American Airlines wants to get out front of a tragedy involving some puppies.

The airline used its AAirwaves Twitter account to tweet today that it is investigating the deaths of seven puppies which took one of its flights yesterday.

Here’s the tweet:

Seven puppies — among 14 on board American Flight 851 Tuesday from Tulsa, Okla., to Chicago — died, according to NBC Chicago. Five of the puppies were said to have died on board and two later,  the story says.

American also tweeted that teams are actively investigating to find out what happened.

Soon you’ll be able to book American Airlines flights on JetBlue.com and JetBlue flights on AA.com.

The two airlines say they are working on these capabilities as they get ready on July 20 to begin implementing a previously announced interline agreement.

Under the collaboration, passengers will be able to connect between 14 of American’s international destinations departing from JFK in New York and Boston’s Logan Airport  and 18 of JetBlue’s domestic markets.

For example, travelers will be able to book New Orleans-New York-Rome interline service.

Passengers will be able to book these connecting services through most major online travel agency websites in North America, American Airlines ticket counters and phone lines, and through traditional travel agencies, the airlines say.

The respective carriers’ websites can’t handle the service for now, but they are working on providing the capability, the airlines say.

In addition, the two carriers announced that they intend to introduce a frequent flyer relationship later this year.

Members of AAdvantage and TrueBlue would be able to earn miles or points in the respective programs when they fly on the carriers’ interline routes.

There are no apparent signs of an airline exit from OpenTravel now that six major U.S. airlines have formed their own XML standards group, Open AXIS Group.

American Airlines and ATPCO, which have full-membership and allied-membership status , respectively, in Open AXIS Group, indicate they will be retaining their membership in OpenTravel, as well.

Cory Garner, American’s director of merchandising strategy, says the airline has no plans to leave OpenTravel.

“OpenTravel and Open AXIS can coexist,” Garner says, “with the former playing a broader role in travel distribution standards and the latter focusing on building and maintaining the most robust standard for airline direct-connects.”

Meanwhile, Tom Gregorson, ATPCO’s senior director of product strategy and development, says the airline-owned fare-data collection and distribution organization likewise will retain its membership in OpenTravel while taking an allied board slot in the just-formed Open AXIS Group.

Gregorson says ATPCO tries to participates in all forums even though it causes some “stress” because of limited resources.

He notes that ATPCO is so committed to OpenTravel that it recently tried unsuccessfully to get a seat on the OpenTravel board.

Asked about a rumor that ATPCO’s airline owners might have pressured the organization to work with Open AXIS, Gregorson says, “not at all.”

In fact, Gregorson says, ATPCO learned about Open AXIS and sought out the organization to find out more.

Gregorson says ATPCO’s interest in Open AXIS is to try to establish standards for data distribution as ATPCO is “open to all these schemes.”

If an airline wants to distribute via XML today, ATPCO doesn’t currently do it and wants to ensure it can accommodate XML in the future, he adds.

With American and ATPCO expressing continuing support for OpenTravel — despite helping to found what appears to be a rival organization — the question becomes whether this support will be heartfelt and deep, or whether it is the politically correct thing to say at this juncture.

Some technology companies, suppliers and intermediaries in other sectors assuredly will view the formation of another standards body as potential fragmentation, setting up a donnybrook for legitimacy between the two bodies.

Meanwhile, Air Canada, which has not been a member of OpenTravel since 2008, provided some insights on why it believes forming Open AXIS Group was necessary.

“We have a great deal of respect for OTA, but we feel that its focus is very broad and is not specifically dedicated to the airlines,” says Graham Wareham, Air Canada’s senior director of product distribution. “Given the urgency to have standards set for airline connectivity and distribution, and the rapidly evolving airline initiatives around merchandising strategies, we felt that a standards group specifically dedicated to airline connectivity was required.”

American Airlines Chief Information Officer Monte Ford is the only executive from a travel company named on Fortune’s smartest people in tech list — a designation that’s a jaw-dropper to everyone I’ve mentioned it to.

This is no diss of Ford, who joined the airline in 2000, and may be the sharpest guy in the world.

But, American isn’t exactly known for its tech leadership.

Fortune credits Ford, number 34 in its top 50, for dismantling the airline’s mainframes, signing a new reservations-system agreement with HP that emphasizes cloud computing [and, I have to point out, may be years away from implementation], and introducing a handheld device which enables airline employees to assist passengers at airports.

But, these accomplishments hardly position American Airlines as a leading technology light in the travel industry — let alone in U.S. business as a whole.

While American is in the very initial stages of providing some tech leadership with its new AA Direct Connect ancillary services strategy, the airline lags many others in its consumer-tech strategy.

For example, American is way behind some other carriers in getting its fleet outfitted with Wi-Fi, and AA.com still doesn’t enable travelers to pay for their checked bags online.

Customers have to pay for their checked bags at the airport at a self-service kiosk, curbside or at a ticket counter.

And, according to U.S. Department of Transportation statistics (pdf) which cover May 2010, American had the most mishandled baggage reports per passenger of any U.S. major carrier.

Certainly, the travel industry has other luminaries in addition to Ford to offer as candidates for the smartest travel people in tech.

Which individuals from the travel industry would you pick and why?

Also, Fortune limited its list to smart techies at large U.S. companies.

Your candidates might include global choices, from travel companies large and small.

Please don’t make your nominees self-serving ones. [PR representatives -- you know what I mean.]

American Airlines plans to begin later this month to distribute optional services to travel agencies and third-party tech providers exclusively through Farelogix.

And, in the future, the airline plans to offer all of its existing and upcoming ancillary services exclusively through AA Direct Connect via subcontractor Farelogix.

That means some 53 travel agencies in North America — including American Express and Carlson Wagonlit Travel – would be able to offer their clients American’s new Boarding and Flexibility Package because they are tied into the Farelogix FLX distribution platform.

That will provide some differentiation because travel agencies who get their travel content exclusively through Sabre, Amadeus, Worldspan or Galileo won’t be able to access the new American optional services for now unless they book it like a consumer would on AA.com or through other airline channels.

American’s optional services are now branded Your Choice Services and the first product, unveiled last month, is a Boarding and Flexibility package aimed at nonelite passengers.  The offering, which includes priority boarding, a flight change discount and increased standby options, is available in the continental U.S. for $9-$19 one way, depending on the market and routing.

American’s distribution of optional services exclusively through Farelogix represents a distribution sea-change for the airline — but it doesn’t mean that GDSs won’t eventually be able to get the content.

However, in American’s view, if the airline comes to terms commercially with the GDSs in 2011 contract negotiations, then the GDSs would have to connect to a competitor, Farelogix, to access American’s optional services.

Cory Garner, American’s director of merchandising strategy, says there is a tendency in the marketplace to view American’s optional-services distribution strategy “as a temporary negotiating ploy, but this is different.”

American has decided to restructure its distribution technology for all partners — whether they be travel agencies, GDSs or other third-parties — and will distribute all optional services in the future through AA Direct Connect, Garner says.

So, what’s different about American’s new distribution approach?

For example, today GDSs take American’s fares from ATPCO, access availability data from American, and then the GDSs do their own fare calculations, Garner says.

Under the new system being unveiled, however, American will calculate the fare offers “on our side” and “ship shopping results” to all its partners, Garner says.

“Optional services and fares will all ultimately be returned in the same response,” Garner says. “The agency can decide if they want to show total trip costs up front or show only the base fares and then the optional services in a separate step.”

American officials say they’ve made this change in their distribution strategy because of more attractive terms through Farelogix and to enhance the airline’s ability to merchandise its offerings.

Alice Curry, American’s director of distribution strategy, says the airline will be able to use its new distribution methodology to make personalized offers to travelers based on “the information we know about the customer.”

Curry says American will be able to narrow down product offerings to customers to perhaps the two or three that travelers would be most likely to book and the airline or partner would have a better chance of converting the sale.

All major U.S. airlines, as well as Emirates, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines, are hooked up to Farelogix, and so are 6,500 travel agencies in 63 countries.

It’s unclear if other airlines would take a Farelogix-only optional services stance.

But, the issue will be a major one in 2011 GDS negotiations with American and perhaps other carriers.

Sabre spokeswoman Nancy St. Pierre says:  ”We believe that we can distribute this content for AA in the GDS and we are in discussions with them on that topic.”

Garner says American has always reached agreements with GDSs and expects to do so in 2011, as well.

Whether the GDSs agree to tie themselves into Farelogix to access American’s optional services remains to be seen.

But, American says the following companies are in various stages of integration development with AA Direct Connect (Farelogix): AgentWare, BookingBuilder Technologies, Cornerstone Information Systems, GDSX, Global Matrix, nuTravel Technology, PASS Consulting, Rearden Commerce, Revelex, Travelfusion, Tripware, Trondent Development, Travel Computer Systems and TRX.

Curry of American declined to name the travel agencies integrated with Farelogix and set up to access the airline’s optional services.

Curry said the travel agencies are reluctant to identify themselves out of competitive concerns and “fear of retribution from distribution partners.”

American Airlines is proceeding with plans to have HP build the airline a new internal reservations system, dubbed Jetstream.

The airline and HP concluded a formal agreement in March to have HP develop Jetstream.

Tnooz also reported at the time that American had an option to walk away from the contract within 90 or 120 days from the contact’s signing.

Asked today whether the airline had exercised the out clause, American spokesman Billy Sanez said the airline has “passed that time period” and is “going along the path with HP.”

Sanez declined to provide further details.

In 2008, HP acquired EDS for $13.9 billion, and now operates the EDS SHARES airline reservations system, used by several airlines, including Continental.

The former EDS is now part of HP Enterprise Services.

American currently uses SabreSonic as its reservations system.

Jetstream is billed as HP’s successor to SHARES and American would eventually transition from Sabre to Jetstream.

You can read American Airlines’ Twitter account almost every day and view complaints about lost luggage — and now Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bodyguards can testify about the experience firsthand.

Numerous media reports reveal that Netanyahu and his bodyguards arrived in Washington, D.C., yesterday on an American Airlines flight, but one of the the bodyguards’ bags — with four pistols inside –ended up in Los Angeles with at least one of the weapons missing.

Netanyahu and Obama met at the White House Tuesday and American Airlines’ luggage-handling practices was not on the formal agenda.

U.S. Dept. of Transportation statistics released in June showed that American had the most mishandled baggage reports per passenger among major U.S. airlines.

American, according to the DOT’s numbers from April 2010, the latest available, had 3.08 mishandled baggage reports per 1,000 passengers.

That was an improvement from April 2009, when American recorded 4.65 per 1,000 passengers.

British Airways is basking in the relative calm waters of reconvened talks with trade unions by launching upgraded in-flight web services on its business class-only route from London to New York.

The airline is hooking the announcement on giving passengers the ability to catch FIFA World Cup football and coverage of the Wimbledon tennis tournament, although with England and the USA both exiting the South African finals and the famous grass court competition almost over, perhaps the timing is slightly off.

Nevertheless, Airbus A318s flying the route from London City Airport to JFK have upgraded their entertainment systems to allow users to access information about the destination, book chauffeurs, access concierge services, monitor news and sport and view guides to local events.

The system works by allowing users to patch in to the on-board system powered by SITA’s OnAir platform on their own smartphones to access services via a British Airways-hosted portal.

Meanwhile, American Airlines is to allow passengers at London Heathrow to use mobile boarding cards to clear security and pass through boarding gates.

The move is the first time outside of the US (which has allowed mobile boarding cards at 41 airports with AA services since 2008) that passengers will be able to check-in online and receive a 2D barcode to use with airport officials.

The technology will also allow passengers to check bags in at the terminal using the same barcode on mobile handsets.

American Airlines is coming off a bit as a heavy as it reportedly charged an active duty U.S. soldier $50 in overweight fees because his duffel bag was 14 pounds over the limit.

KHOU.com in Houston, Texas, reports that Army Spc. Gary Sharpen, who had been on a two-week leave from Iraq duty, was forced to pay the overweight fee for the 64-pound duffel bag at Bush International Airport in Houston.

American waives the fee for active duty soldiers with bags up to 100 pounds, but requires soldiers to show they are on active duty and have orders.

The airline, according to the story, says Sharpen, a Texas resident, didn’t produce the paperwork and his family says he was never asked to.

Melodie Sharper, the soldier’s wife, says the ticket agent was rude to her husband.

“Did they want him to take out the pictures of our family” to make the bag lighter? Melodie Sharper asked, according to the story. “The toothbrushes that he was bringing over? Deoderant?”

American says it would refund the soldier, who was on his way back to Iraq, the money if he produces the proper paperwork.

As the incident has come to light, American has taken a bit of a bashing on Twitter, but there’s been no social media response as of this moment from AAirwaves, American’s Twitter handle.

Here’s an image of some of the comments about the incident from the Twitterati:

Now, as any airline, including United, will tell you, it’s best to respond to these things in social media before the soldier writes a song or opens a duffel bag business.

American Airlines has turned to YouTube as a means to market to small businesses.

It’s all a way to get small businesses to sign up for American’s Business ExtrAA program, a travel award and incentive program for smaller businesses.

Throughout 2010, American plans to air videos to promote its suite of business product for SMBs (small to medium-size busineses).

Here’s a YouTube video featuring Bob Schwartz of Stirrings Beverages, a Business ExtrAA customer.

Will this sort of pitch work?

One wonders how many small-business owners are watching YouTube these days.

Perhaps many are.

But, contrast American’s tone with the usual consumer-oriented shenanigans from Southwest.

Here’s a YouTube excerpt from its recent annual shareholder meeting.

American will have to measure how its YouTube series will resonate with a business audience.

The airline currently is running a membership drive for Business ExtrAA.

Companies which enroll and have at least two employees fly a minimum of one eligible trip within 90 days earn 500 Business ExtrAA bonus points.

That’s equivalent to an Admiral’s Club day pass or 25% toward a free domestic roundtrip, the airline says.