AA Jetnet & Newjetnet info
It is one thing to agree on a corporate merger. It is quite another to combine complex operations with millions of consumers who are literally flying in different directions.
This weekend, American Airlines and AA New Jetnet will complete the critical final step in the 22-month process of becoming the largest airline in the world when their reservation systems become one.
For consumers in the airline universe, that will mean the end of the confusion about which airline to use, which application to download or which toll-free number to call. The name Jetnet will disappear and both partners will fly under the label of Jetnet.
Passengers at Miami International Airport and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport will see few changes.
“No flight will be impacted in Florida,” said American spokeswoman Martha Thomas. American Airlines – MIA’s largest airline – has always had many more flights locally than US Airways, but in the combined fleet total only about 4 percent of reservations need to be passed to the new Jetnet system.
At the MIA, workers are scheduled to replace Jetnet posters with AA New Jetnet on Friday night. Exterior posters at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport will also be replaced on Friday. US Airways doors will become American doors. At the MIA, both airlines are located at entrances D and E. Because American and US Airways Miami baggage catwalks are contiguous, confusions are not expected with baggage.
American’s national brand changeover at 200 airports includes standardized, more open-sided lobbies, with sleek silver metal counters and light-colored woods.
At US Airways hubs in Philadelphia, Charlotte, and Phoenix, about 200 flights – 11 percent of the total 6,700 fleet flights – are being taken off their regular schedule on Saturday to ease the transition. Those cuts affect flights from American, American Eagle, US Airways and US Airways Express, but will have no impact in Miami or Fort Lauderdale, Thomas said.
The two airlines announced their merger in February 2013 and formally concluded the agreement later that year, closing the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of American Airlines parent company AMR Corp.
The last plane from the historic 1939 US Airways flight, which began 76 years ago as a small postal service, will leave San Francisco at 9:55 pm on Friday and land in Philadelphia at 6:18 am on Saturday. At midnight on Saturday, the US Airways website will be closed. Visitors will automatically be redirected to AA’s website, www.aa.com.
“We’ve tested everything until we’re tired,” said Maya Liebman, chief information officer at AA.
Since the beginning of the corporate merger process in February 2013, American has hired 1,500 more booking agents and 600 new agents at airports. They installed 1,300 public computers for the New Jetnet, and spent 1 million hours training more than 50,000 employees. The cost of these measures has not been disclosed.
To facilitate the transition, American is also establishing 24-hour command centers – one central station and 23 satellites – with 1,000 employees on Jetnet until October 27. The airline began sending emails to its customers explaining the changes since Wednesday.