time when you would be boarding the AA short haul flight of under 2 hour 45 minutes, you would be wiser not to travel empty stomach assuming that you will have it for free on-board the airplane. This measure has been adopted as a part of the overall effort to develop consistent policies for US Airways and American Airlines for merger.

Not serving free meals on short haul flights would also improve the efficiency of the airline as it would no longer have to make arrangements for meals, clean up the seats and aisles of aircraft and would save on the costs of maintenance as well as time. Saving time would also result in improving the turnaround time of the airplane. This is not expected to be too inconvenient for the passengers as meals are generally not needed for short duration journeys. Secondly, while meals will not be served free, passengers can buy the snacks or the meals. This will also see increase in the ancillary revenues of American Airlines as these offer cheap air tickets to the passengers by cutting down the expenses of meals.

If you want to check the meal options being provided on board the AA flights, for different classes of travel, then these can be found here: http://www.aa.com/i18n/travelInformation/duringFlight/dining/meal_options.jsp