EW deadheads are normally best fare. It’s like a low cost business class/service. They don’t bother you about the weight.

Well, apparently that wasn't the case with PurpleToolBox (back on page 1) on his EW deadhead. Maybe GT didn't buy the right fare ticket, but making him jettison weight from his checked baggage with no recourse for purchasing additional capacity is unacceptable.

The domestic AA fares have all inflated too, 1300 nonstop FC transcons out of LAX. $750 last month. United here I come.

Just a head's up to all who may have deadheads scheduled on AA. As was already mentioned, their ticket prices seem to be increasing as the date of travel gets closer.

I went through BidX and looked at most of the AA deadheads in OT right now on the 777. Every international DH and almost every domestic DH ticket price (obtained via "Route Pricing" on VIPs) is significantly more than the Baseline fare on the pairing. There are some that are three times more than the Baseline. MEM-CDG in business class on AA during the first week of May is listed on the pairing Baseline fare as $3756 but the fare on VIPs and the AA website is over $10,000.

As of right now, the Established fares don't seem to be published. I really wish I had checked out these fares the day the FO bid closed the day before yesterday. Looking back several month, it appears most of the Established fares are determined the evening the FO bid closes.

My gut tells me the fares would still have been jacked up where they are now if I had checked Wed night - unfortunately we'll never know for sure unless someone else checked.

My point is, I'm going to be extremely skeptical if all these Established fares get published with an 11 Apr date and match the cheap Baseline fare on the pairing when just 36 hours later the actual prices are 50%-300% more.

I checked the DFW-GRU fares before the bid closed and changed my bid accordingly. You are right, AA website fares are way up too. Must be some sort of marketing experiment. I suppose the good news is, domestically there will be a lot more room in first so instead of buying a ticket maybe I’ll get the upgrade.

It would be great if anyone awarded trips on their normal line with these AA deadheads in early May could provide some info on the actual price on their scheduled tickets.

Hopefully, the Established fares will match the prices available now but I won’t hold my breath on that.

Pilots getting these trips on their line (not CIA or secondary) are going to get their ticket bought first (very soon, if not already) and that’s pretty much the earliest opportunity the company has to get these tickets. If the company can’t even obtain scheduled DH tickets that fall into the expected price range on our pairings, how the heck is anyone who get the trips later in the process via CIA, secondary lines, M/U, trades, etc.

So which bank do you get if you pick up a trip from open time and there is already a higher and lower situation with the est/baseline? The way I read the contract says you have to deviate before the month starts to get the higher. I’ve had some DROP $300

You have to deviate before the month the trip starts in (not where the DH actually falls) in order to get the Baseline (if it’s higher than Established). If the month already started (i.e you just picked up an April trip in OT), then you get the Established, even if it’s higher than Baseline.

Established fares are out and seem to mirror baseline on the very cheap international DH. Time stamp is almost a week ago. Next question is what fare is actually paid for the tickets.

I checked a few fares on VIPs after the Established came out and they're still sky high.
Decided to check with global travel to see if the fares we are seeing on the pairings are non-refundable. LAX-HKG on 8May is over 4-grand on VIPs but still available through global travel for the Established of $1400 as a refundable ticket. Kind of frustrating we can't see the same fares that global travel can get - makes planning much more difficult when you have to call them to evaluate every option.

Lesson, for some trips, buy your AA tickets through global travel.