Another Nail In The Coffin Of 757 Lrtc?

[ClueByFour]

Well, now ATA seems to be following the B6 move among LCCs:

http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/cnn-st...color=%23FFFFFF

As a customer, I really, really hope this changes AA's mind on the LRTC initative for the 757s. Else, I will be on UA or US anytime I'm faced with one of these craft.

Between UA, B6, and now ATA, I hope that the powers at AA come to their senses.

 

[FA Mikey]

Sorry the reconfigs have begun.

 

[AAmech]

Its not going to matter all that much. People buying discount tickets to leisure destinations have legroom waaaay down on their list of priorities. Legroom is more important to business travelers who travelmore and paymore(at least they used to).

 

[AAmech]

The other thing to remember is ATA has a ridiculously cramped pitch right now. It is less than a standard configuration. When they repitch there will be little difference between their planes and AA LRTC.

 

[TWAnr]

The other thing to remember is ATA has a ridiculously cramped pitch right now. It is less than a standard configuration. When they repitch there will be little difference between their planes and AA LRTC.

You have a point. They are going down from 216 to 200 seats in a 757-200. Still considerably more than on a comparable AA aircraft.

 

[mga707]

You have a point. They are going down from 216 to 200 seats in a 757-200. Still considerably more than on a comparable AA aircraft.

Hard to make a true comparison as ATA's 757s (and entire fleet) have no FC cabin--all coach.
Still, as one who has endured their 757 seat pitch (or lack of same) on a PHX-OGG r/t, I concur with the "ridiculously cramped" description!

 

[KCFlyer]

As I understand it, the 757's will be brought more in line with the rest of their fleet. From their web site, the 737 pitch is 31-32. Increasing legroom is a great marketing tool until folks realize that it was increased to "industry standard"

 

[JFK777]

While less room in coach makes sense for some AA markets, like San Juan. I have to wonder if reconfiguring all those 757's used to north south america is a wise choice. As a passenger several times to Bogota, at $500.00 per RT, I am paying for MORE ROOM not Less room. AA is often the only reliable choice to this often unreliable part of the world, they command their usual AA fare premuim and should give the passengers more not less. A300 are dogs and should be sold to FEDEX or UPS whoich are buyimg new A300 as freighters.

 

[Andre1980]

While less room in coach makes sense for some AA markets, like San Juan. I have to wonder if reconfiguring all those 757's used to north south america is a wise choice. As a passenger several times to Bogota, at $500.00 per RT, I am paying for MORE ROOM not Less room. AA is often the only reliable choice to this often unreliable part of the world, they command their usual AA fare premuim and should give the passengers more not less. A300 are dogs and should be sold to FEDEX or UPS whoich are buyimg new A300 as freighters.

I have to disagree with some of what you said. I think AA made a great move to bring back thoes extra seats on both the A300's and the 757's because most of the time thoes planes are assingned to high density and low yielding routes in the Caribbean, florida and Las vegas where people don't care much about amenities such as MRTC or first class, they just want to get from point A to point B with dignity. And as we all know by now MRTC was not really successful for AMR since no one wanted to pay extra for it since customers piority right now is cheap fares.
What ATA is doing now is just putting the standard legroom that is present in most carriers in their 757's and they had the least legroom on their 757s of all the other airlines so I don't see this as something to make a big deal about.

Know about the A300's, although they give alot of mechanical problems and are likely to be the least reliable in the AA fleet they make a lot on cargo that the 757's and 767's cannot carry and cargo is important for AA to make money especially when passenger revenues are down. And if AA was to get rid of these birds what would they replace them with that have enough cargo capacity and the abilty to transport a large number of people on short trips?

 

[TWAnr]

As a passenger several times to Bogotá, at $500.00 per RT, I am paying for MORE ROOM not Less room. AA is often the only reliable choice to this often unreliable part of the world, they command their usual AA fare premium and should give the passengers more not less.

At $500.00 per round trip, you do not appear to be paying the premium ticket prices that AA was hoping to attract by implementing MRTC.

The lack of real competition on these routes only reinforces the notion that there is no need to reduce the number of seats on the planes flown in these markets in order to attract the high yield fliers.

That is fairly elementary marketing.

 

[JFK777]

I would have to believe AA has some 757 for las vegas and other low fare leisure markets and some for Miami to Latin America. It is common to have sub-fleets for those Latin Markets due to unusual demands of both the passengers and the hot & high airports, I would think AA planes to Bogota( 7000 fllet above sealevel) have special wheels so they can land & takeoff at higher speeds. I know Delta has special configured 757 for ATL to Latin America service( 5 rows of Busness/first class not 6), why should AA a far bigger whale in the Latin Region?

El Dorado's two runways are 12,000 feet long( the same as the main runway at Kingsford Amith in Sydney, Australia, those Qantas 744's eats lots of asphalt). An AA 757 taking off for Miami uses about 10,000 due to the thin air. It incredible Iberia's A340 go nonstop to Madrid from BOG. If for on;y mechanical reasons alone AA has to have a sub-fleet to places like Quito, Bogota, and Mexico City.

 

[s80dude]

Creating more sub fleets would be the opposite direction the company wants to go, no? I thought all the changes and streamlining were to reduce the number of fleet types and sub fleets?

What do you do when a LRTC 75 is stubbed for a MRTC 75. Seems like it would create more operational problems

Just my .02

 

[AAmech]

While less room in coach makes sense for some AA markets, like San Juan. I have to wonder if reconfiguring all those 757's used to north south america is a wise choice. As a passenger several times to Bogota, at $500.00 per RT, I am paying for MORE ROOM not Less room. AA is often the only reliable choice to this often unreliable part of the world, they command their usual AA fare premuim and should give the passengers more not less. A300 are dogs and should be sold to FEDEX or UPS whoich are buyimg new A300 as freighters.

I feel the sameway. Maybe they can sub 737's for some of those routes. I flew DFW-LIM on a 757 and its a misarable flight in a full coach even with MRTC. With LRTC I might give up state secrets!

 

[FA Mikey]

I would have to believe AA has some 757 for las vegas and other low fare leisure markets and some for Miami to Latin America. It is common to have sub-fleets for those Latin Markets due to unusual demands of both the passengers and the hot & high airports, I would think AA planes to Bogota( 7000 fllet above sealevel) have special wheels so they can land & takeoff at higher speeds. I know Delta has special configured 757 for ATL to Latin America service( 5 rows of Busness/first class not 6), why should AA a far bigger whale in the Latin Region?

El Dorado's two runways are 12,000 feet long( the same as the main runway at Kingsford Amith in Sydney, Australia, those Qantas 744's eats lots of asphalt). An AA 757 taking off for Miami uses about 10,000 due to the thin air. It incredible Iberia's A340 go nonstop to Madrid from BOG. If for on;y mechanical reasons alone AA has to have a sub-fleet to places like Quito, Bogota, and Mexico City.

I dont know if they have re done the interiors, But El Salvador gets a daily old Delta shuttle plane.

 

[FA Mikey]

The A300 conversion will be complete by November 11. The 757 conversion will run from January 4th thru February 14 Next year. You can also see AA has dropped the MRTC on all its ads as well, as its ticket jackets, styro cups and napkins.