MrAndy1369

I'm a bit unclear now. It seems like there are mixed messages going on here – some people are saying JFK is a valid connection hub for specific routes, but some are saying it's not and that AA had stopped pushing connections through JFK.

Why's that? Why would AA want to discourage connections through JFK, especially as it's one of their major hubs? UA pushes connections all the time through EWR, and DL does the same with JFK.

JonNYC

I'd like to see that thread and the specifics therein-- did it more specifically pertain to connections to extremely inexpensive places, in latin america or whatever?

EDIT to add: was it this thread? Many AA business fares restrict travel via LAX-JFK

If so, I'd contend that that most likely isn't applicable to this case.

rjw242

Combination of capacity and geography, I'd surmise.

platbrownguy

Interesting--I've also noticed that the DCA-JFK options downright suck most of the time. They seem built more for int'l connections than TCON connections.

I've got some upcoming travel where I'll have at least 2 and probably 3 roundtrips, DCA to west coast, in a short span, and the only way I'm willing to do the redeye back is to have the lie-flat seat, recover at JFK, eat, hop down to DCA, and then be able work on arrival. For the 2 trips I've already booked, I had to piece things together manually on ITA Matrix -- I bought discount J on the transcons (using BXP1 to upgrade to F) together with Y on the DCA-JFK segments, but it took work.

Given the lack of lie-flats west coast to DC (Delta has one of those 8 a.m. flights that sucks your whole day), I'd think there is a market for SFO/LAX-JFK-DCA... and I was certainly willing to pay the prevailing J rate on the transcon plus a bit for the Y segment to DCA, especially given the ability to use BXP1s to upgrade to F.

FWAAA

The OP mentioned that his search for DCA-LAX did not result in any JFK connections; I just performed some searches for random June dates and I can confirm that he's right. When I reversed the search and looked at LAX-DCA, the search returned some JFK connections. In Business and First, however, the LAX-JFK-DCA one-way flights were about $200 more than just the LAX-JFK flights. They were constructed by adding the LAX-JFK fare to the JFK-DCA fare.

Looks to me like JFK is not a valid connection point for DCA-LAX. You're free to connect there, but you'll buy two fares to do so. Single fare connections were offered over LAS, DFW, ORD, CLT and PHL and some other misc spokes. Just not JFK.

Austin787

JFK isn't much of a hub for AA. More like a bigger spoke.

dcaiadflyer

Actually, I don't think UA publishes DCA-EWR-LAX/SFO either (at least, whenever I've looked, it doesn't come up as an option and UA's website is better about letting you filter by connecting hub--I also wanted to check out the premium transcon service IAD doesn't have). If you don't want a direct out of IAD (or DCA for SFO), nearly everything else is routed via ORD, IAH, or DEN.

Not sure about DL, but it seems like both UA and AA want those to mostly be O&D.

smashr

Would love to have some LAX/SFO lie-flat options from DCA beyond the single DL flight. Perhaps B6 will make it happen someday by bringing Mint into the market, but until then I'm not going to hold my breath....