VFR

Business travelers spend a lot more than leisure travelers, so it kind of does make business sense to focus on them first. Post-US merger, AA did make a separate decision to make lower-cost PHL the connecting hub for leisure travelers in the same geographical area, which has led to their NYC presence catering to O/D passengers, of which the highest yielding are business travelers, so that's how they plan their routes out of NYC. This strategy did not seem to work amazingly well, given how ignoring the highest population metropolitan area in the US is usually bad business sense, so they struck the jetBlue deal, which remains to be seen how it works / how long it lasts.

The LGA vs JFK vs EWR situation is strange. Hopefully B6 manages to give UA some competition in EWR.

A lot more people are buying Y than J on JFK-LAX right now, so it makes sense to use an aircraft with a J:Y ratio better matched to the demand.

I don't think AA has finalized their December schedule yet, so don't be surprised if the A321T stays confined to JFK-SFO.

ISTFlyer

From LGA, AA currently only operates to Boston and Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas Fort Worth, Miami, and Washington Reagan. All destinations except BOS are AA hubs and BOS is a focus city for AA.
From JFK, AA currently only operates to Charlotte, Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix, San Fransisco and that's all. Their international service from JFK is limited to Cancun and London for the moment.

This means that unfortunately, AA is not providing a wide O<-->D network from NYC and relying on connecting passengers for many destinations. I guess that the NY quarantine has a huge effect on this. I am hopeful about the jetBlue deal but with the current climate that we haven't heard anything further for 2 months, I doubt that an update on that would come in the near future.

With the state quarantines lifted vice-versa between NY and CA, currently, it's obvious that many leisure travelers travel in this route so I'll agree with this comment.

Yes, the December schedule is planned to be finalized on 31 October or 7 November.

fly747first

Don't expect this to bring us any positive surprises, but we shall see

af fp

Interesting. I just saw this thread after booking a return JFK-SFO over Christmas. I will know if the schedule changes. I must say I was not expecting this!

rasheed

A little more guesstimation on AA LAX-JFK demand, but AA did (does?) have many of the entertainment contracts, and these flights I would regularly see award-winning actors. I think in many of the recent union contracts, business fare tickets remained, but there was less obligation for first class seating (although a person could always pay the difference on their own). Still, there are so many other industry changes that have occurred:

-Those who would fly first may have more often resorted to private charter flights where all occupants can be frequently tested and reduce any type of production-required quarantine.
-Production-required (not city required) quarantines do not allow the actors or below the line staff to "go home" for weekend breaks or leave their designated hotels, they have to stay with the production and just churn through the episodes to avoid re-quarantines.
-When possible, production may have moved to other locales (Shark Tank to Las Vegas instead of Los Angeles, less stringent ATL or ongoing use of Vancouver) or frankly, just had their show delayed further or cancelled.
-Further, on-site production crew have been reduced as much as possible because if someone can do their episode work from home or a local office, they are going to do so.

I know there are many other industries beyond entertainment, but I don't think anyone would deny the correlation of the unique premium services on the LAX-JFK routes (from club dining to onboard) and some of the unique passenger demands on those routes that used to exist.

ISTFlyer

As also mentioned in the Flagship Business/Flagship First differentiation thread, the 777-300ER service for December and onwards is gone and the 777-300ER flight is replaced by the 787-8.

The double daily 3 cabin 777-300ER service is scheduled to continue until 30 November 2020.

Starting from 1 December 2020, AA does not plan to operate both their Flagship Business and Flagship First product on the LAX-MIA route. All wide-body services would have Domestic First service rather than the Flagship service.

Currently, for 1 December 2020 and onwards, both Flagship Business and Flagship First is unbookable on the LAX-MIA route.

Further changes are highly likely and this information should be 100% verified when AA releases their December schedule on 31 October or 7 November.

cmd320

This is how November had been until the recent schedule update. I’d expect this to change when the December schedules are finally rolled out.

ISTFlyer

I wouldn't also be surprised if they re-stored their 777-300ER services on this route; although, I guess that last time, they didn't remove Flagship First inventory for the entire future. If I'm wrong please correct me.

ISTFlyer

United has released their schedule update for 1 December 2020 and 4 January 2021 moments ago.
American would follow this night ( in one of the US time zones ) and I would be reporting the changes in transcontinental flights over here when they are available.

twoaisleplane

It looks like the changes for December have begun loading. JFK-LAX seems to be down to 2x/day, both on the 772. Same as November.

Not sure if it's just the days I am looking at, but MIA-LAX seems to be 5x day; 3 772, 1 77W and 1 321.

ISTFlyer

I'm still seeing x10 daily A32T services on most dates, where are you able to see the new updates?
Both AA.com and ITA Matrix are showing the unupdated schedule.

Edit: Expertflyer has the new schedule.

ISTFlyer

Current status as 01:46 GMT

As an overview, we would see similar schedules compared to November in the December schedule update. JFK-LAX would not have Flagship First service, MIA-LAX would have two daily 777-300ER flights.

********************
JFK-LAX

2 daily 777-200ER service similar to November;

AA 1 JFK LAX 09:00 12:21 77E
AA 3 JFK LAX 18:10 21:29 77E

AA 2 LAX JFK 08:30 16:47 77E
AA 4 LAX JFK 21:35 05:45+1 77E

* Some dates might have slightly different schedules. +/- 10 minutes

JFK-SFO

1 daily service similar to November. The SFO departure remains as a red-eye flight.

AA 76 JFK SFO 07:30 11:22 A321T
AA 276 SFO JFK 21:36 06:00+1 A321T

* Some dates might have slightly different schedules. +/- 10 minutes

MIA-LAX

2 777-300ER services and 3 A321 services would operate similar to November. Flagship First and Flagship Business service would return for December.

AA 1782 LAX MIA 00:10 07:50 77W
AA 1473 LAX MIA 09:00 16:44 77W

AA 1235 MIA LAX 15:30 18:09 77W
AA 2289 MIA LAX 19:22 22:05 77W

* Some dates might have slightly different schedules. +/- 10 minutes

ISTFlyer

UPDATE:

JFK-SFO is now x6 weekly on December rather than a daily.
There would be no Saturday departures both from New York and San Fransisco on this route.

After 17 December 2020, the 777-300ER schedule for LAX-MIA is like the following; LAX-MIA has 2 scheduled 777-300ER services, though MIA-LAX has only one.

AA 369 LAX MIA 08:45 16:38 77W
AA 1473 LAX MIA 10:00 17:50 77W

AA 2289 MIA LAX 19:05 21:45 77W

For the majority of November December, the Flagship First inventory for 777-300ER flights on this route is zeroed at the moment.

Further updates likely and would be shared.

Edit: Bold part

cmd320

Do you mean November or December? Looking at 77W flights in November, F inventory looks readily available.

ISTFlyer

December. Original post corrected.
Thanks for alerting me.