After The Speech

[MarkMyWords]

Bob-

Personally, I think we attack both. You get the instant bang for your buck from the low hanging fruit while you attack the long term solutions. Then you put a profit sharing plan in place that rewards the sacrifices that were made to get you through the short term that will return the employees to compensation levels near where they are now. By maintaining those same work rules and compensation levels, when the next recession comes around, you still are cost effective but employees pay with smaller profit sharing checks during the rough times. Win-win.

 

[USA320Pilot]

Totobird:

Totobird said: "After listening to Dave's speech yesterday I for one am voting YES. I think Dave summed it all up in one sentence. "If the cuts are too painful for you then look for another job while you still have one". For those of you who hate USAirways as I have read on here day after day go look for another job now and leave the majority of us to make USAirways great once again. I for one am not ready to see us go out of business. I really think we can make it.

Chip answers: Totobird, your point is valid. Nobody knows what the new labor agreements will look like, but even if one of our colleagues gets furloughed, the potential exists for some employees to have severance pay.

Without a company, there are no jobs, no pay, no retirement plan, no medical, no term pass to help in a job search, and in the hubs, an enormous amount of competition for otehr jobs.

Regards,

USA320Pilot

 

[TheLarkAscending]

 

[BoeingBoy]

MmW,

I actually like your idea with a couple of caviats.

Retirees - those pilots who were retired gave "concessions" when the old pension was terminated - how to handle them.

Near term retirees - gave concessions until retirement then also have a reduction in their retirement as above - how to handle that.

Furloughees - made possibly the biggest sacrifice. A tougher nut to crack - hopefully many will end up with a better career somewhere else but many may come back years after the company returns to profitability - how to handle them.

Finally, ALPA got a profit sharing provision in the bk concession negotiations - profits over $50 million up to some amount (don't remember how much off the top of my head) are divided among the various workgroups that gave concessions (as I recall it).

Jim

 

[delldude]

After listening to Dave's speech yesterday I for one am voting YES. I think Dave summed it all up in one sentence. "If the cuts are too painful for you then look for another job while you still have one".

For those of you who hate USAirways as I have read on here day after day go look for another job now and leave the majority of us to make USAirways great once again. I for one am not ready to see us go out of business. I really think we can make it.

I think Dave summed it all up in one sentence. "If the cuts are too painful for you then look for another job while you still have one".

i don't know if anyone noticed.....we saw the news clips wednesday where dave stated this line...today at work we were forced to watch the vhs the company wants us to see.
funny thing...this line was edited out of what we saw .

 

[AP Tech]

Vote YES for severance....another intelligent statement. I suspect something will be added in the concession contracts to do with eliminating part if not all of severance pay!! So be careful while voting yourself out of a job just to get severance pay.....

 

[1990Supra]

[

I think Dave summed it all up in one sentence. "If the cuts are too painful for you then look for another job while you still have one".

i

This is probably the most egocentric, arrogant statement any CEO of a corporation could say to a group of employees. That should go down in aviation history books.

He should be "booed" off the stage.

 

[delldude]

[

I think Dave summed it all up in one sentence. "If the cuts are too painful for you then look for another job while you still have one".

i

This is probably the most egocentric, arrogant statement any CEO of a corporation could say to a group of employees. That should go down in aviation history books.

He should be "booed" off the stage.

i agree also...but point is they edited the damn thing....don't want to piss off the IAM

 

[MarkMyWords]

Jim -


Well, I didn't say I had all the answers! LOL Dave and the unions will have to work on some of that themselves.

 

[BoeingBoy]

MmW,

Hey, if there were any easy answers we wouldn't be in this position in the first place.

Jim

 

[funguy2]

- we are simplifying fares

I agree that not a lot of details were given and I am sure we are only simplifying fares as a market by market competitive response. Take PHL-LAX as an example. Prior to Frontier annoucing service to LAX, our full Y fare was 2400.00 roundtrip (ridiculous). With the announcement that WN is coming into the market, our full fare price will be reduced to 600.00 max! So in a market where we had ticket prices varying from 200.00-2400.00 we will now only have a variance from 200.00-600.00. The flights were full then, they will be full now, but there will be a loss of revenue and if things stay the way they are now, there will be no reduction in expenses.....how do you compensate for that loss of revenue?

I believe this is a HUGE tactical error.

1. HP made a huge splash in the industry and among the traveling community by announcing that fares have been restructured in EVERY market, on EVERY flight, EVERY day. This made the industry and travelers take notice. If US Airways restructures their fares from PHL to RDU on Tuesdays as a response to LUV, nobody will notice. US Airways needs a system-wide splash so that the industry and travelers take notice, and say, "Wow. Something is definitely changing at US Airways, I should check it out!"

2. How can US Airways justify to its customers that it wants to be a LCC from RDU, ALB, and TPA, but a Legacy carrier from SYR, GSO, and RSW?

BTW... What America West did was to lower their top end fares, and sell less low-end fares in order to increase average ticket price. LUV does something similar. Why can't US Airways do this? Just because you have a $99 transcon fare available doesn't mean you have to fill the plane with pax paying $99. When the last minute fare is 1000% higher, you force people to plan ahead. Some folks might actually delay their purchase decision if they know the fare will "only" increase by 50-150% for last-minute decisions.

- we will change the company culture

I hope Dave was sincere about this. PitBull has been trying for well over a year to pound this point home to him. He needs to be more (for lack of a better phrase) employee friendly. Once we do start making a profit again, that in itslef will do much to increase the morale of the employees, but there is a lot of repair work that needs to start at Daves desk and pour downwards. They need to nurture the concept of team work and bring everyone together. We need to restore pride in working for this company.

Part of being a LCC is culture. Its a culture of getting more from less. Working your assets hard and reaping the reward. It is a culture of KISS ("Keep It Simple, Stupid!") and focus on what's important (i.e. customer service). LCC's understand that customer service agents can provide good customer service in a polo shirt (as opposed to some other more expensive uniform). LCC's understand that every expense should have a return (i.e. like advertizing, sponsorships, etc).

Without simplifying the fare structure system-wide, an LCC-like culture will never emerge. Thats my opinion.

 

[SVQLBA]

SVQLBA -

Excellent response and you bring up some very valid points. If I may I would like to hit on some of my thoughts/thinking.

- we are reevaluating our entire fleet seat configuration.

[... and lots of valid comments ..]

MMW

Thank you for the detailed reply. A summary response is: Yes -- many things in the speech are good ideas. I'm not saying that they aren't good ideas. I am askng why in some cases they are still studying them - what prevented them from doing thigs months ago. In other cases, it just sounds like Siegel is parrotting what he's read in AvWeek and doesn't understand the complexity and ramifications of some of the proposals. And, it would all help if there was some idea of what sort of airline he wants U to be in 5 years. Is it AS? Is it HP (they are very different).

Your response deserves a detailed point by point response, which I'll do this evening

 

[mweiss]

Some folks might actually delay their purchase decision if they know the fare will "only" increase by 50-150% for last-minute decisions.

You've pointed out one of the subtleties of ticket pricing. The initial goal was to segment the market to match the fare to the demand for each individual customer. That can only work if a given customer self-segments. And a customer will stop self-segmenting if the price differential is high enough to warrant a change in behavior.

One of the classic examples of how the airfare segmentation has changed other markets is trade shows. They used to be only on weekdays, but after the insane pricing of the late 90s they started shifting to including a saturday night so as to give the attendees more for their money.

In short, the public segmentation can only work in the short run. In the long run, consumers' behaviors will change to reduce the effects of the segmentation. This is why the WN/HP/AS pricing model works.

 

[crazyincanton]

After listening to Dave's speech yesterday I for one am voting YES. I think Dave summed it all up in one sentence. "If the cuts are too painful for you then look for another job while you still have one".

For those of you who hate USAirways as I have read on here day after day go look for another job now and leave the majority of us to make USAirways great once again. I for one am not ready to see us go out of business. I really think we can make it.

For those of you who think that those of us who don't agree with you or have the right to vote "NO" if we want should leave, why don't you leave and find another job where your future won't be decided by someone else?




HERES THE PLAN!
WHERE'S THE BEEF?

 

[Twicebaked]

You know, I am always one of the first ones to complain that we gave enough.
When is it enough?
I agree with Dave...Southwest IS going to kill us if we don't get our cost in line.
Who's fault is it? Mine? Your's? Dave's?
At this point it doesn't matter. We are in trouble and we need to fix it fast.
I was one that originally said let the company fold. Why?
So I can make half my salary or less on unemployment? It sucks now. If I were jobless it would be worse.
Isn't going from $35,000 a year to $32,000 a year better than $35,000 a year to $0.00 a year? That was just a number folks.
It IS better to look for something else while you have a job.
We need to take our emotions: anger and hatred out of this and think rationally. You can respond and bash all you want, the reality is we have no choice.
Kitty said those who voted yes are gone anyway...well let's keep something for them to someday come back to.
When Dave finally reveals this plan listen to it before you say no.
When you lose everything you have when the company folds on you, you'll wish you would have thought it through.
Think this is a bluff? Think again people.