Haute Couture, Tiffany Diamonds...American Airlines Seat 23D from DFW-ORD?

Here we go...after years of saying they were going to do it, they are going to do it.

American Airlines is going high fashion.

Perhaps you're wondering if the Travel Barista has had a few too many shots of espresso today, but bear with me.

There is a very clear-cut strategy that high fashion, luxury labels and cache brands use to give their products an air of exclusivity that you can't find in the department store brands. And that strategy is that you can't get them in the department stores.

You want a real Tiffany cut diamond engagement ring in the famous blue box? Only a Tiffany store itself can give it to you. Looking for that Oscar red-carpet look that will allow you to say "it's a Vera Wang?" Better visit one of her stores. Want a complete set of customised steamer trunks like they used to use to travel the world on ocean liners? Head down to your local Louis Vuitton shop. (Ok, perhaps a back alley in Shanghai...)

So what does all this have to do with American Airlines? Simple - they are, in essence, taking their product out of the department store and opening up their own, exclusive, hard to get to, boutique.

Read all about it: http://www.eyefortravel.com/news/airlines/american-airlines-takes-gds-charges-new-distribution-model

Long story short is that American has had enough of giving distribution channels like the GDS's, corporate travel management companies, and online travel agencies (and soon I'm sure good old fashioned shop-front retail travel agencies) a chance to make a bit of profit by selling American Airlines seats. So they're going to only sell direct. Maison d'American Airlines, anyone?

In essence, by only allowing their product to be sold directly via their own channel, takes them out of the shopping marketplace and distribution network that long has served them and other airlines well and will ask the buyers to come find them. It's Fifth Avenue or Bond Street as opposed to Bloomingdale's or Selfridges.

For those travel managers out there who perhaps find the product that American offers is indeed worth the premium it will now take to be able to book, ticket, track, manage and report on flights bought on American, then perhaps this will be a good strategy. After all, making something hard to get can often make it quite irresistible.

But my money's on the fact that most travel maangers are more like power shoppers, who'd rather comb the Saturday newspapers trying to figure out which store is having which sale on the most choices of stuff available rather than having to make a separate trip to a boutique to buy only one type of outfit.

So...could we soon see American Airlines be up there with the Jimmy Choo's or Hermes of the world? Sounds a bit pretentious, doesn't it?

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie....or U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A?

Ok, so in last week’s Cafe I said that after my relatively enjoyable A380 experience on Qantas, I wasn’t even going to bother evaluating the forthcoming US domestic flight as I had assumed it would be “completely awful.” Well, I was wrong.

It was worse.

But I’m not going to use this week’s Cafe (writing it as I am during a lovely 4-hour layover in LAX, but thankfully the relatively new Qantas lounge is my refuge rather than having to deal with the atrocious American Airlines “Admirals” Club...which should be court-martialled) as a rehash of American Airlines’ tiny seats, tiny flop-down TV screens, tiny inventory of pay-for-the-privilege onboard food (they ran out) or apparently tiny baggage staff at O’Hare (took 40 minutes to get my bags.)

Rather, I’d like to use this opportunity to comment on what I see are the glaring differences between flying in the Australasian region, and flying in the USA. You may think that this would be quite a simple exercise (Australasia good, USA bad.) Not so fast, person squished into seat 23B - which on some American planes is actually an aisle seat thanks to a silly 2-3 configuration which I thought is what I was booked into but on flight AA1006 from LAX-ORD actually is a B737 which makes 23B a middle and therefore why didn’t American move me to an aisle seat as I am an Emerald One World frequent flier for the love of all things human...don’t you even care about your most loyal customers?

But I digress.

My thoughts and ruminations on the differences – note not just the good vs. the bad – of flying in the USA vs. Australasia:

It’s better in Australasia because:

- Many flights – even domestic Australian flights - will find you on wide-body planes. I don’t care if the Qantas CityFlyers from SYD-MEL are on thousand-year-old B767’s, it beats a single-aisle plane any day of the week. And flying an A330 across Australia from Sydney to Perth is like a Rolls Royce compared to the Yugo-like B757’s I usually get flying from Philadelphia to Los Angeles in the US. Opinion: the B757 is the most diabolical aircraft on the planet. Discuss.

- People. Or rather, a lack thereof. Barring a domestic Chinese flight, or trying to get a bowl of cereal at 8am or a sandwich at 5pm in any Qantas Club in Australia, most of the time it just seems like flying around Australia and Asia seems less crowded. Maybe it’s because the airports are bigger, or the planes are bigger, or most likely its because the USA is still by far the largest travel market in the world. Whatever the reason, I just think that travelling in this part of the world gives you room to breathe. Dissenting opinions, anyone?

- Lounges that actually are relaxing, productive and inviting, rather than justifying their existence by basically having an ambiance that says “well at least you’re not out in the main terminal.” Frankly, many US airport terminals loaded with fast-food outlets are actually more welcoming than the airline lounges.

- Cross-alliance frequent fliers matter. I never joined their frequent flier program, but Cathay Pacific ALWAYS acknowledged my OneWorld status and made sure I had the seat I wanted and/or offered upgrades. Hey American – please remember you are part of the OneWorld Alliance, now can my Emerald status please allow me into this lounge I don’t want to come into anyway?

It’s better in the USA because:

- Choice. Yes, it’s often the best of a bad lot, but let’s face it – on any given route you likely have a dizzying array of airline choices. And if the US carriers ever get their act back together and sort out where they are good and where they are not, a plethora of competitive options will always be a good thing for travellers.

- Decent carry-on food options in the terminal. Now, you may argue that this is just a by-product of the removal of free food on flights, but at the end of the day, if I can get a huge roast turkey sandwich with all the fixings which was made fresh by Chili’s just an hour ago, pop it into my carry-on, and nosh on it during the flight, that’s not a bad thing. And although I still appreciate a free beer on Qantas CityFlyer flights between 4-7pm, no amount of Qantas’ “bento boxes” they’re passing off as onboard meals these days is going to get me to give up my Chili’s roast turkey sandwich. Mmmmm.....

- Camaraderie. It’s amazing – back when airlines in the US started charging for bags, all the travel blogs and news articles were speaking of “air rage” and “passengers bills of rights” to deal with all the headaches resulting from people bringing on board their bags rather than checking them. A couple of overstuffed overhead bin years later, and I am seeing quite an interesting development – what I’m calling the “Air Team” mentality. It now seems as though everyone dealing with the drudgery of US air travel now is realising everyone’s in this mess together, and the cooperation and team work I saw this past week was quite interesting. I’m talking fire bucket brigade-type operations where the guy in 7D has to put his laptop bag back by 27D due to no more space above his seat, and people were passing his bag down the aisle to the flight attendant in back. When we landed, process reversed and voila- by the time the door opened Mr. 7D had his bag and we all zipped off. Beautiful.

- Politeness. Sorry Aussies, but when it comes to apologising for bumping your head with a laptop bag while squeezing down a tight aisle, Americans come up trumps with politeness. I got smacked on my Qantas flight with such a bag and although the guy did turn around to see what got in his bag’s way, no acknowledgement of the shiner on my head was forthcoming. When stuck in my middle seat from LAX-ORD, the guy in the middle seat in front of me actually turned around and ASKED ME if I minded if he put his seat back a bit. Why not at all my good man, go right ahead. See how easy that is?

Anyway, enough of my drabbling on...did I mention I have a 4-hour layover? So, Cafe regulars, what do you think? Who’s got the better flying environment? And what are your observations about what’s good and what’s bad about air travel in your parts of the world? Let’s hear it. And I’ll see you in Sydney after I land in what seems to be about 5 days from now....