martin33

I'm not up on the fine details--- refresh my memory as to why they can't just fire the people and outsource the groundwork to Eagle and keep mainline service... that's what they did at STX after all.

elron938

Having seat assignments is immaterial. You'll be reaccomodated on one of the RJ flights, although they might try to schedule you for a different time flight.

observer

Is this post a rumor or a fact?

AA.com still shows mainline maddog PIT/DFW service into April.

FWAAA

It hasn't been officially announced yet, but in my experience, if MAH4546 posts it, it's as good as official, since his posts are always dead on.

Once it is officially announced, the MD-80s will disappear from the schedules.

elron938

OP said that the date for mainline service ending is still "tentative", so I wouldn't expect the flight statuses to be updated until that's finalized.

MAH4546 has a very good batting average with these "rumors", and I don't expect this one to be an exception.

pitflyer

Reported in a local paper
http://kdka.com/topstories/local_story_258192011.html

SUCKS! Even more sucky as a local AA Platinum with million miler status. They even called me last month to ask why I didn't fly AA so much anymore -- and I said there isn't enough service. The AAgent then deposited four upgrades as a reason to come back -- of course, now I cant even use them out of PIT. And here I was hoping that the packed flights to ORD would mean at least one MD-80 ... instead the other direction.

LoyAAlty sure doesn't pay these days...

gemac

In my opinion, AA is not the villian here. It seems that the situation is that AA must overpay all its PIT staff if it wants to keep one mainline flight per day. This seemingly makes PIT an unprofitable location. AA's choices seem limited:
1. Raise fares. This causes pax to go to competition. Result - no AA service at all to PIT.
2. Stop all service to PIT immediately.
3. Get staff to agree to work for market wages. We assume that this has been tried to no avail, so this isn't really an option for AA.
4. Replace the mainline flight with Eagle.
It seems that AA has done the only thing it could do to continue to provide you service. I would place the blame with the staff that insist on above-market wages because there is one mainline flight per day. There is no reason that I can think of why these two decisions (wages of ground staff and type of aircraft) should be coupled, but there it is.
I think AA should be commended for taking actions to keep it out of the bankruptcy courts, where CO went twice in the 90's, and all the other legacy competitors are right now.
Granted, I do not live in PIT. I live in STL, which lost hub status (and about half our AA flights) two years ago. I don't berate AA for doing this - they seem to be doing what they deem necessary in a tough environment, with less than total cooperation from their unions.
I don't want to come off as unduly harsh to their unions, either. They have been more realistic than the unions at the other legacy carriers, in my opinion.

observer

I share your opinion. Those of us who care about AA and are loyal to it must be at leaest somewhat grateful to enlightened union leadership which has not followed the example of unions at UA, DL, NW, ATA, etc., in shooting themselves in the foot with inflexible and (in current circumstances) unreasonable demands.

drtdk

I'm gonna guess that you love the prices at Wal-Mart.

The issue seems to be less one of "above-market wages" and more one of overstaffing. Also there are four mainline flights a day, not the "one" you cited. I respect AA's decision to maintain profitably but I am disappointed that PIT is losing its last mainline service. As noted by others, both the ORD and MIA Eagle flights are usually quite full. It's unfortunate that PIT could not have grown rather than shrunk.

I do travel DFW-PIT several times a year. For a three-hour flight, the E70 on US is a lot more comfortable than a CRJ so I may be making the switch.

MAH4546

Being in the Virgin Islands, they don't have to abide by the same labour rules, etc. as they do in the US (even though STX is a US territory, slightly different rules). There are a whole lot of labour issues and such that just dont make it possible. AA would outsource every station with less tha 10 daily flights if they could, would save them millions upon millions.

MJonTravel

Actually, unless it's changed, AA can outsource ramp operations at less than 14 flights per day at a station. There is no limit on the # of operations to outsource customer contact as they are non-union. Many of you may remember that FLL was outsourced for a long time. It was the busiest outsourced station in AA's system.

Connected1

It's actually 2,555 over a continuous 12 month period.

martin33

Thanks for the clarification.

So, given this, and the low existing level of mainline service, why is PIT losing the planes?

FWAAA

The thread below from another site may help clarify why the mainline service is being pulled; may have something to do with an endrun around "station protected" mainline TWU-represented rampers:

http://www.usaviation.com/forums/ind...howtopic=21781

ByeByeDelta

What defines a "flight"? Is each arrival and departure counted separately or together? A plane lands, gets serviced and departs. That sounds like one flight to me.

To use the two figures above, 2,555 into 365 days equals 7. You get 14 arrivals and departures with 7 flights.

Checking in at RDU Thursday morning I briefly discussed the October switch to Eagle for several of the RDU-ORD flights. The agent was not happy about it because the change will affect her job. She didn't specify if she would be without one, or have reduced hours.