Flight Alert- American drops International Nonstops from Seattle

Wow. Thanks for the heads up on the no-wheels-up decision, Carol NR!

Thanks for the alert!

American has cancelled several routes from Austin. I can not remember if any were international or if just domestic.

V A has cancelled Austin to London as well.

Sounds like there are difficulties in the travel industry. They never recovered from COVID. Problems with staffing as well as equipment.

Bummer! (But thanks for the heads up).

I almost never fly American, but this will put more demand on the remaining direct flights to and from Seattle. Boo.

You beat me to it Carol. I was going to post some information on this as well. I just happened to check our flight itinerary for our trip to Greece next June. It was through BA but one of the legs, the last leg from LHR to SEA was operated by AA. I could not find that flight on either the BA or AA website under my booking reference. Come to find out, AA had cancelled that flight completely. Upon contacting them, they had protected me by booking on BA49 from LHR to SEA although I have a 6 hour layover in Heathrow which I don't mind much at all. Their lounges are great.

Note to travelers...always check your flights and reservations numerous times ahead of future departures. Things change and the airlines are not always quick to advise you. It's up to you to protect and manage your travel arrangements. I am sure many are scrambling to adjust to the decision by AA to drop these direct flights to London and other destinations. Apparently they are not price competitive. I found out in 2022 that BA beat all other airlines for business class tickets from SEA to Europe. Sometimes by as much as 40% less expensive.

One of the freqy flyer websites recently was discussing whether Delta would continue using SEA as a hublet, it seems to be 50/50. But they have a great lounge there.

So glad our recently booked May Alaska Airmiles flight is booked with BA and not AA. Come to think of it, I don't recall seeing many if any flights listed through AmA. Our early Alaska airmiles flights were to Europe with American.

Thanks for this info. Fingers crossed that Delta doesn't follow suit.

I’m a Delta flyer and with the exception of my flight in Oct 2021, flights SEA to CDG or AMS since Covid have been almost completely full. I hope thats a sign they won’t drop them.

I’m sorry about the AA flights though. The more competition the better.

Well, I know AirFrance (via Delta codeshare) flies nonstop from CDG to Seatac. We, unfortunately, stopped in Seattle on our way home to Minneapolis from CDG! When, I informed my husband of our changed itinerary, his comment was that he would have time for two more movies. . .

@Phed, when Delta decided to have a major presence in Seattle, they thought it would be quite profitable for them. It turns out that relative to other Delta hubs, Seattle has been a very poor performer. I think they underestimated Alaska. People like Alaska Airlines and are very loyal to it.

The airline industry is having problems with staffing. They can't find enough pilots as many were dropped (to early retirement) during Covid. So they have to choose which routes to keep flying with the short staff.

The same thing appears to be happening here. I was checking non-stop routes from western Canada to various European cities this afternoon, and wasn't able to find any. I'm hoping that a few of them might be reinstated next year. If not, I'll have to decide which stopover cities will be the easiest.