American to ground Nerd Bird nonstops to San Jose

A big blow to Austin, loosing the nerd bird is.

I recall that American Airlines added SJC<->AUS daily nonstop service in response to Apple's requirement for relocating some of its operations to a cheaper region. (The city and/or chamber of commerce may have played a role in facilitating this.) I now wonder if Apple will close its Austin-based operations. (Considering the poor quality and poor management of its local customer support call center, I would close it all, if I ran Apple.)

American's daily service started before I moved here in 1993, and I watched grow from one flight each way to four at its peak (circa 2001?).

San Jose has the worst airport I've ever flown through, and that includes at least a couple without control towers. When I need to fly to the area, I always consider traveling through San Francisco or Oakland. I find that SFO's connection to CalTrain (now via a BART terminal at the airport) gives me much easier mass-transit access to Silicon Valley than SJC.

Southwest Airlines has (relatively recently) begun service through SFO, which I hope Southwest will expand.

I think that loosing the nerd bird punctuates the end of Austin's run as a major technology center.

- John

It's called the Nerd Bird, folks. It doesn't want to fly to SFO. It goes to SJC. It does that so we can work here and visit all the bozos that think CA is the heart of Hi Tech and the great life. But we know better. It's not so we can visit the west coast financial center. I can't tell you how many Moscone Center conferences I've been to and I'm grateful there's now a BART train to lighten the pockets of the cabbies, but what I really need is the Nerd Bird. To SJC, not SFO.

Though I haven't expressly done it, the Nerd Bird is so we can live in Austin and work in SJC. I've known many people who lived this way for quite a while. Maybe they cheat and make Friday their work-in-Austin day, but the idea is still the same.

Or maybe we attend a couple meetings in SJC but can still be home without a lot of bother. We need an early morning flight like AA has had that arrives so we can attend a ... 8 or 9am meeting. Then we need the 5 or 5:30 departure so we can sleep in our own bed that night, or maybe stay only one day in SJC and still get 2 full days of work out there and return here.

We don't need to be routed thru DFW or PHX so we can add 2-3 hours to the journey, or Denver or LAX or LAS so we get hosed up with other distractions. And heavens, if you think SWA is an inexpensive airline then you're living on a different planet than I am. I luv 'em boys but unless you catch the cheap seats the day they put them up, SW collects at least as much airfare as most of the big boys - yet everyone thinks they're cheap! Great marketing! I must say I appreciate the free couple of bags policy especially compared to United or the others. But if you're only staying for the day or one night, who cares?

I must say, I'll miss the cheap ($200-250) flights AA offered on the Nerd Bird. I can't tell you how much $$ I've saved with those. Hard to find such things thru PHX, LAX, DEN or DFW, or to SFO or OAK. If you watch carefully and book them a few weeks out when they show up, the Nerd Bird can be very economical. Maybe AA figured that out.

The City isn't going to do anything. They're busy giving health care to starving musicians and building huge City Council Offices and buying stupid light rail trains and building stations that nobody wants. They no longer want to encourage Hi Tech. Dance with who brung you? Well, DKR isn't able to wave his flag any more. Besides, Hector and Michel have fooled them so many times even politicians have finally figured the game out.

What I didn't see in this dialog was who we write to with our pleas to American to leave just the right non-stops to SJC hoping they listen in spite of financial data that may tell them otherwise. Anybody know?

I've always felt at home on the Nerd Bird - tho you have to be careful what you're working on during the flight lest a competitor peak between the seats - almost always running into a couple people I know on-board. An occasional stewardess under 30 might perk up the place too. SJC a suck-y airport? What? You think their City Council makes use of the local brain trust any more than Austin does?

T