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Nope - you are conflating general performance of a particular service route with what happens in the event of a problem. The fundamental reason BA'a and AA's respective 777 performance in PHX works is because the aircraft itself and the underlying MRO practices for both carriers are good resulting in very high flight dispatch rates in excess of 99%. These high dispatch rates allow both of these carriers to successfully serve airports that have limited on-site MRO resouces. However when a problem occurs, it is easier for any carrier to fix that problem in an airport with significant type operations and support facilities than one that doesn't have as much. Again, it's just not economic to store people and parts everywhere for the airlines or any other industry. The attached link covers a disturbing instance where a plane needed to be pulled from service for a crazy reason yet demonstrates the point I am making. In this case BA was able to swap aircraft. I am pretty sure BA would have had a lot more difficulty in responding to this event if it had happened in Lagos rather than in London: https://liveandletsfly.com/passenger-defecates-british-airways/ Here's another one where BA decided to return to London rather than having a broken aircraft on the ground in the Mauritius: https://metro.co.uk/2022/12/08/passengers-on-flight-to-mauritius-returned-after-technical-issue-17898824/ BA knows it was much better to return home than have an airplane requiring service many thousand miles from home. Finally, it doesn't even have to be long haul as this flight from Europe to the UK suggests where maintaince issues and prudence can lead to much longer delays: https://liveandletsfly.com/29-hour-delay-british-airways/ I could see BA swapping aircraft if this had happened at one of their main UK operating bases.

You still seem confused by my oriiginal post and 747's have nothing to do with anything. A better line of inquiry related to my post would be to think about dispatch rates for aircraft. Dispatch rates for modern aircraft are very high with 777's being close to the top in terms of dispatch reliability. I know that the 777 fleet dispatch rate is over 99%. However in the unlikely event that there is an issue, the time required to fix the problem would likely be higher in PHX than in an airport like LHR or LAX. Certainly I waswilling to play those dispatch odds as I recently took the PHX to LHR flight on BA myself without incident. However if you turn out to be really unlucky, you might find yourself waiting longer than in some other places to get underway.

Regardless of contracts, I do have a very good idea of flight operations at PHX which was the basis of my comment. PHX is completely dominated by A320 and 737 aircraft from AA and WN with a small smattering of other types - mostly regional jets. I can't see it as being economic to store too many parts and people with deep 777 experience in PHX. BA and AA would be similarly challenged with maintenance issues on there once a day 777 service from PHX. This is the key point. Even at my home airport of SAN, I have needed to wait on parts being shipped down from LA to get a plane fixed. BTW - JNB is a completely different aiport with different operations when compared to PHX and isn't a useful comparison. JNB is served by many airlines with long haul flights and a large mix of wide body aircraft on a dialy basis. It also totally makes sense for SAA to sell maintenance services there for other airlines. I seriously doubt very few carriers could make the business case to set up a maintenance shop in South Africa as an in house excercise.

Maybe being in Phoenix helps somewhat and I didn't assume that the flight wouldn't go, only that a mechanical delay could take a while. All bases/stations aren't created equal and while AA has significant operations in PHX only one flight is with the 777 as far as I know. The resolution of a mechanical problem could require shipping in parts and/or staff from LAX or maybe DFW. It really depends on BA's contracts.

@azgrandmax3 dependable is a relative term, but I think BA is dependable as any carrier. I assume you would be flying out of Phoenix to London. As long as your plane doesn't have a mechnical issue, you should be good. If a mechanical issue occurs it would probably take BA a while to respond as they only have one flight a day to and from Phoenix. I actually just flew from PHX on BA a couple of weeks ago to Germany. I flew from there because I got a cheap deal on business class rather than flying from my home airport of San Diego which is always expensive. If you are in Business, you while access to the "Escape Lounge" near the actual boarding gate. This lounge is OK - although small - and is a welcome respite from the absolute madness of the international boarding area at PHX. It can be an absolute "zoo" there as the space is way too small for the number of passengers that can crowd around for flights there. My own recommendation would be to buy seats if you are in coach and can't pick them out for free via some kind of status. It's a long flight and I personnally wouldn't want to get jammed in the middle of mutliple passengers. Enjoy your trip.

That's the kind of problem that I like to have!

The subject of involuntary downgrades is an interesting one. This one link suggests the airlines downgrade those on point before those paying cash. The rules regarding downgrade compensation also vary by jurisdiction. https://www.smh.com.au/traveller/reviews-and-advice/getting-downgraded-on-a-flight-why-it-happens-and-what-you-can-do-about-it-20220911-h26cgo.html yes, I saw that as well.in terms of the alternating aircraft types. Space for award travel outside of coach was more limited on the 787 vs the A380 which makes sense to me given the size difference of the aircraft. My final solution was to actually call AA and get them to help adjust my reservation. I decided to fly to MEL the day before as you perviously suggested and avoid early trips to the airport altogether. This approach also gives me an afternoon and evening to spend in Melbourne prior to heading home without worrying about a connection. I first thought about extending my vacation and spending more time in Melbourne, but the award availability just didn't work out well for me given my scheduled commitments at home. Thanks again to all for their ideas. I am happy with my plan.

I agree that Melbourne is a fine place to visit with much to see and do. Since I haven't been there since well before the pandamic, maybe I will extend the trip a bit more to keep things simpler. I very much agree with this perspective. From the passenger perspective, flying is about managing downside risk and any connection introduces another "failure point" in a journey. I just took a trip where I combined 2 tickets - one award and one paid. In this case I flew in more that 5 hours early and I also had 2 backups that I could use to get to my long haul flight on time which was on a separate ticket. I noticed in your post that you have done similar things as well. Coach seats are reasonably plentiful. It's hard to get anything else at a reasonable point level - at least using AAdvantage miles. One other option I found was a Fijian Airways flight that sells one way tickets without a markup. Thanks to all for their feedback!

It would be a single award ticket with flight 2 segments and we would be checking bags in at Sydney. Your point about early morning weather is a good one. Were I live early morning fog can be an issue at our local airport at certain times of year. My trip is in November which would be in mid Spring I guess. Your are correct that the flight to the US is QF 93 which leaves at 11:00. I wish I could simply fly home directly from SYD, but the award ticket prices are rediculous for anything more that basic economy...

I don't really think the prices are all that bad with respect to Vueling. If you book an Optima ticket and add a bag of 20kg you'll get 45kg (~100 lbs) of checked in baggage per person. I looked at some prices and the all in cost was about $110/person when booking BCN-FCO well in advance. Of course things can always change with respect to prices.

In order to get a cheap award ticket home I need to fly from SYD to MEL and then make the connection to my international flight home on Qantas. I have many options for arriving into MEL based on the plethora of flights on QF between the 2 cities. The earliest flight shown on the web page leaves at 6:00AM with 3:25 of connection time and the latest is at 7:30AM with only 1:35 available to connect. Several more options are available in between. My normal gut is to have more connecting time in case of flight issues, but 6:00AM is pretty early given the need to arrive at the airport and pass security. What do the experts here suggest is sufficient time to connect? I guess a follow on question would be how much time to allocate at the Sydney airport. I expect to have some sort of "fast track" access to security.

I have only been to Chileno Bay and was not impressed from a snorkeling perspective. Actually, I wasn't a huge fan of Chileno Bay period as it has very limited services - only a bathroom if memory serves me correctly. If we plan on staying a while you should considering bringing some drinks and snacks. Thankfully we had a car on that trip so it wasn't a big deal to check out. I doubt we spent more that an hour there. Maybe it's different on cruise ship days with more vendors and services I would be curious to hear about Santa Maria. It's slightly closer to the port. What is your plan to get to the beach? Taxi, bus? If you try and use the bus, you are likely to need to walk a far amount to get to the public beach at both Chileno Bay and Santa Maria.

Loreto, as a small town, is about as laid back as it gets anywhere.

Thanks - I was just curious about Calimax. Calimax is a nice addition to the area for people that live/visit to the south and don't want to go all the way to Rosarito.

Costco knows their customers. This almost reminds me of their deals on chicken and hot dogs! Get the people coming in! Is this ATM inside Calimax? Who owns the machine? Wells Fargo is the worst for exchange services from my experience too. I used their service to send money to Mexico a couple of times and it was better to simply go to the local market to send money south.

While not necessary, you can simply get pesos at a Bank ATM during you first stop. I would stick to the machines at true banks - BBVA, Banamex, Banorte, Santander, etc - and see what is cheapest in terms of fees with respect to your bank at home. ATM's in bars and restaurants I wouldn't touch in either the US or Mexico. BTW - ATM's have been my default exchange method for many years regardless of destination although I do tend to buy pesos before entering Mexico from the US when visiting Baja.