observer

Sorry if I ask two fairly dumb questions.

First, given the fact that AA has three wide bodies leaving within a half hour or so of each other, is the Admiral's Club impossibly crowded around 8:30 pm?

Second, I have been looking at schedules, and as best I can figure out the AA northbound flights from EZE appear to spend around 12 hours at EZE during their turnaround from their southbound trips. Is this possible? It seems on the face of it to be a lot of downtime for a fairly expensive piece of equipment.

Thanks.

Eastbay1K

You are correct about both things. 3 widebody AA planes, as well as a UA and DL plane spend the entire day out on the field, every day.

The AC is horribly overcrowded for the evening departures. 8:30 might be better because I believe the earliest flight is already gone.

FWAAA

Passengers prefer to fly to and from South America at night, so the planes fly overnight in both directions. That necessitates parking the planes for about 12 hours each day at EZE. Same thing with other South American destinations.

Levi Maeschan

Use the LAN lounge, didn't even bother with the AC

TPJ

Actually 4 aircraft:

AA800 to MIA - 8pm
AA908 to MIA - 10.55pm
AA996 to DFW - 8.20pm
AA954 to JFK - 9.30pm

The lounge also caters for IB passengers and there is an IB flight to MAD at 9.30pm.

So yes it is a zoo... LAN Lounge next door might be a better choice...

BTW... If you look at today's schedule - AA931 was cancelled last night (EZE-based crew went out of hours) and it will be operated as a day flight - so as an exception there will only be 3 aircraft on the ground at EZE today.

zpaul

Both the AA and LAN lounges are zoos. I'm not sure why they are both so small, but they definitely aren't designed for the number of passengers both airlines have at their peak times. The LAN lounge does tend to have better wine and champagne, although I have always found it to be far too warm to be comfortable (and I'm not a fan of US levels of air conditioning!).

Dallas49er

Crowded-yes. Small-yes. Zoo-I'm not so sure.

If you are in search of "zoo", (tongue going into cheek) try the AUS AC in the late afternoon. A small, very busy club in its own right, staffed by the best AAngels in the system.

Then add a BA 777 to LHR packed with imperious English "aristocrats", every other passenger full of attitude (many times on their cell phones whingeing about how terrible it is in the colonies), a 3-5x higher factor of DYKWIA than normal, and your usual AUS multi-national gaggle of oblivious and/or self important millenial techies. Add Texas weather delays, and you have a real zoo. I just sit in the bar and watch the "theatre". I got mine, Jack.

(tongue coming out of cheek).

EZE is just crowded.

3Cforme

It's the nature of essentially all USA - deep South America flights: GIG, GRU, SCL, EZE. It is true of AA, UA, and DL. Redeyes in both directions.

MIA-LIM-MIA is short enough to see a daytime flight in both directions.

747kona

I've flown the redeyes many times and my next trip I purposely tried to book day flights since I'll be in economy on this one. Very sparse pickings, but I did manage to find a LAX-LIM (LAN 787) and a GRU-MCO (TAM A350) that worked perfectly, schedule-wise.

But it's quite the spectacle when you're at one of those airports and you see all the US Airlines with their planes parked. Especially GRU where you seem to see double digit AA planes from time to time.

ijgordon

Same thing with most European to South Africa flights, FWIW. (Though BA at one point had one daytime CPT-LHR flight, not sure what the current schedule looks like).

Sometimes airlines can use the extended downtime for maintenance, not sure if AA does in South America.

And basically, the (simplified) math is -- if we send the flights back in the morning after arriving in the states, we won't sell (m)any tickets, and thus it's actually more profitable for us to let the planes sit.

dll

I believe the cabin crews do same-day returns, unless something has changed. They work the flight down, have the day at a hotel for rest, then work the night flight back. That might have changed but my last convo with an AA cabin crew member indicated that was the schedule.

Don't believe it is the same for cockpit crew due to mandatory rest and duty limits.

observer

Thanks for the interesting responses.

I really do not understand the aversion to daytime flights to SA. I will do a great deal to avoid a redeye if possible, and I am surprised to hear that I am in a distinct minority.

Re. flight crews: If they do indeed do a same day turnaround with only daytime rest, this sounds like a punishing trip.

zpaul

I have gone out of my way to book daytime flights when possible (only option was EZE-MIA IIRC), and I've had two DFW-SCL daytime flights thanks to MX issues. I was in F on the EZE-MIA flight and sat on the footrest and looked out the window the entire way. Having always flown at night before, I was stunned by the view, especially flying over Brazil and the Caribbean. Wouldn't have missed it for the world, although the FAs got on me about there being too much light in the cabin from having one of the four window shades open, and this one in the relatively private part of the FS. Not sure why people need to sleep on a 9-hour flight departing at 11:30am, but that seems to be the conditioning these days.

As far as the flight crew turnaround, I've never heard of a turn and burn like that, at least in SCL. The flight crew stays at the Sheraton in Providencia and I've run into a few of them, who have told me that they have 36 hours-ish in town (arrive 6am, depart next day PM). Plus, if there's a delay to the inbound, no way would they be legal to fly that same night, which would seriously muck-up the flights.

ijgordon

For most business travelers, who drive the profitability of these flights, the daytime flight is a complete waste of time. Sure, with internet these days (and not even particularly widespread on intercontinental flights), some people might be able to be somewhat productive, but it's still much more efficient to take the redeyes. Especially since there is little jet lag.

observer

This statement assumes that the passenger(s) can sleep well on planes. I am not so blessed.