SEAPlatinum

I'm a long time AA flyer with elite status for the last 4 years.

Recently I have been looking and booking on US as AA fares on my frequented route (SEA-BOS) have been too high compared to US (in some isolated cases) and competitor airlines (AS, B6). My company's booking engine will not allow us to book fares that are a certain percentage higher than the lowest possible for the day and time of day that we are travelling.

I'm booking US when AA isn't feasible with the thought of at least getting a shot at an upgrade, however unlikely, and to get credit for AAG metal to satisfy my 4 segment minimum for elite status.

I have several upcoming trips and one thing I'm noticing is that the once per day US flight SEA-PHL changes departure times drastically over the next few months. For example right now it is leaving at 8:35am, next month it leaves at 6:40am and a month after it's back to 8:00am and then I think it becomes a red-eye leaving at 10:20pm.

On the surface this doesn't seem conducive to attracting and retaining elite business flyers. I recognize that US was/is much more sophisticated with a dynamic schedule and revenue optimization but it almost seems like the schedule changes every few weeks which could be very off-putting to a business traveler.

My questions then is whether this is a normal practice for US? Does it simply mean that I live in a market (SEA) that they aren't very serious about except perhaps for connections thru PHX or for leisure travel?

I'm concerned that as the carriers integrate further we may see variability on my staple routes thru ORD and DFW. I've already seen the "benefit" of banking at those hubs as my bread and butter 6am Seattle departures are now at 5am and layovers at DFW are either 40 minutes or 2 1/2 hours.

Thanks for any insight you can lend.