Yesterday, American Airlines teased plans to announce new international routes, with a fun game inviting travelers to decode the destinations the airline would add. Well, the wait is over, and American has just announced the details of its international expansion for the summer of 2027.
Too many flights , too high fares , for too many dumb passengers .
Once again, AA makes it difficult to be too excited.
@ted - That's what AA's press release has. Not sure if it's a typo on their end or just American keeping their XLRs for longer runs.
Solid and sensible.
What’s wrong with a fourth flight to London on one of the new 787Ps? AA’s evening flight times from JFK are early in the evening and have not been as good as BAs. So would be nice if there was a later than 7pm option on AA metal.
Once again, adding flights for the AARP crowd. Vienna is the “most exciting” add. It’s a nice city and seems perfect for the 321.
Iceland and Porto were good adds. Nice seems safe and good to see American adding from JFK.
American is just replacing JetBlue on the JFK to Amsterdam route.
And CLT to BCN is just connecting the dots.
The AARP crowd? Really? Given that AARP membership can start at 50, it seems like excluding those folks would leave a ton of money on the table. And, I thought the mikes and points community was supposed to be about discounts and free stuff! 🙂
Pretty boring but certainly better than nothing. Vienna is the best add.
Also, good to see Porto and Iceland. I’m sure Nice will do fine.
What is interesting is how the US consumer continues to absorb all the new capacity. Competition is good so regardless of if you dislike Americans routes, the additional flights are good for consumers.
Should have just listed 7 and left off the 4th daily heathrow flight
Who the hell is running AA’s marketing?
This announcement is lackluster at best. Adding a few new cities and some additional frequencies is hardly something to get excited about—especially when you compare it to what United just announced.
But what really leaves me scratching my head is the timing. United announces 10 new international cities, eight of which won’t have nonstop competition from another U.S. carrier, along with a major rollout of the A321XLR—and then AA waits two days to follow it with this?
People are still talking about United’s announcement. AA had to know it was coming. Why not get out in front of it, or at the very least wait a week or two and create some separation? Instead, they invite a direct comparison with United, and AA’s announcement looks even more underwhelming as a result.
Better than the super-cringe 'sponsored content' Delta's tryin' these days...
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tYJU9hCBdDs
Commenter '@chrishepburn1503' said it best: "Lame af"
United certainly had some cool new routes, no doubt.
TBH, I'm not really sure who is still talking about the MAX8 to TER or flights to TLS or LUX (both cool routes but pretty boring destinations if you've ever been to either spot (LUX is just a Giant street of US European HQs these days) -- they're both just business destinations)
but in any other year, AA's announcement would be rather interesting (though obviously not groundbreaking since two of the routes were already announced and many of the others are a resumption of service... though after decades in some instances)
But AA already served LAX-KIX via JL and obviously... AA is never going to serve Okinawa with their west coast network. To me, those were the coolest routes from UA though the European stuff was obviously interesting.
Frankly, I can't even imagine the immense pain of doing a trip to IBZ followed up by a 9 hour narrow body flight. Cool route, no doubt, and not everyone dies on the terminal floor after their Ibiza trip but... yeah, no.
@Robert--given the scope of UA's announcement as compared to AA's, I am uncertain that timing alone is the marketing culprit, but you are correct that coming out with this announcement after United's is not a good look. However, I am not sure that any amount of spin could have made these routes look all that interesting.
Gary at VFTW was 6/8 on his predictions. Ben guessed (or at least 'reacted' to the clues on) PHL-UIO, and it turned out to be the 'red-herring.' Bah!
AA using A321xlrs on the Vienna, Nice and especially Amsterdam routes is quite telling. United using the plane for the reasons it was meant to (starting routes that otherwise wouldnt exist), while AA using it for routes that the competition is flying widebodies.
Having to fly that on NYC-AMS, for instance, is quite stark given the other competition on that route.
not really. AA has very little feed in NYC unlike United, in particular, and obviously Delta will have heavy feed on both ends of JFK-AMS. So for AA, it's exactly how the plane was intended -- a VERY O&D route for them only. So AA putting a heavy J aircraft on a business route with little feed on either end is almost exactly how the xlr was intended to be used. You can't really take United and Delta's networks, place your assumptions on AA, then interpret a misusage of plane economics.
Frankly, AA wouldn't really want to feed AMS via JFK, that would be the job of PHL.
Your statement is interesting but a little basic in interpretation given the networks of the US3 in NYC and AMS.
My point is more it shows how far away AA is in these key markets.
It's New York City - create your own O&D.
AA should never have gotten itself into the position where they can only fill a A321xlr on NYC-AMS.
I'm not advocating they fly a widebody just for S&Gs, but that it is fairly stark that this is all they can fly on the route.
AA was also underutilizing its JFK slots because they just forgot about it.
They don't have feed because they do trash flying on RJs to squat at JFK, and choose to do connections over PHL, DCA, and CLT instead of choosing to compete.
AA theoretically had the most premium experience at JFK for years before everyone else, with Flagship check-in and the triple joint premium lounges, but failed to convert on it and now all the competition has caught up or surpassed them in NYC.
as is the case with all-things-AA these days, the expansion is "whatever"
This is great stuff from AA. No one even remembers what UA announced a few days ago.
This is just restoring capacity to JFK-LHR. They were flying 4 dailies last year, went down to 3 this year. So not even actual growth either.
Mhm, bold of them to call that a 'new' route. Wait, is 'marketing' just 'lying'?
Sure but 2x 787-9P is a good thing. The 777s are really showing their age. Glad they are getting retrofitted.
I'm liking the new flight options out of Philly. Not a huge fan of the A321 for an international flight, but I've flown the A321 Neo from Philly to Seattle and it was a comfortable flight, so to Reykjavik it would be more than fine, especially if the front was marketed as premium economy.
Vienna is the route I'd be most likely to take in the near future. I know Ben has highly recommended Iceland in the past and do second that for those who haven't been.
So cool, it’s super difficult to catch One World flights from the East coast to London. I’m glad American is stepping in there to fill that gap!
Where is my OMAAT luggage tag???
Well that’s not nothing, but it’s a lot fewer routes than I was imagining.
United and Iceland Air already have flights to Rekyavik. I can't imagine American flying a cramp Neo to Iceland is going to be a big drawn, but who knows.
Hope AA would do a PHL flight to Asia soon. If they do, where do you think it would be?
We can cheer and we can complain. For AA, it comes down to financial performance. If it doesn't pan out, the board needs to take action. They've allowed this (whatever) to go on too long.