No, they aren't - and haven't been for years. PANYNJ data show AA carried about half the JFK passenger count of B6, and less than that compared to Delta, for the 12 months ended June '18.

http://www.panynj.gov/airports/pdf-t..._JUNE_2018.pdf

American Airlines - proudly #4 in NYC.

http://www.panynj.gov/airports/pdf-t..._JUNE_2018.pdf

At some point one wonders when they start offloading more of the NYC-LON to BA. There's got to be some limits in the JV but still, they might do better focusing on their fortress hubs to London instead.

Why doesn't AA fly JFK-SLC? DL has 5x daily flights on the same route! B6 and UA make a single daily flight work.
Also, aside from JFK-SFO/LAX, AA has no domestic flat-bed routes. B6 and DL seem to have 5-10 such additional routes with Mint/DeltaOne. What is the timeline for AA to increase these from JFK?

Jfk to slc is a hub to hub route for DL so they fly it a lot. UA flies it once a day from EWR. B6 was founded by Utahans and has their back office operations there.

AA from JFK doesnt have those same reasons.

it's hard for AA to compete to a DL fortress hub out of JFK. I wouldn't expect AA to ever add this route.

I don't think they have any other dedicated routes, but there are at least 1x daily flights on PHL-LAX, PHL-SFO, PHL-MIA, JFK-MIA, MIA-LAX, etc. with lie flat seats.

As soon as AA figures out where the aircraft can generate more revenue these routes will be scaled back to standard domestic F.

That's precisely the problem IMO. JetBlue is able to advertise "this is a Mint route" and people will pay extra because they know that's the product they are getting. AA can't or won't do that. Most people would not pay a premium to fly PHL-SFO on the 330 knowing a schedule change could swap it for a 321.

It's only been swapped for a non-lie flat aircraft 3 times in the past 41 days.

That's IrrOps (and a 7.3% IrrOps rate is nothing to be proud of). If you pay for one of these flights more than a few months out, there's nothing to stop AA from permanently changing the route to a different type of aircraft and then telling you to pound sand when you tell them you're not getting the product you paid for. When you pay for Mint, on the other hand, you know you're getting a flat bed.

That's IrrOps (and a 7.3% IrrOps rate is nothing to be proud of). If you pay for one of these flights more than a couple months out, there's nothing to stop AA from permanently changing the route to a different type of aircraft and then telling you to pound sand when you tell them you're not getting the product you paid for.

I'm on the JFK-BOS lie flat on Wednesday.

Exactly my point-- I would NOT pay a premium with a > 7% chance of a swap.

I remember when the JFK-LAX was operated by the 762s that were swapped to non-premium 752s so frequently that there was a dedicated thread on the forum that was always on the front page. People were very upset. The point is that you can't get a price premium without being able to guarantee a premium product. And absent the price premium it is not worth it to put lie-flats on more routes. They are putting the 332 on those routes for the extra Y capacity versus the 321, not because of lie-flats.

It's a chicken-and-egg problem. JetBlue has solved that problem by producing a proverbial chicken. So has Delta where D1 is sold as a different class from F. As a result there are a lot of people who would book Mint but would not book a random AA lie-flat (unless it were priced like a standard domestic F upgrade).

New routes announced for 2019 by AAA:

LGA to TYS (Knoxville) daily
JFK to SAT (San Antonio) daily

Not sure if what these say, if anything, about the NYC strategy

Seems like throwing mud at the wall to see if it will stick to me.

Seems like a bad joke to me. Sad!

Parker's fear of competition.

The new terminal replaces T7, not T8. I expect T8 will stay where it is, get the rest of OW moving in (maybe not JL as they are part of the Terminal One Group), and possibly some modifications to allow more widebodies and lounge space at the expense of some narrowbody gates.

Per https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/04/n...ort-cuomo.html :
One terminal will replace T1 and T2:
The other will replace T7 and connect to T5.
Terminals 4, 5, and 8 will apparently remain untouched.

DL also flies JFK-SAT. And UA flies EWR-SAT.

AAs decision to abandon ZRH-JFK makes one wonder, if/why they could not attract critical premium cabin traffic on this popular business city pair?

Could it be premium paxs looked at the ratty old 763 (and possibly suffering from a maintenance delay) and wonder is this International J? Not to mention those in Y coughing up a few thousand for no IFE/AVOD.

It was also linked to the utterly woeful operational reliability of the service - 6 hour delays were not uncommon. It became a running joke in my office (I am based in ZRH).

I thought it was because AA eventually wants to shift most TATL routes that depend on connecting traffic over to the hub at PHL.

The clear exception, of course, is JFK-LHR which is an O/D route and is also the most profitable air route in the entire WORLD (for BA anyway, though AA and IAG have a JBA in place).

As I understand it AA is keeping those routes that have strong O&D demand and sending all the others to PHL. It would seem as though JFK/ZRH would have solid O&D but with the 763....?

Unless I'm mistaken, and someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but AA remains the only carrier to offer lie-flat, individual (nobody next to you) seats on the NYC-LAX route. I believe United offers lie-flat, but you still have someone next to you. Again, I may be mistaken, but I imagine that's a big seller for those who prefer privacy during flight.

AA flys a 3 class plane (A321) dedicated to the route and JFK/SFO only. Other than occasional a/c utilization for routes like JFK/BOS and JFK/DCA. J is 2x2 while F is 1X1.

DL is flying the DeltaOne product which offers a 1-2-1 configuration and international-level amenities and meals. A couple of flights a day are on a 752 with 2-2 configuration and lie-flat seats but most are on 763 and 764 aircraft with lie flat seats.

I flew the the UA flight last week, seats are 2-2 and decent, but the wine was worse than Trader Joe's quality. I was surprised, as I figured to compete with AA they'd have to step it up. It was worse than AA normal domestic.

AA definitely uses the A321T (3-class) on the JFK/LAX route, too. I fly it monthly. I had tried JetBlue Mint, which was great, but unless you are lucky enough to snag the "solo" lie-flat seat, you're in a 2-configuration per row. Which is not terrible, of course, but AA Flagship First, guarantees you a solo seat, which has spoiled me. I'll look into Delta to see the ease of grabbing said solo seat if they do offer a comparable configuration. Still, though, per the topic of this thread, I'd surprised if AA were to pull back the transcontinental route for the Hollywood type who enjoy that setup.

If JFK-ZRH was such a revenue-generator in the J cabin for AA, and the main detractor for consumers was the reliability of the 763, then they would have switched it out for a 772. And not transferred it to PHL.

The 772 configuration might have been too much capacity in Y for this route. There is talk UA will deploy their reconfigured J-heavy 763 (46J/22PE/99Y) on the ZRH/GVA route, given the benefits of high premium demand in that market.

I don't believe they gave it a chance to try and find out. There is no way I am getting on the 763 for a three hour domestic flight (due to op. issues) let alone a seven hour TATL hop (op issues and product). Even with no Star alliance status I'd fly LX on this route.

AA in NYC is becoming almost unusable. Lately, work has me traveling a lot between NYC and Seattle and AA is just a non-starter. Now they've even taken away the Sunday night red-eye from SEA to JFK.

Looks like I'll have to move most of my flying to DL. I would gladly move to JetBlue and that excellent (and well priced) Mint product, but the lack of a lounge with showers makes that option tough

UA flies EWR-TYS and DL flies LGA-TYS also.

Doesn't UA get a lot of their revenue on those flights from the pharmaceutical industry?