msv777

It's definitely a slam against AA. Perhaps the writer must have been bored, or had a recent bad experience with AA?

As you also noted, he even cites that AA ranks third in customer service behind United and Frontier in DOT complaints... Why not pick on them???

Cheers.

dia1

Agree! Really poor journalism. The headline and lead were refuted mid-article but the author then goes back and picks up the original thread as if not. Bad reporting or editing, or both?

FWAAA

I disagree. In 2001, AA bought TWA for several reasons, but TATL slots/routes likely weren't among them. Ten years prior, AA had bought TWA's London routes and gained access to Heathrow, and the remaining TWA TATL routes weren't worth anything.

UA had announced a takeover of US and would have become much larger than AA, so buying TWA would have permitted AA to keep pace (had the UA purchase of US happened).

In 2000, ORD was completely maxed out and Mayor Daley was holding fast to his position that ORD did not need (and would not get) reconfigured runways. AA's plan was to route low-yield connections over STL which would permit more capacity for CHI local traffic, reducing the stress of over-crowding of T-3 and ORD in general. Following September 11, 2001, Mayor Daley reversed himself and agreed to what became the current plan of several parallel runways.

Speaking of September 11, 2001, that horrible day decimated airline revenues, temporarily eliminated overcrowding at ORD and dealt the death-knell for STL. September 11, 2001, also killed the former Reno Air network as AA cut and cut and cut to stem the cash drain in late 2001. AA tried to keep the STL hub, trimming it several times before finally shutting it down.

Buying TWA also eliminated a low-fare competitor to the Caribbean, as TWA was flying a lot of capacity to SJU and elsewhere (jetBlue would eventually replace TWA as the low-fare juggernaut to SJU).

But TATL slots? TWA was flying to LGW, but that had no value to AA. CDG? Open skies. TLV? AA told TWA to terminate that before the deal closed due to years and years of losses. CAI/RUH? I don't think that's why AA bought TWA, and in any event, that flight died on September 11, 2001. I may have overlooked one, but that's the extent of TWA's TATL operations in 2001.

What happened to TWA (and Reno) were tragic, but OBL was the reason for the demise of the STL hub and the destruction of the Reno network.

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

The USA Today article has a few people complaining about customer service but does not say what exactly is lacking. Somehow there are thousands of happy AA elites generally satisfied with customer service. Yes there are some frustrations from time to time but you can bet DL or UA is not pure heaven 100% of the time.

And its not only AA that has dehubbed certain airports.

Austin787

Also, when Delta dehubbed DFW in early 2005 AA had lots of growth opportunities at DFW, to pick up some of the slack DL left behind. Of course AA capitalized and expanded its DFW schedule. The planes to expand its DFW flights had to come from somewhere, and STL took the hit.

AAerSTL

Not exactly. The first round of cuts at STL were in November 2003, transitioning much of the operation to what was then known as American Connection (operated by Trans States and other non-wholly owned by then AMR Corp operators). As of summer 2003 the combined operation was approximately 400 flights which dwindled down to about 200, many of which were operated by American Connection. Cuts continued on a few flights and cities here and there but things remained relatively constant until 2006/2007 when there was actually a slight resurgence of the AA operation and reintroduction of mainline service to a number of cities (AUS, MSY, RDU, and SAT if memory serves me), along with added frequencies on other routes. When fuel prices started to run up again there were several more rounds cuts. By late 2008-early 2009 it was down to about 100 daily flights, until AA pulled the plug effective April 5, 2010 and the only remaining non-hub routes were BOS, DCA, and SEA. BOS has since ended, SEA is operated by AS and DCA is now operated by Republic E75s.

DLs actions at DFW were independent of AA's in STL. The only connection is AA did add some additional DFW flying when that capacity was freed up, but in the grand scale of things at a hub the size of DFW it wasn't a sizable increase. Furthermore many of the TW aircraft that served STL left the fleet, 717s went first, 763s went fairly quickly, some S80s stayed around (and remain active today) and the PW 757s were returned to their lessors in 2006-07 and now operate European routes for DL.

Bonehead

Maybe it has something to do with AA being "...the world's largest airline" as per the article's title.

daninstl

At least STL got a new AA lounge unlike those of us flying out of MCI who lost our lounge due to lack of flights and gate configuration limitations. I miss the good old days and even the MD-80's (well except for those noisy seats in the rear by the engines).

AAerSTL

The lounge closed in June 2012 as part of the restructuring. It must not have gotten enough usage to generate significant revenue. MCI only has 2/5 AA hubs with consistent service (most/all to ORD is Eagle), MIA is new and they've already drawn it down to 3-4x weekly service. Not sure what changes have been made to the facilities as I haven't been through Kansas City in 15+ years. Despite that some here insist MCI is some strategic/major AA market it really isn't (and neither is STL, but its certainly larger and more important than MCI).

And much of the MCI-DFW flying switches back to S80 next month that is currently A319s.

AATrout

And the aggrieved star of the article had a 500-character limit to his complaint that sent him packing. Sounds more like a rant than a tight and concise message that starts the process, coupled with a reasonable request for follow-up/compensation.

SeriouslyLost

That. ^


Huh. I find that works in the US, but everywhere else in the world 3 weeks out seems to be the sweet spot.

WRCSolberg

Sadly, I think STL is headed that way as well. In the summer schedule, half of the 8 daily STL-ORD frequencies are now Eagle. LGA is all Eagle. DCA is all Eagle. LAX is about due to downgrade to the A319.

chiproos

So far so good! Delta accepted my Medallion status challenge and bumped me to gold status. I booked 2 STL-LAS flights, 1 STL-LAX and 1 STL-SEA and the cost difference between Delta and AA saved my company $650 apples to apples. Delta automatically requests complimentary upgrades so we'll see what happens. Not flying in 30 year old planes will take some getting use to but I'll manage.
On top of the status match, I canceled my Citi Executive Card since I won't be re-upping my Admiral's club membership after 20 years. They are refunding me the $450 annual fee since I canceled before 37 days and today I received 50,000 bonus points in my AA account since I had spent $5,000 in the first month. Gotta love it!
I'm sure I will still fly AA when the cost and convenience make sense...have too many years invested in them but looking forward to testing out Delta. Will report back good or bad.
Happy Memorial Day to all!

WRCSolberg

As long as you're not booked on one of their older A320s, MD80/90s, 757s, or 767s. The only truly modern narrowbody aircraft they have are the 717s and the 737NGs.

The vast majority of their MD80 fleet is over 20 years old with the oldest ones being near 30 years old. Likewise for the 757s, they have some of the oldest 757s still in operation in the world. Many of the A320s they acquired in the NW merger are also quite old as well.

AAerSTL

Think what you want, but bottom line is AA standalone (also AA/US combined) are and have historically been much larger/stronger in STL than MCI. MCI has very limited mainline service, STL is seeing increased large RJ service which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.

Lets see STL has:
-Service to all hubs (plus PIT as point to point/legacy hub)
-Flight Attendant Base
-Modern new Admirals Club
-Line Maintenance
-In-house TWU fleet service
-Easy single entry for security with TSA-Precheck.

MCI has none of that. I don't even think MCI has catering capabilities, at least for AA. AA has many more local based employees in STL (all that's left at MCI is above the wing agents), more facilities, and more operations. They do however, have below the wing staffed for US Airways with IAM represented personnel, however it is among the smallest if not the smallest single US station with in-house fleet service. US contracted out STL in their second bankruptcy and used third parties until earlier this year when AA TWU took over that handling (as US IAM has also done in a number of locations)

MIA-MCI hasn't performed well, they continue to draw capacity from the market. If MIA-MCI was such a great market to serve they wouldn't have waited until 2015 to add it, would have come online back in the 2007-08 timeframe.

I've moved on from STL, been gone since 2008 and am not here to beat the drum and reimesce of the old days. But to say AAs operations and presence there will look like MCI is foolish, IMO.