PWM has a pair of A319s on the CLT route and I believe an A321 at some point. MHT just started a lone A319, and I think BTV will trial one as well for a six-week period.

Can someone with AA explain this curious move, happening as air traffic seasonally trends downward?

PWM-CLT has seen mainline for years now.

CLT-MHT now has mainline seasonally, but IIRC I’m pretty sure the route had mainline service years ago.

I'm glad to see that CLT-BTV is doing well-especially considering that many on here assumed the route would be a failure.

If I had a guess, I would say it probably has something to do with a combination of the draw-down of Air Wisconsin CRJ flying and Piedmont Dash-8 flying causing shifts throughout the system. I would suspect there will be many adjustments in the northeast especially over the next few months as everything settles out.

I have been wanting to ask this question but it wasn’t worth a new thread: does AA fly premium bed seat aircraft transcontinental from places like Philly or Boston, etc?
I never fly AA and I am curious about their premium transcontinental flights. I have heard they have a great premium service from JFK, just wondering about the rest. Thx!!!

They are also restarting PWM LGA after many years. Enjoy the push!

brooklynchris13 wrote:

If I had a guess, I would say it probably has something to do with a combination of the draw-down of Air Wisconsin CRJ flying and Piedmont Dash-8 flying causing shifts throughout the system. I would suspect there will be many adjustments in the northeast especially over the next few months as everything settles out.

I agree with this. Also what is the frequency level compared to previous years? I noticed that AA has a few mainline aircraft on flights from PHL that I have not seen in the past (PHL-DTW, AUS, STL, BDL, MSP, etc.). I suspect it is a result of the factors mentioned above plus the seasonal frequency draw down.

I can't say that I have much of an idea what AA is doing with this now. As already stated, AA has been running A319s on PWM-CLT for years, which as far as I can remember is the largest aircraft ever scheduled on the route. Bumping up to an A321 is unprecedented, even if temporary. I don't think anyone had scheduled mainline on PWM-CLT before AA started doing it a few years ago. I have often wondered why AA hasn't bumped the MHT-CLT to at least an A319. US used to run multiple mainline on the route, including the A321. The 734 was such a mainstay on the route that I'd bet if they never retired the 734, they would probably still be running that today. Mainline on BTV-CLT is a bit of a surprise to me. I thought loads on current craft were in the low 80%s, enough to call a success, but a bit low to up-gauge.

All that said, schedulers seem to know what they are doing. I've seen one-off 737-800s running in place of CRJs, and going out full. They also seem to know that down-gauging to single-class RJs and Dash-8s kill demand so they don't need to worry about equalizing seat count on frequency.

usairways85 wrote:

brooklynchris13 wrote:

If I had a guess, I would say it probably has something to do with a combination of the draw-down of Air Wisconsin CRJ flying and Piedmont Dash-8 flying causing shifts throughout the system. I would suspect there will be many adjustments in the northeast especially over the next few months as everything settles out.

I agree with this. Also what is the frequency level compared to previous years? I noticed that AA has a few mainline aircraft on flights from PHL that I have not seen in the past (PHL-DTW, AUS, STL, BDL, MSP, etc.). I suspect it is a result of the factors mentioned above plus the seasonal frequency draw down.

I believe I've seen PHL-CMH/PVD/CHS/MCI recently as I pass through the terminal. A chunk of those are now available with the reduction of E190 on the Shuttle and then add a A319 here and there. Depending on season, they'll rotate between mainline and Eagle and SAT returns on the A319 this coming spring.

VC10er wrote:

I have been wanting to ask this question but it wasn’t worth a new thread: does AA fly premium bed seat aircraft transcontinental from places like Philly or Boston, etc?
I never fly AA and I am curious about their premium transcontinental flights. I have heard they have a great premium service from JFK, just wondering about the rest. Thx!!!

Interesting you ask this now because AA will have the 3-class A321 on one of the LAX-BOS flights for several weeks over the holiday season.

In the past it has been flown between LAX and YYZ. JFK-BOS sees the 3-class aicraft on a regular basis too, but it seems F is sold as first class and the rest of the plane is sold as Y.

I just flew on the CLT-BTV, had 43 passengers on the E175.

I think DL operates mainline on ATL-BTV as well (maybe seasonal, I can't remember). Wondering if AA monitored this performance since CLT essentially serves the same passenger demographic as ATL does for the Northeast which are connections to destinations in the Southeast (Florida).

incitatus wrote:

VC10er wrote:

I have been wanting to ask this question but it wasn’t worth a new thread: does AA fly premium bed seat aircraft transcontinental from places like Philly or Boston, etc?
I never fly AA and I am curious about their premium transcontinental flights. I have heard they have a great premium service from JFK, just wondering about the rest. Thx!!!

Interesting you ask this now because AA will have the 3-class A321 on one of the LAX-BOS flights for several weeks over the holiday season.

In the past it has been flown between LAX and YYZ. JFK-BOS sees the 3-class aicraft on a regular basis too, but it seems F is sold as first class and the rest of the plane is sold as Y.

From 15 DEC - 07JAN AA flight 333 is sold as a 3 class trans-con A321.

CLT-PWM on A321 is indeed an eye opener. But PWM's traffic has increased. Mainline to MHT used to be very common 10-15 years ago. That has decreased.

When I was at the AA gate boarding Saturday for ORD, the gate adjacent was the A321 to LAX. So that trial has apparently already started. I do notice a huge difference between the A321s acquired via US and those AA bought new. Quite a difference (the AA-purchased ones much nicer).

I think AA is also slowly Atlanta--fying FLY as well. I think over time you'll see significant increase in seats per departure. Though probably not a huge growth in total seats.

incitatus wrote:

VC10er wrote:

I have been wanting to ask this question but it wasn’t worth a new thread: does AA fly premium bed seat aircraft transcontinental from places like Philly or Boston, etc?
I never fly AA and I am curious about their premium transcontinental flights. I have heard they have a great premium service from JFK, just wondering about the rest. Thx!!!

Interesting you ask this now because AA will have the 3-class A321 on one of the LAX-BOS flights for several weeks over the holiday season.

In the past it has been flown between LAX and YYZ. JFK-BOS sees the 3-class aicraft on a regular basis too, but it seems F is sold as first class and the rest of the plane is sold as Y.

I was so surprised that AA would operate the 321T on the JFK-BOS route, but I did see it in BOS this summer one day. I am also surprised that the rest of the plane is sold a Y. I just took a cursory look at AA's BOS-JFK route and they only sell the F, and Y class seats. They don't give customers the option of purchasing a business class seat.

This February AA is sending E190s on the MHT-PHL route CLT goes back to 3 CRJ900s.

chrisnh wrote:

When I was at the AA gate boarding Saturday for ORD, the gate adjacent was the A321 to LAX. So that trial has apparently already started. I do notice a huge difference between the A321s acquired via US and those AA bought new. Quite a difference (the AA-purchased ones much nicer).

Unless you were inside and saw the cabin configuration (or knew the fleet number) the A321S and A321T look the same from the outside as both have Sharklets (which the LUS fleet lacks).

The LAX service on the 321T will operate 12/17/17-1/5/18. However, for some time now there has been A321T to JFK.

its not just a trend in New England for mainline upgrades to CLT. Last week I noticed mainline additions to previous all RJ's routes to/from CLT from OKC, TUL, & PNS. And even AUS, which used to be a mix of RJ/mainline to CLT is now all mainline.

As someone mentioned, I think we are kind of seeing the "Atlanta-fication" of AA at CLT as DL has done at ATL with running mainline flights (generally the early departure from the outbound station) into CLT. Delta has had a lot of success with this from ATL in the past few years and I think AA has taken note, which is a good thing for customers (more seats, larger aircraft not as cramped).

VC10er wrote:

I have been wanting to ask this question but it wasn’t worth a new thread: does AA fly premium bed seat aircraft transcontinental from places like Philly or Boston, etc?
I never fly AA and I am curious about their premium transcontinental flights. I have heard they have a great premium service from JFK, just wondering about the rest. Thx!!!

Apparently AA will be using some of the internationally configured 757s on transcons from BOS/JFK/MIA-LAX starting in June of next year.

N62NA wrote:

VCARD 10er wrote:

I have been wanting to ask this question but it wasn’t worth a new thread: does AA fly premium bed seat aircraft transcontinental from places like Philly or Boston, etc?
I never fly AA and I am curious about their premium transcontinental flights. I have heard they have a great premium service from JFK, just wondering about the rest. Thx!!!

Apparently AA will be using some of the internationally configured 757s on transcons from BOS/JFK/MIA-LAX starting in June of next year.

They will not be used on JFK-LAX and the launch routes will be JFK-SEA and JFK-SAN.

US Airways operated the A319 (Winter upgauge to A321) for many, many years. I saw them my first Winter in PWM in 2008/2009.

The A321 may have been only one day a week, but it was definitely regular.

BDL has a bunch of AA 737's, A321's, A320's, and A319's. If you fly out early enough in the morning there's about 4 737's, 2 A321's, an A320/A319, and a couple RJ's.

MAH4546 wrote:

N62NA wrote:

VCARD 10er wrote:

I have been wanting to ask this question but it wasn’t worth a new thread: does AA fly premium bed seat aircraft transcontinental from places like Philly or Boston, etc?
I never fly AA and I am curious about their premium transcontinental flights. I have heard they have a great premium service from JFK, just wondering about the rest. Thx!!!

Apparently AA will be using some of the internationally configured 757s on transcons from BOS/JFK/MIA-LAX starting in June of next year.

They will not be used on JFK-LAX and the launch routes will be JFK-SEA and JFK-SAN.

So why didn't you say that in the other topic devoted to this?