AA website changes
 

I don't know when they changed it but the 3 options for booking flights (AA only, AA & OneWorld, all carriers) is no longer available. I don't like it and don't know why they made the change.

AA hasn't removed the option.

<i>"Flight searches can contain flights from the following list of carriers. "</i>

And then the website goes on to explain: <i>"Let AA.com be your source for booking flights throughout the world. In addition to flights on American Airlines, American Eagle and AmericanConnection®, you can book travel with the following carriers on AA.com:

oneworld Alliance Partners:
airberlin
British Airways†
Cathay Pacific Airways
Dragonair
Iberia Airlines†
JAL Express
J-Air
Japan Airlines†
Japan Transocean Air
LAN Airlines
LAN Argentina
LAN Ecuador
LAN Express
LAN Peru
NIKI
Qantas Airways
Royal Jordanian
S7 Airlines

Other Airlines:
Aer Lingus
AeroMexico
Air France
Air Pacific
Air Tahiti Nui
Alaska Airlines
Brussels Airlines
Cape Air
Czech Airlines
Continental Airlines
Copa Airlines
Delta Air Lines
EgyptAir
EL AL
Emirates Airlines
Etihad Airways
Frontier Airlines
GOL Airlines
Great Lakes Airlines
Gulf Air
Hawaiian Airlines
Icelandair
Jet Airways
Jet Blue*
Kenya Airways
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
Lufthansa
Malaysia Airlines
Meridiana fly
OpenSkies
Pakistan International Airlines
Philippine Airlines
Pluna
Singapore Airlines
SWISS
TAM
United Airlines
US Airways
WestJet "</i>

Yeah, the option is gone for me, too. Now only what used to be choice #3 is what is used. Wonder why?

http://www.aa.com/reservation/searchFlightsSubmit.do

Scroll to the bottom. Read what it says:
<i>"Flight searches can contain flights from the following list of carriers. "</i> The list is above, in my first response.

Before you had to select an option in order to include a search of other carriers. Now it is done automatically.

Depending upon your destination, if you want to see a larger choice of flights including other carriers on routes which are well-served by AA, change the <i>"Number of Flights to Display:"</i> to the maximum available.

If you are searching from the AA home page, click on <i>"More Flight Search Options"</i> to see the above page. But it doesn't matter which page you use to start your search, both will return the same flights, without your requesting to include other carriers.

PS, I imagine they did it because it further simplifies the process

AA's booking engine always defaults to, or weighs in favor of AA metal or AA-partner metal, so I don't regard this as much of a loss, even though the functionality is technically still there.

Use "choose flight times" instead of price/time options, and put in as many flights to search as possible, e.g. 40 or 50, and you might see itineraries with no AA or partner metal flights at all. But don't count on it.

AA, along with other airline websites, is always trying to "upgrade" their appearance to meet the times.

I've participated in several paid AA forums where you are able to decide the look and feel of each of the main web pages. Have they always accepted suggestions?, no.

julia, I'm familiar with AA (more than any other airline) since it is the only viable option from my local airport. As Nofly also mentioned, they have recently removed the option. In fact I think their search engine is worse than it used to be. Some of the combinations shown are useless and shouldn't be included.

Gardy and Rasta, I know they favor their own flights and it is possible to choose a larger set of results. IMHO, the older version was better but obviously AA thinks differently. I called them to ask about this change and the rep had not heard and kept telling me to choose "more options" from the menu.

esm - Have you noticed that AA is bankrupt and being pursued by US Airways?

When you are being pursued as a company, particularly when you are in a place of weakness, your best option is to close ranks and try and generate as much revenue as possible.

Yes Rasta but I was hoping they would reorganize and recover. We've heard they may cut regional jet service to smaller airports which means we'd have to travel to Chicago for all flights.

The 3 options are back on AA!