American Airlines / US Airways merger

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I'm in the air often on business, and three weeks is as far in advance as I can ever book. There is just too much likelihood that my schedule will have to change if I look farther out, and then I'm into the change fees.
 
Ryan said:
PRR 60 said:
On July 18, all US Airways flights beginning October 17 will be re-designated American Airlines flights. Any existing reservations on the US Airways CRS for travel after October 16 will be migrated to the AA CRS. This forced migration will affect about 4% of all the existing AA/US reservations.
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That number amazes me. Out of all of the open reservations held by US/AA, 96% of them are for travel in the next 2 months?
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Per AA, approximately 60% of the existing AA/US reservations are already AA reservations, so regardless of the date of travel, those reservations do not have to be touched. The US side holds about 40% of the existing reservations. Of those, about 10% are for travel after October 16. So, of all the existing AA/US reservations on the books, 10% of 40% require migration - or 4%.
 
Devil's Advocate said:
jis said:
That does not surprise me too much, considering that the lowest fares are generally available about three months before departure! :) why would people unnecessarily lock in higher fares in a non refundable booking?
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Airline tickets can move hundreds of dollars in the span of a single day. Over the course of a few weeks or months they can potentially move thousands of dollars. When I make my decision to purchase a ticket it is based on a known and definable price rather than some vague assumption of cost. Maybe in other cultures it's not unusual for working age people to lock in their dates, times, and locations and then sit and wait for months before buying airline tickets, but nobody I know does that. When we're ready to plan we buy. If the cost is too high we choose another location. Most Americans don't have three or four weeks of annual vacation to play around with so they do what they can to make the most of the one or two weeks they do have. Maybe they'll end up leaving some money on the table as a result, but it's not like most folks can move their approved vacation dates around just because the airline prices changed.
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Good point....and it gets further complicated when you are shopping for a cruise vacation...and possibly other vacations, as there are many fluctuations in their pricing as well, and strategies for getting the best fares/prices.....
 
xyzzy said:
I'm in the air often on business, and three weeks is as far in advance as I can ever book. There is just too much likelihood that my schedule will have to change if I look farther out, and then I'm into the change fees.
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I rarely travel for business but when I did the business travel contract terms were different than personal tickets, often able to sharply reduce or even waive change fees altogether. I would presume that's still the case today for medium and larger businesses.

railiner said:
Devil's Advocate said:
jis said:
That does not surprise me too much, considering that the lowest fares are generally available about three months before departure! :) why would people unnecessarily lock in higher fares in a non refundable booking?
Click to expand...
Airline tickets can move hundreds of dollars in the span of a single day. Over the course of a few weeks or months they can potentially move thousands of dollars. When I make my decision to purchase a ticket it is based on a known and definable price rather than some vague assumption of cost. Maybe in other cultures it's not unusual for working age people to lock in their dates, times, and locations and then sit and wait for months before buying airline tickets, but nobody I know does that. When we're ready to plan we buy. If the cost is too high we choose another location. Most Americans don't have three or four weeks of annual vacation to play around with so they do what they can to make the most of the one or two weeks they do have. Maybe they'll end up leaving some money on the table as a result, but it's not like most folks can move their approved vacation dates around just because the airline prices changed.
Click to expand...
Good point....and it gets further complicated when you are shopping for a cruise vacation...and possibly other vacations, as there are many fluctuations in their pricing as well, and strategies for getting the best fares/prices.....
Click to expand...
I do know that in some countries most flights are still sold by travel agents that sometimes cost more but also came with fewer restrictions and fees than we're used to, or at least that's how it worked the last time I looked into it, but even that process still favors buying earlier rather than later.
 
Devil's Advocate said:
xyzzy said:
I'm in the air often on business, and three weeks is as far in advance as I can ever book. There is just too much likelihood that my schedule will have to change if I look farther out, and then I'm into the change fees.
Click to expand...
I rarely travel for business but when I did the business travel contract terms were different than personal tickets, often able to sharply reduce or even waive change fees altogether. I would presume that's still the case today for medium and larger businesses.

railiner said:
Devil's Advocate said:
jis said:
That does not surprise me too much, considering that the lowest fares are generally available about three months before departure! :) why would people unnecessarily lock in higher fares in a non refundable booking?
Click to expand...
Airline tickets can move hundreds of dollars in the span of a single day. Over the course of a few weeks or months they can potentially move thousands of dollars. When I make my decision to purchase a ticket it is based on a known and definable price rather than some vague assumption of cost. Maybe in other cultures it's not unusual for working age people to lock in their dates, times, and locations and then sit and wait for months before buying airline tickets, but nobody I know does that. When we're ready to plan we buy. If the cost is too high we choose another location. Most Americans don't have three or four weeks of annual vacation to play around with so they do what they can to make the most of the one or two weeks they do have. Maybe they'll end up leaving some money on the table as a result, but it's not like most folks can move their approved vacation dates around just because the airline prices changed.
Click to expand...
Good point....and it gets further complicated when you are shopping for a cruise vacation...and possibly other vacations, as there are many fluctuations in their pricing as well, and strategies for getting the best fares/prices.....
Click to expand...
I do know that in some countries most flights are still sold by travel agents that sometimes cost more but also came with fewer restrictions and fees than we're used to, or at least that's how it worked the last time I looked into it, but even that process still favors buying earlier rather than later.
Click to expand...
I'm reminded of what I referred to as the StupidSeats promotion Amtrak was doing for a while (it's since been renamed) where you could get about as close to a non-flexible fare as Amtrak would offer (e.g. the "no upgrades, no changes to itinerary once travel has begun, etc." sort of fare) and the fare would be somewhat discounted...basically it was a rolling version of the NEC 25% off advance-booking fare. One of several reasons I got into the habit of booking fairly last-minute was that Amtrak.com was set up to automatically give you the cheapest fare, even if subject to those T&C, and...well, let's just say that I didn't like that.

This being Amtrak there were no change fees and you could still get a good voucher, but both offers struck me as a rather head-scratching deal. Of course, the airline industry has generally gone to putting two fares on the table in most cases: Fully refundable (almost always insanely expensive) and not-flexible (may or may not be substantially cheaper), with generally nothing in the middle (e.g. non-refundable but changeable with no fee). Of course, this probably covers 95% of likely sales (most folks want "whatever is cheapest" and various waiver paths exist) but the trend does seem to be towards putting only those two sorts of products on the market.
 
Nothing in the middle? Not in my experience. Actually airlines offer mindnumbingly complex fare rules on various fares between non-refundable non-changeable to fully refundable fully changeable. Amtrak's IT system is simply incapable of supporting such, which is probably not a bad thing.
 
jis said:
Nothing in the middle? Not in my experience. Actually airlines offer mindnumbingly complex fare rules on various fares between non-refundable non-changeable to fully refundable fully changeable. Amtrak's IT system is simply incapable of supporting such, which is probably not a bad thing.
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...actually, let me rephrase. Scads of complicated rules are available, but there's no way to actually search out which one(s) you want to look at prices for. Put another way, on certain airlines you get extra mileage for one bucket over another. Let's say that for First you have the following buckets:

A, B, C: Discounted First

D, E, F: "Full" First (F being fully refundable/changeable)

A is the cheapest, F most expensive. It is very rare that I'll come across an engine that actually lets me compare either all six buckets or all three of the "full" buckets. I might get shown A or B and F and I can't go in and say "is D available, what does it cost, and what are the T&C"? At least, this is my experience with Delta.

Edit: Another good example is on Virgin America. I've got few complaints there, but one thing that can get under my skin a bit on some level is that you basically get two choices. One is the cheapest available fare (whether part of a sale/special with restrictions, boilerplate cheapest with nothing special, or something else) and the other is "refundable". Again, no ability to say "I want the cheapest non-sale/not-specially-restricted fare available".
 
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There is a way to look it up. There is no easy ready to hand way of doing so. There have been cases where I have actually made choices based on a deeper dive analysis specially where multiple thousand dollars are at stake on ULH flights for example.
 
From a public perspective, today (October 16) is the last day for US Airways. Tonight the US Airways name will be retired, and all future flights will be under the American Airlines brand. The US website will redirect to AA, and the US mobile app will be disabled.

AA/US began a 90-day "drain-down" of reservations in the US Airways reservation system back in July. Now, the only reservations left on the US Shares system are those for today's flights. Overnight the US kiosks and agent terminals will go over to the AA Sabre reservation system, and US branding will disappear from airports. The ceremonial last flight is in the air - US 1939 from Philadelphia to Charlotte, then on to Phoenix and San Francisco, and finally operating as the redeye tonight from San Francisco back to Philadelphia. 1939 was the start of operation of All American Aviation, predecessor of Allegheny Airlines, later called US Air and finally US Airways.

US Airways certainly has a mixed reputation with travelers. From my perspective, I've enjoyed my rides them. My first Allegheny trip was on March 7, 1970 when my girlfriend and I flew down to Norfolk VA on a day trip to experience a total solar eclipse from the airport observation deck. I think the fare was something like $20 each. That girlfriend stuck around and was at my side on my last US Airways flight on September 21 from Chicago back Philadelphia coming home from a trip to visit our daughter, son-in-law and (then) five-month-old grandson in Montana. In between were 244 other flights covering just under 293,000 miles and countless travel memories. We'll toast US Airways at dinner tonight. It's been a great ride, and I hope to see those folks flying the AA colors in the future.
 
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Ryan said:
How long is the USAirways paint going to live on? Need to get out and get some shots before it disappears.
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I'm guessing a year or more. There are still a bunch of them out there. If I get a more precise timeline, I'll let you know,

I liked the US livery. I'm "adjusting" to the new AA scheme. It is growing on me, but it has a ways to go.
 
Thanks! So little free time and so many interesting things to go shoot. My goal of capturing all of the AEM-7s before they were retired was a dismal failure, time flys by so fast. Need to spend some quality time both trackside and at the airport.
 
Thanks for sharing the memories Bill! We used to call them "Agony Airlines" when I lived in the NE, but actually they were a better airline than Eastern!!

I personally like the old Silver Bird with the Red Trim scheme! Over half of my Million plus Flight miles were spent on American planes with that livery!
 
I'll be curious to see if any of the current AA/US hubs lose out in the next few years. I've read some speculation that Phoenix may face cutbacks, but it's a much larger city/metro area than Cincinnati, Cleveland, Memphis, and others that have been (or are being) de-hubbed.
 
Eric S said:
I'll be curious to see if any of the current AA/US hubs lose out in the next few years. I've read some speculation that Phoenix may face cutbacks, but it's a much larger city/metro area than Cincinnati, Cleveland, Memphis, and others that have been (or are being) de-hubbed.
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I'll bet on Charlotte being the one to lose out (in favor of Miami and Philadelphia).
 
us airways was they first airline I flew (when it was still usair) back in the 90s a few years before becoming us airways
 
American Airlines was my first ever airline and they treated me amazingly well back then. My how things have changed over time. I've flown something like thirty different liveries but there is not a single US based airline that makes me feel good about choosing them today. Instead it's all about picking the lesser evil. Which is a pretty lousy decision to be perfectly honest.
 

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