Yesterday we saw United Airlines announce its biggest international expansion in history, as the airline is adding service to 10 new international cities. Ahead of that, the airline teased new routes, so that travelers could guess what would be added… I love when airlines make such a game of this!
Well, it appears that American Airlines plans to announce its new summer 2027 routes tomorrow, and the airline has just dropped a teaser as well. This one seems a bit easier to figure out…
In this post:
American drops hints about new summer 2027 routes
American has taken to social media, to post four pictures of a “menu.” As the caption explains, “this menu isn’t for ordering,” but instead, “it’s for decoding.” The idea is that travelers are supposed to figure out the new destinations based on the menu items, before the formal announcement on Thursday, August 27, 2026.
Below is the menu cover, which makes it clear that these routes will launch in the summer of 2027.
Then below are the three pages of menus, intended to be the clues about new destinations. It’s not clear if each of these represents a new route, or what…
So, what new routes will American announce?
United puts so much effort into its route teasing, though often it’s so complex and detailed that it’s sort of impossible to make any educated guesses. By contrast, American is making this much easier. Presumably there’s significance to the dishes, the prices, and the descriptions.
For example, the “single-patty hamburger” costs $21.27, and is described as “featuring 321 individual pickled red herring strips on an all-American patty. Served with a toasted UIO bun.” You can also “add on 1,776 sesame seeds for $2.15.”
Okay, I’m guessing this is a route that will be operated by the Airbus A321XLR (based on the “321”), and it will be out of Philadelphia (based on the “1,776,” plus the “$2.15” representing the area code for Philadelphia). Ummm, “UIO” is the airport code for Quito, so could American be looking at flying the A321XLR from Philadelphia to Quito? That’s not exactly what I would’ve expected as one of the first long haul A321XLR routes out of Philadelphia, but…
Okay, I’ll let y’all take a stab at the rest of them. 😉
Bottom line
On Thursday, August 27, 2026, American will announce new international routes, launching in the summer of 2027. The airline has today dropped some hints, in the form of a “menu” that can be decoded. By all means get your guesses in, as I feel this is a bit easier to figure out than United’s clues.
Can anyone guess all of American’s new international routes?
On a side note
The smoked fish soup sounds disgusting
A lame attempt to be clever, but United does it better with far better production value. AA needs to approach UA's marketing guru(s) and have them name their price to defect.
Eggplant Provençal -
Miami (never ending sunshine -> sunshine state) - Nice (Provence) ?
Interesting to see it being unveiled so much earlier than we expected- okay, let's get into this.
From the clues, maybe Manchester or Glasgow for Britain, and might we even hope for another SWISS destination, perhaps outside ZRH? We'll see how it goes!
My guesses:
VIE (Caesar Salad → Caesar cipher → YLHQQD = VIENNA)
KEF (pickled herring clue)
BRU (New York Strip + Belgian-style fries/mayo)
another BCN route
UIO or OSL (Quito? UIO is also the abbreviation for University of Oslo)
WTF decodes to "we're a better domestic airline than an international airline." Another example of on again/off again network planning.
It's almost as if Mr. Isom saw with Mr. Kirby did and was like, "oh, hey, we can do 'hype,' too..."
Anyway, is the UIO bun supposed to be Quito? 1776 (and the '215' area code) is probably Philly. So, umm, ur, XLR from Philly to Quito? Welp, that'd be different.
AA's board is seeing "action" . . . for the sake of action. What they are not seeing is a change in financial results. Yet, *they* take no action. For shame.
Myabe the Fish and Chips one is Manchester. Currently no US carrier flies to MAN (only Virgin to/from US), which I find odd.
UIO apparently is also the code for the University of Oslo - paired with the comments on herring there, I think PHL-UIO is the fakeout with the actual add PHL-OSL
Ahh, a fake-out. I like it. (Something, anything to Scandinavia might make Matthew from LALF pleased. He was betting on that with the United new routes. Goose egg.)
Hopefully more interesting than United. Enough with Italy, Spain, and France - gives us Northern and Eastern Europe, or more South America. I'd love: Vienna, Geneva, Berlin, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Stockholm, Oslo, Riga.
I would love those too. It's wild that decades ago, Hamburg, Berlin, Rhine-Ruhr, and more all had TATL options- and now, literally the most populous city in the EU forces you to route through a connection. Obviously, we understand why FRA works the way it does, it would doesn't exactly do justice to the German capital to have to be routed through in an inconvenient manner.
YLHQQD decodes to the word Vienna using a Caesar cipher.