You may remember reading about Al Blackman, the 86 year old American Airlines employee that recently celebrated his 70th anniversary with the company. To mark the big occasion, American took Mr. Blackman on a flight around New York City in the Flagship Detroit, a restored vintage DC-3 owned by the Flagship Detroit Foundation, a nonprofit…
History
Tag Archives for History.
Weekend reading: The early days of American Airlines SABRE Computer Reservation System
Just a quick post to point you to a Wired article about the origin of the airline computer reservation system. From “Forget the Booze. The Mad Men’s Best Friend Was SABRE” by Robert McMillian: In the summer of 1953, an eager IBM salesman named Blair Smith boarded an American Airlines flight in Los Angeles bound…
Reader Miles and Discount Giveaway: 1990 AAdvantage Membership Guide
By now you’ve probably read that American will be converting AAdvantage Miles earned before July 1, 1989 into “regular” AAdvantage Miles. From AA.com: In order to streamline our program, we are announcing a change to all AAdvantage miles earned before July 1, 1989 (Miles With No Expiration). Starting on November 1, 2012, these miles will…
A little off topic: Aviation Infographic from a 1917 Magazine
This is unrelated to earning AAdvantage Miles, but I thought it was interesting and figured you would feel that way too. Writer Scott Edelman came across this infographic, ““When We All Take to the Air: Post-War Propositions for Commercial Aeronautics”, in the July 7, 1917 edition of The Graphic. Lord Montagu was an advocate for…
Off Topic: Vintage Pan Am Travel Films
This isn’t AAdvantage related, but I thought you might find it interesting. Colin Marshall hosts and produces the podcast Notebook on Cities and Culture, and in between his twice weekly podcast, he manages to discover some fascinating, but overlooked, internet videos and write about them over at Open Culture. Among his recent video finds were some…
New York to San Francisco: 1876, 1929, 1953, and 2012
My favorite domestic flights are those on American’s Boeing 767s between New York and San Francisco. One of the reasons I like them, is that I think that they offer a great opportunity to use some of your AAdvantage Miles and maximize your redemption value when you upgrade to first or business class from a…