AA catching a TWA disease?

[cmkeane]

I have just completed a month with lots of travel for my job. I am fairly concerned that AA has caught one of the real problems TWA fought in its later years -- it contracted far too much, both making the fixed cost portion of the business effectively escalate AND driving away passengers because of lack of seats! In the last 30 days I have had a dozen trips -- half on AA and half on WN. I had to fly WN because of a lack of availability on AA on those routes (or, in 2 cases, the only seat left was middle rear row -- shudder). The funny thing is, all my AA flights were packed (95%+ LF), yet even getting some of the last seats on the plane, I was still getting L fares!

It seems to me, particularly in/out of the DC area and into spoke business centers, like SAN, SLC, and IAH, AA has really shrunk far too much and is driving customers away. It seems to me that AA has probably a much worse revenue problem than cost problem from this.

Also, they really need to join with the other airlines on free upgrades, this would effectively increase the honestly salable seats by a dozen.... Let''s face it, not too many people actually buy FC tickets on any given flight, but I am sure I am not the only VFF who has been unable to book flights because Y is full (and F has 1 or 2 people booked) (and no, I am NOT allowed to pay for FC or FULL-Y by my employer)... As for me, as long as MRTC exists, the FC coupons is truly a joke... I DO CHOOSE AA for MRTC. Also, hats off to all the crews flying the crappy storms the last week or so -- I hardly recall have so many nasilty turbulent flights as in the last 10 days.

 

[glasspilot]

I''m former TWA and I''ve said for over a year now: "We did bring something to American; we showed ''em how to fly full airplanes and loose money!"

 

[Flyboy4u]

I too am hearing the same thing from passangers who are fed up with not getting a seat and bumped to other flights because they are full. You think it''s bad now wait until July when the schedule continues to be reduced and furloughs hit the street. Who is running this company anyways?

 

[Oliver Stone''s Apprentice]

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On 5/17/2003 3:32:35 PM cmkeane wrote:

It seems to me, particularly in/out of the DC area and into spoke business centers, like SAN, SLC, and IAH, AA has really shrunk far too much and is driving customers away. It seems to me that AA has probably a much worse revenue problem than cost problem from this.

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Where''s the shrinkage? Daily flights for those three cities and DCA are more or less the same as they were in Spring 2001. With depeaked hubs at ORD and DFW, the connections are no longer as good as they used to be, but I don''t know that I''d call this a huge pullback:

City May2001 May2002 May2003 
---- ------- ------- ------- 
BWI  12      20      21
DCA  35      31      32
IAD  14      22      15
IAH  19      21      18
SAN  25      28      21
SLC  6       8       9

I''m not so sure I''d agree with you on free upgrades. Sure there are carriers willing to give away their premium product for free. As long as there are people who are willing to pay for it outright or fork over the surcharge to upgrade, it would be foolish to write off that revenue stream. We''re here to make money first and foremost.

 

[Connected1]

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On 5/19/2003 1124 AM eolesen wrote:

I''m not so sure I''d agree with you on free upgrades. Sure there are carriers willing to give away their premium product for free. As long as there are people who are willing to pay for it outright or fork over the surcharge to upgrade, it would be foolish to write off that revenue stream. We''re here to make money first and foremost.
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CO does it and has consistenly kicked our tails in terms of domestic unit revenue (on a configuration-adjusted basis) since they first implemented the product.

I heard that we have done some limited testing with mixed results. Perhaps the results were mixed because we did not advertise? People are willing to pay more if they think that they are going to get something for free. It sounds oxymoronic, but it just might be crazy enough to work.