Originally Posted by
jerryleber
I might not describe it as hilarious, but it is pretty obvious both airlines airlines are over scheduling for next year's gate reallotment. I do think AA will get a couple or so gates back from someone next year.
AA is almost guaranteed to get some gates back next year because the allocation scheme seems pretty flawed in the short term. Next spring they are going to look at the total average usage for full year 2025 based on the gate allocation effective Dec 25. That means UAL only has 3 months to use the extra gates but get judged as though they had them the full 12 months.
conversely AA gets judged as though they never had the 4 gates they are using, but DO actually get to use them for 9 months.
Of course 2026 into 2027 that whole dynamic reverses. It’s almost guaranteed to ping pong back and forth for a while. Long term it might make sense and give a good allocation, but it seems like some more thought could have gone into the year to year allocation.