Way to go Parker!

[luvthe9]

http://www.forbes.com/travel/2008/09/30/ai...0930travel.html

 

[Harry Callahan]

Does this really suprise anyone?

 

[US1YFARE]

How can this be???? They've listened to their customers and rolled out an ala carte program...They have great on-time numbers...The employees are thrilled to work for a pioneering company like US...US has the best *cough* upgrade program in the industry...US uses the finest in plasticware...The fix was in and the article is a sham.

 

[FWAAA]

While I don't disagree that US deserves its spot at the bottom, this ranking system took into account the very long-term view, since it analyzes the last several years of performance. Drunken Parker is gonna respond that it doesn't give him any credit for all the recent improvements. To be fair, US has pulled itself up in the on-time rankings the last few months.

 

[jimntx]

However, Forbes quite clearly stated that on-time performance was just one factor in their "reliability" judgements. Delivering on what is promised was just as important. In that area, I would guess there is only one winner--WN, hands down, end of discussion, game over.

 

[NCFL]

There's one thing the 'New US' is reliable for: customer dissatisfaction.

Consider the following DOT statistics. If you want proof, I provided the web addresses where you can view the actual reports, but the annual customer complaint rankings are listed below.

I think they will clearly reveal which airline's service standards brought the other one down (and why the former East customers are so unhappy) since the one with the historically lower ranking is the one that has - by and large - dictated today's lousy product.

From the customer satisfaction perspective, there should be no head scratching in Tempe as to why they are considered unreliable unless they are just complete dolts. They seem perfectly happy to operate a supposedly low-cost, low-value, high-dissatisfaction airline, so I guess everyone should just accept it or move on.

All of these are year end rankings from the DOT's Air Travel Consumer Report, Complaints Table #5

2007 - last place. See http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/reports/200.../200802atcr.pdf

2006 - tied for last. See http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/reports/200.../200702atcr.pdf

2005 - last place. See http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/reports/200...ry/0602atcr.pdf

2004 - last place. See http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/reports/2005/0502atcr.pdf

2003 - 15th of 17. See http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/reports/2004/0402atcr.pdf

2002 - 4th of 10 (HP was 9th). See http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/reports/2003/0302atcr.pdf

2001 - 4th of 10 (HP was 10th). See http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/reports/2002/0202atcr.pdf

2000 - 4th of 10 (HP was 10th). See http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/reports/2001/0102atcr.pdf

1999 - 7th of 10 (HP was 10th). See http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/reports/2000/0002atcr.pdf

1998 - 4th of 10 (HP was 9th). See http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/reports/1999/9902atcr.pdf

1997 - 3rd of 10 (HP was 9th). See http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/reports/1998/9803atcr.pdf

 

[vantheman63]

I've been saying it for 2 years now...

Book US Airways (a.) when there is no other way to get from point A to point B and (b.) when it's DIRT cheap...since "dirt" is part of the fun...

And on Monday/Tuesday, I did just that...

US Airways Trip Details
------------------------------------------------------------
Monday/Tuesday, September 29/30, 2008:
US 659 A320 departing SFO at 10:00 p.m. arriving PHL at 6:22 a.m. 3C
US 3632 CRJ200 departing PHL at 7:45 a.m. arriving PVD at 9:03 a.m. 5A
------------------------------------------------------------

Total Trip Cost: $205.00, Non-Refundable
Actual Airfare: $171.16
Actual Miles Flown: 2,758
Yield: $0.062 per mile
Taxes & Fees: $33.84, 16.5% of ticket price

So, lets see.....US, according to the genius leadership needs...what, $399 just to pay for fuel? That means on this ticket alone was $229?

Plus I drank 3 Budweisers...and 1 bottle of water...contributing to the loss.

Paying rock bottom for dead last is fair...you expect less than nothing and they lose money...it's fair and it works for me....

Problem is....can the company run their business like this long term and sustainably? (That was a rhetorical question....we all know the answer....)

In the mean time, God Bless the $0.06 per mile ticket! That works for me!

 

[UPNAWAY]

This really is pretty meaningless, 5 years worth of data? Did they really need to do that to ask who was best or worst over that time? Plus they used the JD Power scores and then looked at the last qaurters financials. Have of this data is even pre merger.

 

[vantheman63]

This really is pretty meaningless, 5 years worth of data? Did they really need to do that to ask who was best or worst over that time? Plus they used the JD Power scores and then looked at the last qaurters financials. Have of this data is even pre merger.

Au contraire....

I think NCFL has CLEARLY demonstrated a trend thats IMPOSSIBLE to ignore...

 

[BuffaloJoe]

To be fair, US has pulled itself up in the on-time rankings the last few months.

US put more Express flights into delay prone like DCA and EWR. That helps OT ratings. Mesa and Air Wisconsin take the hit.

 

[john john]

US put more Express flights into delay prone like DCA and EWR. That helps OT ratings. Mesa and Air Wisconsin take the hit.

BINGO!

 

[DCaf]

US put more Express flights into delay prone like DCA and EWR. That helps OT ratings. Mesa and Air Wisconsin take the hit.

DCA isn't delay prone, certainly not like EWR, or ORD, or JFK. Bad reps die hard, and post 9/11, with corporate traffic eliminated, DCA flows pretty well.

Additionally, you could take any 5 year period and the only constant would be WN at the top and everyone else riding up and down the list.

 

[N965VJ]

<SNIP> Have of this data is even pre merger.

wat?

 

[NCFL]

Calculated a different way...

The DOT stopped reporting US and HP separately after 2005. Taking the total number of complaints and the total number of enplanements 1997-2005 for each airline, we can tell over time which one was more popular with customers.

For those not statistically inclined (which I'm not either) using a complaint per enplanement rate allows one to level the playing field since it wouldn't be fair to compare the much larger US to the smaller HP using simply the raw number of complaints received. For the nine year period, HP enplaned 177 million people; US enplaned 461 million.

HP complaint rate per 100,000 enplanements was 2.54.
US " " was 1.63.

In lay terms, that means that HP was 1 1/2 times as likely to piss someone off than US was.

Back to my original point, and the point of this thread IMO: reliably bad service seems to be the Tempe way of doing business.

 

[DrBeth]

And this section of the article defines exactly where US misses the boat on reliability:

While consistency in these categories is important, customer service is an equally powerful factor. Sam Thanawalla, director of the global hospitality and travel practice at J.D. Power and Associates, argues that reliability means "delivering on the promises." This includes getting passengers to their destination in a timely fashion, but also cultivating a workforce that puts the consumer first and can resolve problems or complications quickly.