fanger

Almost all of my O&D goes to WN now and preferably OAK-BUR as the LAX traffic is so often terrible. Who really gets a premium on these routes? I feel like all 4 majors move in lockstep.

N1120A

1) LAX-SFO caters mostly to LAX-based FFers who fly other places on AA. The other group are connectors. Very little SFO-based O&D demand on AA for this route - that is pretty much dominated by United.

2) For pure O&D, the Eagle's Nest experience isn't all that bad. Terminal 5 is not as crowded as Terminal 4, has Pre and the carousels are probably less crowded too. Just get on the bus and go.

3) There is a club in The Box, so you aren't losing that perk.

msv777

Connecting from Int'l to the remote terminal to get to SFO is a pain... I was sad to see this change. Although looking at EF later this year (July), it appears some of frequencies will be 319 and 738's... Hopefully this sticks and they are timed around the Asia and Europe connections...

Cheers.

Eastbay1K

Who? They all do for last-ish minute business travel. $400+ isn't uncommon for a RT. A not-insignificant portion of weekday travel isn't advance purchase leisure.

On an upcoming trip, I specifically chose the mainline connections (even choosing slightly longer connection times) for my T4-TBIT connections. Instead, I was hosed by the complete elimination of mainline during my travel period.

beachfan

It sucks for connections, but I love the E-175 they use.

caimaster

I fly this AA route weekly and mostly day trips. The shuttle service and remote terminal is a pain but I get upgraded almost 100% being EXP.

One issue I have with AA is why their planes get delay due to LAX runway work but not VX or UA? I had to buy tickets at SFO T2 gate with VX twice this year because their flights wasn't affected.

onesocalkid

E-175 is a great plane for sure, but yesterday flying LAX-SAT we flew out of 52B which required another bus ride to a parked plane. They called groups 1-4, then 5-9 and then we all crushed into a bus to ride +/- 100 yards to a plan parked out in front of 52F or 52G got off the bus and walked up a portable ramp - took me back to the earlier years of ONT.

Lame.

Kreative03

+1

I'm actively avoiding connecting any connection under 90 mins through LAX right now, even when price dictates I should. Including flying SFO-PHX-ORD-PVG instead of SFO-LAX-PVG just to ensure I didn't miss my flight. Did the same last week to MCO.

Flying up 2 weeks ago from LAX it took 15+ mins for the bus to show up. It's just not worth it.

sdsearch

Alaska is AA's partner. But Alaska's mainline flights LAX-SFO (on A320 planes) are operated by its merger partner Virgin America (currently in LAX T3 I think, but soon to move to LAX T6 I think). Are those bookable yet as part of AA trips, or only flights operated by Alaska proper? (If not right at this moment, I presume after the AS/VX merger is more complete they will be.)

It seems (once VX joings AS in LAX T6), taking the tunnel to T6 (like we used to have to do for some AA flights last year) might be less of a hassle for some people than taking the bus to the Eagle's Nest.

ElCaminoReal

Per the DOJ approval of the AS/VX merger, LAX-SFO is not permitted for codeshare between AA and AS due to the fact that it is a route flown by both carriers.

golfingboy

I really don't get why LAWA simply refuses to move some airlines into T7/8 with UA to make some room for AA to take more of T5 for E175 ops (leaving CR7/9 ops over at remote terminal).

Yes, UA at specific times of the day uses all gates, but they easily by far have the lowest gate utilization among AA/DL/WN yet have the most non remote gates at LAX (21 or 22 I believe).

I guess we all will have to make and do with the remote terminal until MSC opens in 2020. Really, either way if AA moves SFO back to mainline then they will have to downgauge another flight to E175 simply because they don't have the gate space at T4 for more mainline flights.

cyber1k

The AA LAX remote terminal is to be avoided.

It feels like a strong gust of wind could blow the whole ramshackle terminal over.

I did a day trip to SFO this week and spent more time on cramped undesirable cattle trucks getting bused around LAX to get to a remote terminal and back again after standing in long lines than I will in the future.

VX and UA have great mainline service btwn LAX/SFO.

travelinmanS

You are aware that there are 2 airlines that would happily take you from SFO to
PVG nonstop in 12 hours rather than your 3 stop-25 hour journey?

Are AA miles that valuable? :-)

I stopped taking AA for many reasons recently but the inability to use miles and the terminal situation at LAX were two big ones.

g-code

The UA gates in 7+8 are the most heavily utilized of all their hubs. They average something like 20 min between flights.

golfingboy

Of their hubs maybe, but not relative to other airlines with hub at LAX (aside from AS/VX).

According to someone who compiled a list of daily departures UA had around 225-230 daily departures in 2012 (210 in 2014) and in summer 2016 they only had around 140-150 departures. Also according to LAWA's recent statistic report from Jan 2017, United's terminals had the lowest passenger usage among all terminals except for terminal 2. T7 for instance had over a hundred thousand less than DL over in T5 despite DL also using some T6 gates - and even though a good chunk of AA's mainline ops were in T6 and TBIT they had more passengers in T4 by a comfortable margin over UA at T7 (Eagles Nest had slightly lower usage than T8).

UA may have the highest gate utilization at LAX versus the other hubs they operate out from, but they clearly have the lowest gate utilization among DL/AA/WN. Perhaps their turnaround times are significantly higher too since there is absolutely no way they are up there in terms of # of flights per gate in a given day.

I think AA customers along with other airlines are getting screwed in some level with LAWA letting UA have total exclusivity over in T7/8 forcing AA to move some routes like SFO to E175 ops to free up mainline gates for other routes.