Originally Posted by
FWAAA
I'd bet serious money that the bolded portion is a Flyertalk Urban Legend.
FWAAA,
It was certainly true in the 90's. I was working in AA Revenue Management at the time. If it weren't for the elite AAdvantage members demanding Hawaii service, it would have been gone in a heartbeat. It was money-losing at the time -- that was back in the DC-10 days.
Perhaps with a mix of more fuel-efficient 763's from DFW and 757's from LAX, it's now at least breakeven.