Nice customer friendly attitude FA88. If all your colleagues felt the way you did, it wouldn't matter because there wouldn't be any customers and you wouldn't have a job.
That said, I think the only way US will be able to keep ala carte pricing to the extent that they have is to lower fares to the point where people will buy tickets. What few elites appear to be left are being upgraded with more regularity since their ranks have apparently declined significantly, and the rest of the customer base just doesn't know better.
Price and value go hand in hand. If you can pay roughly the same fare and NOT be nickel and dimed, I think that's where people will go.
US still suffers from the delusion that the "hybrid" carrier concept will work. It may--for Airtran and those who set proper expectations from their customers and then meet or exceed those expectations. US is trying to be something its not, and they manage to disappoint a good number of customers in the process.
At some point, if they want to be a true LCC, they should either stop calling First class as such because it is not in a product sense, and just call it the big front seat, like Spirit and those.
If you're going to do something, do it right, or don't do it at all.
US has (or had) alot going for it--the best front line employees, a fantastic route network, a competitive product, and at one time they actually listened to their customers. Customer Service aimed at fixing problems, not making the customer complaints go away with vouchers.
So while it may be true that ALL airlines are going to have problems soon, I think US is going to be more vulnerable than the rest.
Happy Thanksgiving all....
