I will go along with the losing money argument. First, who in their right mind would want to fly out of Philadelphia unless it is your only choice?Second, who would want to fly American Airlines internationally? My comments come from previous experience of flying 35 weeks a year, both domestically and internationally.
The new AA international business class seats are very nice and the food is decent.
The flight attendants are hit or miss.
Economy is pretty bad, regardless of the airline.
Philadelphia is an extreme high yield hub.
Well, my wife and I flew that flight from Phil to Tel Aviv 5 years ago. It was a US Airways flight. We flew on US Airways from Palm Springs, to Phoenix to Philadelphia to Tel Aviv. Worked great for us. As to Philly, it was easy to transfer flights both going and coming.
I question whether US Airways was losing money on this flight as it was near full capacity both ways for us. Once again, the public gets screwed. When our so-called antitrust laws were ignored and this merger was approved, smaller airports like Palm Springs lost two competitive carriers which were replaced by one of those two. The end result is now fewer flights at higher prices. Surprise, surprise. NOT.
I just flew on American Airlines to Germany. The plane was filthy. The inch or so of the floor between the seat and the interior wall of the cabin was covered with crumbs. I doubt it had been vacuumed in months. The blanket and pillow they gave me was also stained obviously recycled from the previous flight. The food was inedible. Don’t get me started on the filthy bathrooms.