US use to own these markets! bad management gave them away
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Lets see 5hr bus ride or 1hr plane ride
BOS-BUF
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Flying Titan
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JJ -
Don't be too dismissive of the "luxury bus." No TSA, no arriving an hour early, door-to-door service for the Cornell crowd (making the trip time difference much smaller), plus the amenities listed in the earlier post.
At well over a dollar a mile, there's a strong feeling in upstate NY and many similar markets across the system that passengers are just being gouged. This creates passenger resentment and puts out the welcome mat for B6, FL, and SWA.
I know that there's a sense of entitlement among some in the industry that anyone who would dare come in and offer new flights is "flooding" the market, but US, has noone to blame but themselves. Markets like ROC, BUF, and SYR to BOS and LGA used to be mainline w/ full planes. In recent years they've been reduced to Dash-8s, RJs, and from time to time even the occasional Saab or B1900 with three or four daily flights. The people who filled up 737s and DC9s five or six years ago are still there and would fly if US hadn't made a conscious decision to price them into their cars for 5,6, or 7 hour drives. Now that decision is biting US in more "stronghold" markets, with competing LCCs and even "luxury buses" moving in to fill a void that shouldn't be there.
Don't be too dismissive of the "luxury bus." No TSA, no arriving an hour early, door-to-door service for the Cornell crowd (making the trip time difference much smaller), plus the amenities listed in the earlier post.
At well over a dollar a mile, there's a strong feeling in upstate NY and many similar markets across the system that passengers are just being gouged. This creates passenger resentment and puts out the welcome mat for B6, FL, and SWA.
I know that there's a sense of entitlement among some in the industry that anyone who would dare come in and offer new flights is "flooding" the market, but US, has noone to blame but themselves. Markets like ROC, BUF, and SYR to BOS and LGA used to be mainline w/ full planes. In recent years they've been reduced to Dash-8s, RJs, and from time to time even the occasional Saab or B1900 with three or four daily flights. The people who filled up 737s and DC9s five or six years ago are still there and would fly if US hadn't made a conscious decision to price them into their cars for 5,6, or 7 hour drives. Now that decision is biting US in more "stronghold" markets, with competing LCCs and even "luxury buses" moving in to fill a void that shouldn't be there.
BoeingBoy
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Well, getting out to the airport from Cornell and doing the TSA shoe dance in Ithaca will take the better part of an hour (or more). Same getting from the airplane to downtown in NYC. So bus takes about 50% more time (4.5 hours vs 3 hours).
However, bus is comfy (full size bus with only 27 seats -- 9 rows of 1 and 2 seating, this ain't Greyhound), bus comes with wifi, coffee, soda, snacks. So for 4.5 hours the Cornell profs and students can be totally productive -- they may as well be in the library or office or at Starbucks.
And on a roundtrip basis, the bus is as little as 1/4 the price. So you can see why the bus will not only pull people out of their cars, it will also pull them out of airplanes.
However, bus is comfy (full size bus with only 27 seats -- 9 rows of 1 and 2 seating, this ain't Greyhound), bus comes with wifi, coffee, soda, snacks. So for 4.5 hours the Cornell profs and students can be totally productive -- they may as well be in the library or office or at Starbucks.
And on a roundtrip basis, the bus is as little as 1/4 the price. So you can see why the bus will not only pull people out of their cars, it will also pull them out of airplanes.
