Breaking the glass: The truth about the US Airways A320 East

[kinglobjaw]

Posted this on FT: Now its time to get burned here on USaviation.

topics I will cover today.
- The A320.
- The Shares Merge situation.

Having flown this past weekend from LAX-PHL-ORD I have some stuff I would like to say.

1) The A320 First Class configuration is definitely not as bad as many of you make it out to be. I think the whining factor is really sinking into many of you. While the left and right bin of First Class still have some equipment in them, it is not all that bad. The employees have not been complaining anymore, neither have the passengers. As Travis Christ has told us earlier last month, the remaining equipment will be relocated. The bulkheads are now cleaner than ever, new and fresh and Row 1 of First Class finally has a TV that is in a good position for passenger viewing. All 12 passengers were able to fit in all of their belongings
The lack of closet/hangers on wall is not as bad either. There is ample space for all coats and jackets to be hung behind row 3 of F. When my a lady felt cold later into the flight she did not have to bug the flight attendant or dig herself through the closet. She walked up and got the coat herself.

2) The employee situation in Shares was not as bad either. In LAX check-in was seamless and quick. HP and US agents were side by side assisting each other with the check-in process.
In PHL, although many domestic flights were moved to A terminal, my PHL-ORD was moved to A22, the agents had no problems with wait list, upgrades or boarding. Almost every gate had an HP agent along with one or two US agents working the system. Both airlines' agents asked each other questions and worked together. The HP agent learned about US legacy boarded pax and cleared upgrades and vice versa.
Furthermore, the usairways.com website is working much better now and that is thanks to the Shares system merge. All problems set aside, the usairways.com website LOOKS appealing.

While I understand there are still reasons we are not 100% with the great airline US Airways is, some of you folks made a smokescreen for first timers like myself trying the A320. The plane is great and I will be taking it again on an upcoming SJU trip in April.

 

[Prince of PAWOBs]

Aww gee! How peachy-keen your life must be.

LAX is not PHL, CLT, PIT, BOS, DCA or LGA. That's where the action was this week.

The 320, as well as the rest of our fleet are being converted into flying sardine cans. If you are enjoying the ride, then you are a sardine.

Travis Christ......well, not much I can say about him that hasn't already been said. Although professional liar and dilletante come to mind.

Glad you're hard at work debunking all of those myths for us, Lockjaw! Keep up the non-work.

 

[ClueByFour]

Did the glass break when you set the bong down?

 

[ONT_CP]

Must be flying without enough oxygen... At least you can get in the Management Training program with that attitude, you already know the kool-aid!

 

[yvrusfa]

Kinglobjaw....

Thanks for the kind and informative post! Sounds like some good may have come out of all this res. migration after all.?

It is nice for a change to have something besides negative energy and bi***ing on this board.

As a US /west employee I thank you for your business and support. Lord knows we have had our share of challenges the past few weeks and hopefully the next few will be vastly improved.

Thanks again for the uplift.

 

[USPHLElite]

Posted this on FT: Now its time to get burned here on USaviation....

I guess you realize how ridicules your comments are!

Did Kirby give you any pointers on what to write? When I was on an A320 EVERYONE complained including the FA. You are clueless.

 

[NCFL]

Thanks for the positive comments.

I, for one, and really sick of all the whining about the closet and cabin reconfig. I don't personally like the shrinking of F cabins, but there comes a time when one has to say to all of those still griping "Move with the Cheese" and get over it.

 

[PHX PHLyer]

What I find so very interesting is this:

2006 financials PROVE that it is the old US that generated ALL of '06 profit.

Piney, you and everyone else that states this in at least 2 posts a day sound like broken records. We've heard you make this AMAZING argument 1000 times now. But the truth is, it would be hard for HP to generate much of a profit when they were running extra lean and inefficiently for the past year. They have been painting planes faster than I have ever seen, with most of the time more than 1 plane out of service at a time. If you look at the first 3 quarters, HP generated profit. Then, in the slow 4th quarter with the official merger milestone approaching, HP decided to expedite the repainting process, taking more aircraft out of service to get them repainted. They were flying with less aircraft, and more inefficiently. Paying rent for aircraft that were not making any money..NO REVENUE. The east took over a lot of the flying. Look at all of the PHX-SAN runs US East was doing. How about other cites like ORD, RDU, SEA, DEN, FLL, CUN, MIA...and the list goes on. US East was incrasing utilization, while in the 4th quarter HP was declining in efficiency.

 

[CV580ETOPS]

I guess you realize how ridicules your comments are!

Did Kirby give you any pointers on what to write? When I was on an A320 EVERYONE complained including the FA. You are clueless.

A Usair Flight Attendant complaining...so what else is new??

 

[lodoboy]

For those of you who are commenting on "complainging F/A's", I hope that you know that the complaints are on behalf of our patrons! With the reconfiguration of the A320, came alot of negative feedback directed directly at the frontline, The F/A. Our east A/C were not meant to be configured this NEW way, and continuing to reshuffle items, only makes things worse in another area. ie, by placing emergency equipment where a galley storage bin used to be, either eliminated those items or moved them somewhere else, subsequently where they moved those items to, moved something else. It's the passenger who suffers, and the F/A's complain in a feeeble attempt to try and rectify the issue, or at least bring attention to the errors. It would be nice to hear wonderful things on here all the time, but it is a sounding board, on what is going on in the airline, and not all of it is good.

 

[BoeingBoy]

But the truth is, it would be hard for HP to generate much of a profit when they were running extra lean and inefficiently for the past year. <snip> They were flying with less aircraft, and more inefficiently. Paying rent for aircraft that were not making any money..NO REVENUE. The east took over a lot of the flying. Look at all of the PHX-SAN runs US East was doing. How about other cites like ORD, RDU, SEA, DEN, FLL, CUN, MIA...and the list goes on. US East was incrasing utilization, while in the 4th quarter HP was declining in efficiency.

Good sounding argument, except it overstates the case. HP block hours were down only 3% in 2006 vs 2005, while ASM's were down slightly more - 3.1%. Passenger revenue at HP was up 9.5%, revenue passenger miles were down only 2.9%. Lastly, number of aircraft in the fleet went up while aircraft rent wend down.

In all, not anywhere near enough differences to explain away the $382 million differential in the bottom lines between East and West. Of course, we could look at 2005 net results - HP lost $397 million net. 2006 represented a pretty good improvement for an airline that was paying for all those airplanes that weren't flying and mired in inefficiency.....

Jim

 

[muircross]

Why would anyone fly LAX-PHL-ORD?

 

[N965VJ]

Why would anyone fly LAX-PHL-ORD?

Mileage Run for his parents?

 

[john john]

Slice it however you like.

AMEN