Not long ago, I got a letter from my airline of choice, explaining that they'd partnered with the fine people in the U.S. government to help prevent terrorism faster. If you've spotted people at airports being whisked into a special line, where they don't have to take off their shoes, don't have to take out their laptops or even remove their belts, you've already spotted this program in action. The rollout of TSA PreCheck—branded as TSA Pre✓™—started just back in October, with seven airports, including Los Angeles and Miami, and just for American and Delta passengers. Then the TSA announced they'd be including JFK airport—which just happened last week—and then [...]

Here's live Tweeting from a passenger on the isolated American Airlines plane (SFO to JFK) that received a threat. (via)

While there's lots of noise today about American Airlines finally filing for bankruptcy, as an extension of its 2009 turnaround plan (oh, and its $30 BILLION in debt), there's a lot less noise about how Chapter 11 is also a strategy for its ongoing union negotiations.

American has an extremely heavy payroll load, essentially. It keeps more than 22 maintenance employees per plane, for instance; compare that to Delta's 12 or JetBlue's 3.4 or Northwest's .8. (Eek, .8?) And American's maintenance is significantly less outsourced than other airlines. American actually employs nearly 15,000 maintenance people; JetBlue employs 471.

In preparation for a possible strike by American Airlines' flight attendants, with whom the company is negotiating a new contract, AA is scouring the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area for 4,000 of what it's calling "volunteers" who can undergo a 17-day training program and then report to the skies for snack-handling and pillow-distributing duties. The word "volunteers" doesn't imply "no pay" to just me, does it? Or is it just American's attempt to appear all "let's roll up our sleeves and get to work, comrades" about what looks to be a somewhat pitched battle between labor and management? [Pic via]

One of the smart things Politico did out of the gate was build identification (or sometimes devoted enmity!) with their reporters—that's why Ben Smith's blog is named, you know, "Ben Smith," and there's a cute little cartoon of him. I mean, this is an obvious thing but somehow still an under-done thing online, and it works. (It gives the "YOUR PRESEDINT OSAMA'S IDDIOT" commenters someone to recognize.) And not enough companies take advantage of building bonds between their employees and their customers. The number one industry that would benefit? Airlines.

This is something I think frequently myself! "Recently, I had the horrific displeasure of booking a flight on your website, aa.com. The experience was so bad that I vowed never to fly your airline again." Hilariously, some folks at American Airlines agreed.