American Airlines / US Airways merger

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CHamilton

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American Airlines merger expected next week

DALLAS - A merger between American Airlines and US Airways will likely be announced next week, sources tell News 8.
The board of directors of AMR Corp., American's parent company, will meet on Monday to consider a combination, News 8 has learned.
Many of the details have already been worked out over recent months.
Still, currently at issue is which executive team will lead the new company.
 
American Airlines merger expected next week

DALLAS - A merger between American Airlines and US Airways will likely be announced next week, sources tell News 8.
The board of directors of AMR Corp., American's parent company, will meet on Monday to consider a combination, News 8 has learned.
Many of the details have already been worked out over recent months.
Still, currently at issue is which executive team will lead the new company.

....And that would the end of my carefully collected Star Alliance miles :( :( From all my travels on Star Alliance member airlines, I accumulated my miles into US Airways Dividend Miles account.. with the hopes of getting a free ticket/free upgrade on one of my international trips between US and India... and now with the merger all those miles will go into useless OneWorld :( :( Useless for me because OneWorld severely cuts down my options. Damnit, should have collected the miles on United MileagePlus instead. <_<
 
American Airlines merger expected next week

DALLAS - A merger between American Airlines and US Airways will likely be announced next week, sources tell News 8.
The board of directors of AMR Corp., American's parent company, will meet on Monday to consider a combination, News 8 has learned.
Many of the details have already been worked out over recent months.
Still, currently at issue is which executive team will lead the new company.

....And that would the end of my carefully collected Star Alliance miles :( :( From all my travels on Star Alliance member airlines, I accumulated my miles into US Airways Dividend Miles account.. with the hopes of getting a free ticket/free upgrade on one of my international trips between US and India... and now with the merger all those miles will go into useless OneWorld :( :( Useless for me because OneWorld severely cuts down my options. Damnit, should have collected the miles on United MileagePlus instead. <_<
Sorry for your misfortune......I had thought that AA flew ORD-BOM, but I see they must have given up that route. You can still use One World connections on BA via LHR to get there.....
 
I don't know the full details, but a cursory look makes me wonder what real benefit AA would gain from the merger, besides eliminating some competition (which would also benefit other competitors), and some of US Air's valuable 'slots' at places like LGA and DCA.....

And in light of US Air still not resolving its labor issues from its own merger with America West several years ago, I wonder if AA's union'sare really doing themselves a favor, or are just 'cutting off their nose, to spite their face', due to several years of contentious relation with AA's management?
 
Eliminating a competitor. A fortress hub at CLT that competes with DL at ATL, a gap in the map that has bothered AA since the 1980s. A significant customer base in the northeast. About 250 Airbus narrow-body aircraft that mirror the A320neo/A321 aircraft which AA has ordered. The deal makes sense.
 
Eliminating a competitor. A fortress hub at CLT that competes with DL at ATL, a gap in the map that has bothered AA since the 1980s. A significant customer base in the northeast. About 250 Airbus narrow-body aircraft that mirror the A320neo/A321 aircraft which AA has ordered. The deal makes sense.
Valid points.....but something tells me that after a while, CLT will go the way of AA's hubs at RDU, BNA, STL, etc.......
 
Don't think so. At 600 daily flights, US Airways at CLT is larger than American's RDU, BNA, and STL (after the AA acquisition of TW) combined. And Southwest is not a factor at CLT, where fares are relatively high.

As comparison DL has 900+ daily flights from ATL. American has about 450 from Chicago.
 
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American Airlines merger expected next week

DALLAS - A merger between American Airlines and US Airways will likely be announced next week, sources tell News 8.

The board of directors of AMR Corp., American's parent company, will meet on Monday to consider a combination, News 8 has learned.

Many of the details have already been worked out over recent months.

Still, currently at issue is which executive team will lead the new company.
....And that would the end of my carefully collected Star Alliance miles :( :( From all my travels on Star Alliance member airlines, I accumulated my miles into US Airways Dividend Miles account.. with the hopes of getting a free ticket/free upgrade on one of my international trips between US and India... and now with the merger all those miles will go into useless OneWorld :( :( Useless for me because OneWorld severely cuts down my options. Damnit, should have collected the miles on United MileagePlus instead. <_<
Say what?

You can't exactly call it a "careful" collection if it went to US Air! :lol:

On the plus side the two frequent flier clubs probably won't merge anytime soon.

You should be able to do as much as you want with *A until then.

US Air has a pretty sweet deal where you can travel to Europe and Asia round trip in J for 90k.
 
American Airlines merger expected next week

DALLAS - A merger between American Airlines and US Airways will likely be announced next week, sources tell News 8.
The board of directors of AMR Corp., American's parent company, will meet on Monday to consider a combination, News 8 has learned.
Many of the details have already been worked out over recent months.
Still, currently at issue is which executive team will lead the new company.

....And that would the end of my carefully collected Star Alliance miles :( :( From all my travels on Star Alliance member airlines, I accumulated my miles into US Airways Dividend Miles account.. with the hopes of getting a free ticket/free upgrade on one of my international trips between US and India... and now with the merger all those miles will go into useless OneWorld :( :( Useless for me because OneWorld severely cuts down my options. Damnit, should have collected the miles on United MileagePlus instead. <_<
Sorry for your misfortune......I had thought that AA flew ORD-BOM, but I see they must have given up that route. You can still use One World connections on BA via LHR to get there.....
AA gave up ORD-BOM, then gave up on ORD-DEL too. Now AA no longer flies to India. And I'd stay away from BA like the plague. LHR's sick practice of specifically picking brown-skinned passengers for "random secondary checks", UK's headache rules about transit on a third country visa, and the overall mess that airport is.. having faced that twice is enough to keep me away from LHR for life. That leaves only Cathay Pacific for USA-India flights on oneWorld :( Compare this with Star Alliance that gives me United, Lufthansa, All Nippon, Singapore Airlines, Thai, Turkish, Air China from west coast of US to India in one stop. Must find a way to transfer the points to a Star Alliance airline, or use them up soon. From me, this merger is a boooooo. *two thumbs down*
 
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AA has been one of the most cancel-happy airlines for long haul flights, never really giving new routes enough time to grow and prove their long term worth. I have no idea if being run by the folks from US will improve things, but you have to assume that Oneworld's charter members are aware that they could benefit from filling the holes in their network, eventually. Don't forget that you can purchase large amounts of US miles for less than many other *A members when they're on sale. The sales occur regularly so topping off should be easy. Then you'll be able to schedule an award flight on various *A airlines that will remain in effect regardless of what happens between US and AA. The only problem is that you'll have to talk to the DM reservations desk in the process.
 
AA has been one of the most cancel-happy airlines for long haul flights, never really giving new routes enough time to grow and prove their long term worth..
I have to agree with you on that for sure. And not just long haul, either. Every time AA takes over another carrier, it seems they slowly, but surely erase almost all traces of the acquired carrier. What a shame what they did to TWA, although they would have probably gone out of business, anyway.
 
AA has been one of the most cancel-happy airlines for long haul flights, never really giving new routes enough time to grow and prove their long term worth..
I have to agree with you on that for sure. And not just long haul, either. Every time AA takes over another carrier, it seems they slowly, but surely erase almost all traces of the acquired carrier. What a shame what they did to TWA, although they would have probably gone out of business, anyway.


Eh, same could be said for just about every other airline merger too. Although I do think TWA employees got the short end after that merger.

And Texan: what about Japan Airlines via Tokyo? I've never taken JAL so I don't know what they are like, but it would be one-stop from DFW. I would love to see AA serve HKG though to connect with the Cathay Pacific network, but why spend the money when you can just code-share everything.

Personally, I hope the merger does not happen. Bigger does not always mean better as you can still see many inconsistencies with other mergers. I don't see CLT going away though as a hub. In fact this is one merger that I can't see any hubs going away, while others saw their hubs shrink, (ie, CVG, CLE, MEM).
 
I don't see CLT going away though as a hub. In fact this is one merger that I can't see any hubs going away, while others saw their hubs shrink, (ie, CVG, CLE, MEM).

Well, perhaps not go away, but I bet it would downsize somewhat....

And look at US Air's former Pittsburgh fortress.....a shadow of what it was.....
 
And something like only 13 routes with overlap according to a news report I heard on the radio.
While the overlapping routes are likely to be among the first to see cuts in service frequency, a AA - US Airways merger will lead to even more industry consolidation. More cuts in domestic flights, fewer direct flights between mid-size to bigger sized airports, consolidation of the hub flight routes. The total number of domestic flights last peaked in 2005 and I see from the latest FAA data set, the numbers are down for the first 10 months of 2012 compared to 2011. The number of domestic flight passengers is edging back up, but is still below the 2008 peak.Still, the result will be more crowded airplanes with fewer flight schedule options. Hello, Amtrak?

And more smaller to mid-sized airports that spent a lot of money back in the 90s and aughts to expand their airport that will instead see number of flights and passengers slowly shrink as the airline industry consolidates. (For the domestic flights, international flights and passenger numbers are doing much better).
 
Eh, same could be said for just about every other airline merger too. Although I do think TWA employees got the short end after that merger.
Calling the carcass picking between AA and TW a "merger" would be a bit of a slap in the face of the TWA employees.

And Texan: what about Japan Airlines via Tokyo? I've never taken JAL so I don't know what they are like, but it would be one-stop from DFW. I would love to see AA serve HKG though to connect with the Cathay Pacific network, but why spend the money when you can just code-share everything.
Back before Japan Airlines went bankrupt they were considered a premium airline. I found their service to be similar to other Asian airlines. Nothing special in coach of course but nothing to worry about either. I stopped flying Japan Airlines after numerous safety violations and related incidents. In the process of declaring bankruptcy JL/JO lost much of their international network and haven't been much of a factor in my decision making since then.

This is one merger that I can't see any hubs going away.
There is nothing special about this merger that would preclude loss of hub status. AA's fortress hubs are likely to remain relatively unscathed, but US is likely to devalue multiple conventional hubs in the process of taking over AA.
 
RDU barely has any non-hub routes. In fact, once you merge the two networks, London would be the only non-hub route (and I'm almost certain that route is for some corporate contract AA has, otherwise it wouldn't make any sense at all to maintain it).

PIT only has 3 or 4 non-hub routes, and as far as I can tell they're all on regional carriers (I'm actually surprised they still have that many). I thought US Airways was pulling out of LGA except for a few flights/routes, having traded most of their slots to Delta for DCA slots instead. Searching their website, their only non-hub routes from LGA are Augusta, ME and Louisville, KY. There's also a PIT flight or two.
 
RDU barely has any non-hub routes. In fact, once you merge the two networks, London would be the only non-hub route (and I'm almost certain that route is for some corporate contract AA has, otherwise it wouldn't make any sense at all to maintain it).
IBM
 
RDU barely has any non-hub routes. In fact, once you merge the two networks, London would be the only non-hub route (and I'm almost certain that route is for some corporate contract AA has, otherwise it wouldn't make any sense at all to maintain it).
PIT only has 3 or 4 non-hub routes, and as far as I can tell they're all on regional carriers (I'm actually surprised they still have that many). I thought US Airways was pulling out of LGA except for a few flights/routes, having traded most of their slots to Delta for DCA slots instead. Searching their website, their only non-hub routes from LGA are Augusta, ME and Louisville, KY. There's also a PIT flight or two.
How do you define a 'hub-route', versus a 'non-hub route'? If they are both into or out of a hub....be it a 'focus city' or a 'fortress-hub'?

To my way of thinking, a 'non-hub route' is one that goes direct from one city to another, neither being a 'hub'...........
 
I would find it difficult to conceive how US merged with AA would maintain hub/focus city at all of LGA, JFK, PIT, PHL DCA, RDU and CLT. Something has got to give in that mix.
That's for sure. I think JFK is safe as the premier international gateway. LGA and DCA both safe for the shear volume of O&D business traffic. So it would be between PIT, PHL, RDU, and CLT. Since CLT is so huge now, it may be safe vs. RDU. PHL may lose some, sandwiched between NY and WAS....PIT has been losing for years, but geographically speaking is in the best location for a 'hub' between all those others.....so who knows?

Especially in light of the 'tail-wagging-the-dog', US Air taking over AA. Previous mergers all favored AA when taking over others....
 
While the overlapping routes are likely to be among the first to see cuts in service frequency, a AA - US Airways merger will lead to even more industry consolidation..
So who do you think will be the next to consolidate? Southwest? Jetblue? Alaska? Frontier? Not many left, other than the regionals.....
I think Southwest got its share of merger when it took over AirTran. There were some rumors about Frontier and Spirit thinking of a merger, no idea why and what came of that. Although I would have guessed JetBlue and Frontier would make a good match (both trying to make their mark as relatively "fun" youthful airlines) rather than Spirit whose sole purpose of survival is to grab the bottom feeder extremely price conscious market and pack them into cramped planes.
 
RDU barely has any non-hub routes. In fact, once you merge the two networks, London would be the only non-hub route (and I'm almost certain that route is for some corporate contract AA has, otherwise it wouldn't make any sense at all to maintain it).

PIT only has 3 or 4 non-hub routes, and as far as I can tell they're all on regional carriers (I'm actually surprised they still have that many). I thought US Airways was pulling out of LGA except for a few flights/routes, having traded most of their slots to Delta for DCA slots instead. Searching their website, their only non-hub routes from LGA are Augusta, ME and Louisville, KY. There's also a PIT flight or two.
How do you define a 'hub-route', versus a 'non-hub route'? If they are both into or out of a hub....be it a 'focus city' or a 'fortress-hub'?To my way of thinking, a 'non-hub route' is one that goes direct from one city to another, neither being a 'hub'...........
I mean routes from RDU that don't go to another hub. The only ones they currently operate are to National Airport (DC), and to London. If we assume that National Airport would still be a hub, then the only other flight out of Raleigh that doesn't serve an AA hub would be London. In other words, it would really just be a spoke, not a hub or focus city of any sort.
 
The speculation consensus is that, of the existing AA/US hubs, PHX(US) and JFK(AA) may be the most at risk. AA"s hubs at DFW and LAX are likely safe. While there is decent O&D business at PHX, it does not match DFW or LAX. Those hubs are just too important. That makes PHX the odd hub out in the west. ORD likely stays in some form, but AA has always been second fiddle there to UA, so I could see it cut back to a focus. ORD is an expensive operation.

In the east, MIA(AA) will continue to be the primary gateway for South America, and CLT(US) provides the southeast access coveted by AA and is a strong competitor to DL at ATL. PHL has strong O&D and business flying, and the US TATL routes are highly profitable. As long as the City of Philadelphia does not push too hard for a high priced airport reconstruction, PHL should be solid.

JFK could see a cutback since it does not make much sense to operate two TATL gateways 90 miles apart, and JFK (and NYC in general) is loaded with international competition. The shuttle ops at BOS, LGA and DCA will stay (they still make tons of money for US), plus DCA also has a pretty strong domestic non-stop route structure, which gets noticed and appreciated in a politically important city.
 
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