I wouldn't be surprised to see several routes curtailed during the Christmas period...it looks like AUS-IAD has already been cut the last two weeks of December.

I'm just having a hard time figuring out the long-term sustainability of some of these routes. Some obviously make more sense than others (BOS, IAD, etc) but a twice daily service on CVG-AUS in the middle of a pandemic when business travel is extremely low makes no sense to me. Frankly I don't understand how these are "leisure" routes either. I've been to the area thrice now within the past two years (my best friends live in the Barton Springs area of town) and it's a fine city, but I found it to be incredibly overhyped for what it is (the city does have an impressive marketing strategy, however) and overall lacking the tourist infrastructure that other cities have.

 

As a 21 year resident of Austin, I have never considered it a "tourist" city in the traditional sense. It has some great events, SXSW, the ACL Festival, and F1 to mention a few, which bring in large out of town crowds, but year round, there is not much to do except enjoy some great non-chain restaurants and music. It's definitely a growing business hub, tech especially, so those routes should do well most of the year..

Of course I don't blame those in charge of marketing the city for their efforts, it's their mission after all. But business travel, WHEN it recovers, will be backbone of the direct routes to/from Austin. Bring back the nerdbird!.

Of course Austinites do themselves appreciate having direct connections to actual tourist destinations...

 

I think its route dependent. I looked at IAD-AUS flight schedule for 8:00 pm tonight (gets into AUS after 10:30 pm so its all holiday makers, or AUS residents). I'd say the flight is 70% full. Tomorrow's afternoon departure is more like 80% full.

And this is at an airport (IAD) which AA has all but abandoned.

 

AUS-DCA is just outside of the range for the DCA perimeter rule, and I guess AA doesn't want to use one of their exemption slots to cover it. So alternatives like IAD come in handy here.

 

I don’t think the extra Austin flights are anything more than an effort to drive Delta into retreat mode on their plans to create a focus city in what AA previously considered a stronghold. Once DL pulls back these non-hub flights will be greatly reduced.

 

I think the increased flying is due to needing somewhere to send the narrowbodies. The world changed with COVID and adding another DFW or CLT departure didn't necessarily work. AUS is close to home and AA has traditionally been a strong #2 carrier there after WN.

It's interesting to me that Delta seemed to choose the opposite strategy: abandon most point-to-point flying and concentrate everything through ATL, DTW, MSP, and SLC. It remains to be seen if one strategy worked better than the other.

Delta calls AUS a focus city, but currently only flies from there to its hubs, RDU, and CVG. When asked, Delta said there's no real criteria they use to term something a focus city, it's just marketing.

 

I was looking to book LAS-JAX in November and wasn't paying all that much attention to the connection city (would have been DFW, CLT or ORD, all of which are fine).

When I was selecting seats I noticed that the connection was in Austin. Huh? Since when has AA been using Austin Texas as a connection airport?

Problem with that is that you don't have many options if you get stuck in Austin and your connecting flight doesn't go...DFW is bad enough..

 

AA has significantly added to its service in AUS, so why not offer connecting opportunities through it?

New direct (nonstop) flights from AUS (Austin, TX) - FlyerTalk Forums

 

AA offers connections all over the place. I've connected in MSY, EYW and PIA for example.

 

As a gold/plat, there have been several times where I have chosen somewhat wonky connections to either increase my chances of an upgrade, save on stickers, or both. A few months ago I flew PHX-FLG-DFW.

However AUS isn't that wonky these days. With the number of destinations they have, there are quite a few connection opportunities. In some cases, out of OKC, a connection through AUS is the cheapest option for itineraries I have looked at booking less than 7 days out. For itineraries well into the future, it seems to price out even with the other cheapest options.

 

EYW and PIA may have been broken fares (I'm not seeing these as allowed on current fares, but I suppose they could have been allowed pre-Covid). It's not the same as an allowed routing on a single through fare . AA tends to be more liberal with allowed fare routings in their routing rules than UA/DL.

LAS-JAX
MAP CONSTRUCTED LEFT TO RIGHT AND RIGHT TO LEFT
1. LAS-AUS-JAX
2. LAS-CHI-JAX
3. LAS-PHX/LAX/DFW-MIA/DFW/CLT-JAX
4. LAS-LAX-PHX-JAX

DFW-DCA
MAP CONSTRUCTED LEFT TO RIGHT AND RIGHT TO LEFT
1. DFW-BNA/CLE/CMH/DAY/IND/PIT/RDU/SDF/STL/TYS-WAS
2. DFW-BOS/CHI/CLT/DFW/MIA/NYC/PHL/WAS-CLT-WAS
3. DFW-BOS/CHI/CLT/DFW/MIA/NYC/PHL/WAS-WAS
4. DFW-CLT-WAS
5. DFW-WAS

DFW-MIA
MAP CONSTRUCTED LEFT TO RIGHT AND RIGHT TO LEFT
1. DFW-ATL/AUS/FMY/GNV/HOU/JAX/MSY/ORL/PNS/STL/TPA-MIA
2. DFW-CHI/CLT/MIA/PHL/WAS-MIA
3. DFW-MIA

The above routing is not available on all DFW-MIA fares and the cheapest AA fares on this route require non-stop routing.

 

Boyfriend did a hotwire or priceline flight the other day, I didn't even know those were a thing. He was going to Fort Smith, Arkansas to buy a car. Cheapest flight was $500 but he paid $297 and the mystery routing became on American Airlines, via LAX-AUS-DFW-FSM. So he did both Texas "hubs" if you want to call Austin a hub. I honestly wish Austin was the hub and DFW didn't exist but... alas.

 

This was pre-covid. DFW-PIA-ORD and CLT-EYW-MIA-BOG

I have also done DFW-MEX-LAX, but that was IRROPS and as I have since learned, not supposed to be allowed.

 

Not sure if it was shared in this thread, but when I flew out of AUS a few weeks ago, the AAgents (who oddly weren't busy) shared that AA is adding AUS-DEN and AUS-ASE service later this year (the AAgent also added how AA had 'acquired' 3 UA check-in stations at AUS). When I was checking in at DEN a few days later, I mentioned it to the AAgent there, who hadn't heard, but pulled up something on her computer and verified.

This is an interesting story:
Austin: A Unique Glimpse At The Future For American Airlines - Simple Flying

This map has all of the nonstops from AUS (including hubs)



The map a little further down on that page, with the combined AA/partner routes in the US, is rather impressive:



Also to note, the BA AUS-LHR service is returning on 10/13, for 3 days a week.
https://www.austintexas.gov/news/bri...3zCd5-Kjy6ECWo

 

Definitely becoming a mini-hub...