What is the Current American Airlines Cost per Available Seat Mile?

[N305AS]

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On 6/25/2003 700 PM MrMarky wrote:

Well I don''t know what to tell you. I typed in SJC-JFK and selected "search by best fare". And it came back with $1800 on AA. The lowest fare was on JetBlue at around $400. It showed JetBlue out of OAK, because I checked the box that says "also search nearby airports".

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Just go to AA.com and book it, then. AA offers two daily nonstops on the SJC-JFK run, and THAT is the market where the super-cheap discount and walkup fares are offered, not SFO.

It sounds like the booking engine you were using had some issues....

 

[FWAAA]

To answer the initial question (and bring this thread back to its topic), today AA released its estimate of 2Q 2003 CASM along with its news that cash has turned positive.

AA's CASM estimated: 10.2 cents

AMR's CASM estimated: 10.6 cents

The real good news is that AA is turning the corner on cash and reporting that it was cash flow positive in May and will be for June unless something bad happens in the next five days. That is really good news. AA might survive.

 

[j7915]

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On 6/25/2003 1:48:10 PM SANman wrote:

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On 6/25/2003 120 PM j7915 wrote:


I just did a random, sort of querrie, for SFO to JFK, came back with around $2530 round trip.


As I wrote in my previous posting, if I were shopping for a flight, I would now be looking at a carrier that has the reputation of being cheaper. I would not spend any more time on AA.com. Plus the capped fares are only on a few selected routes.


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Don''t disagree with you at all that the $2350 is out of whack, but again that''s to SFO - as you pointed out, the lower fares are only valid on a few routes. My point was that it wasn''t possible to get $1800 nonstop from SJC, and it definitely isn''t bait and switch. The ad never says you can get $299 from SFO. Not that dissimilar to Chicago, where you can get great fares to NYC from MDW that you can''t get from ORD. Even on the same airline.


In any event, stunts like this can''t work long term unless you overhaul your pricing everywhere. You can satisfy your SJC customer with a great $299 fare to JFK, but the next week when that guy has to go to BOS and you''re asking him to pay $2000, you''ve probably lost him again to TZ.

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SANman, I just used your posting as a hook to say something that appears to be out of whack, the very high book rates. I suppose yield management knows what they are doing, they can see how many seats are sold at the highest rates.

But it is sort of funny that the car dealers for one never seem to advertise the highest prices, and they have been in business longer than the airlines.

 

[AAwrench]