phxbarcelona

I fly from PHX to SFO and back every other weekend. I am in training/class until 4PM on Saturday and have successfully caught the 5:06 back to PHX several times. The point is I need to fly at 5PM or later. I booked my whole Spring of flights and then started getting notices that AA dropped the Sat night flight for the entire Spring. I was rebooked onto 9AM flights which are the last of the day (!!). That obviously won't work. I spoke with someone at the ExPlat line and was told keep watching, maybe AA will add something back. It's getting close, nothing has changed and I need to start booking other options. Looking at United. If I go that way, I will look to status match over to UA since I am going to be flying a ton this next year. The problem is if I knew AA was going to bring these flights back I would stay with AA. And I don't want to waste a match with UA at this point in my flying career if I don't have to.

1) any advice on AA adding back flights like this to a hub?
2) any thoughts on status matching to UA in this situation.

NYC Flyer

Looks like a 630pm flight (AA476) returns 05MAR for about a month, and a 525pm departure starts 09APR (AA843) and goes into summer. So, max 6-7 segments (assume PHX-SFO still works) you will miss out on AA.

Prob not worth changing loyalty over. If you can swing the current AC status match, would give you some benefits for a hanful of UA segments you will end up buying without walking away from EXP. If that's not of interest, just book WN.

Kacee

I wouldn't worry about March right now. The schedule on this route changes all the time. I've been flying it more or less weekly the past 18 months. Rotate between AS, AA, and UA (in that order of preference).

Status on UA won't do much for you beyond free E+.

phxbarcelona

I would fly AS in a heartbeat but their last flight is at 2PM or so. Looks like I will just pay up for E+ for 3 flights on UA and WN and then go back to AA. I actually was looking at the Frontier flight at 6pm. For the price of E+ on UA I can have their more legroom seat and the other fees and a 6PM departure which is much easier. But I worry they have no backup options if a plane runs into maintenance issues. Maybe I will see what the Frontier forum says.

Herb687

On SFO-PHX who cares? We're talking maybe 2 hours. Flying home in UA E+ the same evening one wants to fly home sure beats spending another night where one doesn't want to stay just to enjoy the possibility that status might mean something the next morning...

Plus if we are talking mainline AA vs. mainline UA, UA E+ feels a bit more spacious to me than AA MCE. And I'm sure UA will also be more than happy to sell paid F tickets on this route if OP wants more space yet.

Kacee

As I said, the schedule changes all the time. The AS departure from PHX has alternated between mid-afternoon (doesn't work for me) and evening (perfect) and occasionally even early morning (sometimes works). I have a 6:45 pm AS departure on Sunday, and a 7:00 am departure on AS the following week.

It''s too early to worry about March.
I'm not sure what your point is but this is 6 hours out of my week counting ground time and I definitely care.

Ultimately, anyone who's flying this route frequently is relatively blessed with choices among four of the majors, though I find it totally impractical to stick with one carrier.

Eastbay1K

Unfortunately, the only reliability in schedule is with WN. On the other hand, if SFO isn't necessarily the most convenient option, or equally convenient as OAK or SJC, it keeps more options open.

I wouldn't waste any status match on this if that is going to be your only route on UA. But if you switch to UA for much of your flying, you'll be well-served if your trips are to/from SFO, but much better served on AA if your other trips are to/from PHX.

Given that you're EXP on AA, which gives you great benefits on AS now, I'd stick with that, fly AA/AS when the schedule works, and when it doesn't, suck it up on WN and pay the $20 or so extra so I get an aisle seat and overhead space (and maybe WN gives you a A-list match or challenge).

phxbarcelona

I really appreciate the input from someone who is doing this same route. Sorry I was not more clear. I am flying this route now and will be doing so in Jan and Feb. Those are the months with the gap now.

Herb687

That selecting an airline based on status for a 650-mile flight is ridiculous. Triply so if there are three carriers offering mainline service and the option to either buy first or buy extra legroom in coach.
Then you should be picking based on schedule (or perhaps schedule reliability). Which you seem to be doing. And which was exactly my point.

No kidding.

Kacee

Got it. I agree with Eastbay1K that this route alone is probably not worth a UA match, unless the E+ fees really bother you. Even flying weekly, at 650 miles per, it's not that material to earning status for me.

One advantage of flying UA (or AS) is you don't have to deal with T4. Definitely do check AS, their schedule is the most variable.

I tend to book within two weeks of departure, and sometimes within a day or two, as my schedule is not very predictable. One nice thing about no more change fees is you can hold back-up reservations and just roll the $$ over.

phxbarcelona

Just bring this back because now AA is dropping more SFO -PHX flights in April and May. Painfully there is a 4:20 AS flight but I can't make that work. Very frustrating that half a year of flights every other week are not going to work for me on AA. Reason #25 while I wont make ExPlat this year

xliioper

There's a 6:15PM AA flight on Sunday/weekdays through April 4th. The problem is Saturday is a slow travel day and the airlines often run reduced schedules on that day and AA has reduced flights to 3x on that day from the 4x daily schedule on Sunday/weekdays.

formeraa

Agreed. Historically, Saturday evenings have been a low travel time. In recent years, people will travel anytime to get a low fare, BUT it is often not particularly profitable for the airlines.

DataPlumber

Is AA to SJC a viable option?

Otherwise, I'd say take WN or UA. You can actually get a drink in Y