As I understand it, the writing had been on the wall for a little while, though. The Explorer awards were eminently abusable, and airlines don't like abusable things.

How were they abusable? You fly a certain number of miles, you pay a certain number of miles.

Distance-based awards had been available from AA for the better part of a decade, and continued through the introduction (2009) of one-way flex awards.

I'll repeat: old AA didn't kill Explorer awards, Parker's crew did.

Until US left Star this year I never flew either AA or US unless there was no other choice, as a soon-to-be former UA 1K.

No airline is perfect, but my experiences with US in particular have been very good. I haven't flown much on AA metal but that has also been a good experience.

Even this long after the merger CO and UA still act like two different companies and I could no longer handle UA's chronic delays, addiction to RJs in major markets (e.g. ATL) and the generally bad attitude of employees.

If Parker and crew do not learn from the UA disaster, they need to go.

And US awards STILL give you much of what Explorer awards did. Last I checked Doug Parker was CEO of US before he went to AA...

Just saying that everyone who thinks "US's awards were horrible" might not know everything...

I'm not a fan. I like that AA will be stronger in the Southeast but the meal changes and various other moves are not making me optimistic about the future. I'm shifting more and more of my business to Delta.

Thoughts on the merger
 

This merger, as in all other recent mergers, will be a wonderful boon for consumers. I mean what else could possibly result from consolidation in the industry? This merger was only done with the customer's needs in mind. In the USA the government and industry focuses solely on pleasing it's citizens and customers....everyone knows this!

I personally can't wait for all the positive, customer friendly, changes that will result from this reduction in competition.

Back in April when AA announced various changes, it certainly appeared that the goal was to stop people from effectively booking multiple trips as one trip, with extended stays at home in between being treated as "stopovers" in that single trip rather than as ending one trip and starting another.

The height of its abusability came from living in a city AA deemed an "international gateway", and I'm sure it's no coincidence that those gateway stopovers were also eliminated literally the same day as the Explorer award.

My take:

The good:
- Larger combined network, particularly in South America and Europe.
- Stronger company to compete with DL and UA.
- Economy+ seating
- Flagship Lounges
- One way awards

The not so good:
- Loss of StarAlliance partner airlines = less options everywhere except South America.
- Complicated Aadvantage FF system with no automatic upgrades
- Having to travel in crappy NGBC seats for another year or two to Asia & South America.
- Pompous AA frequent flyers that think American Airlines was the best thing since sliced bread

The biggest advantage for me is that it's now much easier to reach BA gold status by not splitting between US and BA.

From a quality perspective, I've flown about a dozen flights in AA domestic F, all prior to the meal changes, and none of them were memorable. I had been expecting the meals to be much better than US, and they were actually worse.

Since Sept 1, I've noticed that the meals are universally worse on both US and AA, with the exception of breakfast which has been mostly edible.

Both AA and US offer a pretty weak set of food options in the lounges. US Airways club have less options than a couple of years ago (eg no cookies). The AA flagship lounges are a step up, though most of the food is worse than what you might buy in the terminal. I've not tried the paid options at any of the admirals clubs this year.

BA generally offers better food on their shorthaul and longhaul flights, but they have also cutback a lot.

In general, I don't get the logic of saving $5-10 per first class passenger on meal service. The average first class ticket price on domestic routes is up considerably over last year, with a reduced quality service. At least they haven't gone the direction that BA is going with 30" seat pitch on their shorthaul business class service.

Living in a gateway city added nothing to an explorer award nor did it make it more abusable. Since they could start or end anywhere. Personally we used it for lax to Auckland to Sydney to Hong Kong to lax. Which seems like what it was designed for.

Over the last 6+ months I have flown far more miles on US than on AA metal and I have lived to tell the story. In my mind, there is no difference now vs. what I was experiencing earlier this year or even last year. My rate of upgrades (whether on AA or US) is still the same. I still get a meal on the same flights as I did before. The quality of the meals is generally the same in my mind. The benefit, I am redeeming miles to go to VCE without having to connect through LHR. Prior to the merger that would have been very tough.

I have come to the conclusion that airlines are in the business of transporting me from city A to city B in a safe manner. As long as I and my luggage make it safely, I am generally happy. Everything else is a bonus. I have also concluded that the elite qualifying program will change at some point. If my experience on AA/US gets bad, I'll look for another provider, but quite honestly, there aren't very many options knocking peoples socks off.

And of course the integration will be seamless, prompt, on time, and result in great happiness for work groups and customers alike, and will add value to the combined enterprise.

My one good US Air friend laughs about how it is open knowledge the process is already months behind, but as with most takeovers, I mean mergers, you should only smile around top management and act stupid.

My take is the merger, thus far, has been a mixed bag:

THE GOOD

1. Expanded route network to Europe

2. Addition of CLT, PHL and DCA hubs makes getting up and down the east coast easier


THE BAD:

1. Revised meal services are a step down from what AA used to be

2. A couple of stations are getting crowded when US and AA are combined


THE UGLY:

1. Increased award redemption fees

2. Cabin upgrades resulting in fewer premium seats

3. No Jack Daniels (Oh, the humanity) - which was a pmAA decision

So you expect six airlines to continue to lose money year after year, decade after decade, never generate enough revenue to cover expenses, laying off staff and downsizing fleets and capacity. You expect investors and lenders and bankruptcy claimants to continue to subsidize your flights forever? Be sarcastic if you want, but a realistic marketplace requires healthy companies and healthy companies must make profits or someone else pays.