jphx1

I have heard American Airlines is calling people booked on connecing flights and offering a nonstop for a fee? Anyone heard about this? Sounds interesting.

sammy0623

did this happen to you?

obscure2k

Welcome to Flyertalk, jphx1. I am moving this thread to the AA Forum.
Please follow there.
Thanks..
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

chsb

This happened to me a couple of months ago going to DC. I was originally scheduled for a stop at ORD and they called me a couple of days prior to my flight and asked if I wanted to change to non-stop for $25. I took them up on the offer.

Kiwi Flyer

A reverse mileage run.

JBa

I wished they would have offered that several month ago on return trip MSP-ORD-DFW. Would have saved me a couple of hours.
Was at the airport early enough to catch the direct flight and asked gate agent if they would put me on the MSP-DFW flight. Was told no because my fare offered had to use the routing through Chicago.

JBa

MileageAddict

Airline charges an extra fee *and* saves on the amount of fuel needed to transport you from A to B.

smithrh

You do realize that there are situations where _both_ parties win, right?

MileageAddict

Absolutely! That's the point I was trying to get across.

abk

i find this interesting and would welcome it as a change in aa policies.

for example, in the past i have booked stl-lga with a connection in ord because it was so much cheaper than the nonstop. my take was that aa had the only nonstop and would price it at a premium but had to compete on the routes with connections. on several occasions i would ask in stl if i could ride up in coach on the wide open nonstop and give up my two upgraded seats on the full flights to ord and then lga. this would allow aa to accomodate more passengers and presumably make more money. of course they wanted a change fee so i stayed in first on my connection.

today i just booked stl lga and the nonstop was actually cheaper by pennies then the connection. maybe with the reduced capacity they have seen that they can fill all the planes at reasonable ( for them) fares and shouldn't push people to connections when they can sell them a nonstop and also sell the two connecting flights.

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

Someone posted this yesterday on a usatoday forum and said that AA called unsolicited and offered the poster a direct flight, the poster said no, and when asked what the catch was , he/she would have needed to pay $100. For $25 it might be a good offer to eliminate the risk of a misconnect (unless one is doing it for miles), but for $100 not sure if I would consider this a good customer service gesture.

emcampbe

Yes - this seems counter intuitive and completely unlogical. But this is the way airlines charge - for a long time. Yes - it costs them less to serve you non-stop, and yes, they will charge you more for the convenience. And then make less money when they send you on a round-about way. But they seem to think it makes them more money.

This is why it pays to look around. Air Canada often offers great fares ex-USA to Europe/Asia with a stop in Canada. However, booking on the non-stop from the AC hub city costs hundreds of $$ more.

ctuttle

I wonder if one or both of the flights they offered to switch from were oversold? If so that would be a huge win for American, they get a little extra money, avoid having to issue vouchers to get volunteers, and then make the customer that they moved to the nonstop feel that they a great deal.

Hate to sound cynical, but I have a feeling it was severely in AA's interest to do this, else they would never have made the call to the customer to switch the tickets.

ESpen36

I might do it, but only if AA could guarantee:

- same class of service as the original flights
- original routing mileage credit (including EQMs)


Somehow, I doubt both would happen. When I choose to connect, I am choosing to connect for a reason--more miles, better equipment types, more convenient, better seat assignments, more time at the lounges, better lounges, or whatever. My guess is that AA doesn't realize that some of its passengers put as much time into choosing their flights and connections as I do (and as many FTers do).

So, for most people who just choose the cheapest connection and don't care where it is, this new program could be very positive. But not for me.

I wouldn't be opposed to the idea of being able to switch routings for $25 (through DFW instead of ORD), but I highly doubt that we, the passengers, could call in and request it. Instead, the initiative probably would come from AA if they needed space on my original flights, or big t-storms were upcoming, or whatever. Otherwise, think of the revenue that AA could lose if it were so easy to buy the cheapest routing and then switch to a different (possibly much more expensive) one for only $25! (that's why we have things like fare difference and change fees today)

AAJetMan

Totally Agree!