American has announced some interesting route additions and cancelations today. For an overview, American is introducing seasonal routes to the Caribbean and Hawaii, increasing frequencies on some existing Caribbean routes, adding capacity to London out of Dallas, and canceling flights between Chicago and Beijing.
Continue reading: American Route Changes: New Flights To The Caribbean & Hawaii, Beijing Route Canceled
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Help us out a little - those are some pretty obscure airport codes. Maybe tell us what they are?
Beijing's new airport should be open before October 2019, can't American just stick around a little longer? Wondering if Delta will jump in and try to take the slot and open LAX-PEK.
Brings back fond memories of the time we got AA RT business to Beijing for $20 in the great fare mistake of '15
@jfhscott
BGI - Barbados
CUR - Curacao
FPO - Freeport, Bahamas
POS - Port of Spain, Trinidad
SDQ - Santo Domingo, Dom Rep
UVF - Saint Lucia (Had to look that one up)
ELH - Eleuthera, Bahamas (another new one to me)
MHH - Marsh Harbor, Bahamas
AUA - Aruba
SVD - St. Vincent & Grenadines (new airport, same code)
GCM - Grand Caymen
NAS - Nassau, Bahamas
PLS - Providenciales, Turks & Caicos
@Lucky - Help me out here. AA has had an operating schedule for MIA-LHR set for a while. They have planned to operate 1 77W and 1 772 (77W for Summer).
AA 38/39 - Is 77W
AA 56/57 - Is 772 (Upgauge to 77W over summer)
Which flight is AA dropping to BA? Is their plan to only operate the AA 56/57 - 772 flight and completely remove the 77W to Miami?
Im booked on AA 39 in F in December
@ Steven -- That's correct, they're canceling the frequency operated by the 777-300ER, as that plane is moving to Dallas. So unfortunately you're going to get rebooked once the schedule change kicks in.
Lucky,
Business class passengers will not get access to the AA Flagship Lounge on the ORD-HNL flight, correct?
Between DFW-LHR, there's currently 2-3 daily AA flights and 1 daily BA flight. If BA is dropping for AA, does that mean BA is dropping all presence at DFW?
Lucky,
Insider here. What you wrote about the MIA/DFW to LHR swap is not totally correct.
In MIA, it is true that AA will move from 2 daily flights to 1 and BA will move from 2 daily flights to 3, but in DFW there will actually be a net increase in flights as BA stays at 1 and AA increases from 3 to 4.
The rationale (as explained to employees) is that most of the winter MIA/LHR traffic originates in LHR where BA has a stronger brand presence so it makes sense for BA to do more of the flying. DFW/LHR on the other hand is driven by the western US to London, so it makes more sense for AA to add more flights. In other words, AA won't "take over" BA's daily flight, they'll just augment it. BA will downgauge their one flight to a 777-200 while American will offer 3 daily on the 777-300ER and 1 daily on the 777-200.
@ Ori - See my correction to Lucky's comment. BA will NOT be dropping their presence at DFW, just downgauging.
Yeah, even my PEK-LAX flight on Memorial Day, a huge travel holiday, isn't close to being full yet. It had been in the $800s for awhile but dropped to sub-$400 right at the 2 month away mark. Frustrating since I figured it would be a super high in demand route considering who would rather fly Air China (the only other direct flight), but guess I was wrong. Not the best value for my 32.5 AA miles 🙁
"American will be taking over one of British Airways’ Dallas to London Heathrow frequencies; British Airways uses a 747-400 on the route, while American will use a 777-300ER"
BA currently has only one flight per day to/from DFW..... bye bye T5 connections and easy Avis car pick up at at LHR... 🙁
@cbw - thanks very much for the DFW-LHR clarification. The way that Lucky wrote it, he states that DFW would be losing the daily BA flight. I first read Gary Leff's blog and he has it stated correctly. Then, when I read Lucky's post, I was confused. Thanks for the clarification!
*guaranteed* DL will scream foul and murder after AA shrewdly yanked DL's LAX-PEK rug from right underneath them. If DL succeeds to steal the authority over and actually launch LAX-PEK this time, they'll have robust coverage with :
PVG - SEA DTW LAX ATL (partner MU offers a lot more)
PEK - SEA DTW LAX .......
UA will probably stay quiet cuz from CONUS48 they already have 4x daily PEK and 5x daily PVG, from 4 hubs each. (super wild card possibility would be UA submitting a bid for IAH-PVG) UA's existing offerings (excluding anything GUM) are :
PVG - SFOx2 ORD EWR LAX ...... (partner CA offers a token service to SJC)
PEK - SFO.... ORD EWR ........IAD (partner CA offers a lot more)
But after this change, AA's position will be much weaker :
PVG - DFW LAX ORD (partner HU offers SEA BOS)
PEK - DFW LAX ------- (partner HU offers SEA BOS SJC LAS BOS)
I've noticed the cheap business class fares on Chinese carriers from the US to Asia too. Each of the Big-3 Chinese carriers have been offering around $3,000 for business class from NY to Singapore. It was seriously tempting, but I opted to pay around $4,500 for Etihad. That's a big premium, but I would really prefer to avoid a mainland connection and mainland Chinese service if I can.
@henry LAX
Hainan and AA's partner ship is relatively weak. I think it is exactly Hainan's PEK-ORD flight kills AA's. Hainan offers much cheaper fare in both econ and biz, and service is way better than AA. I have a feeling that as long as a route is operated by Hainan, no US based airline can survive on the same route... And I would not think UA will consider more flight to China as their recent report shows flight to China does not yield high enough. UA's SFO- CTU will be stopped just in matter of time.
Its extremely obnoxious to use airport codes that arent immediately obvious, like LAX or BOS.
I have an AA ORD-PEK flight in November. Is there anything I can do proactively or do I need to wait until AA notification?
@Jools Please see my comment above about the DFW-LHR flights. Lucky's article is incorrect. BA will still fly once a day to DFW, just on a 777-200 instead of a 747
Matt , seriously? CA is not a great airlines, but if you have to choose between AA and CA, why would anyone choose AA ? AA is the worst airlines I have ever been on, even UA is much better
@Matt, if you are using seat maps as an indication of load, it could be way off. Anecdotally, it seems that Asia flights often have many unassigned seats.
@Puck
AA 38/39 is the flight disappearing
AA 56/57 will be exclusively operated by 772. Probably until Spring/Summer '19 when loads pick up.
Most Chinese airlines focus on West Coast cities and a few selected US markets outside of it. For US airlines there is money to be made east of the Rockies and certainly when offering connections to smaller cities.
However the Chinese market grows because of Chinese outbound travelers NOT inbound travelers. US airlines find it hard to market their product to Chinese outbound travelers (understandably).
@bsp : i hardly count HU as a meaningful partnership personally, but just had to mention it in case some troll think i'm purposely biased against them
Torsten , you are very right. most Asian bound flight are filled with Asian. non-Asian passengers count a tiny share of the customer base.
Maybe some American passengers have a bias against Chinese airlines, Chinese passengers don't.
Also working again AA particular is AA has no true partner in mainland China. I know many people base in Beijing would take UA or Air Canada when it is more convenient to them since all are in star alliance. I guess folk base in Shanghai would give Delta a try time to time. That leave AA alone here.
@lucky
You are not 100% accurate on the Flagship Dinning.
You are entitled to use it if you have an international F ticket connecting from another US airport. For instance I had access this week because I was doing MIA-LAX-HKG.
So although it is true that only GRU and EZE will keep 3 class configuration from MIA, you can access if you have F from another AA hub, not to mention if you are awarded concierge key.
@LU: I'm not American, but I do have a preference (I wouldn't call it a bias) against Chinese airlines based on reviews and my own and friends' experiences. I also have a preference against US carriers. For long-haul flights, I am willing to pay more for a better hard and soft product. So, if the price is the same, I choose a better Asian/European/Middle Eastern carrier over an American or Chinese counterpart.
And here’s the issue I have with the changes to the loyalty program. There is no incentive for me to fly on a cheap fare to China. Instead I’ll keep my feet on the ground. This leaves money on the table for AA and others. Even at those cheaper rates it would be better to fill one more seat before it departs empty. For a loyalty program I’d think you’d want to attract that additional business or at least keep it from going to your competitors. In this case the dollars stay in my pocket and the seat goes out empty. You can’t argue that AA doesn’t value filling that seat at that price otherwise the price would be higher.
How long is the “winter” season for the HNL and Caribbean flights? Do they run through April to get Spring Break traffic?
As of now AA's LHR-DFW/MIA/JFK/LAX are still scheduled seasonally. LHR-MIA 1x daily 772 and 1x 77W daily off-peak, then 2x 77W daily during the summer; LHR-DFW 2x daily 77W off-peak then 3x daily 77W. The question is the addition of a daily 77W DFW-LHR make it year-round 3x daily freq or 3x off-peak and 4x peak season?
@Henry LAX
1. AA's partnership with HU is ending. CZ be the new anchor in mainland China. Regardless of the synergy and products, CZ should provide more feed in Beijing and Shanghai (this is not about its hub CAN).
2. HKG-LAX/DFW are doing fairly well for AA
3. US3 are P&L based, less about pride and prestige in sticking to certain routes...they all have signaled caution in trans-Pacific routes due to Asian carriers dumping seats
Lucky there are two 777-300ER's a day MIA to LHR. I just looked and there will still be 1 daily 777-300ER a day from MIA to LHR after October 28th 2018.
@Justin You're not alone, I live in the US and I have a strong bias against US carriers, most experienced travelers here do. I tend to go on a better counterpart that is either Asian/European/Middle Eastern over US carriers as well.
I took the ORD-PVG flight on American a little over a year ago. It was a full flight both ways. Too bad about the Beijing flight...