There is one thing you will almost certainly find on an American Airlines flight, the American Way magazine. But one item that is important to customer experience or future customer experience is missing. The magazine covers a wide range of topics from business to travel, but it omits one important item to people flying from point A to B. The item that is missing is an actual route map of the flights from which AA services destinations.
Detailed Route Map With Actual Routes
The American Way magazine publishes maps which show cities AA serves, cities that AA has a hub, or has a OneWorld partner that serves the city. It would be great to highlight to customers how AA could get them from point A to B or even “upcoming” routes. There is plenty of downtime on the plane and only so many Sudoku puzzles you can play before someone writes down all the answers. Might as well advertise where you can take your customers to and from now or in the future.
AA City Coverage Map
Delta’s Sky Magazine publishes a new route map in each issue with actual Delta routes. They even show future service highlighted in a different color so it is easy to spot. In addition they have a few code share flights highlighted like the LAX > PPT on Air France. Check out a sample map in this 2006 issue picture from Flyertalk.
Bottom Line
By adding actual routes that AA flies into the route map, it will help a user find how they can get from point A to point B on American. The thing I like very much about Delta’s published route map, is that is shows future routes. So if I’m not up to speed on the latest proposed routes, I can usually find out on the first of the month where Delta can take me next.
Am I alone here or does anyone else wish AA provided a little more detail on there routes in the American Way magazine?
About The Weekly Flyer
The Weekly Flyer writes about travel from a business traveler perspective. He travels the world every week accumulating points and miles along the way.
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I actually like the way it is. I think they made it clear as to which cities are served by mainline, eagle, or codeshare/partners. The lines on the sample map above are overlapping; not to mention the faint red lines which are confusing.
What I would like for American Way to do is to update the information on its magazines. For instance, Mexicana is still listed as “partner” to earn/redeem miles, where in fact it ceased operation in 2010.
The lack of route lines is amusing. However, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. I’ve gotten to the point where I can pretty much predict which hubs I have to connect in to get from A to B on United, but sometimes the actual maps do surprise me when I learn of a new flight that lets me connect in, say, DEN instead of IAH.
Hi Kevy- I really like the lines, bur I guess Delta has trained me to look for them and AA has trained you to look for the dots. Funny how those habits develop.
Hi Scottrick – i need route lines:) I’ll likely get caught up in a few weeks but will look at route maps to make sure I’m not missing any routes. Any tips on planning with AA would be appreciated.