American, like many other airlines, is adjusting its capacity to Cuba. While it’s tempting to think that American overestimated consumer demand to go to the once-forbidden country, I don’t think that’s the case.
Image courtesy of American Airlines
Each airline that wanted to fly commercially to Cuba had to submit proposals and receive approval from the US government before beginning their flights, so it’s not surprising that all airlines (not just American) would request numerous flights, even if it was more than demand would actually support. It’s important to note that American hasn’t cut any destinations in Cuba, most of the reductions are in frequency instead.
Via RoutesOnline, here are the changes:
Miami – Holguin Reduce from 2 to 1 daily. Airbus A319 replaces Boeing 737-800
AA1041 MIA1025 – 1204HOG 319 D
AA1482 HOG1310 – 1447MIA 319 DMiami – Santa Clara Reduce from 2 to 1 daily, Boeing 737-800 service
AA2751 MIA1506 – 1615SNU 738 4
AA2751 MIA1521 – 1630SNU 738 x34
AA2751 MIA1551 – 1700SNU 738 3AA2750 SNU1730 – 1850MIA 738 4
AA2750 SNU1800 – 1920MIA 738 x4Miami – Varadero Reduce from 2 to 1 daily. Operational aircraft switches from Airbus A319 to Boeing 737-800 from 16FEB17 to 04MAR17
AA2741 MIA0958 – 1117VRA 738 D
AA2742 VRA1215 – 1319MIA 738 D
American swaps transatlantic aircraft
As more of American’s 787 fleet can finally be delivered (after a fairly lengthy business class seat snafu) you’ll see the airline begin to rightsize a number of routes to take aadvantage (ha) of the more fuel-efficient aircraft. American swapped a number of aircraft for flights beginning in February 2017, so if you have transatlantic flights booked after February 2017 it probably isn’t a bad time to doublecheck seat assignments and upgrade requests.
The big change is for Chicago-London flights. Those flights are currently operated by a mix of 767 and 777 aircraft but they are moving exclusively to 787-8s in March.
Additionally, Raleigh-London flights, currently scheduled to operate with 767s, will instead operate with 772s from March 25 to June 1.
Reminder to “garden” your reservations
Airlines frequently swap aircraft around in the springtime in order to most effectively optimize their usage. This can affect your reservations pretty severely, so it’s important to “garden” your reservations and check in on them every couple of weeks or so. Check that your seat is still where you originally wanted it, that any companions traveling with you are still squared away, just routine maintenance. Airlines will often send you an email if there’s a schedule change but in my experience I’ve rarely received one when there’s an equipment change.
Are any of the 3-number codes confusing? I did my best to make a chart to describe them here.
