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A round-up of some of the airline news I’ve noticed over the past few days including American Airlines cancelling three of its routes out of Philadelphia, British Airways changing the aircraft it uses on its London – Washington DC route and United Airlines scheduling a brief flurry of 777 service between San Francisco and Las Vegas in January 2017.
American Airlines Philadelphia Cancellations
Image courtesy of Dominic Lacivita via Flickr
Before the merger with American Airlines Philadelphia was a major hub for US Airways but, since the airlines joined forces, it’s looking increasingly like Philly is taking a back seat to American’s other hubs.
The latest routes to be cancelled are hardly major but death by a thousand cuts is still death 🙂
[HT: Routes Online for highlighting these cancellations]
From February 2017 the following routes will no longer operate (schedules shown are for January 2017)
Philadelphia – Newark
AA3877 PHL 11:25 – 12:26 EWR (Daily service)
AA3893 PHL 16:56 – 17:57 EWR (Daily service)
AA3901 PHL 20:55 – 21:56 EWR (Daily service)
AA3869 EWR 08:50 – 09:41 PHL (Daily service)
AA3877 EWR 13:01 – 13:52 PHL (Daily service)
AA3893 EWR 18:26 – 19:20 PHL (Daily service)
Philadelphia – Binghamton
AA4817 PHL 13:10 – 14:16 BGM (Daily service)
AA4897 PHL 20:39 – 21:44 BGM (Daily service)
AA4795 BGM 08:30 – 09:35 PHL (Daily service)
AA4817 BGM 15:00 – 16:05 PHL (Daily service)
Philadelphia – Elmira
AA4855 PHL 13:10 – 14:18 ELM (Daily service)
AA4861 PHL 20:39 – 21:47 ELM (Daily service)
AA4801 ELM 08:35 – 09:35 PHL (Daily service)
AA4855 ELM 14:54 – 16:05 PHL (Daily service)
If you’re booked to fly on any of those routes after January 2017 you’ll should contact American Airlines asap if you haven’t already heard from them.
Also: American Airlines Delays The Introduction Of Basic Economy Fares
British Airways Aircraft Swap on Heathrow – Washington DC Route
From 26 March 2017 the 2x/day British Airways service between London Heathrow and Washington Dulles will be operated entirely by the airline’s Boeing 747-400 aircraft.
This move will see the 747 taking over the route from a combination of Airbus A380 and Boeing 777-200ER aircraft except for between 1 June and 30 July where, thank fully, the early flights out of London and Washington (BA217/BA216) will be operated by and Airbus A380.
BA217 LHR 10:50 – 13:50 IAD
BA293 LHR 17:20 – 20:25 IAD
BA216 IAD 18:30 – 06:50+1 day LHR
BA292 IAD 22:25 – 10:40+1 day LHR
This aircraft swap could make quite a bit of difference to people’s plans so be sure to check your reservations if you’re scheduled to fly this route with BA.
Those originally scheduled to fly in the A380 will see the biggest drop in quality if they now find themselves in the 747.
- The First Class cabin on the A380 is noticeably better than the First Class cabin on the 747…although the 747 may feel a bit more exclusive due to it more compact nature.
- The British Airways 747 doesn’t offer seat power in the Economy Class cain while the A380 does.
- Only some of BA’s 747 have had a minor refurbishment – if you end up on one of untouched aircraft you could be forgiven for thinking that you’ve gone back to the 1990’s.
The change in aircraft could have an effect on premium cabin award availability too…but not necessarily for the worse.
The 747 has 11 fewer Business Class seats than the A380 but 38 more than the 777-200 so, depending on how frequent the 777-200 service was, there could actually be more Business Class seats on the route than before.
Its a similar story with Premium Economy seating where the 747 has 15 fewer Premium Economy seats than the A380 but 6 more than the 777-200.
United To Fly Its 777 Between San Francisco and Las Vegas….Briefly
United Airlines 777 – image courtesy of Mark Harkin via Flickr
The short route between San Francisco and Las Vegas isn’t exactly one which you’d expect an airline to operate a 777 aircraft but, for a very brief period in January, that’s exactly what United Airlines will be doing.
During the Consumer Electronics Show (one of the biggest conventions in the calendar) United will fly its 777-200ER between San Francisco and Las Vegas to, presumably, cater to the silicon valley masses that will be descending on Vegas.
The flights on which you can expect to find the wide-body service are as follows:
UA358 SFO 10:40 – 12:19 LAS (4 January 2017)
UA943 SFO 16:25 – 18:04 LAS (4 January 2017)
UA250 SFO 12:50 – 14:30 LAS (5 January 2017)
UA291 SFO 07:00 – 08:38 LAS (8 January 2017)
UA492 SFO 14:00 – 15:39 LAS (8 January 2017)
UA513 SFO 20:30 – 22:04 LAS (8 January 2017)
UA486 LAS 13:24 – 15:06 SFO (4 January 2017)
UA1716 LAS 19:05 – 20:43 SFO (4 January 2017)
UA361 LAS 15:50 – 17:28 SFO (5 January 2017)
UA241 LAS 10:00 – 11:40 SFO (8 January 2017)
UA512 LAS 17:00 – 18:38 SFO (8 January 2017)
UA834 LAS 07:45 – 09:22 SFO (9 January 2017)
United Airlines Domestic First Class 777 Seat Map
A quick look at ExpertFlyer shows that United isn’t offering too many 777 First Class seats for sale on the SFO – LAS flights……
…but there is still some availability when flying from Las Vegas to San Francisco.
