I am not sure they (WN) are the best in the world. However, I think that they have a lot of things that just make sense. I know exactly what to expect when I get on board. A Boeing 737 that is clean, has nice amount of legroom, almost always friendly employees, bag of peanuts or pretzels, and a glass of something to hydrate me. They don't even necessarily have the lowest fares to a particular destination but you know they are consistently reasonable with consistent service.
What is going to be interesting is the merger with Airtran. From what the papers are saying they are going to keep Airtran 717 and are looking at putting the Boeing 737-800 into service. They would also like to expand to beyond the US boarders. They will be leaving there niche market. I think the reason a lot of people like them is for what they have been doing up to this point. It has been their consistency that keeps people coming back. I flew them recently for the first time in several years. I would say my experience was almost the same as it was back then with the exception of leather seats. A lot of airlines over promise and under deliver with services. This is one thing you don't see with southwest.
As you point out it would be difficult to apply service like Singapore Airlines to any US carrier. For one thing their market is totally different. Their website indicates they have approximately 110 aircraft with many on order. Those aircraft are ALL widebody and are all less than 7 years old. They are constantly updating their fleet. There is no domestic service as Singapore is small enough to drive around in a couple of hours. They serve 61 cities in 34 countries with over 180 daily departures. Compare that to US Airways at over 200 cities in 30 countries with approximately 3,130 daily departures. Easy to see the difference in the scope of operations.
I think if US could just somehow find a way to be more consistent they would pop up a little higher in those ratings. Also, don't tell me you spent X dollars on refurbishing aircraft just keep them clean and safe to fly on. Telling me what you spent to fix something that should have already been done sets you up for failure. My expectations are higher thinking you spent all this money. I am now looking for what improvements you have made only to see the tape that holds up the armrest in my seat. They also need to listen to employee concerns more closely. The employee that spends the time interacting with customers can be the biggest catalyst for improving the bottom line. Again, saying you have wonderful employees in your in flight magazine and showing them with the right tools to get the job done are two different things.
I do think that US has taken some very small steps to fix some of the blunders of the past. I just think it has been too slow and too little to be of much use to get you out of the bottom ranks of customer satisfaction. Hope things start looking up.
