slcdeltarumd11 wrote:Everyone needs to take a deep breathe here. The timing is not a disaster at all and contrary to previous posts BTV-DFW connects to lots of cities. It offers connections to all the largest o&d western cities. There is an entire departure "bank" at DFW 1025-1045pm with a generous and safe layover. The DFW-BTV flight connects to ALL the largest o&d cities and even some smaller cities that one stop flights are not that easy.
DEN, COS, ABQ, SLC, LAS, LAX, SAN, SFO, RNO, PDX,SEA, SMF, GEG, IAH, AUS, SAT, ELP just to give you some of the flights this flight feeds to at DFW all with solid layover times! There is an entire departure bank this flight feeds into perfectly. AA isnt dumb this flight is timed perfectly for a departure "bank" with a nice safe layover.
Its hard to get one stop flights to cities out west, this is still a great flight to BTV and i think the timing is good. I cant spend the whole day flying, this timing is ideal and gets you on western time. If we support it, maybe we can get it to year round or more days of the week. I think this is ideal timing for going out west. I and most people are not retirees who can afford an entire day to travel this gives us a nice PM option besides united to ORD to get out west later in the day. Having this flight as an evening arrival and am departure (the only other realistic alternative) would be dumb and AA knows what they are doing here. This flight serves a nice niche market and timing. This is good timing for this flight to start. Everything can change, lets support it
I don't think anyone here was saying there are -no- connections. Just that the timing for connections could be better.
The idea that the 1025-1045pm bank will get people out west "later in the day" is being generous. In fact, with this bank, for a lot of the western cities you name, you will get home
the next day. Take SMF: the flight arrives ~midnight. Once you collect bags and get transport to your destination, you're talking 1am or later. I don't know many people that want to get to their destination at 1am or later. Especially if you live in Vermont, that's 4am ET at minimum. The SEA flight would be far worse: It gets in at 12:39am.
Also, many cities of interest are excluded from the 1025-1045pm bank.
How about CUN, one of the biggest destinations in Mexico? Can't connect. Last nonstop leaves at 8:45pm.
How about SJO? Can't connect. Last nonstop leaves at 830pm.
How about SAF? Can't connect. Last nonstop leaves at 724pm.
In my personal case, I would have liked to support the flight by trying the 1-stop BTV-DFW-MRY. Again, the poor timing of BTV-DFW means I can't do it. Last nonstop DFW-MRY leaves at 724pm.