American Airlines and United Airlines Merger

Every couple of years, it’s good to take a look at how much we have grown. It gives us a chance to reevaluate how we are doing and what we can change. For American Airlines, it seems that 2013 is that time. They took time to reflect on recent years’ debts, bankruptcy and lay-offs.

American Airlines is coming back with a vengeance to take what they once dominated. So what strategies will they put in place?

-New Look- logo and aircrafts

-New management team

-New merger with United Airlines creating the largest airline in the world

-New Advertising strategies

What does this mean for us jet setters?

American Airlines is trying to modernize our travel experience by offering better customer service, redesigned airport terminals, offering new hubs, Wi-Fi, new apps and smoother check-in.

AMR (American Airline’s parent company) already reported $44 million profit in January. Check out this video with insights on the new aircraft interior.

What are your thoughts on this merger?

Bourdain Travel Rants

Anthony Bourdain

He is just so frank, a genius of his craft and truly an admirable man. I think anyone who knows me well is clear on my fascination with Anthony Bourdain. I wouldn't miss his shows "No Reservation" and "The Layover", as he travels from city to city pin pointing the best points of interest, the culture and the most amazing culinary experiences.

Ha! Safe to say, I idolize this man and would love to work with him. In reality, it seems his job is just to go all over the world and try new food.
(Food + Travel = My Ideal World)
I follow him on Twitter and on occasions, I pretend we are friends and I tweet him.

Well, in his most recent set of tweets, he speaks about being en route to the Cayman Islands for another culinary experience. His flight from MIA to the Cayman Islands was delayed through American Airlines. We have all been there, at an airline's mercy for timely transportation because let's be honest here, what's the point of being able to pick your flight times, if they will be delayed 9 times out of 10.

In his outrage, Anthony mentions that he has been waiting for 2 hours. While he waited, as the greatly frank man he is, he updated us real time as it was all happening. His tweets started with:

@Bourdain: Love the poor gate agent, standing mute under the “on time ” sign when clearly we are f**ked. #AA

@Bourdain: What does “special situation” mean in airlines speak? Ain’t nothin’ special about late departure #AA

@Bourdain: Latest news is it took #AA two hours to admit a passenger dropped a wet deuce on a seat. Need to change planes

Unbelievable, how in our day and age a flight can be delayed for 2 hours for something so primitive. Someone had defecated on the plane. They left the flight attendants a less than pleasant surprise. As analytical as I am, I got to thinking. How severe could this "number 2" have been, that it caused an airline to delay for exactly that, 2 hours. Comical but real, there is never a dull moment in travel. One of Bourdain's last tweets on the subject, was him jokingly thinking of paying it forward with the airport panini he had eaten earlier.

American Airlines opted for a very diplomatic answer to this rant by stating that "the flight in question was delayed approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience."