JonNYC

You have **completely** missed @QueenOfCoach's patented "Goodbye, cruel airline" quip-- it means, in essence:

"You're not a flight, there's no need to announce your departure."

Whereas you (and others-- and I'm very guilty of it myself in other contexts) keep-- loudly-- doing so

Antarius

Just book something, you will most likely clear. Pick a plane with more J for insurance.

you got 2 free SWUs. That's pretty awesome. Given you've mentioned you're hub and work captive, AA could've easily given you nothing.

LHSEN

Dallas49er

As always, thank you for your spot on reply. My most sincerest apologies for missing the point. The clarification is duly noted. Headed to the woodshed. Your insight is always appreciated.

As to your other point: I have been a man of principle for my whole life-Thank you Dad. We are walking/flying away, and taking our wallet with us. Luckily, I am in a position where my family and I CAN, AND ARE booking away from an Airline I/We were once proud to fly as EXP/PAX. But the gutting of advantage, the cheapening of EXP, and AA TATL/TPAC .... consistantly just made us re-evaluate. (We paid HOW much to be treated like pasture pancakes, and be continually ignored and/or grumped at?) One should try AF, LH TATL, and JL CX, or CZ TPAC if one wants a better, more service oriented experience, for about the same or sometimes less $.

SO, YES, I AM LEAVING (LOUDLY)! I feel for all the "hub hostages", and those who choose to flog a dying horse, when there is a big beautiful world out there.

6/15/19-Still flying (and spending), more, due to retirement, mostly TATL, 0$ on AA, but $18 k x 2 thru 01/08/2020. Except One with a useless SWU burn ( and waitlisted 5 months out w/45 J seats open).

I hope you all fly safely. Save your vitriol-PM me instead if you must.

GetSetJetSet

That's the problem. There are time when you can search every routing for months and find NOTHING. Not even one C seat to throw to EXP? I will not book a Y seat and "hope" I clear. I want C at time of booking, I don't think it's too much to ask. Doesn't have to be 5 on every flight or even every flight, but if you see C=0 for every flight for 3 months, come on.

Dallas49er

Amen!

millionmiler

While it might not be too much to ask, AA does not now provide that and likely will not provide that at any foreseeable time in the future. A new CEO will likely not change it. A recession will likely not change it. A major competitive change will likely not happen. Now that it is gone is it just not likely to change except around a small range of variation and occasional opening of the floodgates for a particular route for a short period of time.

Now the question becomes what are you going to do? Will you stop flying them and still maybe not get what you want on another carrier? Will you stop flying them on principle as I have done on UA for something that happened in the early 1990s even if other carriers are not better in some key ways? What are you willing to do?

GetSetJetSet

Thanks to the Government allowing all our major carriers to merge to the point of it basically being a monopolistic cabal, there is nothing I CAN do, but I don't have to be happy about it. I came to AA from UA, and I don't want to go back. I refuse to consider DL. There are no other options. Would be nice if we had choices instead of DL and two other airlines that do whatever DL does 6months later.

Antarius

people will complain incessantly, threaten to leave and then complain incessantly, while harkening back to the golden days of angle flat seats and super NES video quality IFE.

AA deserves a lot of criticism for its subpar operational performance and declining service and support quality, but I do not understand why people look back so fondly on the Arpey days of ratty 762s and out of date long haul J.

QueenOfCoach

I am flattered.

anabolism

I've read that there's a pilot shortage, not surplus, but I'm not in a position to know. I also don't know if AA's pilots have been unusually quiet, but keep in mind that AA's pilots' union is responsible for allowing legacy US Air and Doug Parker to buy out AA.

I think you might have misunderstood my comment. My point was that the old system, where CK was a parallel set of benefits, seemed to be superior to the current system, where CK is a distinct status above EP.

On the subject of being too far down the upgrade list, keep in mind that AA switched how priority works, so that previous 12-month EQD determines priority within one's status tier. It used to be time of request. So all CKs are higher priority than you, and all EPs with higher 12-month EQD are also higher than you. As if that wasn't bad enough, AA has made C inventory very scarce, and few flights even have a first class cabin to use A inventory. I used to get loads of extra SWUs for extra flying, and seeing them always made me book an impulse trip where there was a decent fare that I could confirm at booking. Those days are over.

anabolism

You only have to look back a few years to when AA flew 772s with four rows of Flagship First with true lie-flat, wide, swivel seats. A inventory was easy to come by with moderate flexibility (e.g., if willing to fly Saturdays, Tuesdays, or Wednesdays) and could be had by hunting for decent I fares. C was far more available than now.

anabolism

I am not as certain of that. Upgrades serve multiple purposes, and the tension between them can be adjusted to fit circumstances.

SkyTeam777

I got a call last week from executive offices apologizing for all the recent delays I have had (including overnights). It left a phone number to call back, but I deleted the message by mistake and can't find it anymore. If anyone has it, feel free to PM me. Or maybe AA will just call me back eventually...I found it interesting that they said, please give us a call instead of just closing the matter with an apology.

AANYC1981