American Airlines cancelling some flights from Shannon Easter 2019

Gmm fan

Had flights booked from Shannon to Philadelphia and onward to Orlando for next Easter and recently got notification form American Airlines to say that they are cancelling the Shannon - Philadelphia route. Very annoying as all travel plans up in a heap 😡
Rant over but this tallies with what other posters have mentioned about routes / airlines being under pressure.

Thread split out from thread about closure of another airline

BZ

Gmm fan wrote: »

Had flights booked from Shannon to Philadelphia and onward to Orlando for next Easter and recently got notification form American Airlines to say that they are cancelling the Shannon - Philadelphia route. Very annoying as all travel plans up in a heap 😡
Rant over but this tallies with what other posters have mentioned about routes / airlines being under pressure.

This hasn't been formally announced and I understood the route was performing well. Is it a case the dates of operation have been changed for next year?

Gmm fan

Obviously not suggesting AA will be “next” but it’s piss poor practice to sell seats and let people make travel plans when in the background they are going “ho hum let’s see how many tickets we can sell before deciding whether to pull this route or not”
Worse again they were still selling seats to the general public on the pulled route even after we were informed it was pulled!

Shn99

Gmm fan wrote: »

Had flights booked from Shannon to Philadelphia and onward to Orlando for next Easter and recently got notification form American Airlines to say that they are cancelling the Shannon - Philadelphia route. Very annoying as all travel plans up in a heap ��
Rant over but this tallies with what other posters have mentioned about routes / airlines being under pressure.

Route isnt being pulled, Its beginning May 4th 2019 instead of April 4th like it had this year. S19 schedule had only been loaded by default before the changes were made. (They started in April this year as a tester but it didnt work out, so its being reverted back to May.)

Gmm fan

BZ wrote: »

This hasn't been formally announced and I understood the route was performing well. Is it a case the dates of operation have been changed for next year?

No change in dates.
Full refund or an unwanted long winded route. They wouldn't say a whole on the phone......

Shn99

Gmm fan wrote: »

No change in dates.
Full refund or an unwanted long winded route. They wouldn't say a whole on the phone......

There has been a change in dates. See my previous post

Gmm fan

Shn99 wrote: »

Route isnt being pulled, Its beginning May 4th 2019 instead of April 4th like it had this year. S19 schedule had only been loaded by default before the changes were made.

A far from good enough explanation for a company of that scale. Not shooting the messenger btw

LXFlyer

Gmm fan wrote: »

Obviously not suggesting AA will be “next” but it’s piss poor practice to sell seats and let people make travel plans when in the background they are going “ho hum let’s see how many tickets we can sell before deciding whether to pull this route or not”
Worse again they were still selling seats to the general public on the pulled route even after we were informed it was pulled!

The latter situation shouldn’t happen clearly, but you’re criticising a business for constantly reviewing the profitability of its product/service range?

If a route doesn’t perform to expectations, an airline can be faced with the choice of booking large losses or taking a smaller hit by pulling the route.

That’s not something that they’re going to know without selling it, and pulling it can be the least worst option. It’s not good for anyone who’s bought a ticket, but again the company could be guilty of reckless trading if they didn’t pull a route and it led to the company going under.

It’s a fine line!

LXFlyer

Gmm fan wrote: »

Had flights booked from Shannon to Philadelphia and onward to Orlando for next Easter and recently got notification form American Airlines to say that they are cancelling the Shannon - Philadelphia route. Very annoying as all travel plans up in a heap ��
Rant over but this tallies with what other posters have mentioned about routes / airlines being under pressure.

Airline timetables switch between winter and summer at the clock change weekends each year in March and October.

They tend to be finalised roughly 4-5 months before those dates, and prior to that they all tend to just upload the previous year’s schedule.

It is worth bearing that in mind when booking flights, particularly seasonal routes close to the timetable change weekends.

Shn99

Gmm fan wrote: »

No change in dates.
Full refund or an unwanted long winded route. They wouldn't say a whole on the phone......

Did they say that the route was being axed altogether on the email? If they have then theyre giving the false impression that the routes gone altogether and could hurt future bookings...

Gmm fan

Shn99 wrote: »

Did they say that the route was being axed altogether on the email? If they have then theyre giving the false impression that the routes gone altogether and could hurt future bookings...

They never mentioned the change in dates, just that the flight wasn’t operating.
When asked if aa were pulling from Shannon you just got an I don’t have that information right now......

I understand the commercial basis for the decision they have made but they Shouldn’t be selling seats before knowing what their schedule will be for the season. To put it in context flights booked in second half of August and informed of the change less than 3 weeks later.

Also expecting people who don’t fly trans Atlantic often to be aware that the airlines entire schedule can shift by a month is a bit much.

It is what it is however and interesting to hear other peoples take on how these decisions are arrived at.