mgs 1k

AA is going heavily on 1ks and GSs here in Brazil.

Basically they are requesting major travel agencies a list of 1Ks and GS and contacting them with some ridiculous offers!!!! (status match, upgrades and even telling people if you fly first class you donīt need to stay on line to board the plane like United)

Today they just announced a new flight GRU - LAX and confirmed early next year GRU - ORD.

For the first time Iīm thinking on jumb ship to the dAArk side.

tom911

How are you doing on systemwide upgrades from there? Does UA still meet your travel needs?

iquitos

UAL in South America. I predict they will retreat further. They have already dropped a few out of IAD and EWR. American owns the place.

qfrodo

The only flight lost from IAD was to EZE which moved to EWR. Supposedly this is to disappear from EWR. But the merger resulted in IAH-GIG and IAH-GRU and EWR-GRU along with IAD-GRU-GIG and ORD-GRU. Would not call that a major retreat.

As for AA offers, I'm still waiting to get one. But it would have to be pretty attractive, as my home base is IAD and I can go right to GRU non stop.

mgs 1k

Sure I use system wide upgrades. But the fare difference now between a W to AA confirmed C is only about 500 dollars. (Yes start shopping around)

And if I jump ship I have over 20 daily flight to choose from instead of Unitedīs 4 flights out of Brazil.

EWR764

There's no question AA has a stronger Brazil franchise than UA. It's one of AA's core markets and they have a heavy investment there with the benefit of the best hub (in terms of local market) to Brazil in MIA and a key partner in TAM. UA's priorities clearly lie elsewhere, but they have a solid presence in the largest business markets of GIG/GRU, and that isn't likely to change much, save for the reintroduction of EWR-GIG some time in the next few years.

weero

I just wished AA would have a comparable Asia presence ....

MSPeconomist

DL seems to be doing well in Brazil.

UA-NYC

DL seems to be doing well everywhere!!! Don't hear a lot about route cutting with them these days (unless it's axing one Asia route to add 3 more)...

mgs 1k

I donīt recall a EWR-GIG route. There was a IAD-GIG direct on Nov-Fev but it was cancelled.

What strikes me is just how agressive AA is going after UA elites!! Asking for face to face meetings etc...

After the merger you cannot even talk to a UA sales maganer anymore.

EWR764

You have to go back to 2001, but it happened. DC-10 service, later with 764, operating EWR-GIG and briefly, EWR-GIG-CNF.

st530

Slightly off-topic, but do IAH-GRU flyers have the option to jump on the GRU-GIG tag, like EWR-GRU fliers used to back in the CO days? Occasionally the IAH-GIG flight is sold out and I've done IAH-GRU on UA and GRU-GIG on TAM but never thought to check whether it was possible to book the UA GRU-GIG tag. Thanks.

GimmeLegRoom

Expat in GRU here... I unfortunately have stuck with UA due to price through 2013, but I have only been upgraded about 20% of the time (including grabbing inventory when EF alert comes in). (Un)fortunately my time here will come to an end in about 6 months and I don't know my future travel patterns. I am reluctant to jump to AA since I am already AS MVPG and don't fly enough DL/AS/partners to keep both.

I will say my experience is that UA premium cabins tend to be American not Brazilian travellers, so I fear cabins will remain full.

I am just so sick of the whole game - I only shop by price, connection and a good coach seat. UA won next weekend only because I could not find a single DL Economy comfort, or AA/DL exit row seat on any flight on the outbound. My chances for upgrade are dim - J=1 on outbound, J=6 on inbound.

Sorry for the vent...

qfrodo

Did a dummy booking and it was offered as one of the possibilities.

eclipse_boi

I booked all my Brazil flights on AA since the status match I received last year from AA to Exec Platinum. I receive an upgrade on any fare class using systemwides on American and all have cleared (7 roundtrips to date on AA). This is better than playing the upgrade lottery on United with having to pay for a W class ticket with no certainty of an upgrade at a fare differential of more than $800 on every ticket between AA and a UA W class ticket to Brazil that I've booked to date.