chix

This week the route switched from AA to US. Isn't the idea for the U.S. To be for US flights to be changing to AA?

Any experiences or thoughts?

FWAAA

Four fewer F seats and no MCE if your upgrade doesn't clear. Bring along an extra battery, as no power ports on the US A319. It's unfortunate, IMO, because cross-fleeting like this makes it harder to avoid US metal. Were it relegated to traditional pmUS routes (PHX, CLT or PHL), avoiding it would be much easier.

Fanjet

And would make cross-fleeting less economical.

This service has to be from a US flight originating in LAX. IIRC, all of the IAD-CLT flights (the only pmUS service at IAD) were on regional flights, and maybe some E190s.

ty97

It's a nearly identical F:Y ratio despite that decrease of 4 seats (due to the decrease in Y seats). The lack of MCE is of course a loss. But we should probably expect more and more of cross-fleeting as the final steps of merging operations move forward.

FWAAA

The ratio of F to Y seats would be relevant only if AA held random drawings among all Y passengers for the unsold F seats. But that's not how it works, and thus, the ratio is meaningless. Doesn't stop lots of people from talking about it in dozens of threads.

On an average day, a certain number of F seats will be sold, and the remaining seats will be available for upgrades. For illustration, assume that AA has been selling 10 of the 16 F seats on a typical 738 on this route. A smaller F cabin won't affect the number of F seats sold, so now there will likely be just two seats remaining for upgrades instead of the previous six.

Ratio of F to Y? As meaningless as the color of the upholstery.

chix

Any experiences on the actual flights, catering, etc.?

Often1

Cross-fleeting is unimportant. It's about the most efficient use of the aircraft and that's based on PRASM predictions. Thus, the 319. Given good deals on FC seats and companies prepared to pay at least discounted F, those seats are likely designed for sale and it would be surprising if there are many left for UG's.

Compare this to UA which dominates the market and where there are GA's routinely explaining to GS that there are 8 GS ahead of them on the UG list (in fairness, UA treats YCA government fares as full Y eligible for instant UG at time of booking).

ACA321

Haven't check the website to see for myself, but are the flights on A319/A320 equipment, or on A321? If the latter, then there would be no difference in F capacity- 16 seats up front as in the AA738.

I don't believe there are any new A319s on either east or west side...all new deliveries have been A321s at LUS, save for 5 A320s which ended in 2010 IIRC.

EDIT: it appears they are using A319s on both flights, at least for the dates I sampled. What's more interesting is there is also a mainline flight CLT-IAD on the A319, at least on Wednesday July 29th. Not sure if this equipment will cycle through to LAX the next morning or if it returns to CLT on flight 1860 (both flights depart around the same time), but is interesting to see nonetheless. First time I've seen mainline US equipment scheduled to IAD since the regional jet age craze...

GotCalcio4

HP metal had been flying to LAX, LAS, and PHX at the time of the HP-US merger and continued to PHX for a couple years after.

chix

I ask the catering question as according to usairways.com, no meals are served even in F. When there were AA flights, there would be meal service.

ACA321

Oh yes of course, my bad. Was thinking only of US-east operations and forgot about the ex-HP flights.

ahiromu

Mid October (9-12) says operated by US Airways, early December (2-3) has no such US Air annotation. Something funny is going on here... or they made a mistake in not updating the whole thing yet.

I second the question about food in F. Planning on using this route to finish off a challenge.

CMK10

Same thing happened on RDU-LAX. Annoying as there's literally two good coach seats on the A-319 (10A and 10F, exit rows with unlimited legroom). If you can't get those, the rest are all basically the same. At least with the AA 738 we used to have there were two exit rows and MCE.

SJC AA

VFTW posted on this:
http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea....or-passengers/

IMHO, it's ridiculous that these ex-US planes don't have MCE and power by now.

3Cforme

Be ready for ridiculous a lot longer. Fifty-seven months after the CO/UA merger and there are still ex-CO 738s flying around without E+. UA hasn't made it a priority. AA hasn't made it a priority. (Think about the AA-origin 777s flying around without MCE.)