yensoy

My colleagues fly BLR-SEA several times a year in biz. Since last year it has been nearly impossible to find tickets for convenient dates in biz, paying around $5000 and above on EK. Even economy fares are above $2000. This sector has seen enormous growth, ditto with BLR-SFO. I have little doubt that the demand is there - however there are 2 unknowns here (i) the ability of SEA airport immigration to handle yet another widebody, especially one which will have a lot of non-citizens on board and (ii) the soft product & service offered on AA.

Since the route will heavily depend on connections at the SEA end, the passengers will need to clear immigration in a timely manner so as to make it to their connecting flights. Any hitch and this goes for a toss. If there is a pattern of delays and missed flights, word will get around and folks will start avoiding this routing, at which point this route will become a loser.

AA's service has been criticized quite a bit. While it is clear that the US3 will not match up to the service standards of ME3 or SQ, the service can be professional and adequate, even friendly in an American way as I have seen on DL/UA flights to Asia across all classes of travel. UA/DL have stuck it out in India and across Asia despite better soft product from competitors. However lethargy or rudeness especially with elders will not be taken lightly by social media - AA better sensitize its crew to its customers. BA, LH, DL, UA, AF, KL etc aren't known for "over the top" service but have had a good and long run in the Indian market, AA should learn from them what works and what doesn't.

SEA-BLR a long flight. Connecting customers may have other choices (for instance someone flying SJC-SEA-BLR could drive up to SFO and take any of the numerous 1 stops), AA needs to convince them why flying through SEA is better than a break midway in Europe or Asia. Time savings is one aspect but if the journey is viewed as a painful exercise (such as inadequate food, or poor state of toilets, or less chance to stretch ones legs) then passengers especially in economy might prefer the conventional longer 1 stop routings which are plentiful today.

dtremit

I think partner availability generally = saver availability, so no improvement there.

One place where I suspect this will help, though, is in ticketing OW TPAC J awards. Often the AA domestic connection to the OW gateway is the hardest piece to line up. Losing AS was going to be a big hit there, as their flights were often more available than AA's for positioning.

I would assume that after AS joins OW, an AS-CX/JL/QF award will now be a OW award, rather than "other partners" -- which would mean switching to a routing without AS will be easier.

oopsz

AA should learn from Air Reno, TWA, and the AS/VX deal - just because you acquire a company doesn't mean you acquire it's customers. Any change can cause customers to leave, putting those routes in a death spiral.

As for SEA-BLR, at 8100 mi it's too long a flight for AA's 777s. Has to be a 787, and likely a 787-9 for diversion requirements without load restrictions.

bzcat

Probably a lot longer than your think.

1. AA probably has revenue guarantees already in place or under negotiation with Amazon, which I'm guessing can fill 50 seats a day on this route by itself.
2. SEA-BLR has fairly high demand from other SEA area tech companies besides Amazon. Certainly most of it front cabin heavy business travels.
3. West coast-BLR is several hundred travelers a day, all currently going one-stop (or multiple stops). AA can easily fill a 789 with feeds from SAN, LAX, SJC, SFO.

AA specifically said that SEA was chosen because it can reach BLR without payload restriction with existing equipment. I'm sure they would rather fly SFO or LAX to BLR but that ain't happening with current 789 configuration. And the AS feed probably pushed the SEA-BLR business case from plausible to feasible.

ntamayo

JL's SEA-NRT flight is already well-positioned to feed into its upcoming NRT-BLR flight (starting later this summer), so this will give OW pax a good option to connect stateside vs across the Pacific.

teemuflyer

I certainly think BLR will do better than DEL due to the fact that both SEA and BLR are tech hubs.

However, Amazon revenue guarantees would be pretty low since they don't allow any business class travel, even for their executives. But there are a lot of companies that do, and don't necessarily need to be originating from SEA. We'll just have to see how many folks would prefer to fly from places like AUS/DFW to BLR via SEA vs. LHR, for example.

Beltway2A

Texas Instruments and Dell are two companies from Texas that have been identified by an AA SVP (https://www.usatoday.com/story/trave...on/4737070002/).

lds89

Have you flown AA in international business? I find the product to be pretty good - hard product better than Delta and United in most cases as those have lagged in upgrading their business seating; good bedding; efficient service (I've actually had some great business crews to HKG and HND); and food is fine (in my experience pretty similar to UA or DL). While they're not as known for their service as some of the Asian carriers - I think their business class offering is as good as CX across the Pacific (food is actually better on AA, have air nozzles; offer pajamas/mattress pad in J; etc). YMMV, but one thing AA has done well is international business the last several years - and forced carriers like BA to up their game with better catering and seats.

SEA737

You shouldn't forget the hard product. AA's 787-9 J and PE seats are quite nice (J in particular), and far better than EK. As for SEA as a connecting hub, I don't think there's much to be worried about. DL has been able to make it work for years, and SEA is already modernizing their international arrivals facility which should be ready in time for this flight. I do hope AA does something about its sometimes-grumpy flight attendants, but I also don't see it as any worse than UA and as you mentioned UA has been able to make it work, so I think people are willing to ignore that with a much better routing, and in this case with a far superior seat.

eponymous_coward

SEA is getting their new immigration and gate facility in Fall 2020.

Also, I'd probably be doing SQ BLR-SIN-SEA for the moment if this was a regular route (just flew it myself last month); the connections are pretty reasonable in SIN, arrival time is early before the daytime rush of arrivals from Europe, SQ is a fantastic airline. You might find that advance fares ex-BLR are quite reasonable (not so much ex-SEA though).

milypan

With any codeshares and partner flights involved, the relevant threshold is 90k miles, not 75k miles. Also, earning 90k+ miles while flying 90k BIS miles with partners will require you to book your partner tickets in PE or above. If you're doing that, then you were probably going to make the $15k spend threshold anyway.

Because cheaper tickets only earn 25-30% miles on AS, in practice it makes little difference that AS has no spend requirement, unless you are planning to do almost all your flying on AS metal. In that case I assume you'd already have switched to AS by now.

DMPHL

Wait, what? Are you saying that as Amazon sends employees and executives around the world, to Australia, Europe, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia, etc...they are required to fly economy? AMAZON?

gateH15

Amazons culture and work environment sucks. I’m not surprised

caimaster

I thought I was the only one doing SFO-LAX-YVR. I'm doing that next Tuesday

Antarius

SJC/SFO -LAX/PHX-LAS is another needlessly circuitous routing that I take, albeit not as bad as YVR.

As someone part based in the bay area who hates UA with a passion, this is excellent
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