Originally Posted by FWAAA

I'm very confident that new AA will expand at SFO.

Originally Posted by Wilbur

1W has fewer airline partners, but the quality of said partners is rather more consistent. CX service on the ground and in the air is excellent, and BA, Finnair, JL, LAN, IB, and Qantas all have generally positive outcomes (with some exceptions that prove the rule that we expect them to do well by their passengers). 50% of the 1W airlines are 5-star airlines per SkyTraxx, if that has any value to you, far superior to the other alliances. I also have good expectations for Malaysia and Air Berlin for the future. In addition, you have a slightly better set of Alaska Airlines and WestJet perks than before.

Originally Posted by Wilbur

Just think - at least you aren't going to deal with SkyTeam, the grab bag of the air leftovers! Alitalia! Areoflot! The rump of Northworst! China Eastern! Garuda! Hooray!

Originally Posted by dcpatti

But from what I understand, it can be a challenge to actually get a 1W award on some of these carriers and routes. QF F might be lovely but if availability isn't there because you were busy at the 330-day mark, then its loveliness doesn't much matter. I'll admit I've not found all the legal 1W routings from, say, the US-SYD but I can name 4 on Star without even trying: NZ via AKL (from lax or sometimes YVR); from YVR on AC; via ICN on OZ; and if all else fails, from SFO on UA. I can probably find more if I try. So if there's only one or two of those 5-star carriers who can get you from A to B, you might prefer the alliance that has 4 or more ways. Again SYD is just an example off the top of my head and I know V Australia needs to be accounted for, but there's no doubt that, in certain regions, Star just has more options. And I will take a 4-4.5 star airline that I'll actually give me a premium award space over a 5-star airline whose awards are all taken before I can even book them. Your F cabin can be as nice as it wants and it won't matter to me if I can't sit there.

Originally Posted by MAH4546

While true, AA alone is the second largest airline at SFO, and adding US will widen the gap AA has over VX and WN.

Originally Posted by TheBOSman

Interesting to see that, since VX is much flashier at T2 about their presence and, more notably, serves more destinations (including all of the ones AA serves if you count FLL and MIA as being pretty much the same general area, though of course without the frequencies that AA has to the destinations it serves).

Originally Posted by Consultette

After talking to an AA employee about the merger today, they said people are happy and the flight attendants are happy to be getting some more time off (apparently they are reducing the number of FAs on AA flights). Asked a flight attendant about that and they confirmed some people have a lot of time off next month and they went into how great it is that AA leadership is fired.

I didn't have the heart to tell them that the fact they're going to have a lot of people sitting around probably means they are going to have a large amount of "restructuring" (layoffs) in the near future. They made their bed, I guess they can lie in it.

Originally Posted by Carolinian

With Parker, there is little doubt that there will be another screw job. The question will be just how bad. I expect that it will be bad enough to just say to heck with status and ff programs. There will not be a worthwhile program left.

Originally Posted by GadgetFreak

I'm amused people are talking about new routes. I think a more realistic topic is what routes are going to be cut by LCC. They cut, not build from what I have seen.