shawn67

Yup already ticketed.

Fanjet

If EU regulators' only roadblock to this merger is the reliquishment of one slot pair on the PHL-LHR route, then AA/BA will operate the route with 2 daily flights and call it a day. Most likely with 2 744s, or 1 744 and 1 330. Any connecting traffic that goes now through PHL, can eventually be shifted through ORD, JFK, BOS, and even RDU. No big deal. As for who would take up the new slot from PHL? My guess would be no one. If DL did it, they would have to basically rely upon almost 100% O&D. Which means that anything larger than a 752 would bleed cash.

Fanjet

Only if they book on BA longhaul. A BA connecting flight within Europe is about an additional $35 in each direction. Offset that with the automatic $50 surchage with US for an intl award redemption, and it's no big deal. Even more of a bargain if using IB or AB. And AA metal flies to LHR almost 20X per day. So avoiding BA transatlantic is possible.

As for the OW entrance date. I am a little surprised by November 1st. Maybe this merger will be finalized next month instead of in September. At least it will take away some of the uncertainty some people have about booking travel way out in the future.

perseus11

The current 2 BA PHL-LHR flights are/and always have been essentially 100% O&D - there has never been any connecting traffic - other than rare reroutes from AA. The 2 flights are also supported by several high profile commercial accounts. No way will that service be reduced. With OW connecting traffic now available, I'd forecast the current BA 767 Supper flight will be upgauged to either a 787 or a 777 fairly soon. The EU may either know, or speculate that the new AA+ BA plans to increase PHL-LHR services substantially with new connecting feed (and existing AA slots) at PHL and therefore are concerned about potential fare monoploy on the route. This whole situation would become even more interesting if VX was permitted to interline with VS at PHL. Other than that, it seems far fetched to me that DL/VA, or UA would take the route on a known loss basis - due to minimal connecting feed at PHL, for 4 years just to get another slot pair for JFK (especially), EWR, IAD or ATL? What wouldn't surprise me is if a Middle East Airline took the route with a 787, such as Emirates, Saudi Arabian or a 2nd Qatar flight. PHL-LHR on one of those airlines would give AA/BA significant competition for service quality - a very good thing for we London FFs.

Fanjet

Are you saying that no one flying BA on that route is connecting to/from the hundreds of flights that BA operates out of LHR? It's all people travelling only between PHL and LHR? That is very surprising.

MAH4546

Remember in addition to the current oneWorld members, Qatar Airways, Sri Lankan and TAM are joining next year.

What strict rules? AAdvantage is by far the most generous network carrier program to redeem awards on. Awards are actually readily available, a foreign concept at the other U.S. network carriers.

I don't understand why anybody at US would worry. You are going from a trashy, cut rate service airline with a customer-is-always last policy to the one with the best on-board service standards and most generous customer policies in the U.S. That alone should make people thrilled.

perseus11

Nope, the US PHL-LHR slot arrival time is well outside of the prime arrival time likely required by a new entrant and BA will never give up their 2 slot pairs. AA/US, or BA will have to provide slots from another city, such as ORD, DFW, BOS, etc., but unlikely JFK.

MAH4546

Or they can just provide a LHR-ORY slot.

Slots aren't tied to routes and all AA/IB/BA/VY slots at Heathrow are pooled.

UA Fan

US maybe a useless carrier but the Star Alliance is the big redeeming point. Star exceeds 1W in quantity and is close in quality. The only place Star is weak compared to 1W is South America/Australia. The comparision is not even close especially after you factor in the YQ infested BA.

belfordrocks

Ahahahahahahaha... oh you're serious.

So let's see... Air Tahiti Nui is a partner of AA and I see award space, what if I fly them from LAX to CDG then connect to BA on CDG-LHR? Oh wait, can't do that.

I know, I want to take advantage of Oneworld's tremendous route network and fly CX on their new route from LA to Hong Kong to Male... oh sorry, can't do that either.

Oh, well at least I can book a simple round trip from Beijing to Sydney via Tokyo Narita on JAL, right? Wrong again...

Yeah, I can definitely see how AA miles are so much easier to use.

Fanjet

While I would give Star a slight edge in Europe, it is really because of LH. Most of the other carriers have a much smaller footprint. TP, LO, OS, SK, SN, LX, A3. And putting aside the YQ issue, BA is close to LH in size. AB is the 6th largest carrier in Europe IIRC, and LH is the only Star carrier larger than it. Well, unless you consider TK to be a European carrier. And Star's edge over OW is mainly in eastern Europe. For western Europe, BA, IB, and AB provide a lot of destination options.

And Star redemption is better with UA than with US, given that UA allows for one way travel, and the absence of an automatic $50 award redemption fee.

drzoidberg

How will I be able to do 90k north asia redemptions without USDM? Seriously disappointing news.

louie-m

Long haul? Particularly to Australia? Don't think I've ever come across that comment before.....

holtju2

QR is joining this year. Likely in October.

BA and QF might have been good at some point in time. Both are rather tired today.

Murder!

DCdeacon

What makes you say this? I also have a *A award ticket booked in late November. Isn't this a problem if something goes wrong during the trip (i.e. one of the flights is late and I miss a connection)--don't you have to work with the issuing carrier in those situations? But in this case, the issuing carrier will no longer be in *A, will they be able to help?