AA says cheerio to Gatwick
 

American Airlines is apparently discontinuing nonstop flights to London Gatwick airport as of mid-April; all LGW flights will be moved to Heathrow.

If you have reservations to or through LGW you should contact AA to see about alternatives. It will be difficult for people connecting through LGW to British Airways flights to many points in southern Europe; unless BA moves your flights to LHR (which it is doing slowly but far from completely) you'll be faced with a cross-London airport transfer that's expensive, time-consuming, and frustrating.

Yes, they've pulled booking of AA78 DFW-LGW. But they haven't loaded the DFW-LHR schedule for AA78 yet.

And the other one affected is the daily from RDU.

Yes, I'm flying RDU-LHR instead of RDU-LGW in early April. Then I have to connect to BA out of LGW! So annoying - I'd much, much rather fly through LGW. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my one checked bag doesn't get lost. I wonder - is T5 on schedule, or is there any likelihood this might get delayed?

RDU was already announced for the move, as was one of the DFW flights. This is the last shoe dropping.

Truly a pain for itineraries to most of Italy, most tourist destinations in Spain, the Canaries, Croatia etc.

I assume a refund would be an option?

To answer thursday:

T5 is totally on schedule. This doesn't of course guarantee BA flights out of it for the first month after March 27 will go to plan.

But AA's move isn't really part of the T5 thing, since AA's going to be in T3 which is several miles from the new BA terminal. It's more to do with Open Skies, which lets them choose where they can fly from - if they're preparted to invest in getting Heathrow slots, which will be every bit as scarce with T5 built, since Heathrow's fully saturated.

Gatwick is fast turning into a South London hub for low-costs, paralleling Luton in North London, with a particular specialism in low-cost long-haul carriers. Far more important both to us and to the airline industry than the minor market in transfers to third-division bits of southern Europe from smaller American cities.

Hey all, I notice this morning that AA is doing JFK to STN - Stansted, North East of London.

I haven't looked at the frequence, but that's for starters!!

I think there's one flight a day to Stanstead from JFK...

Incidentally, they've already set up the new Underground service for the terminal 5 opening...the underground is now running as if Terminal 5 is open.

Since January, they've changed the pattern. Before, all Heathrow service on the Picadilly line upon leaving Hatton Cross went to Terminal 4 then continued to Terminal 1,2,3 where they waited for several minutes before going back to Hatton Cross and then on to Central London.

Since then, upon leaving Hatton Cross, trains now branch...one branch goes to Terminal 1,2,3, discharges its passengers and goes on to Terminal 5 (not open but the Underground station is) before turning to Terminal 1,2,3 back to Central London. The other branch from Hatton Cross goes to Terminal 4, waits there for 7 minutes and then begins its trip back to Central London with a stop at Terminal 1,2,3. Thus passengers using the Picadilly line to LHR have had their services, in effect, halved...you either take a train marked T123 (and after T5 open it will be marked T5) or T4 but all trains on the way back to Central London will stop at T123...it's just passengers alighting at either T4 or T5 will only have half the service they used to (of course they should have constructed it in such a way that all trans went from T4 to T5 to T123 to give everybody adequate service but I guess there was some reason they didn't do it that way!

I called AA reservations (using the platinum line) immediately after reading this post and was met with confusion only, even going to two levels of supervision.

While AA 78 on 18 July shows many seats available in all 3 classes, the AA computer shows it full to the reservationists.

The schedule shows only AA 51 going DFW-LHR on the same date, with no non-stop to Gatwick.

There is a seat map for AA 2978 (2900 flights are normally only specials, e.g. a flight with mechanical problems re-positioning the day following its scheduled departure.) but it is impossible to book a seat on the plane, a 767.

Once the computer catches up to the schedule I will advise. By that time, all Fodorite's carefully chosen seat assignments will, no doubt, be entirely messed up.

Does anyone know the actual date when AA stops flying into Gatwick? We have tickets to fly on AA78 out of DFW on April 23 to Gatwick connecting to a BA flight to Edinburgh...got any idea if this might actually work? Thanks for any heads up on this.

Probably depends on the flight. My flight out of RDU is on April 7th, but is going into LHR instead of LGW.

The last day with bookable seats DFW-LGW is April 12, so if you're booked on the 28th you will be going to Heathrow. I would contact AA and ask to be accommodated on a BA flight to EDI from LHR instead of LGW-EDI.

Sorry, you said the 23rd, not the 28th. Same story anyway.

This is doubly confusing because one of the snail-mail bits of spam from AA recently proclaimed "announcing new routes: new service to Gatwick!" It was not specific about routes or timing, but it caught my eye because of the RDU-LGW vs. RDU-LHR issue.

Gardyloo et al: does your info specify that ALL Gatwick connections have been discontinued?

According to a release posted by AA, the last flights to Gatwick from both DFW and RDU depart on 12 April. The last return flights depart from Gatwick on 13 April.

I was able to change from AA 78 to AA 2978 for 18 July this morning. In changing the flight to LHR, AA also changed the flight to a 767. I have to wonder if this flight is merely a slot holder and if it will be redesignated AA 78 after the flight to Gatwick is discontinued.

Interesting. I just checked, and my April 7th RDU to London flight is leaving a little earlier, but it shows LHR, not LGW. According to the reservation page on aa.com the last RDU-LGW flight currently scheduled leaves Mar 28th.

Have verified that the RDU-LGW route is changing, but still wonder what AA was "announcing" about "new routes to Gatwick."

AA174 from RDU definitely switches on 3/29 for the eastbound.

AA78 has last day to LGW on 4/13. However, from 4/14, this flight is listed on aa.com as AA2978 DFW-LHR, not AA78. Not sure why.

Here are most recent route changes:
http://tinyurl.com/2zqhpf

I'm trying to find the reference to "new" LGW service on line -- you'd think I imagined it if I didn't have the mailing from AA in my hand.