US Airways/American Airlines merger -"talks in advanced stages"

[deacphan]

As far as CLT goes, I think they ultimately will cease almost all direct international flights. There's just too many options via the AA hubs in Miami and New York for the new airline to use Charlotte for direct flights to London and the Caribbean.

oh man. my fiance's fam got a place in belize for this reason.

 

[TBR]

It's much cheaper to operate out of CLT than MIA. If the merger goes through, will be interesting to see how the new new American shifts flights between the two. I don't know just a whole lot about routing, but it seems to me that CLT should be a big part of the combined airline. PHL is the obvious loser, I can't see American continuing to operate it as a major hub. It simply doesn't make sense to invest a lot in both NYC and PHL, and, while NYC is hotly contested, there's still huge money in it. I see a lot of domestic non-stops out of PHL, but not much international at all. More of a focus city than a hub.

 

[PhDeac]

It's much cheaper to operate out of CLT than MIA. If the merger goes through, will be interesting to see how the new new American shifts flights between the two. I don't know just a whole lot about routing, but it seems to me that CLT should be a big part of the combined airline. PHL is the obvious loser, I can't see American continuing to operate it as a major hub. It simply doesn't make sense to invest a lot in both NYC and PHL, and, while NYC is hotly contested, there's still huge money in it. I see a lot of domestic non-stops out of PHL, but not much international at all. More of a focus city than a hub.

GoNiners, is that you?

 

[Liquid Karma]

It's much cheaper to operate out of CLT than MIA. If the merger goes through, will be interesting to see how the new new American shifts flights between the two. I don't know just a whole lot about routing, but it seems to me that CLT should be a big part of the combined airline. PHL is the obvious loser, I can't see American continuing to operate it as a major hub. It simply doesn't make sense to invest a lot in both NYC and PHL, and, while NYC is hotly contested, there's still huge money in it. I see a lot of domestic non-stops out of PHL, but not much international at all. More of a focus city than a hub.

My guess is that CLT and PHL will still be hubs, just mostly for domestic travel. There will still be a massive volume of travel for the combined airline. My point is that CLT, and possibly PHL, will see their number of direct international flights greatly diminished because of the 2 major international hubs that American already has on the east coast.

 

[nomadic]

About the only thing I like about AA is their million miler program. You get lifetime gold status, which is pretty sweet.

US Air gives you lifetime Silver status, which isn't shit. I should hit the million mile mark in the next 2-3 years, so I'm hoping American will honor the accumulated miles from US Air.

My grandfather is million miler..despite flying only 8-12 times a year now he still gets all the Gold Club perks. He enjoys it.

 

[PhDeac]

Good discussion of mergers on Diane Rehm right now.

 

[TBR]

My guess is that CLT and PHL will still be hubs, just mostly for domestic travel. There will still be a massive volume of travel for the combined airline. My point is that CLT, and possibly PHL, will see their number of direct international flights greatly diminished because of the 2 major international hubs that American already has on the east coast.

I don't doubt that there will be international cutbacks for clt, but could definitely still see flights to Europe originating there. Not to the Carribean or Latin America though.

 

[TBR]

Saw a bit of coverage on CNN that heavily implied that this was happening because it would activate AA CEO's golden parachute. Complete garbage to anyone who has at all followed this though. Horton fought it as long as he could, but labor has been quite supportive. Guess the real story wouldn't rile up as many people.