ibrandsguest

Thought this might make an interesting thread:

Now that US Airways is gone, what are the things that you miss about it?

For me:

(1) Being able to have multiple credit cards for $99 annual fees each, and each generating 10,000 Preferred-qualifying miles, meaning that you could get Preferred status by credit card spending alone.

(2) Free upgrades, without having to use 500-mile certificates. (Don't UA and Delta have free upgrades?)

(3) GoGo wifi that allowed access to the US Airways website for free during flight, meaning that you could always check your flight status during flight.

(4) The upgrade and standby lists available on the US mobile website. (AA has an upgrade list available 4 hours before the flight but that's it.)

I see no benefit whatsoever with this merger and am not a happy customer.

Xero

#3 is available. AA.com is free on flight.

arollins

From what I understand, you can still log in to AA.com and check your flight info for free.

This merger has been in the works for about 2 years, nothing new for any, we are well pass it, accept it, learn the new way in order to maximize your travel experience or look for an alternative carrier.

GNRMatt

I agree with missing the Free upgrades and also that AA doesn't do a lot of upgrades until much closer to the flight.

I miss the $20K spend to get 10K PQM's.

I miss the $99 companion certificates for a $89 annual fee.

Although it was really just a "bug" in the website, I miss the ability to change to a First Class seat after check-in time when a seat opens up.

no1cub17

Pretty sure most of us from AA were also far happier when Dougie wasn't in charge of "our airline" - so there's both sides.

ont

Redemptions in LH & OZ premium cabin without absurd British YQ and PSC "taxes". *A in general.

kochleffel

For me: award availability without British Airways YQ.

Although the merged company has many more flights, it also has more customers competing for awards, and a search engine that seems to favor BA connections at LHR. I liked having access to flights on LH and its affiliates.

I say this even though I've just booked an award to a destination for which pre-merger bookings would have required a revenue fare, because my local airport wasn't served by any airline or partner that also flew to the destination.

TheDudeAbides

DP gets disparaged a lot around here for what a terrible airline exec he is and for the perception about what he is likely to do to the AAdvantage program, but from my point-of-view at least, I don't think he's been any better or worse than Horton and he's better than Arpey was IMHO. Obviously, this is a big YMMV around here.

SFO777

Yeah, but the trade-off is that the money you pay/earn for those "stickers" allows AA to serve the best domestic in-flight food.

arlflyer

<redacted> seriously, I miss the free upgrades.

And while I was an AA guy at the time for the most part, Star Alliance must have been awesome. As well as easily confused US agents who were happy to ticket any award routing you could dream up.

flyingeph12

As someone who tends to purchase tickets last minute, I see this as a positive. Now, at least I have a chance of an upgrade on LUS metal, as opposed to the F cabin being completely full by the time I book.

vasantn

(1) I don't want to compete with people who fly little and spend a lot on CCs.

(2) Free upgrades for everyone means fewer upgrades for those (like me) who perceive a value to the upgrades and are willing to pony up stickers, miles or certs to acquire them.

(3) Always been available, as others have noted.

(4) I'll give you this one.

Also:

(5) Far superior food options.

(6) Best-in-class reservations desk, at least for the top tier.

(7) Much better long-haul international seating.

What's not to like?

IMO the only US pax who have a legitimate gripe are the 75K/year flyers who were left stranded.

ibrandsguest

I thought that would be the case for me as well since I usually book tickets a day or two before departure. Unfortunately it's not; while I usually get upgraded on my flight (I make the same trip over and over one just one of several flights at around the same time each time I travel), with AA, I was not upgraded; first class was as or about as full as it was pre-AA.

(1) If people get preferred status via credit card, then they're not flying much and are not taking up many seats in FC, so that shouldn't matter.

(5) True, but US adopted AA food a while ago, even before the US brand was phased out, so being AA now hasn't resulted in anything better than it was pre-phaseout.

(6) The US Airways Preferred desk was wonderful. I had repeated glitches last week with the new AA desk-- I had to call 5 times to get a ticket issue fixed. I don't see an improvement.

(7) The US Airways Envoy Suite was/is terrific. I don't see an improvement to that, either.

The only think that I see as improved with AA is better meals on FC domestic fights but, as pointed out above, we got those when US and AA harmonized their in-flight offering even before the phaseout of the US brand, and US maybe would have improved its food anyway. Even before US and AA started the merger process, US food in FC was far improved from where it was in 2005, for example.

flyingeph12

True. My upgrade percentage recently has been absolutely horrible. But I actually think it's not because of the upgrade process but because of all the discount F fares recently. I have found instances where it's not much more expensive to book F (when it's available) than Y. Makes sense, I guess. Better to fill F seats with rev pax than free upgrades.

Seat1A

shuttle-friendly SDC rules