Why not AA 787-8 service DCA-LAX ?

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Apr 26, 2021, 12:58 am

#61

econ

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Fanjet

The evening 772 is what I remember as well, but it doesn’t appear to be operating lately. I do see a 752 scheduled on the mid-morning & evening flights starting in June though.

Apr 26, 2021, 6:29 am

#62

SFO_FT

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As for which US domestic markets can/can’t support a lie flat product in F/J, the airlines believe the number of markets is increasing, and substantially! AA will be launching all premium aircraft JFK-SNA and BOS-LAX (SNA and BOS have historically been a high-yield market for the carrier). UA doing all/most SFO-BOS. JetBlue serving 10 or more transcons with Mint. With premium fares decreasing, and retiring Baby Boomer and other wealth increasing, look to lie-flats becoming more prevalent on US domestic routes. Oh, and UA planning on installing lieflats on a portion of their 100 aircraft order of 737 Max 10s.

Apr 26, 2021, 7:18 am

#63

Antarius

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Quote:

Originally Posted by SFO_FT

Airlines have internationally and premium configured aircraft gathering dust and that's why we're seeing them show up on more and more domestic routes. I don't disagree that we will find more lay flats on longer routes, but the current route map isn't a harbinger of things to come.

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Apr 26, 2021, 8:50 am

#64

enviroian

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Quote:

Originally Posted by IADCAflyer

So here is what a 787 would look like if parked at gate 44 at DCA. Not reaching out onto "K" but dangerously close to the vehicle movement road....

That's really funny. We are such a bunch of plane dorks. Only on FT would someone superimpose a dreamliner onto a terminal at DCA

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Apr 26, 2021, 8:52 am

#65

SFO_FT

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Antarius

Agree that most of the int’l configured widebodies flying MIALAX, MIAJFK, etc on AA won’t last, but at the same time, most of the routes being discussed are ones that the carriers have indicated are permanent (as permanent as they can be of course), such as JFKSNA, BOSLAX, the many Mint routes that have been around since pre-Covid, HA Mainland flights. UA has stated, even preCovid, of doing lieflats on the Max10s such as IADLAX, IADSFO, etc. So, the trend even pre-Covid is more and more lieflats.

Will be interesting to see if UA converts some of the domestic 772s to include a small PY cabin given the success AA has had selling PY to Hawaii and UA on their transcons. Small seat loss but good upsell opportunities.

Apr 26, 2021, 9:59 am

#66

wetrat0

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Fanjet

The early evening IAD-LAX has been on a widebody for several years now. Usually a 772 (and I think with the old 2-4-2 Lie-flat J seats, not Polaris). They also ran a 752 (IIRC) on one of the morning flights pre-Covid. All the other flights were on 738s/739s. But this also shows how little demand there is for an intl premium product in the DC-LA market. I think plenty of people who buy directly into the F cabin on AA's flights from DCA-LAX would love such a product. But very, very few of them would actually pay a revenue premium to fly it. So, even putting a 321T on the route would be economically unfeasible. As it would be sacraficing the revenue of over 100 Y seats per flight.

Not to mention, DCA-LAX uses limited beyond-perimeter slots. So those 100 Y seats can't be replaced by adding another frequency.

Apr 26, 2021, 8:44 pm

#67

chix

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This is a stupid debate/thread.

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Apr 26, 2021, 10:43 pm

#68

cesco.g

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Quote:

Originally Posted by econ

The evening 772 is what I remember as well, but it doesn’t appear to be operating lately. I do see a 752 scheduled on the mid-morning & evening flights starting in June though.

Correct. With the 777 PW grounding all flights on the IAD-LAX citypair are narrowbodies / domestic F upfront. There is an occasional 752 showing up with 16 pmCO lie-flat seats.
June schedule shows some widebodies, but that's still fluent

Apr 27, 2021, 7:49 am

#69

ksweeney

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I'm confused why are people discussing UA flights in this thread? I think most AA flyers could care less about IAD-LAX on UA - besides, the best place in DC for the 752 the UA is still flying is in the Smithsonian

Apr 27, 2021, 7:52 am

#70

enviroian

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Quote:

Originally Posted by chix

This is a stupid debate/thread.

There’s nothing wrong with posting a “what if” thread and speculate accordingly.

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Apr 27, 2021, 2:44 pm

#71

ElmhurstNick

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Don't forget that most(/all?) Federal contracts prohibit reimbursement for a straight purchase of domestic F. Federal contractors whose employees are flying LAX-WAS don't have the same flexibility to offer F as a perk the way that other industries might.

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Apr 27, 2021, 7:24 pm

#72

ISTFlyer

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Fanjet

The early evening IAD-LAX has been on a widebody for several years now. Usually a 772 (and I think with the old 2-4-2 Lie-flat J seats, not Polaris). They also ran a 752 (IIRC) on one of the morning flights pre-Covid. All the other flights were on 738s/739s. But this also shows how little demand there is for an intl premium product in the DC-LA market. I think plenty of people who buy directly into the F cabin on AA's flights from DCA-LAX would love such a product. But very, very few of them would actually pay a revenue premium to fly it. So, even putting a 321T on the route would be economically unfeasible. As it would be sacraficing the revenue of over 100 Y seats per flight.

UA operated 787-10's on the IAD-LAX route during the first few months of COVID until November or December 2020.
Now it's 3x narrow-bodies ( mixture of A320's, 737's and 757's ) and the loads are not high as it was back pre-COVID.

In 2021, I have flown WAS-LAX on AA, AS, UA and in all flights, F was mostly full with upgrades or discounted upgrades ( on my AA DCA-LAX flight this week the upgrade offer was $162 at OLCI ); MCE or equivalent always empty ( you are likely to get an entire row ), Y with a 70-75% load with mostly leisure or occasional travelers.

If there was premium demand like WAS-SFO, I guess that AA wouldn't have trimmed their IAD-LAX route.
The era where Delta was able to sell $500+ Y tickets and UA/DL charging $1200-1500 for lie-flat seats on this route is now over.

So, I totally agree with Fanjet that there isn't that much premium demand on this route and AA converting this route to an A321T would be not profitable.

Apr 27, 2021, 9:42 pm

#73

IADCAflyer

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DCA-LAX next couple of days is absolutely packed - up frot and in the rear

Apr 28, 2021, 6:32 pm

#74

flyer703

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Quote:

Originally Posted by IADCAflyer

So here is what a 787 would look like if parked at gate 44 at DCA. Not reaching out onto "K" but dangerously close to the vehicle movement road....

Thanks for posting this

But that's not where the jet bridge goes on a 788. It's well aft of your pic - closer to the wing between rows 5 & 6. I think it would clear the service road easily. Probably even better on the center gate (45).