ABQ-DFW changing to Eagle?
 

Based out of ABQ and 90% of the time fly through DFW. Notcied a flight I am book for this winter is an Eagle flight. We have always had the MD80 mainline to DFW from here.

Any other folks noticing changes from AA to AE around the country?

Yep, there are some routes currently or recently flown with MD-80s that might see some large (76 seat) two-class RJs like E175s or CRJ900s. For the most part, those large RJs will replace 50-seaters, but in some cases they'll also permit serious downgauging such as your flight.

Traveling ORD-STL in two weeks and that route has gone from all mainline 757/S80 to mostly E75 with a few S80/738 in the mix.

From a pax perspective the E75 is an improvement in F, but of course the AA F/As and fleet service workers in STL prefer mainline.

I'm honestly fine with this. The new big regional jets are quite comfortable, and since there wasn't a meal service, we won't see a downgrade there.

However--I'd rather see the bigger regional jets replacing 50 seaters.

MD80's are slowly going away. :( So, what will AA replace them with?

738/A319/E175/CR7 can all fill that role.

For quite a while there, retired MD-80s were replaced with larger capacity 738s, and while that might work in markets with lots of frequencies where AA could reduce frequencies to help compensate for all those new seats, the 738 is a lot of airplane in markets where the MD-80 was already too much airplane.

Why didn't AA replace those MD-80s with large RJs years ago? Wasn't until late 2012 that it finally had the contractual authority to outsource more than the existing 47 large RJs (the Eagle CRJ700s).

Part of it is that AA had to be very selective where it flew its tiny fleet of 47 large RJs, and that meant that some markets kept their MD-80s because there weren't enough large RJs to go around, plus the 50-seaters were just too small and expensive to fly. With lots of large RJs on the way, AA has the luxury of finally replacing MD-80s with 76-seaters.

When AA ordered the A319s in mid-2011, that raised hope that some MD-80 markets might get one to one replacements with A319s. While that might happen in some markets, it doesn't appear to be happening in very many of them.

Same is happening in ELP. Used to be 7-8 mainline flights a day, now starting November it looks like 6-7 Envoy flights a day with maybe one or two mainline.

Do not like it at all, losing that many seats will not be food for fares. :(

Do the large RJs typically require valet checking of roll-aboards?

If so, this change will have a major impact on business travelers out of ABQ and other affected locations...

I fly ABQ-DFW-wherever a dozen or so times a year; that isn't going to happen if I have to check my bag every time.

DL is almost all mainline out of ABQ, I believe. Grass appears way greener over there! ;)

Thanks,
saunders111

A random check in January shows 5 MD-80 and 3 CR7 Envoy flights per day from ABQ-DFW.

The CR7s will require checking any full size carryons.

Yuck. Thank you for the info, though.

saunders111

I've had no issues with my Briggs & Riley widebody bag fitting in the bins on the larger RJs.

No issues on the larger E jets, but they won't fit on the CR7.

Sorry to be drifting off topic a bit, but is there a definitive list somewhere of what AA and Eagle planes will fit full size carry ons?

Or is it up to the whim of the gate agent?

Thanks,
saunders111

If it is an Embraer 17x/19x ... yes ... if it is CRJ not so much ... The ERJ-175 is very comfortable even in coach ....

I thought it was interesting that ABQ-ORD was listed as one of the inaugural routes for the E175 when AA took delivery, but that lasted just over a year before going back to CR7s. Having flown the route a lot this summer, was definitely a bummer to see the downgauge.