Longboater

http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...512-story.html (registration required)

Different from the previous two mega-mergers, especially UA/CO. Interesting they will do the switch over a long period of 90 days rather than overnight as DL/NW did. The small remainder of US flights will still merge overnight, but will only be four per cent of all AAL reservations. It helps some of the older US employees still remember their version of Sabre. So far, I'd say the merger had been operationally smooth and employee morale is pretty high, the botched new F class meals aside. If this goes well, Parker will be eating Smisek's lunch everyday for years to come.

JDiver

Thanks for bringing this important change to our attention, Longboater!

AA notified it's ticket sellers today of the impending "drain down" transition involving moving all data and functions henceto varied out for US Airways by HP SHARES Passenger Service System to American Airlines' Sabre PSS. The transition period of ninety days is being called a "drain down", according to IT Chief Maya Lieberman, who said the benefit of the AA - US merger is that AA has learned from the other (NW - DL, UA - CO) mergers - albeit once the process has begun, there can be no turning back.

The "drain down" period will lead to the "cutover" after which no US flights existing after the 90th day, all sites, kiosks, flights, passenger service lines etc. will be branded American Airlines and the US Airways brand will disappear. Those attempting booking flights during this 90 day period for US flights beyond the 90 day transition period will be redirected to booking AA flights on aa.com.

Though AA has contracts with pilots and flight attendants, the airline doesn't have those for about 50k other employees, so that's necessary work in progress. And the flight operations centers, which today are separate and include such essential systems as dispatch and maintenance, will be merged "through 2016-17". The merger and integration task is far from over when both Passenger Service Systems are completely merged into Sabre.

This is it, my friends, the big, tricky one with much change and farewell to the US Airways brand. This is being referred to as "One system. One code." We can hope the relatively smooth integration of the FFPs into AAdvantage are good augury, and the scaled transition will be relatively smooth. :lighting joss sticks:

Executive summary:

All flights will be changed to AA, reservations and bookings controls to Sabre and aa.com.

If you have a booked a US flight for October or later, expect schedule changes showing US flights now changed to an AA flight number.

Expect some schedule changes by the end of this process; schedule changes occur regularly, as we know, but this may bring more in October. Don't be surprised at having to make some adjustments, such as seat refiddling, though they've announced they'll try to minimize these issues.

IMO, I'd avoid booking codeshares toward the end of the "drain down" phase, and certainly not after the "cutover" phase expected ~1 October 2015; those will be converted to AA flights. According to skunker's post down line and in the wiki, it's their intent to preserve seat selections, etc. but as careful FlyerTalkers we know enough to keep one eye on the booking.

When it's over, all upgrades will follow the current AA AAdvantage system with 28 Mar revisions; the vestiges of the US upgrade system, move up, etc. will be gone. We'll all be on the same page, we'll have less guessing and unevenesses we're encountering now (mostly on, no surprises here, codeshares) and unified procedures for flying, boarding, etc.

Still some questions in the air, such as when the entire fleet will offer MCE, etc. but we'll know eventually. And future changes pendung include fleet / crew integration, move to the new single Integrated Operations Center at DFW (not so important to us, but definitely for back-of-house).

"In March, we announced we would shift to one reservation system later this year. And now, we're on track to transition all US Airways flights to American flights on October 17. At that time, we'll be one airline with one website and mobile app, and we'll have one set of travel policies and elite benefits.

We're working hard to make sure this final milestone to becoming one airline for our customers goes smoothly. During the week of July 18, we'll begin transferring existing US Airways reservations for travel on or after October 17. As of July 18, all flights departing on or after October 17 will be American flights."

kevindavis338

That is a smart move..

JDiver

I think so. I'm sure they've learned from UA CO "cutover" and the effects on flyers, not to mention they've been studying and working this thing over, ninety days (July, August, September) allows incremental (and hopefully carefully controlled) changes.

But as far as AA / US goes and my plans, I'll drink a cup of hemlock before I book a codeshare and in my case I'm not booking US flights anywhere past this summer - my AA flights will already be hosted by Sabre.

kevindavis338

As someone who is in IT, that is smart, do it in an extend time period..

I kinda waited a bit before I was thinking about using my US Air miles (now I have a butt load). Now technically they are one airline, now I can use it. I have a feeling that website and the US Airways app will be going away soon.

JDiver

By the end of October (I expect the beginning of October) those will be memories.

Longboater

Thank you JDiver for the edit. Never posted news before! Doug learned a big lesson from the previous merger of HP/US. If there is one thing he will be careful and cautious about, it is this.

JDiver

Thanks for being the one to post this important news.

One (WSJ) article quotes Maya Lieberman as saying something very much like that:

IMO, that's exactly the proper attitude. And if this systems integration goes smoothly, it will be another feather - no, an entire feather bonnet - in Ms. Lieberman's hat.

Longboater

I posted the Tribune article as it directly mentioned the disaster of UA/CO and since 3/3/12, many of their HVFs have left for American and to a lesser extent Delta.

JDiver

That IMO was a very good point. Let's hope we don't have anything resembling that debacle at the new AA.

I decided to not read it - and add to my small emailalanche from the Miami, Hartford, etc. newspapers.

sjpmurph01

Philly.com - US Airways likely to stop flying this fall

jeffhacker

Actually, techically, US Airways no longer exists. The two operations have a Single Operating Certificate, and any US Airways flight actually operates under American's call sign.

JDiver

But they still operate a separate web page, sell US coded tickets, operate a US fleet, have US separate policies, separate (or at least distantly related, hand-shaking) passenger service systems, separate operations centers, etc. regardless.

sdsearch

And, speaking of all that, operations are not part of reservations, so just because reservations are going to merged, if operations aren't merged by the same time, then technically it'll not be all merged yet.

Global321

Yes and No.

All these years later, United still operates as two airlines for Flight Attendants. I think *most* people would argue they are merged.