American Airlines - AArrivederci legroom
 

If you're planning to fly on American Airlines to get decent leg room in coach to/from Europe next year, time to consider your options.

CEO Gerard Arpey today: "When we launched More Room Throughout Coach, healthy yields and robust business travel were the norm, and both conditions were essential to the success of More Room,"

"However, times have changed, and we must acknowledge that in today's low-fare environment, having fewer seats on our aircraft has put us at a real revenue disadvantage compared to other airlines."

Translated - Less Room Throughout Coach.

Given (in many people's opinion) that the AA coach product and routes were otherwise pretty mediocre-to-average, this would seem to remove the last incentive to preferring AA's service over the competition.

If comfort (or, frankly, your health) on long flights matters to you, and you haven't got the miles or shillings to upgrade, here's a good link for comparisons of legroom on most airlines: http://www.airlinequality.com/Product/seat_intro.htm

I would also expect someone in the industry to respond with more "premium economy" seating at modest price bumps, a la United's and British Air's configurations.

My personal view as a frequent AA customer with modest holdings of status and miles is that it's looking a lot like Amtrak or British Rail in the 1970s. How long will the Dominion of the Accountants last?

Between the recent changes to upgrade for miles policy on AA and the return to LRTC, this somewhat frequent flyer (generally three flights to Europe per year) has no incentive to fly exclusively on AA, as I have for the past several years. I'm trying to view these changes as providing me the opportunity to try out other airlines, especially those who offer "premium economy" such as BA and United.

Well, this really bothers me because we have flown AA on our last 3 trips to Europe and Hawaii just because of the extra legroom, even when the price was a little higher. In fact, I just got a new Citibank AAdvantage Mastercard to start accummulating miles faster.

OK, so it might not do any good, but I sent a complaint to American about this change and encourage others to do the same. Maybe if enough people say they won't choose AA without the extra legroom, they will back off. Just go to www.aa.com and look under Contact Us to send them an email. It couldn't hurt.

The extra legroom is the reason that I choose to fly with AA instead of Continental, which would be more convenient for me, I live in Texas.
I have already bought the tickets with AA for my trip to Europe, however,next time I will choose a different airline ..

I think they did this sometime last summer, and for more flights than just to/from Europe. I read that they also took away the leg room on certain planes to Mexico or the Caribbean. I just bought a ticket last week for a RT from Washington DC to Cancun and might have bought an AA ticket even thought the times were a less convenient than Continental (which is what I did buy) IF they still had more leg room. When I read they didn't any more on the plane for the flight I wanted, I didn't consider them.

I don't understand AA's position since the idea of that was to get customers, I thought (is that what healthy yield means?). If they make the space smaller and lose an advantage, how is that going to increase their yield? Maybe I don't know what yield means in that lingo, but they were only a little cheaper than Continental on my route, which wasn't enough for me to buy them with no other incentive.

I'll continue to fly with AA -going to London in a couple of weeks. Legroom not a major concern. I'm out of the seat on a regular basis to stretch. Going to London makes up for less room.

Well, because of several back surgeries, it's especially difficult for me to get comfortable on a plane, even with medication. The extra legroom defintely helps because your knees aren't crammed into the seat in front of you.

I had read that some time ago AA did cut back on the extra legroom in coach on domestic flights but was still offering it on international flights. Now it seems they will have it on neither.

Point taken. It would be time to check the other airlines to see what gives you the best option. I've never had an uncomfortable flight in my life. The long trips have never bothered me. Coach is fine with me.

For the average Joe/Jane the good days of roominess in coach on AA are over.

I still can't complain. Domestically and (Canada, Mexico, Caribbean, Bermuda) I get free upgrades, and internationally I do get 8 free certs to upgrade, so for this top elite at least, things have improved, but I do feel for everybody else (also because I see myself dropping to lower elite level in 2006), and I also don't understand their thinking. That was THE ONLY THING that made AA stand out amongst the majors, now it's all the same.

The Arpey team that took over AA is full of accountants, short on marketing people. I hope for their sake that extra $1000-2000 on a flight does make a difference (<b>when it actually happens</b>) and it does NOT loose the customers they have NOW!!!

Can somebody explain to me how overcapacity leads to adding seats???

AA management is saying that the market still has too many seats, and yet they add more seats????

Am I missing something?

The lack of leg room isn't paraticularly a problem for me, as I'm fairly short. But that IS a problem is trying to twist into and out of the seats: not good for back and knee problems. That's where the lack of space between seats presents difficulties.

AAFF

I remember a story on NBC news a few years ago. After Denver opened their new airport they found they weren't using all their runways. The city found it had an extra $10 million sitting around and they decided to add another runway to the airport! And this would be just a downpayment as the total cost of a new runway was $70 million.

Removing planes from the fleet and adding seats back to the remaining planes means the same number of seats (more or less) divided by fewer takeoff/landing cycles = lower operating costs per available seat mile. But lower operating costs per available seat mile is not the same thing as revenue per available seat mile (RASM). For the numbers to balance one must maintain constant revenue for the sum of available seats. But the degradation of the <i>quality</i> of the product (and that's the part being missed IMO by the yield management people) is directly linked to the <i>quantity</i> of the available product in this case. If the number of total flights is then lowered (which it will be according to GARPey) it means pax will have fewer, less comfortable AA flights. I don't see how, then, the assumption that total number of boardings will remain constant, which is the factor required to hold the RASM line, is likely when the per-passenger experience is so impaired.

People aren't idiots - they'll vote with their butts and go for an overcrowded, pretzels-only airline that flies cheap where they want to go, rather than having to fly to Big D to get anywhere else. Why the hell should I fly to Dallas when I want to go to London or New York? In the past (like last month) I flew through Dallas because I had room for my legs in the back. Now I won't bother. Guess that gives them yet another available seat.

FWIW, the adding-back of seats to the planes that currently have MRTC will start just after the new year. The 777 fleet won't lose MRTC until autumn, so if you've booked tickets for next summer, make sure you're on a 777, otherwise. :(

I was planning to fly AA next June to Rome. When I look at AA's website, on the flights I want it says &quot;AA More Room.&quot; Does this mean that if I were to buy a ticket today under the premise of more leg room, they could change it? Is that even legal???

Jocelyn, what do you mean &quot;is that even legal&quot;? They aren't saying what it has more legroom than! In fact it is quite true that you will still have more legroom in AA coach than if you packed yourself in a cardboard box and traveled to Europe via UPS, but maybe not much more!

Thanks for the info, Gardyloo. We plan to fly to Frankfurt in May so maybe we'll stil get that extra legroom. Still don't know what to do about accummulating AA frequent flyer miles with that new MC that I've just paid $50 for. Oh well, I guess I'll just try to get a free ticket in my first year and then cancel after that. No sense paying extra if I can fly non stop on CO from Houston and end up with the same space.

Unfortunately, I have already bought my tickets for next year trip.. Cannot change them either..so I am stuck with AA..
After my trip, I will say : Au Revoir AA and Bonjour Continental..

I still think that all of you who are complaining should send your sentiments to AA directly. If enough people do this, then maybe they will rethink their position. Power to the people

Having flown both airlines, I prefer coach service on AA to first class on CO. Why? The service and food in CO's first class left a lot to be desired.

I booked air from LAX to Rome with AA because of the leg room. Not so much for me but my husband is 6'2&quot;.
Our last 5 flights have been on AA for that reason. After that flight it's back to flying with the cheapest airline.

I don't understand why more airlines don't have some seats with a little more leg room for those who need/want it and are willing to pay a reasonable amount for it. First class fares are absurd for most people.

Our next trip to Europe will be in &quot;premium economy &quot; on Zoom Airlines. For about 70 euro more per person per flight we get a 36 inch seat pitch and other goodies.