It is apparent to me that AA published on overly aggressive schedule on the LAA side, especially with widebodies and in/out the ORD and LAX hubs. I'm not seeing anywhere near the level of problems on the LUS side. The LAA side has an older, more mtc intensive fleet (M80s, 757, 763, 772), fleet types that they are still teething (787's, A32X's) and hubs that generally more congested. I do not believe that the schedule planners considered all that. This, combined with the generally more hostile and inflexible LAA pilots and FA's, is causing the LAA ops to go off the rails quickly...

I'm seeing more issues with LAA ops than LUS ops. Just this week the LUS flights I flew were generally all on time (8 segments); the LAA flights (4 of them) had missing crews, equip swaps multiple times and in one case a last minute change to another FO causing a 50 min delay.

This was connections in ORD and PHX (don't know if PHX has an LAA 737 domicile or they all fly PHX inline from another hub - these were NOT LUS crews in PHX). Granted seen no issues out of DFW at all this summer (other than normal weather issues)

I'm assuming the rebanking of flights is bogging down operations at heavy hubs such as ORD, DFW and MIA. Even if you land early you often arrive late waiting for a gate. Waiting off the tarmac for 30 minutes+ seems to become much more common. A couple of months ago we sat for over 90 minutes as there was a broken a/c at our gate and the claim was that ORD didn't have any other gates to send our 763 to.

This is a major problem and probably why AA ops are negatively affected more than US ops (though CLT is a disaster IMO).

Example on AA98 delay TONIGHT is in the detailed status of EF:

5ORD/6ORD-LHR NRML 772M WL OPT IN 772A SEATING 16/194/37 ACCT EDM
N7AS ORD
FTWDP R.A.BORSOS *2058
7ORD/AUTO REACCOM DLY FLT COMPLETED SEE N*P1AA0098ORD30JUL *2202*CRCYMG
3ORD/ETD2315 MTR-DELAY DUE TO A/C MAINTENANCE *2258
2LHR/PRE1243 *2258

So looks like they sub'd to a legacy 777-200 (non 772 retrofit cabin) and that it also had maint still on the sub aircraft.

The odd thing is that some of these stations rebanked as early as two years ago. I don't know how or why they haven't managed to work the kinks out yet.

There's no kinks to be worked out. The infrastructure can't handle what's being asked of it at many of these airports. Unless the number of flights at certain times are reduced, there will continue to be problems. Also, the seconds aircraft go down for maintenance or if there's any kind of weather or ATC delay, the whole operation at any given hub will devolve into a complete cluster. This is what schedule banking is all about.

To be fair, reducing the number of flights at certain times would qualify as working out a kink.

Fair enough.

I feel bad for the people that bought AA83 as a Direct flight to AKL from NYC w/ the stop in LAX, yesterday and tonight that flight misconnected with the LAX-AKL flight.

I'm not looking forward to dealing with this flight on Wednesday, at least we are arriving 2 hours early, but have to fly that awful LUSa321 to get there.. so glad AA switched their programme up so I don't make these stupid decisions to fly them just because of miles, going to be soooooo much happier soon.

AA has been swapping tails around so AA83 has actually been on-time the last two days. The GRU flight has been taking the delay from AA2225 instead...

I have not flown AA this year as much as last year, but I have experienced a significant decline in on-time performance at DCA. Flights that have arrived early or on-time for me have been the exception, not the rule.

Operations at DCA seem to be understaffed at night. On at least two occasions this year that I recall, we went through multiple rounds of delays: first our gate was occupied, then we had to wait for someone to guide us into the gate. Then on one occasion we had to wait for someone to move a vehicle out of the way and on another we had to wait 10+ minutes for someone to operate the jetway. Based on comments I overheard from other passengers and AA staff, this has been common at DCA lately, and these are not unique experiences. (And let's not even get started on the slow delivery of checked baggage.) I felt bad for the FAs and pilots, as I got the sense they were tired of this as well. (And they're getting home late as well due to these operational issues!)

I've also found that gate changes are more frequent as well. Clearly a lot of small problems operationally that compound and turn into many delays and poor performance. AA needs to make some significant changes to get their house in order.

Indeed, in the last 10 days, AA215 (LAX-GRU) appears to have had one outright cancellation and two instances of 3+ hour delays with some other scattered delays.

Tonight's flight is already showing a 3-hour delay and it's still 12 hours away from departing

So, this is a new one for me: I'm on AA963 (DFW-GRU) on 8/3 and it's already showing a 40 minute delay - 32+ hours in advance. In the flightaware 10-day history, the flight has not left DFW before 10PM. Any ideas what might be going on? 77W if that matters...

i've noticed this trend with AA as well.. i'm currently booked on AA 5286 (CLT- IAD) next week and it has an abysmal on time rating. it's also been cancelled twice in the last week.. anybody have any idea whats going on with that flight? i have a connecting from from IAD-AUH that i really cant miss.. lol should i just drive from Charlotte to DC?