Neal

Not possible. He had to check a bag and attempted to check in at the ticket counter. That’s when the agent refused to check him in due to not having proof of a Covid test. But what’s even more strange is that I called AA while he was at the counter. And the phone rep told me the test was required and that she could not override it.

cmd320

I'm curious what would have happened if he just left the ticketing agent and gone to a kiosk to print his BPs and luggage tag, then just drop the bag to another agent.

Neal

I thought about that later.

StevenSeagalFan

I think there's some element we're missing or not being told. Why wouldn't your friend call the phone rep? Why did you have to? Your friend could still check a bag at the kiosk. Either you're omitting something or your friend isn't being truthful with you. What AA rep did you email?

Neal

Just to be clear, I have not omitted anything. Why would I? My friend is a young inexperienced traveler. So when he texted me about the problem, I took the initiative and called AA myself. He likely didn’t know he could check his bag by using a kiosk. Heck, I didn’t even know that since I only bring a carry-on bag when I fly. But we’ve rescheduled his trip for next week and I’ll
make sure he avoids the ticket counter.

saltytheseagull

I would be surprised if DL was not extracting a revenue premium, but I have no data to backup my hypothesis.

cmd320

Yeah, doubt it. For that to be the case they’d need to be charging 2x the usual rate for F and that definitely isn’t happening.

econ

We don't know if DL is attracting more paid F bookings as opposed to filling up the F cabin with upgrades relative to AA, so there wouldn't necessarily need to be a full 2x rate difference to get a revenue premium.

Zacnlinc

There were maybe 35 people on the nonstop SFO-JFK yesterday. Six in J and I think five in F. After a few glances into Y, I realized that some people must have been laying down in the row as more stood up when we landed.

Nonetheless, I overheard a couple FA talking about keeping MCE empty since no one has such reservations. Twice I saw the J FA escort someone from the exit row seats as I was in row 10 and was wondering why he dashed in the Y so quickly.

fly747first

And even in Y when DL has tried to keep fares up, they are losing customers to jetBlue. On routes like FLL BOS where both B6 and DL compete on a nonstop basis, B6 is charging as little as $21 now and still blocking middle seats.

Kevin AA

I don't know if this is the best thread to post this question, so forgive me in advance if it's out of place, but....

Why does AA have crew spending the night at outstations where the plane flies from the hub to the outstation and back half an hour later?

I flew to SUX and DRT. SUX has one flight a day from ORD. I saw the crew leave the airport (instead of just flying the same airplane back to ORD). In DRT, there are two flights a day from DFW, one in the afternoon with a half hour turn, and one in the evening that stays overnight. I took the afternoon flight, and again saw the crew leave the airport instead of flying the plane back to DFW.

For an airline that is on the verge of going bankrupt, why would they do this? That is such a waste of money. If the crew is going to spend the night at the outstation, then just have the plane spend the night as well. Then the schedule will be more convenient for passengers, leaving in the morning instead of making them wait until 3 PM to fly somewhere.

Allegiant's flights go from a hub to an outstation and back 45 minutes later. The crew never spends the night there. It saves money. It's not as convenient for the passengers, but their fares are very low, so "too bad".

Also, in ORD while waiting for my flight to SUX, I noticed that DBQ and SUX leave at exactly the same time, 1:30 PM. Why doesn't AA fly one plane ORD-DBQ-SUX? Spend the night in SUX and go back the same way in the morning. One airplane and one crew can serve two airports. What am I missing?

cmd320

Exactly. B6 is also blocking seats and can significantly undercut DL on price. AA and UA seem content with filling the planes. DL has the highest costs of any of the seat blockers and even the WN CEO (who’s costs are much lower) has stated publicly this can’t go on much longer. Not sure what DL is thinking, but they’re not destined for success with this current strategy.

fly747first

And neither are their bankrupt partners LOL

saltytheseagull

You just proved that they are getting higher fares.

cmd320

How's that?