American Airlines announced a number of new routes and increased frequencies under the Game of Thrones rubric “Winter is Coming” — several weeks late of course since the Night King is already dead and everyone is headed to King’s Landing. Fortunately for fans in search of their place on the Iron Throne, American did already add Dubrovnik to their route map.
St. Lucia, Grenada, and St. Thomas seem like reasonable winter plays. I’m really skeptical about the airline’s plan to offer year-round New York LaGuardia – Bermuda Saturday service starting December 21. Bermuda is due East of Charleston, South Carolina. This is not a warm weather retreat, and is the same distance from New York that Chicago is. These planes are going to be empty in winter if the airline charges fares even close to covering cost.
I almost wonder if someone wrote in ‘BDA’ (Bermuda) when they meant to bring back New York – Barbados (BGI) service, couldn’t admit it, and the airline went with it.
During those winter months ads for Bermuda service almost write themselves, “You’re cold in New York! Why not be cold ON THE BEACH?” and “Light fires to keep warm this weekend in Bermuda!”
It’s nice to see American Airlines returning to Acapulco, a destination they haven’t served since 2011, even if it’s a destination that hit its prime in the 80s and is now an epicenter for violence in the country.
American Airlines though has seemed super-committed to Mexico — they now tout “up to 85 daily flights to 22 cities” — and they effectively have a focus city in Cancun that even features widebody service.
While many of these new flights seem like small ball not every route launch can be Bologna, Italy and American may be feeling a bit burned on that one.
New routes go on sale May 13.
| Hub | Destination City | Aircraft | Flights begin | Frequency | Season |
| DFW | Acapulco, Mexico (ACA) | E175 | Dec. 21 | Tues./Sat. | Winter/Summer |
| DFW | Huatulco, Mexico (HUX) | E175 | Dec. 21 | Tues./Sat. | Winter/Summer |
| PHX | Chihuahua, Mexico (CUU) | CRJ700 | Dec. 18 | Daily | Year-round |
| CLT | Grenada (GND) | A319 | Dec. 21 | Saturday | Year-round |
| DFW | St. Thomas, USVI (STT) | 757 | Dec. 21 | Saturday | Year-round |
| LGA | Bermuda (BDA) | 737 | Dec. 21 | Saturday | Year-round |
| ORD | St. Lucia (UVF) | 737 | Dec. 21 | Saturday | Winter |
| ORD | St. Thomas, USVI (STT) | A319 | Dec. 21 | Saturday | Winter |
| DFW | St. George, Utah (SGU) | CRJ200 | Sept. 26 | Daily | Year-round |
| JFK | Richmond, Virginia (RIC) | E140 | Nov. 21 | 3x daily | Year-round |
| MIA | Northwest Arkansas (XNA) | E175 | Dec. 18 | Daily | Year-round |
| MIA | Columbia, South Carolina (CAE) | E145 | Dec. 18 | Daily | Year-round |
| MIA | Oklahoma City (OKC) | E175 | Dec. 18 | Daily | Year-round |
| ORD | Charleston, West Virginia (CRW) | CRJ200 | Sep. 4 | Daily | Year-round |
| PHX | Rapid City, South Dakota (RAP) | CRJ200 | Sep. 4 | Daily | Year-round |
| PHL | Vail/Eagle, Colorado (EGE) | 757 | Dec. 21 | Saturday | Winter |
Winter in GoT does not refer to The Night King. Winter is simply the seasons as they have had a atypically long summer and are worried that a long winter will follow. The Night King is dead but Winter is still coming.
Not all of us are up to date with latest series of GoT but thanks for the spoiler
Greg- what are your thoughts on the 3x/daily JFK-RIC service?! Why? What’s going on there?
@n: I think rapper Lil Jon can answer that question:
“Slots slots slots slots slots slots… EVERYBODY!”
BGI is Barbados, not another Bermuda. Maybe they got as confused as you did 😉
@n – once the new runway waiver for slot use at jfk ends they have to start squatting again.
@ben winter is also when they will face threats from north of the wall, but those have since been dispatched
Spoiler much? Jeez.
And if you are going to base a headline on a spoiler, at least get your facts straight – “Winter is Coming” is not solely a reference to the Night King,,,
Also, everyone isn’t headed to Westeros, they are heading to Kings Landing. Westeros is the country/island.
STT and STX are begging for more capacity, epecially Dec-Apr. On the MIA flights, It is not unusual to have days at a time overbooked a week out, even more in J. Once weekly from DFW/ORD isn’t going to meaningfully impact that.
@Gary, you mentioned AA “Blew the Game of Thrones Reference” because they “announced a number of new routes and increased frequencies under the Game of Thrones rubric “Winter is Coming” — several weeks late of course since the Night King is already dead”
Doesn’t matter if there is a meaning about the Night King, the main reference for it is the fact that the harsh season itself is coming and while it has started in Winterfell, it hasn’t fully arrived there and is still coming to the rest of Westeros. They did not blow the reference, you just don’t understand it. #NerdAlert
Lame GOT reference aside, MIA is a massive addition for us in OKC! As much as I can’t stand what AA has become, it is impressive how much they’ve grown here.
The JFK hub is back baby!
If they’re flying to Richmond, Tokyo and Singapore service can’t be too far behind.
XNA/MIA will certainly make it easy for us hillbillies to get to the Caribbean. Would have preferred a 319, but the E75 should be an easy upgrade.
I think people are way into that TV show….everyone knows that in the final episode, the whole show will reveal itself as just a fantasy world in a snow globe in the mind of an autistic child…..duh!!!
Winter is a real season too…