American Airlines

investmenttool.com technology journal

I took another west coast business trip a few weeks ago. As luck of the draw would have it, I got to fly American Airlines. I was pleasantly surprised.

First, we got to fly in modern, well maintained aircraft. A 737 on the way out, and a 757 on the way back. Both flights were smooth and came off on time. I was particularly impressed with the way the scan the ticket and produce the baggage claim tickets and tags. Makes sure I get on the aircraft with my bag and I bet it cuts down on lost baggage too.

More impressive than that, they managed to get my Kosher meals to me on both flights. Though this was not as high tech as the baggage control, they batted a thousand, putting them a thousand points ahead of United Airlines on my February trip.

The security status at the San Jose Airport was a joke. The line for the Southwest/AA security checkpoint snaked up a couple of flights of stairs into the parking structure. There were only two possible metal detectors manned by staff that could not converse comfortably in English. They had to manually recover a piece of my laptop and another passenger’s frequent flyer card which couldn’t seem to make it through the machine.

I saw a disturbing pre-September 11 trend as well. There was a strict adherence to rules, which tend to protect property and cause delays. There was little independent thinking and no attempt made to simply converse with passengers and see if they say something wrong. The few random security searches by airline personnel were thorough and comforting.

With decreased volume in the wake of September 11, I found the travel experience much more pleasant than prior trips. American Airlines should keep up the good work.

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Shmuel Protter
investmenttool.com

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