Time Frame to One Company?

[IORFA]

Um, unless a major unannounced problem has occurred, the plan was and has always been for the reservation system to be comined in the second half of 2015. This year, not next.

 

[USFlyer]

I agree.  It's fairly common to have a quiet period around the holidays from an IT perspective.  No one wants to be dealing with IT problems around the holidays.

 

[FLYUSAIRWAYS]

Our Station Manager just came back from a meeting in DFW, and told us they will flip the switch on the night of Oct. 16th. All the USairways signs will come down that night,  AA will be on the new RES system starting on Oct.17th.  This is the plan, but we all know, everything is subject to change. So I guess this means that Usairways is going away that weekend in October.

 

[nycbusdriver]

Um, unless a major unannounced problem has occurred, the plan was and has always been for the reservation system to be comined in the second half of 2015. This year, not next.

 
You're right.  I got the year wrong.  Late 2015 is the timeline for one res system, which will be the one thing that the public sees as making AA one airline.

 

[john john]

The FAA could care less about the contracts. All they care about are the OpSpecs and manuals being in synch.

Pretty certain that the procedures at UA are common, but there are still s-CO and s-UA designations internally as to who flies what.

Yea your right they don’t care about the passengers and where when and how to check in and were to go for flight information

 

[ChrisUS]

IMHO, if it doesn't happen very early in that quarter, i.e. in October, 2016, then it would be smarter to hold off until after the holidays and do it mid-January, 2017.  If there is a meltdown, Mid-January until mid-March is the best time to have it.

 
Hasn't been our experience at US. We switched to SABRE just before Christmas that year.  GREAT PLANNING GUYS!

 

[jimntx]

Of course, none of this is official until you-know-who posts the earliest date the switchover can possibly occur, AND reminds us how Delta did it quicker, better, at less cost, and made a record profit on the awarding of the SOC.  

 

[eolesen]

Yea your right they don’t care about the passengers and where when and how to check in and were to go for flight information

Having gone thru the SOC process twice before, I can say with a fair degree of certainty that none of the customer facing functions done on the ground (aside from the safety briefing card and the safety demo) are a factor in the FAA issuing a single operating certificate.

They're only concerned with maintenance procedures, cabin safety, and flight operations. The closest you come to touching the SOC process is perhaps weight and balance inputs and NOTOC declarations...

 

[ChrisUS]

Our Station Manager just came back from a meeting in DFW, and told us they will flip the switch on the night of Oct. 16th. All the USairways signs will come down that night,  AA will be on the new RES system starting on Oct.17th.  This is the plan, but we all know, everything is subject to change. So I guess this means that Usairways is going away that weekend in October.

This makes sense since they have already informed us that all old paper upgrades need to be used by Oct 14th this year. I wondered why that date had been chosen instead of say Oct 1, Nov 1 or say Dec 31. 

 

[Justme]

Thanks  for your responses to my question. Here's the follow up.  So US Airways is wholly owned (no outstanding stock ownership) by AAG. AAG can attain SOC, combined reservations, and combined frequent flyer miles. 
 
Is it possible that AAG will maintain the US Airways company as a wholly owned subsidiary? Would there be any possible advantages to doing so?
 
Either way, when would you anticipate the closing down of this subsidiary? 1 year? 2 years? 5 years?
 
thanks

 

[USFlyer]

The main reasons for keeping the legal entity intact would be for legal or tax purposes, if any such purposes exist.  I worked at one company many years ago that, for a variety of reasons, never shutdown legal entities.  However, only the finance, tax and legal folks even knew they existed; to everyone else (employees and customers), it was one company.

 

[Justme]

Thanks US Flyer, that's really what I was driving at. I guess one way to tell what the future may hold is for all of us to see what our employee badges say a year from now

 

[usairways_vote_NO]

All you want to know and more regarding SOC and what needs to be done.
 
http://fsims.faa.gov/wdocs/8900.1/V03%20Tech%20Admin/Chapter%2034/03_034_001.htm

 

[UPNAWAY]

Is badging a SOC issue? Will Crews and ramp have AA badges come April 8th?

 

[jimntx]

Thanks  for your responses to my question. Here's the follow up.  So US Airways is wholly owned (no outstanding stock ownership) by AAG. AAG can attain SOC, combined reservations, and combined frequent flyer miles. 
 
Is it possible that AAG will maintain the US Airways company as a wholly owned subsidiary? Would there be any possible advantages to doing so?
 
Either way, when would you anticipate the closing down of this subsidiary? 1 year? 2 years? 5 years?
 
thanks

AFAIK, there are no plans whatsoever to maintain US Airways as a wholly owned subsidiary; however, I don't know the target date for the changeover where all US Airways equipment and employees become AA.  I think legally it happens when the SOC become official next month.  But, we all know that nothing gets changed over completely that quickly.