TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin AA changes - new fare class maybe

I thought CLT was bad at $740. It would be worth driving to CLT from Wilimington for that price difference.

Patty, just a clarification - it was officially called a merger - but in reality, US Air took over American, not American taking over US Air as most of the US Air Sr Leadership team stayed in place and are now running the combined company They kept American's name because it had a higher value with a broader customer base, but then started turning it into "US Air", just with AA's name.

Here is a recap on the report of the "merger":

In January 2012, US Airways Group, the parent company of US Airways, expressed interest in taking over AMR Corporation, the parent company of American Airlines.[7] In March, AMR's CEO Tom Horton said that the company was open to a merger.[9] US Airways (US) told some American Airlines (AA) creditors that merging the two carriers could yield more than $1.5 billion a year in added revenue and cost savings.[10] On April 20, American Airlines' three unions said they supported a proposed merger between the two airlines.[11] Under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, American Airlines had been looking to merge with another airline. Earlier in July, a bankruptcy court filing stated that US Airways was an American Airlines creditor and "prospective merger partner"; on August 31, US Airways CEO Doug Parker announced that American Airlines and US Airways had signed a nondisclosure agreement, in which they would discuss the possibility of a merger.[12]

In February 2013, American Airlines and US Airways announced plans to merge, creating, by some measurements, the largest airline in the world. In the deal, which was expected to close in the third quarter of 2013, stakeholders of AMR would own 72% of the company and US Airways shareholders would own the remaining 28%. The combined airline will carry the American Airlines name and branding; the holding company will be renamed American Airlines Group Inc.[13] [color:"black"]The US Airways' management team, including CEO Doug Parker, will retain most operational management positions.[/color] The headquarters for the new airline will also be consolidated at American's current headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas.[14][15] US Airways will exit Star Alliance upon completion of the merger, and American will retain its Oneworld alliance. Judge Sean Lane approved the merger on March 27, 2013, but declined to approve a proposed $20 million severance package to AA executive Thomas W. Horton.[16] On July 12, US Airways shareholders approved the proposed merger.[17]

My time to vent.
I agree 100% AA sucks. It has gotten much worse since the merger.
Unfortunately if you are trying to fly from west coast ( LA for us) to the Caribbean in 1 day with relatively reasonable connection, they have you by the B... ( especially for the return leg).
We usually take the red eye from LA, getting to the Caribbean in early afternoon and leave with their early AM departure getting back to LA in early evening.

Pat can relate to this:
Since the merger, there has at least monthly changes to our flight. (sometimes 2-3x/ month). We usually buy our tickets at least 6 months ahead. This has happen to us every time for the past 4 years in a row. In the process we have lost our premium seats that we paid extra for. Especially for the last leg of our trip from MIA to LAX that departs at 2 PM. This has gotten so bad for the past couple of years that I have been checking my itinerary on weekly basis to stay ahead of their unannounced changes. I have had to adjust our seats/ flight several times to keep up with them. Now even that does not work any more. I bought our April SXM 4 tickets, back in May of last year. I got a good price on 1st/ business class so I bought it quickly. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Groovin.gif" alt="" /> They have changed the flight number/ plane type several times <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/smashpc.gif" alt="" />, however I was able to adjust until Christmas time. For my Christmas present, They canceled my MIA>> LAX 1:50 flight. They replaced it with a flight with the exact same plane/ equipment now leaving at 1:45. ( they put the other couple we are traveling with on this flight.) But they put us on a later flight with an additional 4 hour layover. Also our flight from SXM now arrives an hour earlier as well. So all of sudden I have an additional 5 hour layover in MIA for total of 7.25 hour layover. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/smashpc.gif" alt="" /> It takes less time for me to fly from anywhere in Europe to LAX than what they put me on . I called several times, talk to multiple agent and supervisor. They told me that now they did not have any first class seats available on the newly created 1:45 flight. (although I was the first person buying the tickets in May, because the entire first class was open back then and I could choose any seats, and had 4 confirmed seats and it was exact plane type). They could not explain that. Although one agent told me they might have previously sold more first class tickets that they had seats, and when the flight canceled and recreated on the different flight number, other passengers with higher status than me might have been assigned the 1st class seats by the computer system. My choices were to have 7.25 hour layover in MIA or voluntary downgrade myself in order to get on the 1:45 flight which I ended up doing. ( the sad part is they pretended they were doing me a huge favor by assigning me to main cabin extra seats rather than plain economy. Although I had first class tickets <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" />)

These days I try my hardest to avoid AA. But the return portion is nearly impossible. AA has early morning flight from most Caribbean destination connecting through MIA and getting me back to LAX around 4:30 PM. Non of the other airline offer this. ( the best they can do is get me back to LA around 1 AM. Since I have kids in school and try to stay in the islands as long as possible, this is Not an option). I have explored to get 2 separate 1 way tickets, which I might do in the near future. But my biggest problem with AA is the return portion.


I have a life time 850+K miles with AA, but I still cancelled my AA Citi CC back in 2011, after being unable to book anything with my FF miles on their site for 5 years for the flights I was interested in (except using the super expensive option of any time miles). I got the Card again in late 2012 when they came up with their new CITI AA card that had few perks . At the launch of the new card, they offered priority check in and boarding and 1 free checked bag,... Although I knew I could not use the miles, I got it for the perks and figured it would pay for itself if I just use it for my AA tickets. However within a few months the priority boarding became Group 1 boarding , And 2.5 years ago free checked bag, became free check bag for domestic flights only. Needless to say I canceled the card shortly after.

This past summer time for our Aruba trip, I took United from Orange County>>Newark>> AUA>> Houston>>OC and it was very nice.

I forgot something else.
In their great wisdom, several years ago AA canceled their LAX>> SJU weekend Nonstop seasonal flights.
This was very nice option to fly to Caribbean. It left around Midnight from LAX, arriving at SJU at 9AM (Fri and Saturday night from Dec through April) and returning from SJU on Saturday and Sunday morning at 11 AM arriving back at LAX at 3:30 PM.
This saved us atleast 3 hours each way to anywhere in Caribbean.
These flights used to be very expensive and it was always completely booked at least 3 months prior to the flight.

Leave it AA to get rid of very popular and profitable route. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" />

Hey, glad you learned how to edit your post. Just wanted to make sure people understood where you were referring to.

Regarding the USAir/AA merger...I don't personally see how is has benefitted many people. Way back when, USAir was a smaller regional airline. They actually had a hub in Dayton OH with many non-stops, even to the West coast available. Through many mergers and many years they are now huge and just like any of the other big carriers, maybe worse in many cases.

I just booked our May flights on AA from DFW to SXM and paid the most I have ever paid at $800pp.

At one time AA ruled the Caribbean flights to everywhere and good flights and times , since all the buyout and mergers they have gone down in quality and flights . We used to only use AA for all our trips over 40 years , we can no longer get to SXM on the same day in November and in hi season you have to leave at 6 am and get there at 9 pm about a 8 hour lay over the same for any flight to Mexico . They have lost us a customers we would only use them as a last resort , and never to fly out of the country coming back through Miami that is the Pits .
I know they are looking at the bottom line when the merge they see all of the others companies customers and they later wonder where they have gone answere to better service , route , price is a reason but service and route times are more important . I wish AA get there head out of there [censored] they were a good airline at one time .

I usually start looking at our flights for November around this time, and all I can find on AA (pretty much our only option) is a refundable fare in the main cabin at over $2,300 per ticket. I can get non-refundable business class for $1,200 per ticket. I wonder why there are no non-refundable fares available for the main cabin.

This past year there were no N/S AA flights JFK-SXM on Saturday Dec 10. Not that I would have booked them anyway. I wondered what AA was thinking.

Certainly, this has not been our experience. Before the merger, I would be able to get low miles award tickets for first class tickets from RIC to SXM pretty easily if I got online immediately after dates opened. After merger, regardless of how early I try to act, there never seem to be any low mile award tickets available for RIC to SXM when we would like to go. And, even when there appear to be some decent award miles numbers shown, the connections offered for those are ridiculous. I have been buying the tickets to SXM and using miles for other trips.

I still regret the USAir-Piedmont deal - I try to avoid thinking about how lousy the USAir-American deal has been for us.