wandering_fred

Domestically there is enough competition to keep the lowest fares at an acceptable (though not cheap - for that try Tiger) level. And yes everything is offered as one way so there is only a very minor incentive to book round trip (RT). But then PER has a special location in Australia. That is, a long way from the inexpensive eastern flight triangle.

OTOH so far every airline I have seen (except perhaps the China Southern sales) has outlandish international fares exAustralia. Recently I looked through some alternatives for travel to Europe. Bali to Paris RT is approximately half the price of Perth to Paris RT.

The current changes to AA would not affect my crediting if I were based in the USA. And it still remains one of the best programs from the view of crediting long haul economy flights. But from PER where almost every international flight is likely to transit KUL or HKG (or Indonesia), when accompanied by potentially less flying, CX Silver has some attractions.

Not only are the answers not obvious any longer, the questions are increasingly blurry.

Happy wandering

Fred

AA777

Check again:

A: Okay, so, all those kind of fleet announcements will probably roll out over time as they’re made, but some of those things I can start to address. 1) we do intend to have MCE on all the aircraft, it may be a little different, so for example on A20s, we’re going to keep the configuration at 150 seats – the same configuration that exists on US Airways aircraft today is going to stay, and a few of those rows, I think it’s 2 or 3 of those rows that have the most pitch are going to be MCE, and we’re going to be able to sell those as MCE on those seats.

At the moment, we don’t have any plans to change the aircraft order with respect to in-seat video. I doubt we’ll put seatback video, retrofitting aircraft and put seatback video on it. What we might do at some point, is some kind of deal where you have more streaming options available so you can envision a world where you can have streaming television options available to an aircraft, but you would have to have your own device. I don’t know if we’ll do that or not but looking at options like that are much more practical than to retrofit those aircraft. We will be doing some reconfiguration on other aircraft.

So, most of you already know the Super 80s have already gone back to 140 seats from 135. The 737-800 is going to go up from 150 to either 160 or 164 seats. That, by the way, is consistent with what Delta flies and what other airlines fly. It’s hard to make that – those markets successful with only 150 seats on that airplane.

The 777-200 is going to have more seat density in April. It’s going to start to go from 247 to 260, but it will likely go up higher than that in the next generation, again, getting that aircraft more consistent with what other carriers around the world fly. You know, trying to fly a 247 seat aircraft to Europe, to most South America markets, when American was trying to fly it to India, it’s just – you just can’t make it work. And so getting the right number of seats on the airplane, getting the right configuration on the aircraft is important. We are moving as fast as possible to get all fully lie-flat seats on the international product. That’s an area that we are behind the competition on the American side. It’s something that matters to those premium and elite customers, so we are moving as fast as possible to get that fully rolled out across the fleet.

Some planes will have the upgrades that Horton and company touted, others will never be updated. So the new planes that have already began construction and set to be delivered will be as advertised. But the US planes won't be converted, and maybe worse.

At the end of the day, you will pay the same amount of $$, but never know what you are getting: a new originally AA planned plane, or a older or newer Dougie bus with wings.

I have been asked many times, if you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be? I have rarely answered because I can't think of anyone, maybe a few athletes, GM or coach from my favorite sport (Cup playoffs are here!!!!), but I would give a ton of $$$$ over to have a dinner with Horton and Parker. I'd spend the time listening, then praising Horton and ripping Parker apart. Pretty much spit on his food if I can.

When you apply facts to the scattering of opinions (not pointing to anyone specifically) you see that Parker has a LONG history of spitting on customers, and running airlines like Lorenzo did. He will tell you what you want to hear, anything you want to hear and then do the exact opposite. Horton has turned around two industry leaders in the last 8 years. If you take out the unions and all the other drama and input from people who simply have no clue. the path that has been taken is the worst one possible. AA emerges as stand alone, gets good valuation after another 12-18 months out of BK, investors begun to be made whole, AA goes after and takes US, Horton in charge, US fleet upgraded to match all the new AA plane orders, MCE is probably shrunk a bit, but premium product continued to be raised, both hard and soft. BAM, you have the BA of the American carriers. Not as good as a CX, but damn good. Bigger than anyone else, better product = strong barrier to entry. Expand to Asia and Europe, and with the control of the east coast, most premium pax would bail on DL and UA. That was the Horton plan, and that makes short term and long term sense.

Parker is the ULTIMATE example of penny wise pound foolish. I found that the leader of the company sets the tone, great teams have great coaches. Profiting off IMPOSSIBLE TO MAINTAIN low costs from enslaved labor is not a sign of a good coach. Big reason why no matter how good Girardi is, he steers the evil empire with a ridiculous payroll, so he will never get his due.

Look at the numbers, compare them to every other airline BK, and you will be astounded by how well AA did, and how much change the management team went thru in such a short time before the merger ever went thru.


Cheers,
AA777

Phasers

AA777, excellent post. Your last two paragraphs especially hit the nail on the head.

We saw a glimpse of what could have been, and then had it yanked away and made 10x worse than it ever was.

I just booked a partner award redemption on RJ and could not find a DFW-ORD nonstop flight, so I asked the EXP desk to ask RM for a seat to be opened (voluntary downgrade no less!) instead of connecting through Tulsa or some other city. The response: "We were told not to even ask anymore."

iplaybass

"We only have to match the crappy product all others provide. You have four choices, so I don't care which one you pick. After all, what are you going to do, drive?"

Brilliant business strategy.

toomanybooks

Y'all are going to have to change your FT handles.

Dave Noble

For Sydney-Perth, I can see fares at $179 oneway which for a 2000 mile journey doesn't seem too bad and Brisbane-Perth for $195 (2246 miles). No advance purchase or r/t requirements just based on availability

similar distance round trip JFK-LAX (2475 miles_ with no advance purchase requirement is showing at $1350 plus taxes and $651 with 7 days AP

One way without any AP restriction is $648 and with 14-21 days AP $195 plus taxes

I cannot see that the transcontinentals are expensive compared to USA

AA777

I don't believe advertising my status-----besides, I wouldn't even know or care what the CK or EY FF levels are-----> I have found that when you book J or F, status means nothing and when I book Y, no status can make it J or F To be honest, until a trip LAX-PVG last fall I'd never heard anyone mention it to me, but the Purser came up and thanked me for being CK. I laughed and said, "no need to thank me......all it means is I spend too much money on airfare".

So, I'm almost embarrassed at what I spend on airfare.......but when it comes to making post on here, I think one cannot make comments about premium services if one is not willing to provide evidence to one's experience and ability to speak on such matters. Big reason why many subject on here I stay away from because I don't know **** about them


Cheers,
AA777

AAExPlat

Nah. AA is part of my FT persona and will always be a part of my life memories...

- airline to fly me and my bride to our honeymoon? AA
- airline to fly us with my then newborn first child to Germany to meet her grand parents? AA
- airline to fly my mother dying from cancer to the US for one last little bit of fun befor she died? AA
- airline to fly me to Germany to be with my dad before he died? You guessed it.

AA always took care of me, but the current management is no longer the AA I patronized religiously for over a decade. That doesn't erase the many years of examplary service.

Jacobin777

Maybe AA777 should write my blogs instead of me..^

Couldn't agree more.^ AA could've been a great company -especially against its domestic peers.

Oh well, the "party" was fun while it lasted.

wandering_fred

I'm scheduled to be flying LAX-DFW-PHL in Jun on a P class AA ticket for under $600. You won't find anything like that in Australia (unless on an AA business award )

Yes, the domestic (economy) sale fares for PER are acceptable in Australia (and I said so in the earlier post). Though the OW representative (QF) is not the airline offering the cheaper fares. The non sale fares are reasonable but it is definitely worth planning around the sales if you can. And I admit last minute flying in the USA has never been a bargain. As well, if you needed to fly PER-MEL when the Australian rules football finals were announced last year, the USA fares you quoted would be very cheap.

You didn't comment on the international fares ex-Australia. I think I got that one correct without exceptions.

And the QF frequent flyer changes make AA's changes look almost acceptable.

Happy wandering

Fred

diver858

While of course correct from an elite traveler's perspective, the above misses one important reality: Parker was selected by the INVESTMENT community, who believes they will get a greater return with him over Horton. Like much of the rest of our economy, the "job creators" know what is best for the rest of us, know full well that most Americans will put up with a high level of inconvenience, discomfort if they believe they are getting a deal.

At some point, I would like to know how Parker and his backers were able to force Horton in to making the deal - have to believe that he still held a fair number of cards (lots of cash), backing of most of the Board.

Dave Noble

The post I had been replying to implied a domestic nature in reference to the lack of carriers. For international travel there are plenty of airlines offering service in North America and South Pacific so an argument in relation to lack of carriers would not be relevent

That the lower fares are offered by Virgin and Jetstar ($155 PER-SYD) and Tiger ($130 Per-SYD) vs Qantas who are still not that highly priced at $209 doesn't take away that in general I would view US domestic fares as being higher than Australia domestic fares

imo Qantas is generally overpriced but even its prices are good for domestic travel compared to US

AA777

Perhaps you have spent time on the Street, perhaps not. I have, and still have friends in high places that do these M/A and other similar transactions all the time. Investors did select Parker in a sense because they thought he would provide a better return, but not because of the reasons you are insinuating. They chose him because they wanted their money and wanted it fast, and that would not happen with labor fighting every step of the way. Labor insisted on new management, and insisted on Parker (highlighting the incompetence of labor-----tell a pilot how to fly an airplane, and he scoffs at Management, but then they seem to think they can run an airline better as well----SMH).

Creditors are different then investors in some very important ways and at times, investors can be referred to as creditors such as in a BK. The specific set of "creditors" in this case did / do not care about long term return or success of the entity they have lent to. All they care(d) about is being made whole with an acceptable / desired return so as to ensure yearly numbers calculate out right so they can continue to receive further investments from investors. They saw Parker as a way to keep labor happy enough to get their money, they got their money in the incredible combined valuation and value of shares assigned. That is it. Its that simple, and has nothing to do with Parker. In fact, privately I will venture to guess that they love Horton, because of the high valuation he got out of AA while in BK so as to ensure greater value to investors in the Merger. The only thing I cannot speak to 100% is whether the newly issued stock is restricted, and if so I do not know of the time period of such restrictions. Does anyone know? I'm sure I could find out.....I'm just being lazy

People can sell me on a lot of things, Parker being a great CEO is a tough sell. Parker being better than Horton? Why not tell me a 737 can make it to China with no stops....

Cheers,
AA777

sinanju

The response I received to an angry but polite email to the list at the top of the thread.

I'm at a loss to understand how "making these adjustments quickly [so] that our customers know what to expect when traveling on either American Airlines or US Airways, [helping] them better plan their travel" actually works when the changes are unannounced. How do you know what to expect when the rules are changed without notice?

I let them know that their response helped me understand their position, indeed. The AAdvantage program is subject to a short, sharp shock at any moment, that changes will be framed as benefitting me even when they don't, and that I can no longer trust my miles will be worth anything on any given day.

ChurchofTee

I have also filed a complaint with the DOT. It might matter, it might not, but at least I threw as much as I could up on the wall...