SafeFlyer

I took a peak at the Delta Sky Miles Forum for the first time today and must admit I was a little jealous of the following info:

“http://www.reuters.com/article/press...09+PRN20091020

SEA-PEK begins June 4th on 763ER (5x weekly)
SEA-KIX begins June 7th on 763ER (daily)
DTW-HKG begins June 2nd on 777ER (5x weekly)
DTW-ICN begins June 1st on 777ER (5x weekly)
DTW-PVG goes from 5x to daily on June 1st
JFK-NRT upgraded from 777ER to 747
LAX-NRT goes from daily to 11x weekly (777 + A330)

JFK-CPH begins May 27th on 757 (daily)
JFK-ARN begins May 27th on 757 (daily)
JFK-TLV upgraded from 763ER to 747
SEA-AMS goes from daily to 10x weekly (A330 + 767)

ATL-ACC begins June 1st (3x weekly)
JFK-ABV begins June 1st (3x weekly)

…Delta intends to serve as many as 10 African destinations from the United States next summer, including flights to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea; Monrovia, Liberia; Nairobi, Kenya; and Luanda, Angola, each of which are pending U.S. and foreign government approvals. Delta has aircraft ready to serve each of these markets as soon as it receives the necessary approvals.”

*********

So, will AA match?

Seriously, I wouldn’t swap FF programs for the current + added Delta routes. After all, I am only 1 day removed from CX first class DPS-JFK-HKG). It’s OK to pine after other programs flights on occasion, right?

Ciao....

HeathrowGuy

...and Delta is installing true flat-bed seats on its longhauls, as are every other US legacy BUT American Airlines.

tanzaniancane

I am one that would love to see AA hitting the African market - more specifically, NBO. I remember reading here on FT that JNB and NBO could be possibilities for AA from MIA. We'll see if that happens at some point...

tom911

Did they have to remove any seats to do that, as UA did in business class?

justforfun

I was just thinking the same thing. A little part of me is quite envious of DL's new network. But then I think of their horrendous ff program, their atrocious terminal at JFK(where I'm based) and I have happy thoughts of AA again.

But AA is going to have to do something about their J class seats. Unfortunately, it will probably mean removing a few of them, much to the chagrin of us upgraders. Even Iberia is removing a row of seats to make them true lie-flat.

GUWonder

Some nice routes indeed. However I cannot help but think about how DL's announced service before that it ended up pulling either before first scheduled flight or within a year or two of the year service was started. Then there are the issues -- like mentioned before -- about the relative value proposition of DL's "loyalty" program and of having to use DL's JFK set-up (which includes a growing reliance upon using buses to get passengers around).

MAH4546

Yes, but as of now only on the 777s and 764s. And the rest of the fleet (i.e. the majority) will be waiting until at least 2012. The lie-flats on the 763s are on indefinite hold.

Plus, AA is the only U.S. airline with a universal C, lie-flat product. No US airline has announced firm plans for a fleet-wide roll out of lie-flat (UA did, but the 772 lie-flat conversion is on indefinite hold). Its nice to know that when your AA flight gets downgraded from a 763 to a 752, you still have the same seat (in fact, on the 752 its wider). Whereas when your DL flight goes from a 764 to a 763, or your CO is upgauged from a 757 to a 764, you no longer have a lie-flat product.

Nonetheless, I do think AA realizes they made a mistake and will install a new C product, at least on the 772s, within two years.

Also, around this time last year, Delta made a similar announcement. Let's see what happened:

JFK-NRT: Launched.
SLC-NRT: Launched, then suspended.
2nd daily ATL-NRT: Discontinued.
NRT-SGN: Launched.

ATL-JNB: Launched.
ATL-DKR-NBO: Canceled.
ATL-SID-ROB: Canceled.
ATL-SID-ABV: Canceled. Became JFK-DKR-ABV.
ATL-SID-LAD: Canceled.
ATL-SID-SSG: Canceled.
ATL-DKR-CPT: Launched, discontinued three months later.
JFK-LOS: Canceled.

JFK-GOT: Canceled.
JFK-PRG: Launched (but then ATL-PRG was suspended).
JFK-VLC: Suspended.
JFK-ZRH: Launched.
JFK-TLV, second frequency: Canceled.
ATL-ARN: Discontinued (becomes JFK-ARN).

RDU-CDG: Canceled.
PIT-CDG: Launched.

Red Tail Fan

DL's schedules change more than the weather. Check again when those flights are suppose to start.

millionmiler

The two airlines have different investment strategies obviously but its strange that DL can do all of these routes while AA can do none of them. The math shouldn't be that different.

MAH4546

It is not neccesarily that AA can't. Its just that AA doesn't want to. Personally I'd like to see AA become a little more aggressive, but not as aggressive as Delta. A good 30-40% of Deltas new routes over the past few years either don't launch, last one season or quickly become seasonal. And their domestic new routes launches typically fare even worse.

denCSA

Some of these flights are verrrrrry long, and of course AA would have to get approval from the pilots' union, which ain't going to happen.

Looking over Delta's financials both pre and post bankruptcy, they really cleaned house and benefited the most from it compared to UA and US. So, you have that AAdvantage on top of AA as well.

GTITAN

Greetings:

One can reach most of the places noted with AA and OW just not always on AA metal, and as long as you get a code share, you get status bonus, etc. IMHO, the real benefit of flying on your own FFP's metal is to enjoy whatever major benefits that your carrier provides. For example, EPs get SWUs on AA which we can use on any published mileage earning fare. That is (one of) the major benefit to being EP and flying AA. With DL, the route structure is great, but you are paying "full fare coach" if you want to use miles or DL's version of the SWU to get into its "business elite cabin". FWIW and for me personally, if I am stuck in Y (with some exception) and not in a premium class cabin, I don't much care if its my own FFP's metal or not provided I am earning EQMs and RDMs. I grant YMMV totally on this one.

Safe Travels

zacktravel

Agreed. Why on earth does Delta assume they would have enough passengers for daily flights to Africa? Bad Corporate Strategy if you ask me!

FWAAA

AA began installing true flat-bed seats on its longhauls in 1999 and by 2001 featured true lie-flat beds on almost 100 long-haul airplanes. What took so long at DL?

Granted, those seats were (and in the 47 AA 777s still are) in F and not J, but it's not been all that difficult to upgrade J or D fares to F for those spending OPM. For instance, PresRDC has posted that he frequently buys AA J fares to Asia when he can upgrade to F at time of purchase.

And upgrading inexpensive coach fares to biz? That's been impossible to do at Delta for a long time, where only Y, B or M are upgradable with PMUs.

Meanwhile at AA, for the past two weeks, even very cheap I fares are now upgradable to F with SWUs.

I echo MAH4546's comments - AA made a mistake with its new J seats, but I'd rather be able to upgrade a cheap fare to crummy J than be stuck in coach because I didn't buy a Y, B or M fare.

AAerSTL

Also worth noting regarding JFK TATL is that they are completely ending JFK-EDI and leaving it solely to CO to operate ex-EWR. Perhaps not the best move as there will no longer be an ST option on the route, but then again it probably wasn't performing well.