seeyou

Question .... If business is so bad where are the air fare sales ???? Isn't someone paying some thing better than the doors closing on a plane with mucho empty seats???

My travel routes ORD-HNL and ORD -LHR have the same price today as before 9-11.
Is this the case of wealthy airline managers putting out a worst case to get the 5$ bil package ?

hedoman

SJCSuzy....thanks for the info.

Do you drive a RAV 4?

ElmhurstNick

I have flown ORD-ARN several times when in J. Part of the reason that loads in J are so good is that a westbound discounted J is often the same price as an eastbound full Y. When I flew it last September, it was $1350 westbound for J (D class inventory).

Now, the best way to get to Scandinavia on AA is probably to fly to MAN (avoiding the chaos of LHR) and transfer to BA.

What's left transatlantic other than LON/CDG? ORD-MAN (still feeding BA), MIA-MAD (how much longer for that one?), ORD-BRU, and ORD-FRA. Anything else?

SJCSuzy

hedoman-you're welcome and I drive a Subaru.

Suzy

socalterp

I was booked on the SJC-TPE flights in late November, and have found that there aren't a lot of good alternatives for re-booking. In fact, there aren't any good alternatives, especially if I want to stay in C (upgrade award)

There is an EVA codeshare flight to Taipei, which would require a re-route through either SFO or LAX, and would mean no upgrade. No thanks.

The other option is to fly SJC-NRT, assuming that it's still operating by then, and then take one of AA's partners onwards to TPE. Problem is that all of the NRT flights, from SJC, SEA, DFW and ORD get into NRT around 4PM, and the last "partner" flight, on Japan Asia to TPE, leaves at 415. According to the Plat Desk, new regulations require one to go through customs at each country, so no more "sterile transit" areas, and a 2 hour connecting time. I found this strange- I know about the customs at first point of entry in the US, but never have heard of it for international flights. The next Japan Asia flight to TPE isn't until the following morning, and AA isn't willing to pay for the hotel...there is a NW flight leaving around 6pm, but they won't book it since there's no ticketing agreement w/ AA. EVA, which is another AA partner, flies out of Haneda, not Narita, and Cathay goes through Hong Kong...

Since I only had a few days planned in TPE anyways, losing another day isn't really a palatable option either. I'm not sure what to do. Maybe I'll just cancel the whole thing and book a Singapore award ticket through SFO to TPE using UA miles instead.

Anyone else have experience trying to re-book for the cancelled TPE flight yet? Guess this is one area where AA's weak Asian route structure really hurts us.

TerryK

Try calling back. AA does have ticketing agreement with NW, assuming taking NW is an acceptable option.

MAH4546

ElmhurstNick, MIA-MAD is one of AA's single most profitable and important routes. Not only does it feed AA's Central American flights (as well as Iberia flights. Iberia has a hub in Miami and codeshares with AA for a total of three daily flights, soon to be four), but the ties between Miami and Madrid are huge. That's why the flight was moved to Miami from Dallas. Iberia is rumoured to be planning on leasing two A380s from IFLC to use on MIA-MAD. In fact, with all the extra 777s AA is going to have, look for MIA-MAD, as well as MIA-CDG, to go 777 within six months.

techgirl

I spent (no kidding) an hour and forty-one minutes on the phone yesterday with the Platinum Desk trying to rebook mine with zero luck. It wasn't their fault, either - I had one of RDU's finest gals working on it with me.

I faced the exact same dilemnas - no way to same day connect in TPE, no ability to creatively reroute given 1. the fare rules for the original reservation, 2. my desire to upgrade, and 3. my need to only take one day off from work.

I'm going to continue to work on it and see what I can accomplish, but also fear I will end up just getting a refund issued.

Meanwhile, I'll keep checking Flyer Talk and hoping someone else finds a creative solution I can use as a precedent.

techgirl

... and to make matters worse, the cancelled routes are still loaded in the system so when I try to work this out on Travelocity, they keep pulling up!

socalterp

To add to my frustrations on the TPE cancellation, the onward segment from NRT would be in Y. As it would not be a flight on AA metal, apparently my award upgrade does not hold. While much shorter than the Transpacific portion, NRT-TPE isn't exactly a short flight either, and the thought of 3-4 hours in Y after a 10+ hour flight to NRT just isn't all that appealing.

I only have a connecting problem on the outbound. I'd even take Eva, if they would rebook me in business, out of SFO.

summerdawn

It's interesting that DFW would lose ALL flights to London. You'd think we would have more than enough passengers & cargo to support at least one.

ExMo

I had a very cooperative CSR tonight trying to figure out a way home for me from TPE on 9 October. Only reasonable alternative was an EVA codeshare that I could not upgrade.

As I was actually flying back to TPE from SIN to take AA150, I ended up going SIN to KIX to take AA158 to DFW and then home to PBI. After much discussion and persuasive work by the CSR, the powers that be waived the normal 100 mile limit on the alternate airport proximity and allowed the same fare that I had to be valid from KIX. As this is an AA metal flight I also could upgrade to BC.

I have to give a lot of credit to this CSR as he really went to bat for me to redo my entire itinerary and keep all the upgrades. I originally had MIA-SEA-JFK-TPE-SJC-DFW-PBI and now am going FLL-DFW-SJC-TPE//KIX-DFW-PBI.

Plato90s

I think I'll have to take the Eva codeshare for my Oct. flight, because there doesn't seem to be any way to go from TPE back to BOS other than on Eva.

Will AA allow a route like BOX-NRT-TPE-LAX-BOS? Because for the outbound leg, I could do BOS-NRT on AA and NRT-TPE on CX. That way I can at least upgrade the outbound leg, and do Eva for the return leg.

Kovich

It might make sense if they were pulling out of LGW alltogether as there could be significant savings from cutting a local operation 35 miles from their enormous LHR op. However, I think it will be a while before we can all make sense of these changes

eireman

We all know that we can't upgrade on AA code shares (this is a big draw back with AA), but for those of you who have not flown on AA code shares with Eva. Beware. You may be tempted to buy a Business class ticket which you may or may not get at a good price. DO NOT do IT- at 44" of pitch in Biz, I'll never go that way.

Best thing to do is either take MH or SQ to TPE or pony up a little more and take EVA's Evergreen Deluxe (Their deluze coach class)However I am not sure that you can buy this a AA ticket Or another option is to buy a Y or Y2 fare from CX, use your AA miles to upgrade