lax-bos has been a minimum of 3x daily since I can remember. Now in January (1/12 and thereabouts), it's 2x, once at 7:15 AM and one red-eye. Pretty brutal.
Never seen this before, but AA is probably just aligning capacity with demand. This is only a seasonal adjustment. That being said, I am surprised the mid-day LAX-BOS flight got cut. Many people don't want to get to LAX at 7:10am for AA 222 and also don't want to take a redeye particularly for people on the Australia and Asia connections this is going to make it very difficult but routings through DFW/JFK/MIA/ORD are still possible.
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That's what folks said when AA pulled the 75's from IAD/LAX/IAD....
AA has also significantly reduced IAD-DFW and does not operate IAD-ORD.
Apples and oranges. AA operates from BWI, DCA, and IAD. Obviously BWI is home to a major WN station, and IAD is a hub for UA (admittedly largely UX domestically). BOS is the only airport AA serves in New England and the Greater Boston area, it's not like we also have service to MHT and PVD. It's easy to see why AA doesn't operate ORD-IAD and has cut DFW-IAD, DCA is their primary airport in DC area. The sky is not falling because AA cut one BOS-LAX flight. The transcons are very expensive for AA to operate and if they'll be filled with sub $99 MR passengers why operate the capacity?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AAerSTL
Apples and oranges. AA operates from BWI, DCA, and IAD. Obviously BWI is home to a major WN station, and IAD is a hub for UA (admittedly largely UX domestically). BOS is the only airport AA serves in New England and the Greater Boston area, it's not like we also have service to MHT and PVD.
I will point out that AA used to have a significant presence in PVD. That's long gone.
Quote:
It's easy to see why AA doesn't operate ORD-IAD and has cut DFW-IAD, DCA is their primary airport in DC area. The sky is not falling because AA cut one BOS-LAX flight. The transcons are very expensive for AA to operate and if they'll be filled with sub $99 MR passengers why operate the capacity?
Lack of IAD-ORD is understandable, but significantly reduces the amount of traffic that hub can receive out of the DC area. DFW is essentially the only remaining connection point for a HUGE portion of the US - reducing the ability to connect there is a big deal. IAD serves the fastest-growing (and largest corporate...) area in the DC region. DCA serves the folks interfacing with government (and some of the DCA flights have been cut, too). BWI is just a pain to get to from Northern VA (and DC, most of the time) - IAD is far better positioned.
Big difference...
It's not like this wasn't coming - after all, closing the AC was a huge flag, and opening the DCA-LAX route was another nail in the coffin.
One would have expected, however, that the midday flight from IAD would have been cut - or the PM flight which competes with the DCA-LAX flight (cutting the evening flight from IAD makes much more sense than cutting the AM flight....) Eliminating the AM flight basically sends any and all corporate traffic (or folks dealing with government - lobbyists and lawyers) that need to depart in the AM over to UA. Lot of evening events in DC where folks want to return home in the AM.
As for making this seasonal, I don't see it coming back. Supposedly the removal of 75s from the route was "seasonal" - they've never come back, all it did was push traffic to UA (with a lesser amount on VX). WIth the cutbacks in BOS and WAS, I'd expect our corporate folks to consider dropping the AA contract when it's up for renewal - probably in favor of DL.
WIth the cutbacks in BOS and WAS, I'd expect our corporate folks to consider dropping the AA contract when it's up for renewal - probably in favor of DL.
Don't know about WAS, but in BOS several companies both multinational and regional I know have switched significant flying to DL. DL gave BOS-LAX/SFO a good run for several years in the early-mid 2000s but cut them in 2008 due to the fuel price run up I doubt they will return. DL has tried at LAX numerous times to build up a hub without success. But again, things are for the most part steady with AA in BOS. They added a fourth mainline flight to JFK well timed for connections, the three daily LHR and daily CDG are slated to return for the summer, MIA route is well served as are DFW and ORD. JL flight to NRT is doing very well and BA has their third largest station in North America at BOS. Qatar is also planning to enter BOS, it's not as if a seasonal reduction of flying to LAX means the sky is falling. As I said before, the transcons are extremely expensive for AA to operate and in the dead of the winter it makes sense to cut capacity. AA even cut back LAX-LHR to less than daily for a period of time. Should they dump capacity just so FTers can enjoy cheap MRs and plentiful upgrades?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AAerSTL
Should they dump capacity just so FTers can enjoy cheap MRs and plentiful upgrades?
Yes please!
So just to make sure I have the point of this thread correct: we're up in arms over a roughly 30-day period of time where service is going from 3x daily to 2x daily?
I'm sure plenty of AA folks in SFO would love to have only a 33% frequency cut on a route and even that only for a 30 day period of time in an off-peak season.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Herb687
So just to make sure I have the point of this thread correct: we're up in arms over a roughly 30-day period of time where service is going from 3x daily to 2x daily?
Not sure about you but while I'm definitely curious, I'm definitely not up in arms.
IAD-LAX also goes 2x daily on 1/8. Eliminates the AM flight from IAD and the redeye from LAX.
Eliminating one IAD flight isn't that big a deal; I don't recall this ever being more than 3x daily in recent years and AA now offers LAX-DCA. What is odd, to me, is cutting the redeye yet leaving an IAD flight that leaves less than an hour after the DCA flight.
So just to make sure I have the point of this thread correct: we're up in arms over a roughly 30-day period of time where service is going from 3x daily to 2x daily?
Especially when most on FT would, schedule-permitting, probably prefer to transit JFK and earn extra miles/have nicer seats (if sitting in F/J). That's an advantage of having moved the BOS-NYC traffic to JFK and upgrading to 738s on the route.
Especially when most on FT would, schedule-permitting, probably prefer to transit JFK and earn extra miles/have nicer seats (if sitting in F/J). That's an advantage of having moved the BOS-NYC traffic to JFK and upgrading to 738s on the route.
I did this even when JFK-BOS was Eagle. I don't remember the last time I flew LAX/SFO-BOS non-stop.
