no2chem

Recently, it appears that AA's SFO-LAX short haul service has been moved to terminal 1 (gate 45A). In addition to being downgauged to E175s, so that all flights now land at Eagle's nest, this makes this route a complete pain and completely unpalatable for nonstop customers...
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To add to injury, both the American app and Google reports 45A as Terminal 2 when it really is in terminal 1...

Are they really that short on gates? This sort of pain really makes me want to switch over to United...

Let's recap the pain to capture the full totality of the situation:
1) 5-10 min walk from T2 to T1
2) 30min+ circling around LAX because you won't have a gate when you land (even though you arrived "early", since the flight was scheduled for 2h --- for a flight that should be 50m of flying time max).
3) 10 mins for the bus to get you to T5 actually

I mean, if you're flying SFO-LAX, it makes completely no sense to fly AA, WN/DL/UA are way better choices and you won't have to deal with any of the hassle. Only thing keeping me flying this stupid route is lounges @ LAX and "loyalty", but... coworker says he supposedly got matched EXP-> UA GS, which is starting to look really good right now.

DWFI

Why is 45A so problematic? Because of the extra 3 minutes walk from the admirals club?

neo_781

I think maybe you've hit the nail on the head here with this. Perhaps AA has decided with all the competition between those city pairs that they rather focus on connecting people to the rest of their network via LAX.

no2chem

It's definitely more than a 3 minute walk. More like 5-10 minute. It all adds up when you're taking a 1 hour flight (which AA reports as 2 hours because it's almost guaranteed there will be no gate when you land!) OP edited to capture full overhead .

CityFlyerNYC

Agree. I moved over to DL on this route and couldn't be happier. Much more efficient.

Dallas49er

Where is PSA (and $16 airfares} when you need it?

OP-2 points
1. Check out this thread- Jumping to United? Not so fast

2. Please be grateful you may whine about a 5-10 minute walk. For me, THAT 5-10 minute walk is 20-30 minutes due to ambulatory issues. If I had known I was going to live this long, I would have taken MUCH better care of my self.

no2chem

1) Yeah, I've read it. But with no chance (I think?) of getting CK, I get to decide between getting UA GS (via company match program) or maintaining BA silver (for domestic lounge access). Either way I keep EXP, but get to miss the stupid shuttle and extra walk...

2) Thanks. It's true that I'm whining about a 7 min walk (I timed it this time), but your condition makes the case even stronger, especially when you came to T2 expecting your flight to be out of the same terminal.
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lds89

As someone who takes this flight a lot - this is really exaggerated. Would I prefer it from a convenience sake to be a mainline flight that leaves from the 50s and lands in T4? Sure. But the walk from T2 Admirals to T1 gate 45A/B is less than the walk from T5 to T4 in LAX. It's at most 5 minutes.

The E75s are comfortable (I prefer them to a lot of AA's domestic mainline fleet) and have a good F to Y ratio so upgrades are easy. If you're upgraded, you're the first off the plane and I've found AA has done a much better job the last 6 months running more frequent buses to 4 and 5. Two weeks ago I was in the Qantas F lounge about 13-14 minutes after we got to the gate in the nest. And on return to SF I like that AA has an AC in the nest for a last drink before heading on the flight.

All in all it isn't ideal but I'd take the more frequent schedule with E75s and the nest over not being able to easily connect in LA using some of the bigger, more uncomfortable mainline planes

taxicabnumber

Honestly, the 45A thing doesn't really bother me (though I'm relatively young and still able-bodied), but the Eagle's Nest is the sole reason why, when I was living in the Bay Area, I *never* used AA for SFO-LAX O&D after it went all E175...

beachfan

Is the Centurion lounge in T1? Can you go directly to T1 or do you have to go through security in T2?

lds89

No Centurion lounge is in T3 with the United and *A airlines and they're not connected airside. T2 and T1 are connected airside - 2 has the admirals club and 1 the delta sky club. The airside connector also has a yoga studio

beachfan

Thanks!

DWFI

^This is the real problem here.
After two times queueing in the Nest to get on a bus for over 20 minutes, I was done with AA on O&D on this route.

But I haven't just switched to another airline - I've switched to LGB (B6) or BUR (UA).

zebranz

makes sense to me when I need a late flight out and can't make the Virgin departure at 9pm and AA has at 10pm- not the best but you take what you can get.
Yes 45A is the old NW gates in Term 1. At least it is connected airside to Term 2.

mvoight

Agreed.. This is similar to when AA decided to do this to SJC-LAX. Short flight made longer by the remote terminal for Eagle. Of course, AC at SJC also closed.