Yes, I actually did see what I think was one of the re-activated E-140's yesterday at LGA......it was still in the old AE livery which caught my eye.

Same here. I’ll avoid a connection in the northeast/CLT if at all possible. Prefer DFW, and will do ORD outside of winter if necessary. Even so much as to route DFW-MIA/LAX if need be. I get that people connect all the time for TATL in the NE (or CLT), and have no problems. I’d rather not take the chance in winter and be overly cautious. If that means a little longer travel time, I’m alright with that. I also prefer the slightly longer flight over the pond as there is more time for sleep.

If it were some emergency and I had to go in economy, then by all means I’m taking the shortest hop over possible. Can’t imagine that scenario for myself though.

Not with free elite upgrades, they didn't.

FWIW, my issue with EWR primarily relates to delays, and to a lesser extent more difficult access (mostly the terrible NJ Transit train schedule), but clearly that's a YMMV situation. With zero traffic, I'm actually a little closer to EWR than JFK (on the UWS), but it's still just more complicated getting to/from EWR.

I was on a pair back and forth between LGA and CMH last month. If I wanted Frontier, I would have flown Frontier.

I think you're generally right.

That being said, at JFK, LAX, MIA and ORD, there are classy flagship lounges. LAX also has the Qantas First lounge. Those airports have airlines flying to destinations all over the world and (with the exception of ORD) are modern, airy, and well maintained. They seem like places to start an exciting journey. The traveler from the 50's would sense the same vibe in the air (although that same traveler might think an E140 is an upgrade to their old seat!).

In contrast, PHL and CLT are hubs to connect and catch a plane. They're efficient (at least CLT) and fine but hardly a place with the same vibe as the other locations. Maybe its that they were LUS. DFW is somewhere in between.

Like ATL, the "New York of the South"...:rolleyes: I think you're right though, maybe it's the history of JFK especially or nostalgia or what have you..., but it's interesting to see how the psychology affects people's bookings. I guess AA thinks otherwise...

I will agree only that CLT is primarily a hub for AA. This is why the Europe O&D has been hit or miss there.

But ORD, DFW and MIA are AA mega hubs which - like PHL - also have strong O&D like JFK and LAX. In addition - thanks to the US Airways build up of TA routes at PHL in the 10-15 years prior to the merger, it also has more AA European destinations than JFK, and has a flagship lounge "coming soon" (according to https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/...hip-lounge.jsp).

So while I get the nostalgic, romantic JFK to anywhere fixation (if you're a NY area resident), there are many PHL area residents who embark on a romantic transatlantic journey from terminal A-West, which opened around the same time as the renovated JFK T8.

But, in the bigger picture - 99% of the passengers on those flights probably picked it for price point above all else and not the psychological debate of which airport will be a better departure point....especially when you have a family of 3-4 people where the savings can mean a few extra days of vacation.

I remember flying this on E170/5s.

I was looking a trip this month and it makes me happy that I'm leaving this market. Used to be predominantly 2 class E170/5s.

Is an ERJ 140 in coach really any worse than a CRJ 200? (Or even 700/900 in coach if you can't get the upgrade?) At least you have the option of the single-seat on the 140. I think all but small roll-aboards need to be valet checked on both.

Agree that the 175/190s are pretty great in general.

CLT is the 2nd busiest hub for AA according to the stats...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/trave...bers/95014004/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/...fic-main-hubs/

That's basically what I said. O&D at CLT is lower than any other AA hub. It's main focus is on connecting passengers. Most of AA's other hubs can stand alone as O&D. I think me using the word megahub to describe the other big airports in the AA network was not the right term, though. They are large operations, and DFW is, of course, "mega" compared to CLT in terms of hub and O&D status.

I'm no longer a NYer. That being said, I prefer the vibe of connecting at JFK or MIA to an international flight -- nicer terminal, international flavor, Flagship Lounge -- to CLT. CLT on the other hand is an efficient hub for connecting and a better location for a connecting hub than MIA or JFK. This thread is on pulling back in NYC but I don't see CLT having a role in that. PHL though is obviously a threat.

Not sure I'd call PHL a threat to JFK. It stood on its own quite well before the merger and now provides more flexibility for routing passengers heading across the Atlantic. AA can focus on more O&D to high yield markets from JFK, as well as lean on OW partners there. Due to the slot constraints, they are somewhat limited in how to use them. It seems they will optimize those slots for strong revenue/high yielding routes like LHR and LAX. PHL, on the other hand, has more flexibility to add routes that will hopefully have strong O&D *AND* funnel connecting traffic more efficiently. The PHL international terminal A-West is as nice as JFK T8 in many regards....not as big, but still has the 'international' gateway feel...

bolding mine. And this gap will shrink considerably when PHL gets a FL (although that could be 1+ year away it seems)

Mostly seasonal adjustment but some domestic transcontinental reductions coming in the fall...

JFK - DEN goes to 5x weekly (from daily)
JFK - SAN goes 1x daily and 3x weekly (from 3x daily)
JFK - LAS goes 2x daily (from 3x daily)
JFK - SEA goes 1x daily (from 3x daily)

T8 has to be a ghost town from the fall to the spring and no knowing how much they will beef up those routes for summer 2019.

Thanks for the info. Maybe saving for JFK - PHL/CLT/DFW for all the connecting flights? :td:

While it doesn't impact me as I'm LAX based, those are major cuts. Not having JFK - DEN at least daily???
I'd assume that this will end even more corporate contracts.

BTW, how is JFK-SAN 1x daily AND 3x weekly. Is it 3 flights per week, on separate days?

I read that as 10x weekly (i.e., 2x three days a week and 1x the other four days)

A JFK-DEN 5x a week is M-F, just not on the weekends which works for most business travel.

Very true. When I landed there a few months ago on a TATL in early PM, there were no planes parked at any of the gates on the south side of the C concourse, and maybe 1-2 on the north side of B concourse. There could have been some on the opposite sides that I couldn't see, but still I thought it was very strange.

Except if the partner is also flying at peak times!

We were just re-routed via PHL (FRA-PHL-JFK). I have to say it was not a pleasant experience. Rude personnel (no one knew where the Admiral's Club was -- and there were two of them), lots of delays (which we were told were common for this flight), and lack of communication. We took a downgrade to Y thinking it would be a short hop from PHL to JFK. Spent hours stuck waiting on a tiny plane that could not take off (after a multi-hour delay because they had no crew). If I am flying out of NYC and have to get to PHL to start my international journey? No, thank you.

No idea, but AA is very hesitant to commit 757s and tout it as a premium offering. Probably part of it is they know the refurbished 757s are inferior to their own A321T product and competitors’ 757 products. They made several short sighted decisions with the 757 refurbishments in effort to minimize investment cost.

^ I worded this weirdly, should have just said 10x weekly. The second flight will only operate on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays in the morning.

Yes, I think part of the scheduling included the non-business travel crowd. The 5x weekly flight will operate on Su, M, Th, F, Sa.

Honestly, I think PANYNJ will at some point force AA to allow other airlines to operate out of terminal 8. If AA does not want to find some random airline stuffed in there, they should be more proactive in convincing their own partners to move into T8 with a goal of turning the terminal into “OneWorld” terminal. That is the best solution for AA IMHO.

I really prefer AA (esp the flagship lounge) when flying out of NYC, but not that I'm a full-time NYC resident I'm finding it hard to stay with them. I've had two BOM trips and I took United on the EWR nonstop which sucked. I've booked a trip to Portugal in Delta One because I'm not going to fly through PHL when I can go nonstop. I've moved all of my RDU-LGA flights to Delta because I'm not sitting on a crappy e-140 after 3 cancellations in 2 months. I've kept my JFK-LHR monthly flights on AA because it's the best product. I've even booked 3 Allegiant flights to visit my parents in Asheville so I can fly nonstop over the summer. I really value my CK status, but I'm not going to fly through PHL and LHR every time I want to fly to Europe to keep it. I will make GS on United ONLY because I have to fly to BOM ~10 times this year and I'm not flying Air India. If Delta really does open up BOM from JFK I will prob shoot for 360 status and move my LHR flying to Virgin and Delta (which isn't as good as AA), but I really wish AA would give me SOME reason to keep flying them. Hint hint. Keeping my bi-monthly visits to see kids in Raleigh on 2-class RJs would be a huge step in the right direction.

1) Depends - can be done in matter of months for most... BA/IB is a different story although pressure to raze T7 and build a more cohesive terminal is slowly building up. BA recently extended its lease but not very long (maybe 5 or 7 years) so they might not have a choice at some point as JFK tries to move forward with transforming the airport.

2) AA is done with A321 CEO orders, but they have 100 A321 NEO orders with deliveries commencing in 2019. No word has been said yet about their intentions for these birds as far as configuration goes.

Jetblue and Mint have killed any desire for me to fly AA to SAN, LAS, or SEA.

Exactly, if it's not clear yet, Mint is going to kill AA in these markets. The number for AA on JFK-SAN before and after mint is not pretty.

The big move would IAG in there sometimes down the road.

To be fair, JFK-DEN didn't exist last year. And JFK-SAN/SEA are normally at once daily in the late fall/winter season. So this is just a resumption of normal activity. They tried to re-allocate those slots from Europe/SJU for domestic market, but simply don't know where to use them.

Personally don't think Mint will kill AA transcon. As much as I love Jetblue especially in my early days of upstate NY, it is hard to stick with B6 with almost no FFP or international partners. A lot of my coworkers stick with US3, even though they don't travel internationally, just for these reasons (they couldn't care less about ground experience, which adds to AA's advantage).

However, I do agree AA is digging itself into grave in the NYC market.

Another issue with Mint is that they effectively penalize you if you book through a corporate travel platform by giving you half the points. Whereas Delta, AA, UA, etc give you extra points by booking paid business class on transcons. I like Mint a lot, but I can't switch over to Mint entirely for transcons for that reason. For an odd leisure flight, or when I need a specific time (for example Mint has a good 4:30 PM flight from SFO to JFK), I will use Mint.

Lounges on the West Coast are also an issue for JetBlue. At LAX, AA has its flagship lounge. At SEA, there is the excellent Delta Sky Club.

Great point that isn't discussed much here on FT. I agree this is a major factor - I essentially earn a free one-way business class ticket to Europe every 2 roundtrips in paid-J on AA transcons. I'll gladly order from a not-so-happy AA FA, while knowing my mileage account will be in great standing once I land.

JetBlue Mint really screws over the corporate flyer given you only get the bonus points if you book on jetblue.com, which is generally not possible.

Hard to compare 120% bonus on AA (for exec plat) vs. half credit on JetBlue Mint if booked through corporate travel.

It's the exact opposite problem for my company. We use concur and require lowest business class nonstop on all flights which is always jetblue when booking last minute - which most people do. 95% of the people at my company would be forced to choose mint on this route vs having a "doesn't comply with company travel policy" sent to our controller. Luckily I'm not in that 95%.

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I can live with fewer miles and even no lounge (just arrive as close to boarding as possible), but I can't live without IRROPS support. AA/DL/UA FFs who pine for B6 miss this point as well; which I think is by FAR the most important. Even in the worst of cancellations, delays, etc., AA has always been able to accommodate me and get me to my destination by NLT next day (usually morning). Good luck getting that on B6, even from JFK and BOS, much less from EWR/LGA... where it could be days.

OTH, about 90% of my flights these days are less than 1000 miles and probable about 75% are fewer than 500 miles, so luxuries like premium transcon service aren't within my realm of options ;)