UC Using its AAdvantage with American Airlines

Debra Almason, Director of Travel Management Services

American Airlines has just lifted off on a new advisory collaborative with UC as one of its passengers.  Debra Almason, Director of UC Travel Management Services, was recently invited to participate on the American Airlines Client Advisory Board, formed to provide the carrier with client input on potential service improvements.  Along with UC, the board is comprised of five other travel directors representing Fortune 500 companies including Samsung, Visa, Salesforce, NetOp and PayPal, in addition to eight senior leaders from American Airlines (AA). Debra represents the lone voice for higher education.

“It’s an honor to be on this committee with such prominent companies and travel industry leadership. Higher education operates differently than corporations do; it’s great to be on equal footing so our unique needs can be understood and taken into serious consideration,” says Debra.

The first of the 2018 quarterly meetings was held on March 23rd in Palo Alto, and began as a casual round table discussion to assess what AA has done well and not so well toward their goal of being the number one carrier in the SF Bay Area and beyond.  Some of the topics and suggestions that arose included:

Priority Re-Accommodation & Service Recovery

At present, American Airlines has the ability to identify and re-accommodate travelers in the event of irregular operations or service disruptions based on AAdvantage status, but not through the identification of specific corporate customers. The advisory group recommended expanding these protections to customers flying under a corporate agreement. This would be a positive development for UC travelers who would be considered preferred partners.

AAdvantage Award Availability

The board discussed the general availability of AAdvantage awards and the possibility of offering more dynamic and generous redemption opportunities.   

American Airlines Menu Redesign

The board shared that American Airlines could improve food services by offering tastier and healthier options on its menu. Already, the board is seeing the “fruits” of their suggestion. Since the meeting, AA has started working with a famous James Beard award winning chef and restauranteur who is helping with a menu redesign that will offer lighter fare, including healthier and gluten free options while maintaining a high standard for quality and taste.   

Over the past decade with UC, Debra has invested much energy into developing and enriching her relationships with travel suppliers (air, car, hotel, rail, etc.), with emphasis on enlightening them about the dynamic program differences, nuances and needs that distinguish higher education from corporate and government travel programs. She’s proven to be a champion of UC services on numerous other supplier- client advisory boards including Virgin America and Alaska Airlines (who’ve since merged and are now known as Alaska Air), United Airlines, British Air, JetBlue, Turkish Airlines, Marriott, BCD Travel, BTN (Business Travel News) and The Company Dime (Travel Industry e-news).

We look forward to seeing where her advocacy on the AA Client Advisory Board lands!