{"id":2447,"date":"2013-02-14T21:57:51","date_gmt":"2013-02-15T05:57:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jett.in\/?p=2447"},"modified":"2013-02-14T21:57:51","modified_gmt":"2013-02-15T05:57:51","slug":"my-sordid-incestuous-airline-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/02\/my-sordid-incestuous-airline-history\/","title":{"rendered":"My Sordid, Incestuous Airline History"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>the announcement of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aa.com\/arriving\">American-US Airways merger<\/a> today got me thinking about all the consolidation the industry has and continues to go through, and what a tangled web alliances and partnerships have weaved as i look back at my flight history. i made up a diagram (it&#8217;s not pretty; i&#8217;m no designer) that shows the more significant (domestic) airlines in my past and how they are related to each other. as far as i know this is factually accurate, but i&#8217;m not as well-versed as i should be in airline mergers and acquisitions.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2449\" alt=\"airlines\" src=\"http:\/\/jett.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/airlines.png\" width=\"600\" height=\"700\" srcset=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/\/sites\/48\/2013\/02\/airlines.png 600w, http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/\/sites\/48\/2013\/02\/airlines-257x300.png 257w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Western<\/strong> and <strong>PSA<\/strong> &#8212; two of the earliest airlines i remember flying on as a kid. one of them, i am pretty sure PSA, is the first flight i remember, from [tooltip title=&#8221;&#8221; content=&#8221;Los Angeles&#8221; type=&#8221;classic&#8221; ]LAX[\/tooltip]&nbsp;to [tooltip title=&#8221;&#8221; content=&#8221;Sacramento&#8221; type=&#8221;classic&#8221; ]SMF[\/tooltip] when our fourth grade class went to visit the capitol for a day.<\/li>\n<li><strong>TWA<\/strong> &#8212; the airline i flew in college ([tooltip title=&#8221;&#8221; content=&#8221;Chicago O&#8217;Hare&#8221; type=&#8221;classic&#8221; ]ORD[\/tooltip] to [tooltip title=&#8221;&#8221; content=&#8221;Sacramento&#8221; type=&#8221;classic&#8221; ]SMF[\/tooltip] via [tooltip title=&#8221;&#8221; content=&#8221;St. Louis&#8221; type=&#8221;classic&#8221; ]STL[\/tooltip]) thanks to their Youth Travel Pack, four one-way flights for less than $550. Also, airline that took me (family trip) to Europe for the first time in 1988 (89?), [tooltip title=&#8221;&#8221; content=&#8221;Los Angeles&#8221; type=&#8221;classic&#8221; ]LAX[\/tooltip]-[tooltip title=&#8221;&#8221; content=&#8221;London Heathrow&#8221; type=&#8221;classic&#8221; ]LHR[\/tooltip].<\/li>\n<li><strong>America West<\/strong>&nbsp;&#8212; i flew them a lot (and to a lesser extent,<strong> Northwest Airlines<\/strong>) when i first started traveling for work (several jobs ago, sadly i don&#8217;t travel much for work anymore). i earned&nbsp;<strong>Continental<\/strong>&nbsp;elite mostly by flying&nbsp;<strong><\/strong>America West, and it was on America West that i got my first taste of elite upgrades (via Continental Silver Elite &#8212; they were relatively easy to get as I recall).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Northwest<\/strong>&nbsp;(+KLM) is also the airline i took on my first solo <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/jonk\/sets\/265725\/\">trip to Prague<\/a> in 2005, the trip that started my travel obsession in earnest.<\/li>\n<li><strong>United<\/strong> is my current carrier of choice, with a fair number of&nbsp;<strong>US Airways<\/strong>&nbsp;flights due to the fact that i fly to [tooltip title=&#8221;&#8221; content=&#8221;Philadelphia&#8221; type=&#8221;classic&#8221; ]PHL[\/tooltip] a lot.<\/li>\n<li>i actually earn most of my&nbsp;<strong>American<\/strong> miles flying on <strong>Alaska<\/strong>, but flights on either of these are few and far between and thus not shown above.<\/li>\n<li>i don&#8217;t remember the last <strong>Delta&nbsp;<\/strong>flight i took, but it likely was (and is what i&#8217;ll most remember them for) the flight that took me home from my two years in Germany &#8212; [tooltip title=&#8221;&#8221; content=&#8221;Stuttgart&#8221; type=&#8221;classic&#8221; ]STR[\/tooltip]-[tooltip title=&#8221;&#8221; content=&#8221;Atlanta&#8221; type=&#8221;classic&#8221; ]ATL[\/tooltip]-[tooltip title=&#8221;&#8221; content=&#8221;San Francisco&#8221; type=&#8221;classic&#8221; ]SFO[\/tooltip].<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>the announcement of the American-US Airways merger today got me thinking about all the consolidation the industry has and continues to go through, and what&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"My Sordid, Incestuous Airline History http:\/\/wp.me\/p2mZtk-Dt #travel #travelblog #avgeek","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[12],"tags":[52,482],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.13 - 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