AA & US Merger It has been reported in the Financial Times today that the AA & US merger is imminent.

AA & US Merger

It has been reported in the Financial Times today that the AA & US merger is imminent. The boards of both companies are meeting this week to finalise merger terms. I was wondering if AUSBT would consider reporting on this once the story breaks, in particular:

1) The possible impact on Australian domiciled passengers of AA and US.

2) Impact on Aadvantage Members with regards to changes to the Aadvantage programme.

3) Impact of this merger to the Oneworld alliance and any possible changes to the relationship with Qantas.

Maybe slightly off topic, but here are my 2 cents......

AA being the bigger of the two airlines will probably be the dominent party. It has been reported that for the time being AA planes and crews will stay serving AA destinations and US planes and crews will keep serving the US destinations. It will take time to get the details worked out in terms of labour agreements, pilot and cabin attendants seniority, getting a joint operating license etc. As neither AA nor US fly to Australia again the impact will be limited in terms of flights (no flights can be scrapped). At the moment AA has codeshares with QF and US with UA for travel to and from the USA.

As AA is the bigger airline it is anticipated (and most likely) that US will leave Star Alliance and will join OW. As US is a fairly small player it will not mean that much of an impact, esp not for Australian travellers. AAdvantage scheme will be the new FF scheme with everything staying pretty much the same until the airlines and programs are merged.  AA has some excellent burn rates for travel which is good (how about a return on QF First Class to LAX for 135K miles, try getting the trip on QF miles and you pay around 280K miles). Relation between QF and AA will not change, much like the QF and EK alliance does not change the way you earn miles on BA. Changes to the award schemes are expected, but this is not directly related to the merger but more due to the fact that they were due for a revision.

In terms of relationship to oneworld, the thing they probably should review (though I hope they don't) is calling their crappy domestic Business class "First Class" And selling these "instant upgrade" seats. The problem being that they earn triple status credits at very low cost. Where else in the world can you get $2 per SC? 

I never understood the rationale for calling them first class in the first place since they are at best domestic business. Wonder how many have (like myself on occasion) only scrapped into oneworld emerald because of AA's domestic first class.

Don't worry! AusBT always has these things covered.

Indeed — David and I have been discussing this, but given that all signs point towards "USAmerican Airlineways" being AA with AAdvantage and oneworld, we're keeping an eye on it.

On the plus side: US Airways' A330 business class seats across the Atlantic earning me oneworld miles. Tops!

That's a good point! I forgot about that! Thanks! I wonder if those will be open to System Wide Upgrades (SWU)!

Or if they'll even maintain SWU! AA has one of the best SWU perks of any US carrier! The US FF programme by comparison is rubbish!

The hint, IMO, lies in the tail design of the new AA Livery.

According to the designers, the new AA design has been worked on for some time, before US Airways had been in the talks.

Fingers crossed that the MD-80/83's are scrapped

I believe thoes are being replaced by the new deliveries of 737-800s. Quite a number of flights once operated by the MD80 are now operated by 737-800, especially those during peak times.