In April American Airlines announced its newest ultra long haul service, set to launch between New York and Delhi as of October.
Continue reading: American Airlines’ New York To Delhi Route: Upgraded To 777-300ER
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
This is such an interesting one - The seat availability for peak holiday season from EWR-BOM/DEL on both UAL/AI is wide open, implying that the travel ban is obviously tangibly impacting holiday plans. By Aug 2019 I was already struggling to find seats for Dec for that year. This means this is just speculative deployment of their most premium long haul jet. It’s most likely to steal share from AI given 1. Likely a slightly better first class product and 2. For Business/Economy UAL has a pretty firm advantage.
Spot on with the cargo demand. On 28 June I flew BOM EWR on a SECOND UA daily frequency (one off because it was compensating for a cancelled frequency earlier) in a 77W with a total of 15 passengers on it, a flight that was run most likely due to massive cargo demand.
Likely AA has 77W slack and cargo demand is perhaps stronger than pax demand, hence the switch to the 77W. There's hardly any business demand to or from India and that's not likely to change and even the VFR market AA is chasing is going to be muted. But at JFK, AA can also offer a better product than AI which flies the same plane type.
A couple months ago a web special on AA for business class seats were widely available on this route for 55k aadvantage miles each way or 110k aadvantage miles round-trip. Great way to transfer & redeem citi thankyou points from premier! I booked several trips into next year, hope route isn't canceled before then.
More obvious reason is that the 77W has longer legs than the 77E and that’ll probably be needed with Afghan airspace uncertain.
Many potential reasons for this - wonder if the season traffic from the US to India may be one of the factors since many Indians travel home for the festivities coming in the next few months. I think it's a little late for the student traffic to the US. A great improvement to AI's first and business. However, I am aware that the legroom in economy is substantially superior on AI - and space is priority in economy.
There is currently a travel ban for Indian citizens coming to US due to covid, nobody knows when it’ll be lifter. US embassies are mostly closed and not issuing visas. The timing of this launch means they’ll be operating empty aircrafts for a while!
AA operated the 772 on ORD-DEL when it ran that route, so not sure this is a range issue so much as a cargo matter. CO and UA also flew 772s on EWR-DEL/BOM previously.
While the legroom is better with AI, they also have a bad reputation and many people would rather not fly with them (which in my experience is more common with Indians living abroad).
From the loss of LATAM early in 2020 to a series of mismanagement to date , AA is on a role with the wrong moves. DFW BLR would have been a smarter move. Dallas being it's primary hub and the growing bounds between Texas and I.T India would propel this flight to success.
While this sounds nice in theory I don’t think any AA aircraft can operate DFW BLR. They would need an A350-900ULR to make the route work, their 777s and 787s aren’t going to cut it.
No question AA is in need of a management shakeup, but a few things here aren't right. DL is sucker having invested in LATAM just before the pandemic. LATAM is bankrupt and has been shrinking. Sure it is an anchor in Latin America and dominates the Brazil market in particular, but it is every bit as much AA loss as it is a bad fit for Delta, which won't be able to align with LATAM the way AA did. As to the BLR route, the only reason it will ever start is to cover Amazon and Microsoft corporate contracts and those are in Seattle, not DFW.
First,
Delta will very likely get a joint venture with Latam out of the deal which will yield far more over just 10 years than the $2 billion that Delta invested.
Second, a Delta-Latam joint venture could well lead to the first US carrier competitive service from Mia to S. America since United's failed attempt to compete with AA.
Third, all of the castigation of Delta's equity strategies belies that American invested in China Southern and even before covid American had already cut its China service down to just DFW. United has already written down its investment in Avianca.
Fourth, American is at best promising more China service as well as to India from Seattle. There is high doubt that either will happen. United's SFO-BLR service will cut a huge part of American's potential market.
Fifth, American has not succeeded in the local market in ANY direct market outside of Tokyo or London where it has competed with Delta and/or United.
Sixth, American has flown to Delhi before. Just like China, they are reshuffling the deck hoping they can make another gateway work.
Finally, the AA 777-300ER is by far the most costly aircraft in the US carrier ultra long haul capable fleet due to the relatively low number of seats in AA's configuration. The 777 is not an efficient aircraft compared to newer generation aircraft. When, not if, Delta uses the A350 to restart India service, AA and UA will have a 20% plus cost disadvantage.
Not only does AA's 777-300ER not make financial sense now given the very low demand which will likely persist for months but they will not be cost effective when more efficient aircraft are added by other carriers to the market.
DFW to Bangalore isn’t possible on any of the planes that AA has. Infact the DFW-HKG route is often weight restricted on a 777-300ER
Not exactly - PR holders, students and those on existing employment visas can travel. The embassies and consulates are not issuing any new visas right now unless they fall into the categories above. Those on tourist of temporary business visas (B1/2) cannot enter the US right now.
I think sample size and selection matters. AI has high passenger loads on its routes to the US. While there are those who are selective about airlines, most travelers simply want to travel with the cheapest option at the shortest time. Reputation becomes a lower priority. If reputation dictated air travel, airlines such as Spirit, American and the likes would have ceased to exist.
AA's decision to return to India comes after years of their own operations which is documented and verifiable by data.
As much as you want to try to take a swing at Delta in the process of hoping for AA's success in yet another attempt at India, the data shows that the chances of success are low in light of data from Delta and United's service to India and their fleets and configurations. Further, there are much higher chances for Delta's success with the largest joint venture in Latin America because of their investment - in contrast to AA's investment in China Southern.
If arm chairs are equipped with all of the data that I have shared, then it isn't as much of a guess as you might think.
I visit a major hospital every week for PT. The first question they ask me when I walk in the door is have I traveled to India or Brazil in the last 28 days. I don't think Covid is going away this winter, it could get worse if a new variant appears. My thinking is if people want to travel this fall and winter a lot of them will stay stateside and visit California or Florida or head to Mexico's beach destinations. We taxpayers have been paying the airline's labor costs for sometime now. Unless extended that expires at the end of September and the airlines will have to start paying their employees again using their own money. A flight to New Delhi would have four cockpit crew members earning combined salaries that would approach a million dollars a year. It would take at least 3 full crews to operate daily flights, and probably close to half a million pounds of fuel roundtrip. I don't see how or why AA would start this service now. Keeping those 777s flying between MIA/MCO/DFW/LAX/CUN this winter makes a lot more sense to me.
It was swapped to the -300ER due to onboard oxygen capabilities now that we can no longer over fly Afghanistan, with exception of a thin sliver between Tajikistan and Pakistan. The -200ER could make it if we were still able to fly over all of Afghanistan or even Iraq and Iran.
Does anyone know the reason why they have postponed to Nov 14? I have booked for December and hope it does not get pushed out further.
I really wish they didn’t cancel the first two weeks. Hope they start on 14th Dec 2021
Still haven't heard why they have canceled the first two weeks. Perhaps the government permit hasn't come through yet? The lack of information is frustrating.
They seem to have cancelled the first 10 days. I am flying on Nov 12th, so far it is a go, it could obviously still get cancelled closer to the date. AA seems to be in cancellation hell right now, lol.
I am flying from Canada via LGA/JFK to DEL.....on 30th Nov and I really really hope they start flying by then. Fingers crossed.
It all depends on how much luggage you have and how many people you are traveling with. If you are alone and traveling very light(just a carry on and personal), the best option is bus Q70 to 74 St - Broadway/Roosevelt Av station where you transfer to the E train. Take the E towards Jamaica and get on the Air Train to JFK. Your per person expense would be $10 approximately.
If you are traveling with friends/family, a cab(uber, lyft or yellow) would be the best option. Will set you back $50-60 depending on time of the day but it will be direct.
A third option is the airport shuttle at $22 per person with one checked luggage. These are shared vans that cover the greater NY/NJ area.
When i go to aa booking i see that the nonstop is available from nov 12th... I am flying nov 16th.
Hoping the current schedule remains active. Fingers crossed!!
Any clue when is AA's first DEL-JFK flight? Is it on 16th Nov 2021? I believe all previous flights have been cancelled.
It seems this flight is scheduled to depart from JFK today Friday Nov 12th.
The flight from JFK to Delhi on Nov 13 is cancelled, and next flight is showing up on Nov 14th.
Even I am concerned about the flight getting cancelled. I have a booking from DEL-JFK on Dec 9th. I hope they follow the schedule as the first flight from JFK-DEL started today.
Happy to report that I took the inaugural flight on Nov 12th and made it to Delhi. Flight and crew were great. First class/Business class meal service is back to normal as well (no more trays), multiple courses, and actual glasses etc. The only miss was being served champagne in a plastic cup as the welcome drink, first world problems, lol. The fact that it was the inaugural flight all passengers were given mango lassi, indian sweets and a little indian flag while boarding which I thought was a nice touch.
Are there only one way flights from now nyc to Delhi? All AA293 flights seem to be cancelled
Thank you. I guess Uber or taxi will be my option. Travelling with two checked baggage 🙂