american airlines

Failure of American Airlines reservations system grounds all flights

A major computer fail at American Airlines brought down the company's reservations system, leaving passengers stranded for several hours.

The systemwide delay, which started this morning, grounded all flights for several hours, according to the airline's tweets. The airline added that reservations could also not be modified until the system was back up.

American Airlines said the system was "fully restored" in an update on its Facebook page shortly after 1:30 p.m. PT:

Our systems have been fully restored, however we expect continued flight delays and cancellations throughout the remainder of the day. We … Read more

How Boeing's 777-300ER could help save American Airlines

It has become the world's most-successful twin-engine airplane, but until now, no U.S. carrier has flown Boeing's 777-300ER. But with the launch on Thursday of its Dallas to Sao Paolo, Brazil, flight, American Airlines has broken new ground, and is now depending on its fledgling 777-300ER fleet to re-earn its once legendary wings. And make it a lot of money.

Among the many passengers aboard the inaugural flight to Sao Paolo was Chris Sloan, an aviation writer who often flies on the most notable planes in the skies and blogs about those travels on Airchive.com. Sloan, … Read more

Beware: Fake airline Instagram accounts promise free flights

Fake Instagram accounts for American Airlines, Delta Airlines, and JetBlue have been set up with the promise of free flights.

The accounts, @americanairlines_giveaways, @united_giveaways, @jetbluegiveaways, and @delta_giveaways, all work very similarly. They promise a free airline ticket or round-trip ticket to the first several thousand followers, which vary depending on the account.

The accounts have been pretty effective at garnering followers. Delta's fake account already has 21,000 followers after it promised a free trip for the first 20,000 people who followed and shared the account. Likewise, the JetBlue account has 20,000 followers. The American Airlines profile … Read more

American Airlines pilots to use iPads for flight manuals

American Airlines will be the first commercial carrier to have all of its pilots replace their paper-based reference flying manuals with Apple's iPad.

The airline announced today that it received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to "to use the Apple iPad in the cockpit during all phases of flight."

All pilots fly with a kitbag that contains necessary flight information, navigation charts, and reference materials for when they're in the air. American is dubbing its new kitbag with the iPad an "Electronic Flight Bag." Switching from paper manuals to the iPad will save … Read more

The 404 1,049: Where so, it's come to this (podcast)

Here's another reason not to blow your cash on those Beats by Dr. Dre headphones: the NYPD is reporting that the headphones have become the new top target for thieves based on their $500 resale value. With dozens of Beats heists occurring over the last four months alone, your best bet is to avoid the red "b" altogether and invest in a better pair of cans.… Read more

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 now flying with American Airlines

Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 is flying high.

The company today announced that its tablet is now available to American Airlines customers flying in the first- and business-class cabins on transcontinental and overseas flights. More specifically, the company said the tablets, which are running custom-built software, are on flights from New York's JFK to Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as on planes traveling from Miami to San Francisco and Los Angeles. International flights to and from Europe and South America will also have tablets.

Samsung and American Airlines announced their partnership in June. The companies say … Read more

FAA gives nod to iPads in cockpits for American Airlines

Starting this Friday, American Airlines is expected to start using iPads in all phases of flight operation, replacing hefty paper charts and manuals.

That's according to a report today from CNET sister site ZDNet, which says that American has received U.S. Federal Aviation Administration approval to use Apple's tablets at any time during a flight.

According to a ZDNet source:

On Friday, American Airlines is the first airline in the world to be fully FAA approved to use iPads during all phases of flight. Pilots will use iPads as electronic chart and digital flight manual readers. The … Read more

The 404 961: Where we've got a Twitch in our eye (podcast)

There's plenty of live video broadcasting platforms to choose on the Web these days, but today we're chatting with one of the pioneers.

Justin Kan is one of the co-founders of Justin.TV, and he drops by our studio today for a full episode about the origins of life streaming and how the site paved the road to Justin's new project for live video gaming, TwitchTV.

We'll also talk to Justin about his participation in Y Combinator, a start-up incubator that helps green entrepreneurs through the first three months of genesis.

The boot camp gives founders the seed funding they need for general living expenses, allowing them to focus on the business idea. YC also guides them through the media pitching process and how to grab the attention of venture capitalists and seed investors.

Some of the headline-grabbing companies to grow from Y Combinator include Scribd, Loopt, Grubwithus, and Justin.TV itself.

Tune in to hear about how TwitchTV is bringing competitive gaming to a much larger audience, not to mention a few tips on what it takes to earn a spot in the next Y Combinator batch!… Read more

Android Atlas Weekly 53: Mythical unicorn phone from the future (Podcast)

We get questionably definitive proof that someone at Google listens to the show with Google's roll out of its an app compatibility function for the Android Market, just weeks after we complained about system requirements for Android apps. You can thank us later. Also, we take a look at a free entry-level Android phone, get video proof that the Droid 3 is coming from Motorola, and speculate on what may end up being the unicorn of smartphones, the Nexus 4G---not to be confused with the Nexus S 4G--a phone with specs that you wouldn't believe. But which of … Read more

American Airlines adds Android in the sky

American Airlines gave Android a sky-high boost earlier this month when it started offering the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 as an entertainment device for first-class passengers.

American will deploy 6,000 Galaxy Tabs on Boeing 767 flights between New York's JFK airport and Los Angeles, JFK and San Francisco, and Miami and Los Angeles. Passengers also will find the device on 767 aircraft serving South America and Boeing 757 aircraft flying between Boston and Los Angeles.

Besides replacing American's current entertainment system, the Wi-Fi-enabled tablets also will offer passengers Internet access during flights for an additional fee. … Read more