As it stands now, I fly generally AA out of DCA when going south, and UA out of IAD when going west or TATL. When the route structures of the new AA are set, we'll see what changes, if anything.

A serious competitor for WAS pax might make United decide that they need to upgrade their main terminal in WAS to something better than a glorified shed.

With AA/US merger - the new AA becomes two-thirds of Terminal B/C at DCA. Term A extra. Lot's of choices for that one airline at DCA - which will make the new AA the dominate carrier at DCA. With AS partnership - that adds more long haul routes.

The plus for UA is the international flights out of IAD. But other than that - AA becomes the choice for DCA.

I keep my options open, but for now I am mostly flying AA (because of the much better upgrade rates). The AA/US merger strengthens that.

Just check out IAD on a Saturday morning - the place is a ghost town. More employees in UA terminal C/D than you see passengers walking around the terminal. With new long hauls out of DCA - I would say IAD is suffering for morning/mid-day passengers. Doesn't really get going into the evening.

I think this is more on MWAA's side than UA's side. There have been numerous stories in the Post regarding MWAA, and they haven't been flattering. MWAA appears to be an extremely poorly run, poorly managed organization.

Stick with UA and IAD. With Doug Parker projected to run a possible US/AA merger get ready for a lot of upset FFs

Yeah, this ensures that UA will hold onto me at least through 2013 and quite possibly 2014 if there are signs of improvement, or if AA goes totally off the rails.

And this possibility is why I didn't jump ship to AA when UA had its trouble this summer. I left US 5 years ago for a good reason and Doug Parker's vision of an airline was chief among those reasons.

Ugh. After the Smisek-ization of UNITED, I've spent a lot of time on US on A fares out of DCA. LOVE the convenience. Love never sweating upgrades. With TSA Pre, I can be from my front door in Clarendon to a gate in about 15 minutes.

I fear that AA is going to, ironically, take away the reasonable US A fares.

I can't really see myself going back to Smisek.

I guess I'll just take whoever offers the cheapest fare that books into F regardless of airline or airport.

Remember that a UA/US merger was going to require a major turn over in slots at DCA for "new entrants" (i.e. DCAir, run by the ex CEO f BET.)

I doubt the "new" AA or new US is going to be able to avoid the same antitrust hurdels they threw at UA when UA looked to merge with US.

Is it likely that the Feds would allow a super-domination of DCA by the new AA? I doubt it; I think for this final merger they're going to be looking to avoid "Superhubs" and an AA/US combo at DCA, without any givebacks, would certainly qualify.

If it were three or four years later, when the Metro (finally!) extends to IAD, might be a different story.

I think it more likely we'll see increases in UA frequency at DCA in the short run. Once the Metro is in place, could be an entirely different story.

Choose UA @ IAD/DCA/BWI/RIC/CHO

Really? It seems to me that the only folks who will be taking the metro to/from IAD will be tourists and airport employees.

It's a near-certainty that US-AA will have to relinquish DCA slots equal in number to the current AA holdings as US already holds about half the total slots and that was the max permitted by the DoJ when US and DL swapped the LGA and DCA slots.

Naturally, I agree, 100%. I live a 15 minute WALK from DCA and will not regularly take the train to IAD...it's a hike to the suburbs of Fairfax or Falls Church, let alone to the sticks in Loudon County...plus the ridiculous fares of WMATA already make be believe that this won't help the transit already.

I'm happy there is a new option to get back into town, but of course, being Washington, this won't help me at all after 00h00 on weeknights or for a 06h00 flight (which you can't even get to Reagan for during the week from the city...)

I've stuck with UA from WAS (all three airports) right now, only because of the companion upgrade policy, but with my recent experiences (the CPU icon thread) makes me think that was a stupid choice...maybe my EXP status at AA will have me thinking toward the combination of US/AA!

-jeremy

AA Forum:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html


US Forum:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/us-ai...er-thread.html

I did not know a 'slot' was either a takeoff or a landing - I assumed a slot was a combination of both.

These are the 'exemption slots' allowing longer flights from DCA...

Airlines Destinations
Alaska Airlines 8 slots operating as 2x Seattle, 1x Los Angeles, 1x Portland, OR
American Airlines 2 slots operating as 1x Los Angeles
Delta Air Lines 4 slots operating as 2x Salt Lake City
Frontier Airlines 6 slots operating as 3x Denver
JetBlue Airways 2 slots operating as 1x San Juan
Southwest Airlines 2 slots operating as 1x Austin
United Airlines 4 slots operating as 1x Denver, 1x San Francisco
US Airways 10 slots operating as 3x Phoenix, 1x Las Vegas, 1x San Diego
Virgin America 2 slots operating as 1x San Francisco


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_...tional_Airport