Sodas $3 Pillows and Blankets $5 apiece

I can't WAIT for "ask inflight" to get back to me. I'd seriously like to know what they intend to do when we're to offer snacks to passengers in an extended on board delay. Hmmmmm

Oh Heeeeey do you want that wine in a styrofoam coffee cup and an ice cube? :lol:
 
Tempe can try to blame the high cost of fuel all they want, but here’s part of the real problem:

Fuel Expense Isn't The Crisis
Michael J. Boyd 06.03.08, Forbes.com

Here's some heresy. The airline industry's real problems are not fuel-based. Just parking airplanes, reducing capacity and dropping suddenly-unprofitable routes only make a dysfunctional airline system a little smaller. That's because most carriers have ignored controlling the No. 1 cost metric in the scheduled airline business: minutes.

Yes, minutes. That's the No. 1 resource and the No. 1 cost driver in every airline operation. They are the baseline airline metric. Cut minutes. Cut costs. It's that simple. Everything is driven by how airlines use minutes. Maintenance costs. Labor costs. Fuel utilization. Customer service. Revenue. How an airline structures itself to use minutes can be the determinant if it makes money or just produces red ink. High fuel costs have only made this more obvious.

But minute-management is totally ignored in many aspects of the business. Any frequent traveler can see it, if he looks. Some airlines will protest, "We look at all aspects of our operations on an ongoing basis." Sure they do. About as effectively as Ray Charles directing traffic.

Too often, airlines operate on the basis of just moving airplanes, which is not the business they're in. They are in the business of moving human passengers from Point A to Point B, often with an intermediate connecting point in between. Airplanes really don't care when or how they get someplace. Passengers do. And that means a need for total worship of the value of minutes.

Link to the rest
 
Just look at Delta. They are doing quite well without a union.
Not quite. Paradoxically, DL employees are doing quite well precisely because of unions - at other airlines. If other airlines were not unionized, DL employees would be seeing much worse compensation and terms of employment.
 
"Is the industry saying that by shrinking overall capacity they can drive the lowest fare higher?


Yes.

The funny thing is....WN will grow capacity next year...and CO won't grow like they were going to, but they'll grow too.

WN, because of their model, will be the big winner.

And I keep hearing all this doomsday talk about their fuel hedges expiring....lemme tell ya, they communicate their "value proposition" SO well to their customers, don't be REMOTELY surprised when their customers "buy into it" and keep flying them.

Question for Travis and the other marketing geniuses in the Sand Castle out there...."do you know what a value proposition to the customer is?"

(Why am I asking that...the answer is of course no....)



I think WN's load factors are generally less than most other airlines'.

Historically, WN has had a "break even" business model that makes them profitable at 70% load factor. Not exactly sure what it is now. But it was WELL known for a number of years amongst biz travelers, "the best chance to have an open middle seat is to fly WN."

I honestly haven't been on many WN flights with less then 90% load factor of late....and they aren't KILLING it money-wise...so I suspect this has changed.
 
Just seen on www.justplanenews.com an article via the arizonacentral newspaper that US is said to be considering selling sodas for $3.00 and pillows and blankets at $5.00 a piece. Now i dont know but I think $3.00 for soda might be steep but then again this is the sandcastle with the stooges at the wheel we're talking about!

I said on the thread about discontinuing pretzels that everyone draws a line in the sand.....if they discontinue free sodas, then they will lose their "airline of choice" status with me.....it really is the little things sometimes.

Seeing that my most common leg for my busines travels at the moment (and for the forseeable future) seems to be CLT-CLE, I luckily have a very viable substitute.
 
Is there any way we could get our hands on literature besides Attache or Skymall for the pax to read? A few people magazines, sports illustrated, US weekly, Time? I bet pax would pay for reading material, $5 each.......or we could lend them noise canceling headsets for a fee......why just pillows and blankets? I cant tell you how many times I forgot reading material and had to read the IS Airways magazine the 8th time in a row....


Perhaps we could just remove the galleys and replace them with vending machines.
 
Perhaps we could just remove the galleys and replace them with vending machines.

That sure would be easier on us! :up: Then they wouldn't even need flight attendants! :shock: Oh Wait. I forgot. We're not there to serve food and drinks. We're on the airplane because we are trained safety professionals! Not doing a beverage service will allow us more time to read about and discuss safety related issues with our colleagues. :lol:
 
Here is an idea for you Tempe. How about you just raise the fares $1.00, that would more than cover the .50 cents the soda costs. Plus there would be .50 cents profit on each and every ticket. Then you would not be seen as nickel and diming all of our customers. You know the same customers you may actually want to purchase another ticket in the future.

Boneheads!

I would never be caught defending Tempe but there is a very clear reason why the company is “nickel and dimingâ€￾ the customers without raising the base fares. It’s called competition. When a consumer goes to any of the websites Travelocity, Orbitz, etc. trips are listed in order of fares. If you increase your fare by even $1 you may make the move from number 1 to number 3 or 4. Your placement on the list is essential in gaining that sale.
 
That sure would be easier on us! :up: Then they wouldn't even need flight attendants! :shock: Oh Wait. I forgot. We're not there to serve food and drinks. We're on the airplane because we are trained safety professionals! Not doing a beverage service will allow us more time to read about and discuss safety related issues with our colleagues. :lol:

If we have time, when we're not saving lives, I suppose we could make change.
 
How about installing atm's in the rear galley so that pax can pay for all of the ala carte offerings onboard?