American Airlines "Admiral of the Flagship Fleet" certificate (1960's) - anybody know more about this?

RussR

RussR

Final Approach
Joined
Jan 12, 2011
Messages
5,219
Location
Oklahoma City, OK
Display Name
Russ
Home Airfield
OKC
Found this cool bit of aviation history hanging in my mother-in-law's house. The "W. R. Burrows" is my wife's grand-uncle (my MIL's uncle) (?). Unfortunately my MIL has Alzheimer's and can't remember anything about it.

It's dated 1963 and signed by C.R. Smith who was the CEO of AA at the time. It's obviously stylized with terms like Admiral.

Anybody know anything about these certificates? What were they recognizing?
 

Attachments

  • IMG20240317173210.jpg
    IMG20240317173210.jpg
    8.2 MB · Views: 70
Per wikipedia

The Admirals Club was conceived by AA president C.R. Smith as a marketing gimmick shortly after he was made an honorary Texas Ranger. Inspired by the Kentucky colonels and other honorary organizations, Smith decided to make particularly valued passengers "admirals" of the "Flagship fleet" (AA called its aircraft "Flagships" at the time). The list of Admirals included many celebrities, politicians and other VIPs, as well as more "ordinary" customers who had been particularly loyal to the airline.

A Google search of W.R Burrows shows he was an artist
 
Racerx said:
Per wikipedia

The Admirals Club was conceived by AA president C.R. Smith as a marketing gimmick shortly after he was made an honorary Texas Ranger. Inspired by the Kentucky colonels and other honorary organizations, Smith decided to make particularly valued passengers "admirals" of the "Flagship fleet" (AA called its aircraft "Flagships" at the time). The list of Admirals included many celebrities, politicians and other VIPs, as well as more "ordinary" customers who had been particularly loyal to the airline.

A Google search of W.R Burrows shows he was an artist
Click to expand...
Thanks.

Different WR Burrows, this one was an engineer of some sort.

So it was basically like either a frequent fliers club or being a VIP? Did being in this club confer any actual benefits? (Like lounge access or seat upgrades or a concierge service, maybe.)
 
I grew up in Warren, Ohio. When in high school, I wanted to learn to fly, so went to Ernie Hall's airport just east of Warren in Howland Township, Trumbull County. Ernie Hall became my flight instructor. He told me that he had build his own airplane in 1911, and flew it to Dayton to talk with the Wright Brothers about building airplanes.

In the office of his hanger at his grass runway airport, he had a certificate declaring him to be an Admiral of the Fleet of Capital Airlines. He was not a celebrity. I think he was recognized by issue of this certificate for being an aviation pioneer.
 
Capital Airlines operated Connies and Viscounts back in the 40s and 50s and was merged into United airlines in 1960. I've never heard of such certificates from them, but American Airlines was bestowing honorary Admiral designations to people going back to 1939, which turned into the Admirals Club. After a discrimination complaint in the seventies, the club went from being bestowed at the airline discreption to the paid memberships it is today.
 
Funny story time. Back in the late 80's and early 90's I was flying a lot for my business. I had been living in Tampa so there wasn't really a preferred airline. I flew Delta and USAir mostly. Occasional United, Continental, American and Northwest. Then I moved to Atlanta so flying almost exclusively Delta. But every now and then I would have to fly another carrier.

I made a trip to Houston with my girlfriend (before she was my wife) on a job for the company she was working for. Had to fly Continental for whatever reason. Finished the job a few hours early so we went to airport to try and catch an earlier flight (that kind of thing was normal back then). We got to the terminal and I had to go to the restroom so I gave her my ticket so she could go to the gate for the earlier flight and see if we could get on.

When I got to the gate and asked if we were on the earlier flight she said we were and that we were upgraded to first class. I asked how much the upgrade cost and she said "No charge. By the way, I didn't know you were a Flying Colonel." I told her I didn't know what that was and I didn't know that I was one.

A month or so later, I found myself flying on Continental again and when I checked at the gate, the agent took my ticket, typed away on the keyboard and then handed me a boarding pass and told me I was in first class. I didn't give it a second thought. Back then, if it wasn't a crowded flight, it wasn't unheard of to be the highest status flyer on that plane, so you got the perks. For the return I was finished early so I stopped at the ticket counter to see if there was any seats on the earlier flight. Gate agent typed away on the keyboard and said "No problem, you're in seat 2A. Nice being a Flying Colonel, huh?"

So now I had to ask. "What's a Flying Colonel?" Gate agent said "It's special status we give to CEO's, governors, some mayor's, things like that." Here's where the stupid kicks in: I said "I'm not any of those things." Gate agent starts typing again. Then asked for my frequent flying number. I gave it to him and he says "Ah... At some point, someone must have entered your frequent flyer wrong. One digit was different. I fixed it." After that, I never got another upgrade to first class.

Moral of the story: If someone tells you that you're a Flying Colonel, STFU and get on the plane.

:rofl:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top