The Moment of Truth Comes Tonight for AA-US Migration

Tonight’s the night: US Airways will migrate from SHARES to American Airlines’ Sabre-hosted passenger services system, and the US Airways brand will pass into history (although a paint job or two will linger for a while). All passengers flying on Saturday, Oct. 17, will be flying on American.

The US Airways website will redirect to AA.com, and the US Airways mobile app will be disabled by Oct. 18.

American has prepared as if for battle. Staffing levels at airports have been increased by more than 20%. More than 350 additional IT technicians have been dispatched to airports, and 80 American airport agents will help out at US Airways hubs.

Airport agents have been armed with 1,300 mobile devices with YADA – Your Assistant Delivered Anywhere – which allows them to check in customers, print bag tags, and board flights anywhere.

The carrier has conducted six full-scale tests with nearly 5 million mock reservations.

To ease the pressure, American reduced its flight schedule at US Airways’ three hubs – Phoenix, Charlotte and Philadelphia, by about 11%.

But perhaps the most significant step it has taken is the “drain-down” of flights that began about three months ago.

At that point, American filed a schedule change whereby all US Airways flights scheduled to operate on or after Oct. 17 were converted to American flights and moved to the Sabre system.

Because so many of American’s business travelers book close to departure, the vast majority of flights booked since the 90-day countdown began have been flown, leaving only about 10% of reservations to be migrated.

But when you are talking about technology, the best-laid plans can be afflicted with what the tech world like to call “glitches,” and passengers flying this weekend should be prepared to exercise patience if necessary.

Agents can help by reminding them to read their e-mails sent by American that outline procedures for obtaining tier status upgrades and offer other helpful hints.

Pic: Adrian Pingstone