American Airlines is trying to improve its passenger experience, and become more competitive with Delta and United. That’s great, and I’m rooting for them. While big product investments are nice, often it’s focusing on the basic things that makes the biggest difference.
I want to give an example of some unnecessary and totally avoidable friction to the passenger experience, which I witnessed on a flight from Tampa (TPA) to Miami (MIA) a couple of days ago (admittedly it’s not the most memorable thing from the past couple of days, but this is a travel blog)…
At first I thought I just got my time mixed up, and that the mistake was on me. But nope, I had timed it correctly. For what it’s worth, this was an Airbus A319 departing at 6:59PM, and boarding was scheduled for 6:24PM, 35 minutes before departure. The A319 is American’s smallest narrow body plane, so 35 minutes should be more than enough time to board the aircraft.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on One Mile at a Time.
