Originally Posted by
DWFI
Yes but if AA is selling those seats in J at $2000 apiece roundtrip to some travel agency for Danube cruises, that's not a particularly profitable situation to be in.
Sadly we can only speculate. I too have seen excellent loads in the J cabin (to the point where at T-30 days, many flights were booked 22-26 of 28 in J, whereas JFKLHR flights were booked only 12-18 of 60 in J), but it just doesn't mean anything on its own.
Bingo. Loads <> revenue <> profit. But utilization of existing assets is always a good thing as long as there's some contribution coming of it. If you have a fleet of old aircraft, it's best to keep them flying somewhere, as long as you can clear the variable costs. I'm not saying that they're flying PRG as a "least bad" route option by any means; it may indeed be very profitable. But, absent data, intuition doesn't tell me that it would be a high-yield business route.
The other thing to keep in mind is that AA's strategy is that of a
network carrier. The strength is in the network, not in the individual routes. So if AA having some lower-yielding leisure routes is keeping a profitable customer segment happy (e.g. by allowing them to redeem miles or take their families on vacation), then there is strategic value there.