American Airlines

[wendlle]

We usually fly with Delta as we have Gold Velocity (Virgin Australia) Status which gives us Gold Medallion on Delta BUT they don't have a time that suits us for our return leg from MCO to LAX. so the only option we have is American Airlines.
I've never flown with them before but know they are a big US airline. I am wondering if anyone who flies with them often can tell me if they ever have sale fares?
I've been checking daily for 2 months but my flight is still $920 and hasn't moved at all (2A, 1C, 1Lap)
I'm thinking of just booking it (Sept Date) but would be annoyed if they have a sale that is coming up that some people know of.

 

[jec6613]

They're the biggest US airline. Unfortunately, you're unlikely to get any sort of discount if it's not budging, for a September date. Three of the five US legacy carriers us a virtually identical booking method, using fare buckets. And AA discontinued the Mickey express flight because of the 737 MAX grounding (where they fly a 777 overnight), so they're restricted in capacity at the moment. Check out B6 (JetBlue) and UA (United) as well though, they also run nonstops and though the time may not be quite as good, if it's a bunch less expensive they're worth checking into.

 

[kaytieeldr]

What times, and why? If you are connecting at LAX for a flight to Australia, have you considered flying the night before?

 

[pixiedustedme]

I've never noticed them having fare sales.

 

[1911]

920 for all travelers combined isn't too bad of a price.I have been tracking non stops 0n american out of lax to mco and the cheapest I have seen since december was 257 each person, it has only gone up since then.

 

[KPeterso]

I got great prices on Delta for LAX-MCO-LAX for September ($384 round trip in Comfort - extra leg room). Granted LAX is my home airport (well technically SNA is, but LAX is close enough) but I thought the flight times were really good and the fare more than reasonable. I believe if I had gone for regular economy, it was still under $300 per person round trip. For my date (9/26), there were 3 non-stop MCO-LAX flights at 7 AM, 10 AM, and 7:30 PM. I booked our flights about a month or so ago.

 

[wendlle]

Trust me this is the only flight we can take. It is a regular route for us and we have used pretty much every single US airline over the years so know all the ones to check for times and pricing.
They all get us in WAY too early or WAY too late, AA is the only one that gives us a 3 hour window to get our bags and then get onto our International flight.
We don't do flights the whole way because we like to stay in LA the first night to give the kids a break.
We usually stay in LA on the way home too and go to Disneyland but with SWGE opening the prices for accommodation were just too far out of our budget so we're going the entire way.

I'll just book the AA flights now, I was OK with the price I just would have been bummed if there was some sale that everyone knew about but me LOL

Its the one that gets in at 7:30pm that I need.

 

[Darcy03231]

I fly American quite a bit. With international flights I haven't noticed much, if any, fare changes. Sometimes domestic flights will go down closer to departure if the plane isn't filling up, but the reserve can also be true.

I have noted, however, on our last flight our seats were really small. Neither DH nor I are overly large, but the seats felt narrower than on other airlines.

 

[jec6613]

I have noted, however, on our last flight our seats were really small. Neither DH nor I are overly large, but the seats felt narrower than on other airlines.

Their A319's they picked up from US are just tiny beyond belief. For width though, they're all about the same as any other airline (it's determined by cabin width mostly), but I'm not a fan of their new 737-MAX8 F seats, which they're retrofitting slowly onto their older 737-800's, and are far less comfortable than their older offering. Ditto the new aisle width on the 737's that isn't wide enough for most luggage, though the seats are a bit wider than they used to be.

Short version: it depends on what aircraft you're on, more than on any other airline. They're the most recently merged of the three so have an inconsistent fleet, and fly more different aircraft types and seating configurations than just about any other airline. Just this year so far I've flown on four different 737-800 seating layouts, only two of which are listed on SeatGuru. There are about 20 different narrowbody aircraft/seating configuration combinations across their fleet right now, not counting regional jets. That should consolidate down to about a dozen by the end of 2019 or early 2020 as the last of the aircraft brought in finish their C checks, but it's still a big mish-mash right now.

 

[wendlle]

Thanks everyone, I'm going to book today.
One thing I find odd is that on the PC I can't book my lap infant, but on the ipad I can.
I'd rather not call if possible, when I had to call to book our Delta flight LAX-MCO the lady had a hard time with my Australian accent and it took forever to spell out each letter of every single persons name and tell her info 3-4 times.