fastflyer

If the June 11 solution is, in fact, day-of-travel availability only, I would hope that this isn't the final step in US/AA domestic upgrade synthesis until complete merger sometime in 2015. Six-plus months is a long time to wait for true elite reciprocity.

LSUTigerWes

Agree. Particularly since they have been working on the merger for much longer than 6 months. The two formed an integration team almost 1.5 years ago...

flyingmusicianlax

I agree that it's taking awhile. But, as someone who came from the UA merger, I GUARANTEE that you do not want them to rush things. Far better to move it slowly and get it right than to do it too quickly and make a mess of it.

GotCalcio4

^^^ Amen to that!

I for one would not mind to see stickers in the new program, so long as we continue to see AA's level of F service (and meal windows) systemwide.

Speedracer2

If they continue shrinking the F cabin like with the new A319, the level of F service won't matter as much as you will rarely be able to upgrade.

BoeingBoy

But very little could be discussed/decided until the agreement was reached with the DOJ about 6 months ago. If the problem had been with the DOT, which doesn't have anti-trust enforcement in it's basket, things would have been further along. As it is, US will still be around until possibly the end of next year - that's plenty of time to iron out the details.

Jim

LSUTigerWes

Yes, but I am sure they discussed or strategized on things like what the FF program would look like and paths to harmonize benefits. I doubt they would discuss more strategic items such as pricing.

Didn't AA even apply the "adopt and go" approach to the A319 flight manual, adopting US' flight manual for these birds?

diver858

Not very sympathetic here. AAL moved quickly to harmonize / devalue award travel, implement without any advanced notice. Elite upgrades are a perk for their most loyal customers, one would expect some extra effort to maintain, increase loyalty.

dtremit

In particular -- why harmonize mileage upgrade fees if you're not going to harmonize mileage upgrades?

LSUTigerWes

That's a good point. Although US now charges the fee for elites (whereas they did not before), isn't the US fee significantly higher?

dtremit

It depends on the flight. AA charges a flat $75+15k per direction for all flights. US charges per segment, but it ranges from $25+5k for short segments to $150+10k for longer ones.

So AA is cheaper on transcons and connecting itineraries, but US is somewhat more reasonable for short hops and nonstops. I have appreciated the ability to use miles for only one segment of a trip where I thought I'd have trouble getting upgraded automatically.

My biggest beef is that you still can't use US miles to upgrade AA flights, and vice versa.

Superguy

Some changes are easier than others to implement. It's easy to change how much an award ticket costs - it's a static value. Instead of 50000, change it to 75000, or whatever.

Upgrades are more difficult. You have two disparate upgrade systems (only overlap is at CP/EXP). On one hand, you have a sticker and the other is unlimited comps, similar to CP/EXP. Just allowing upgrades across the board with each airlines' standard way leaves no upside for US flyers and will piss them off if they fly AA metal. AA flyers get free upgrades on US metal and screws US elites by creating much more competition for those upgrades - again pissing off US elites. The only way to harmonize that is to decide which upgrade scheme will be used, and make the programming changes accordingly.

However, the IT infrastructure is also problematic. We all know SHARES is getting dropped in favor of Sabre, so there's no point in making changes to a system that isn't long for this world. We don't know when the change will come, but for the time it would take to code and test the upgrade scheme on SHARES, it would probably be close to decommissioning anyway. The only simple change to SHARES would be to either take the AA number and reorder the upgrade queue to something like US CP > AA EXP > US PP > US GP > AA Plat > US SP > AA Gold - similar to UA's queuing when it merged with CO (giving the "home metal" advantage to its FFs). The other option is to give everyone a DM number and equivalent status. However, either option again screws US elites and will piss them off.

On the AA/Sabre side, the upgrade scheme decision would also have to be implemented. The advantage here is that whatever changes are made here will be permanent, so it's worth the cost to code the changes. I think it's pretty likely that EXP unlimited upgrades will remain, and AA EXP would take priority over US CP. So then, the decision needs to be made which upgrade system will be used for everyone else.

The first problem here is we don't know how many tiers are going to be in the new FFP. DM will likely disappear, so it doesn't make sense to put that status and processing in only to have to rip it out when it dies, so the logical thing would be to map US status to equivalent AA status - whatever that is for the new FFP. Once both of those are decided (if they're not already), Sabre can be reprogrammed, tested, and be ready for final integration.

The problem here is in the lower tiers no one's going to be happy, except maybe higher level AA Plats and US PP's. AA folks may not get an many upgrades, but can often get them when they want them under the sticker system. US folks know they might not always get them, but have a decent shot a lot of times. Most likely, both AA and US elites will experience lower upgrade percentages. US folks will probably be further incensed that they actually have to buy stickers too.

So what does this all mean? I'm thinking that EXP and CP will get upgrades on the other's metal, while upgrades for everyone else will wait until the final FFP is decided upon and both airlines are running on Sabre. I don't really see any other way to do it when it comes to costs, time, and complexity involved. It's not something that can be rushed, as any rush job would likely end very badly.

Superguy

+1. This especially sucks on long haul international.

BoeingBoy

I know it's not generally considered as much, but the FF program is a form of pricing - what do the flyers get for giving AA their business. Plus FF programs have tendrils into a lot of different areas. So, for example, it's not just upgrades that have to be considered, it's yield management, # of levels of elites, catering, competition, etc.

I don't know but would be surprised to learn that AA just took the US A320 family manuals/checklists and substituted AA for every instance of US. I'd also be surprised if the FAA approved that since the whole reason for the single ops cert process is to coordinate manuals/procedures as much as possible across the whole fleet, not just across a fleet type. The end product of the SOC process should be to come up with then transition to a coordinated set of manuals/procedures/checklists for the whole combined fleet to as large an extent as possible. So, for example, normal checklists should flow the same to the extent possible.

Jim

diver858

It was more than simply changing fare buckets - required adding codeshares for both award and cash purchases, aligning the 2 systems, adding a form of dynamic pricing for awards to AA - which is still something of a work in progress for revenue tickets. Parker and Kirby must have pushed the IT folks on both sides quite hard to make it happen quickly.

While I am not an expert in such matters, it was my understanding that few frontline employees have access to Sabre (gate and counter agents, even phone sales reps), most access reservations through an interface created by HP. If my understanding is correct, it should be possible to address changes to the upgrade system (at least on the AA side) at this level.