FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2012
Location: MCO
Programs: AA, B6, DL, EK, EY, QR, SQ, UA, Amex Plat, Marriott Tit, HHonors Gold
Posts: 12,809
Wow, AA has really thrown in the towel in the JFK market. Though, I would pin this more on NY's quarantine issues than anything else. Just look at the number of hotel properties in Manhattan that are closing permanently/foreclosing, etc.
With that said, I can see how the 772 makes more sense at the moment to JFK. I can't imagine there are a lot of people out there right now purchasing 'Flagship' F fares when you're being sent to a marginal Admirals Club and being offered a domestic F service on board the aircraft. With 10 of those seats on the A321T, that's a lot of the airplane that becomes useless and filled with non-revs, not ideal. With plenty of 777s hanging around, it makes sense to deploy them on this route with a much larger J cabin to be sold. With that said, it does surprise me to see only 2 daily flights. That's definitely extremely low, even for now when DL and B6 are both running 5 daily.
MIA getting an additional 77W doesn't surprise me at all. The existing 777 service is always packed in the premium cabins, even F, and everyone that I know will only fly AA on this route if they can get on a 777. No one wants to fly on a nasty domestic A321 with no service.
As far as the B6 partnership goes, they certainly don't have antitrust immunity, so to my knowledge they can't really be coordinating schedules without that in place.