Originally Posted by
formeraa
Just for historical record, Hawaii has been a money-losing proposition for US carriers at least since the 70's.
This is only true if you do not credit the flight for award tickets used on it. If one route is rarely used for award flights, and another route is often used, and AA didn't give the second route credit for the award tickets, then AA would appear to lose on the second route, and close that route. Since people will use those miles, they will move on to route #3, which will then appear unprofitable and get closed, and next will be route #4. Pretty soon, the only routes AA flies will be ones where nobody wants to use miles. Of course, the AAdvantage program won't engender much loyalty then.