Originally Posted by
jackal
Brett's point was that this was a simple money grab: Delta gambled that they could sell those seats to AA (and UA) at a higher price and pad their margins even more...and that was a gamble that they lost with AA (though they did win with UA).
As a very smart poster somewhere else put it at the time (paraphrasing): "Delta cancelled their flood insurance because it had been years since they saw a flood."
Originally Posted by
jackal
Sure, AA's flights out of ATL were full, but while ATL bore (and is bearing) the brunt of DL's operational failure, don't forget that there are thousands of people stranded elsewhere. I myself had a relatively short delay in DFW but could easily have been rebooked on one of the several DFW-SGF AA non-stops (thus freeing up a seat into and out of ATL), and the tremendous strain that is going on at DCA could be significantly mitigated by moving people to AA's extensive network at that airport.
Absolutely right. As you accurately point out, even setting aside the other hubs, and with respect to ATL, a lot of people affected - in fact, the ones affected worst - are connecting over ATL between two spokes. At least some of those people could have been reaccommodated on AA in addition to United.