at least it will benefit people who paint airplanes or airport signs for a living. :)


is this really a merger or did US Airways buy American Airlines(or vice versa)?
most media reports seem to be calling this "American Airlines buying US Airways
and merging the two airlines)

Good question. I would assume some lucrative promos but we didn't see much at DL or US during the CO/UA merger. Maybe UA and DL will sit it out, content to pick up whatever new business is inevitably coming their way? Or maybe they'll do heavy DQPM or other status shortcut promos.

There really are few areas where it would make sense to go chasing defectors. I can see UA doing something aggressive at ORD, as there are enough AA elites based there to make it worth the effort to try to lure them in. Not sure which other markets have enough elites to make it worth an aggressive push yet still have a lot of competition.

this truly concerns me as I took advantage of their promos they kept sending me and bought a lot of miles and doubled them. I don't want to lose that money. With 300K miles I could easily fly to Europe envoy but my problem is I already bought tickets for summer 2013 and 2014 is not open yet. If this is indeed done by third quarter 2013 I won't be able to book even May 2014 as they won't open until June. I feel cheated by US if my miles become worthless. They are the ones who solicited me (a very loyal customer for years doing long hauls to Italy every summer in Envoy) to buy miles repeatedly. Maybe I need to look for a getaway to burn those miles before I myself am burnt.

Your miles won't become worthless. You'll just have a different list of airlines to use them on.

I don't think airline size doesn't have anything to do with attracting other airlines to an alliance. They tend to grow thru codeshares and business partnerships with eventually an invitation being extended by one of existing members. It's often meant to address a weakness in an alliance to strengthen it in a particular region.

While all the alliances have grown and changed members at times, that seems more in line with natural changes in the industry.

I hope you are right. I already have the big trip booked for July and a cruise booked for January so slipping in a Europe or Hawaii jaunt to just burn miles is going to be hard to fit it but I would rather fly to Italy for the weekend than loose what I paid several grand for.

yes good point.

I wasn't overly concerned with the miles - plenty of other mergers have taken place and plenty of miles programs have been combined. It was just a weird line to throw in there! :)

Hi all...Hopping over from the AA board here..

Yes there's emotion. For many AA flyers US wasn't a premium airline to fly both on product and service. AA wasn't that either in many cases; but the BK put a lot of hope that a revitalized fleet with new FAs could improve the customer experience to attract more fliers. For those of us who suffered the APA union delays in Q3/Q4; more integration throes are very concerning.

There's not a lot to look at from the US portfolio to make AA flyers say "I really want/look-forward to that"; and therein lies my concern: pain for little gain.

I'm willing to eat crow if DP can make this merger work to be the PREMIERE North American carrier - not simply the largest.
Nevertheless we will suffer this together - and hopefully not as badly as CO/UA.

In the history of airline bankrupticies in the US, nobody has lost miles unless the airline went completely out of business. Do you really think that US and AA would want to deal with the extremely negative publicity and the countless lawsuits that would result from cancelling AAdvantage points? They will have enough mess on their hands for the next 5 years without causing a s***storm of negative publicity!

Credit for future Star Alliance flights already booked?
 

It seems clear that DM elite members will still get DM credit for *A flights for 6 months from today. But what about already-booked itineraries after mid-August?

I have a Business Class itinerary to Asia in November on a Europe-based *A carrier (worth >30K EQMs). Has anyone heard whether these reservations will be honored for DM/AA FF credit? Please post here if/when you hear.

P.S. If no credit, I am seriously considering changing my allegiance to UA or another *A carrier.

Yeah, I think there's a lot of that on both sides. When I looked at AA, all I ever saw was decrepit old S80s with a network that would force me thru DFW for practically ANYWHERE I wanted to go. And being in OW, was partners with more airlines I didn't want to fly than ones I did with routings I didn't like.

I'm not a Dougie fan either, so I'm hoping he can pull of something that will make the US airline industry special again and create a carrier I want to fly over foreign carriers. Yeah, I'm think I'm hoping for too much too. :D That said, Dougie made a lot of mistakes in the past, but he also took US in the right direction, and corrected a lot of things too. Things have been improving on US for awhile. I wouldn't call it a premium airline by any stretch of the word, but then again, I don't think any of the legacies really fit that.

Like flight62 said, a he was cheap because US was small time and didn't have the resources to compete in the big leagues. Now he'll have the helm of the largest airline with a stronger network and more resources. He has visions (or delusions) of grandeur for AA, so I don't think he's going to go cheap like he did with US.

How this will all shake out is anyone's guess at this point. While I'm undecided on whether I'll stick with the new AA or not, I wish it success to try to bring the US industry up rather than continue the race to the bottom.

Exactly. (Per ABC) Parker is inclined to use American's computer systems such as those that track reservations and passenger information, he said on a conference call. He said past mergers have shown that it's easier to use the bigger airline's technology, because then fewer people at the smaller airline need to learn it.

To BuyUp or not to BuyUp.... that is the question
 

For the past several years, my wife and I have achieved Platinum through normal travel and have bought up to Chairman's Preferred mainly because of the Upgrade Certificates provided for European/Hawaii travel. We have been able to use all of these for holiday (Thanksgiving/Christmas) travel each year instead of having to pay $300/segment plus the additional miles need to upgrade. Cost of BuyUp was less as compared to $$$/miles for upgrade.

With the merger pending and it being mid-February, the question is whether or not the BuyUp makes sense seeing the merger is expected to complete in Q3. Anybody in the same situation and what are your thoughts?

Also, if you are Chairmans at time of merger completion I would expect to have Executive Platinum elite status through remainder of 2013. Thoughts?

I guess we'll see how this shakes out as time goes on.

I'm in a similar situation ... I fly enough for platinum but only made CP this year due to the DPQM promotion in Q4. I'm thinking a buy up could be good for that very reason, but also to give me more leverage with another carrier should I decide to status match out.

Now if you only qualify for platinum at the end of the year, do you have to wait until March to buy up, or can you top off your status for the following year after October?

From your lips to somebody's ears.

I wish I could be so optimistic. I'm a niche flyer and US filled my niche. I was hoping never to see ORD, JFK, or DFW again. I understand, however, that that's just me. What worries me more for all of us who have enjoyed the FF "game" is that it's hard to imagine how less competition can result in anything but fewer seats on fewer routes, hence more of us chasing trinkets of diminishing value.

I have been wrong before, however.