There is nothing inherently wrong with running tight banks. The underlying premise for doing so was sound, and AA has been scheduled that way before. Unfortunately, AA isn't yet running like a well-oiled machine post merger, and it was an idea that was ahead of its time. US, for its various faults, ran a pretty tight little operation over its last few years. Frankly, they were more dependable than I ever remember AA being...at least since the "on time machine" days.

Throw in some merger drama, not everyone singing from the same sheet of music, and a schedule that was probably aggressive for any airline, much less one still working its way through a merger and we got what we got. I've got some faith that they'll clean things up, and a little piece of me can't help but wonder if that "interim wage hike" while IAM-TWU gets to a contract might help too.

@:-)
And, for sure, at LAX (as one example) it does not work and will not work.

@:-)@:-)

And-- as if it didn't go without saying by this point (but still some at AA were reluctant to say/acknowledge it) the constant "mechanicals" on new(ish) 787s and 777s is mostly ground crew games/union "rulebook" stuff. So, new contract having been signed, there's a large amount of hope that the nonsense stops forthwith.

Considering that banking of the hubs was an idea that came & went, for cause, back in the 90's, I never understood why Discount Dougie & his Minions went this route to begin with other than their apparent need to learn things the hard way. Which would be fine if it weren't for the fact that WE have to pay the price for their collective stupidity

And on top of all of this, they also decide to fully outsource the web operations to Asia

What's it going to take for adults to be back in charge again??

Glad have two weeks before my MCO-ORD-DUB fight.
Poor so and sos on Saturdays AA2388, left 2 hours late and got into ORD at 18:35, with the ORD-DUB leaving at 18:40 Ouch!

Banked hubs worked fine when the system works fine. But the system as a whole needs a life line.

It not an idea that has come and gone - Delta does perfectly fine with heavily banked schedules at many of their hubs, and has a strong on-time rating to show for it.

Delta also has decent scheduling though, so that you don't have to be forced into a choice between a stupid 35 minute transfer or a 4+ hour layover on the majority of flights like AA seems to prefer.

Anyone else have issues with early boarding today? I'm wondering if this is part of the scheduling versus operations fight. This is getting old. I have no confidence in any part of the schedules put out by AA, be it take off, landing, boarding, etc. I agree with what others said about deciding on connection times. I'm often faced with <1 hour or >4 hour connection times. If I could believe the schedules, the <1 hour options would often work for domestic, but usually AA doesn't match their posted schedule. The worst is the crazy amount of padding for flight times. It doesn't make any sense.

I'd say, to the contrary-- it does, unfortunately, at present.

Speaking of padding, I have a case where they have both padded and unpadded. Early Nov ORD-CLT-TPA now has new flight numbers, same aircraft:
- ORD-CLT leaves at the same time, arrives 15 minutes earlier
- CLT-TPA leaves 11 minutes later, arrives 16 minutes later

If one looks at the delay situation for routes like ORD-LHR or ORD-NRT, this is pretty obvious (compared to scheduling/rotational issues etc)...I think I've mentioned this earlier ago as well. I'm so, so, so glad this is finally getting a solution. ^

I'm not able to see a consistent pattern that I'm able to plan around. I agree, it would make sense to pad your flight times to help your on time numbers. Where this fails is when all your flights seem to depart late and no matter when you land, you aren't able to dock because there isn't an available gate. It just angers me more when we land 45 minutes early and then spend 2 hours on the tarmac waiting for a gate.

Again, it comes back to not having confidence in AA's schedule and ability to get me where I need to be in a timely matter.

It seems to be worst at LAA hubs. I assuming that LAA ground staff is not experienced enough and/or not organized enough to deal with banked flights. Also, LAA airports tend to be much bigger and handle more wide body traffic.

I hear ya for sure. As I mention, AA, now, also has no confidence in AA's schedule So, things will definitely be changing.