Jacobin777

This one is sort of like "Schrödinger's cat".

The outcome will depend on what the input will be, but he's a shrewd man, he'll figure some excuse out.

Over all, while the creditors are being "paid whole" (which in itself is very rare), I find this particular BK to be "screwed up" on many levels. To me, something just doesn't "seem right". I don't know why, and I really can't my finger on it, but something is.

Maybe because I don't have a lot of respect for Parker. Maybe its because IMHO Parker "over-promised" (one too many lollipops to one too many unions/people/creditors) and will under-deliver. Maybe I think the board and the creditors made the wrong decision about not keeping Horton. Maybe its because AA's Chapter 11 proceeding didn't go the way DL's or UA's chapter 11 BK's went.


^Not only do I agree on this point, I actually posted this on my blog a while back in February:

"I will not be surprised once the “honeymoon” period between (incoming) CEO Doug Parker and the various unions are over, the unions will want Parker and his management team removed. I also see AA potentially taking a trip down Chapter 11 again in a few years. I just don’t see how the massive rise in cost will be offset from the added revenues."

http://jacobin777.wordpress.com/2013...irways-merger/

I seriously hope this works out well and dandy, but I'm not so sanguine and call me a "serious skeptic".

dayone

I hope the poll disappears when the merger closes.

diver858

Void the labor contracts, impose less generous terms; should be possible to pre-negotiate new terms with creditors, who would benefit from more favorable labor costs. At that point, DP will have already begun to downsize the merged carrier, labor will be more concerned with protecting jobs.

CMK10

Very true. And of course there's also AA at SJC, RDU and BNA and US at BWI just to name a few limited to the airlines who are merging. If you add in results from their mergers you also get AA at STL as previous mentioned and US at LAS.

austin_res

I don't think hubs closing is necessarily a big concern. When a hub is downsized or closed, usually other airlines expand. Southwest expanded their presence in SJC, BNA, BWI, STL, and LAS after they were dehubbed. Likewise, AA expanded DFW after Delta closed its hub there. Southwest and JetBlue started service to PIT when US began downsizing that hub, and Southwest will start service to MEM as Delta dehubs.

jspira

News announced this morning:


American Airlines Merger Approved by US Airways Shareholders

AA_EXP09

WN isn't an airline that I would fly as they have a terrible FFP and they don't fly international.

GadgetFreak

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 6_1_4 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/536.26 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0 Mobile/10B350 Safari/8536.25)

Sorry, I disagree. Just compare PIT or STL before and after. They are basically decimated with vastly fewer options for travelers there and fewer options to get there for people in other places b

tom911

But if you're looking at OAK-LAX or SMF-LAS, routes AA does not fly nonstop, there's not a lot of miles in play to begin with and the convenience far outweighs flying with AA with connections or driving to other airports that AA hasn't withdrawn from. Relocate to the Bay Area or Northern CA and they're a major player here for short-haul.

3Cforme

Your argument confuses cause and effect. The 00's were a tough decade for 3rd-tier hubs. The AA SJC hub got flushed without merger or Ch 11 cutbacks. PIT wasn't a casualty of the US/HP merger, but of US' own sense (finally) to grow PHL into a proper hub. DL drew down DFW before NW was even a gleam in its eye. Due to its own relative declining demographics and the growth of megahubs at DFW and ORD, STL was dead-hub-walking a decade before AA showed up to buy the assets.

I don't believe the DOJ merger competition analysis framework gives a flop about frequent flyer programs. WN is certainly a relevant competitor on non-stop and 1-stop city pairs of the combined AA+US network, especially when weighted by passenger volume.

GadgetFreak

I confused nothing. I was responding to a post that said that if hub status was removed other carriers would make up for it. And that simply isn't the case. I made no comment about whether it made business sense to remove hub status or the cause of removing hub status from from certain cities. I am very aware of the history of PIT having been a US1 for a number of years and switching to AA largely due to fustrations in connecting in PHL. I was commenting that the effects of losing hub status were very bad on PiT and STL

ashill

But WN's presence certainly does provide competitive pressure which keeps your airfares down. (Not WN as a particularly low fare airline -- they're obviously not that -- but just as an airline which competes in many domestic US markets.) WN definitely counts as a competitor when evaluating the antitrust impact of this merger.

ESpen36

An interesting tidbit from AA.com's Agency Reference section:

Sabre and AAdvantage Program Instant Enrollment: Ending in October
Updated: 09Jul13

Please be advised that Sabre agencies will no longer have the ability to instantly enroll customers in the AAdvantage® program via the GDS due to technical considerations with the AAdvantage program, effective October 2013.

The following are some alternate ways that customers can enroll in the AAdvantage program:

Customers can log onto aa.com from their own computer or tablet and follow the easy "Join Program" steps.
Customers can download the AA app to their iPhone, iPad or Android device and follow the easy "Join Program" steps.
Customers who have access to the Admirals Club® can ask the Premium Services rep to enroll them.
In all cases, the new AAdvantage number will appear in Sabre the following day. Customers should request retroactive credit for flights already taken on aa.com or ask an agent to add their new AAdvantage number to their PNR while traveling. Customers can also add their AAdvantage number to an existing PNR on aa.com under "My Trips" when logged-in, or when checking into a flight online.

Agents / reps can also force the new AAdvantage number into the PNR on the day that the AAdvantage number is issued.

SOBE ER DOC

Well, if Parker's wants to walk away from JFK-LAX/SFO routes where most of the competition if offering a better product he can.

krlcomm

Agreed, add CVG to the list...