Constructive Ideas?

[just a f/a]

Some of the things I'm suggesting have already been mentioned on other threads, but I think they bear repeating..

If management does read these boards, maybe some of the suggestions we make will be considered.

My suggestions? Ok, since you asked:

1. On Board Amenities - f/c glassware, meal portion sizes, cleaner cabins.

2. Inflight Entertainment - We already have video equipment, let's use it!
Years ago we used to show 'short subjects' on florida flights and, I believe,
mid-cons. Even some of the 737's had audio only and people just listened to
music!

Even if we have to show a commercial every now and then to pay for the
royalties, it's better than nothing at all. Most people have their own
headphones anyway, or purchase ours for the one-time fee.

3. Marketing - What good is offering new destinations or implementing new on
board services of no one knows about it? How about a marketing blitz? A
new jingle? Anything?


The main point of this is that we are, or were, a premium carrier. Southwest offers basic transportation.

I don't think people expect to fly on a premium carrier for the same price as a ticket on Southwest. So if we reestablish ourselves as a higher-end product, we can charge a reasonable bit more that customers will expect to pay.

Thoughts?

 

[PITbull]

No thoughts.

This management clearly wants much more from the Labor groups in the form of work rule changes again and productivity. This is first on their list. They already killed our w-2 by adding more sick pay penalties than what we had agreed, implementing the new reserve system so that they only have to get you to your guarantee, so you don't get the rest of your time in, etc...so, they need what's left of the work rules from all labor groups so that it mirrors the LCCs, even though we are a full-service net-work carrier.

They know that if any other part of the restructuring plan should fail, they think they have labor on board to pay for it. They have it all. What's left from this point, is a good selling of the airline.

 

[elmerfishpaw]

1. Have a premium product.
2. Charge a reasonable fare...better 20 people at $$$ than 2 at $$$$.
3. Merge the wholly owned express, or at least PDT and ALO get them some RJs and let them run with it.
4. Some Props will be needed but don't ignore them. Clean them up, refurbish them. People in East Burpville deserve a premium product too.
5. Planning and marketing. Make sure it's not an RJ doing PHL to MCO the friday before February vacation.
6. Advertise this airline!!!!!!
7. good profit sharing program for employees.
8. Advertise this airline even more!!!!
9. Shadow WN with first class available for not much more in fare...run them within 5 or 10 minutes of WN and make our FC VERY appealing farewise.
10. Advertise some more!!

 

[UFO]

Elmerfishpaw


Good ideas. If management would only take a breather from their normal focus of reducing employee costs above all else they might find other areas ripe for improving the operation. Why don't they take a hard look at improving the company daily operation based on the available assets and market opportunities. We all read about the continued dismal performance in various operational components, but seldom see any serious attempt to correct these problems. We as employees can only do so much as individual pieces of the puzzle. We desparately need true leadership which will renew the focus of making the best of what we have. Alas, I fear that this will not occur with our present management team.

 

[usacrew3]

As far as Inflight goes, lets have a Cabin Service Director program on international like the other Star carriers. Lets make our service on international routes a superior experience instead of us having to apologise for the lack of service and products. Whoever thought it was acceptable to offer socks, eyemasks, ear plugs and toothpaste from a bread basket prior to takeoff was not thinking global carrier. I know I mention the donut a lot but come on!
Im dreaming here, but how about blocks for reserves! In May of this year just about everyone had a block and the morale was high, I bet the sick calls were low and we all got our time in.
More destinations!!! Grow this airline and not just one destination a year on a seasonal basis. Why can't we fly nonstop from Manchester to Orlando? Is it because we are a US carrier? Manchester Las Vegas would be a good one too.
The A West terminal is a disaster trying to get through security but Im told it will be corrected in the near future.
How about a base in Fort Lauderdale to compete with Miami and start flying to South America. Crew members could serve MIA, FLL and PBI. WE are ready to serve if you will just call us.
OK now please dont think Im crazy although I have had some coffee this morning. In the UK they have two prime time reality tv shows featuring Easy Jet and BA. The shows essentially follow the day to day operations of those airlines. What goes on at checkin, what happens with baggage issues, delays and even inflight situations. My friends say this could never work at US Airways because we would be showing off all of our dirty laundry. I say it would really help to clean up our airline, show us off as a great carrier and with all the prime time reality shows going on right now Im sure we would fit right in. Some of the regulars on those shows in the UK have gone on to be big celebs!!
OK, so if that doesn't work, how about just using the employees to advertise the airline and show off the great talent that is being wasted.
Just a few suggestions.

 

[JS]

Implement cockpit-ATC transmissions just like your partner UA's Channel 9, but require it to be switched on aboard ALL flights, unlike UA.

 

[Light Years]

I Love these kinds of threads!!!

These are all great ideas, I'll add some...

*New uniforms for all departments with a stronger identity as US Airways, making more use of our navy, gray, white and red colours. Dont make it more casual, make it more global, militaristic, professional- we like to be proud of our uniforms!

*I always wonder if we are missing the boat on our Shuttle product- I think it should be the core of our network. Add PHL to BOS, LGA, and DCA. Have a seperate dedicated fleet (smaller gallies, lots of storage space, leather seating, more seats in single class) and crews that stay with Shuttle for the entire trip (as it used to be). Do everything in our power to make it a quick trip from sidewalk to seat- seperate security lines etc, seperate gates (D terminal in PHL). Invest in dual jetways (WestJet in Canada has new ones) so that the aircraft can be boarded from both ends, and boarded 15 minutes prior to departure. Put four FAs on that tidy between flights, and cater it only a few times a day with lots of supplies. Cut down on time and hassle and we will win back the businessmen from the choo-choo- train. Adding PHL does add a lot of capacity but it also feeds our international service out of Philadelphia and establishes us as the prime player in the four most important business markets.

*Advertise, and advertise in unique ways. Make that flag immediatly recognizable to people who dont live in PIT, CLT, and PHL. How about an ad for the Shuttle in times square? Visible every day on the morning news shows and numerous other TV shows. Offer use of an aircraft, gate area, ticket jackets or whatever for free use on TV shows (as long as its positive). On Sex and the City Carrie flew Continental to see Big in SFO. On Six Feet Under Nate flew in from SEA on United. Free advertising for them... Most airline advertising these days focuses on mileage programs and are as interesting as a credit card application. Or they are LCCs (and CO as well) trying way too hard to be hip. Airlines are really not very hip, but they are certainly not boring. We put thousands of people in the air safely every day in a coordinated ballet of people working together. We bring people to job interviews, thier first day of college, a funeral, a honeymoon, a vacation, or a reunion. I know thats all been done before but there is presently no airline ad campaign that focuses on that. We want people to choose us a business partner and as the provider of memories... I just know theres an effective ad campaign and slogan out there for us...

*IFE, I've said my peice on that.

*Adjust stage length of mainline aircraft, exploit market presence, and expand route network. BOS-SFO, LAX, LAS, SEA, ORD, TPA, MCO. LGA-ORD, MCO, TPA.
DCA-ORD. Built in customer base through our large presence and from the UA alliance- put the butts in our seats! Add more destinations- Austin, San Antonio, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Jose, Orange County. Continue narrowbody Carribbean/Central America expansion- Caracas, Guatamala City, San Salvador, Bogota? Expand Dublin, Shannon and Glascow to year round. Depending on aircraft availability expand into more European markets (ZRH, MXP, ATH, TLV, DUS, VIE, CPH?). Return the transatlantic product to the award winning product it was- We actually have alot of goodwill from European travelers who know us as a transatlantic carrier, and with our upcoming Star relationships we will have added exposure. Lets not do the typical USAir thing and screw it up.

*Use the EMBs as a mainline product. Dual class, no Express titles. We all know why.

*Place RJS at the four wholly owned airlines and bring people back to work. Eventually merge them and get rid of the contract carriers- they are a poision that will eat away at our customer base.

* US Airways should have two divisions- long haul and short haul. The short haul division could fly anything from 30-110 seats (up to Embraer 195). The employees would have contracts, pay and work rules similar to other Low cost carriers and commuters (relative to aircraft size). The long haul division (mainline) would fly Airbus narrowbodies and widebodies internatinaly and on long haul domestic flights. The contracts and pay would be similar to other major airlines but with work rules of LCCs- we want to work smarter and more efficiently. In giving away 100 seaters to the short haul division, there wuld have to be proof of long haul/ mainline expansion. Market it all as US Airways- thats what we are, we should all be on the same side. Make different work groups aware of what the others do. One of the biggest problems with U is there are so many divisions, subsidiaries, contractors, classifications, no one knows anything about the other (example- I was on a Chautaqua flight talking to the flight attendant and she said it must have been exciting to work for mainline and fly to places like Asia- this is who we're leaving our customers with, a contracted employee without a clue).

* Morale. I don't know how to fix it- but ALOT needs to be done. Stop the threats and belittling of the employee group. Stop comparing us to what we are not, have never, and will not be. Stop replacing us and bring us back to work. Stop making us the embarrassment of the industry. Have positive, revolutionary ideas instead of negative, reactionary ones. We like to be proud of our airline, and if you get on our good side and work with us this place will take off.

 

[usramperTPA]

* Morale. I don't know how to fix it- but ALOT needs to be done. Stop the threats and belittling of the employee group. Stop comparing us to what we are not, have never, and will not be. Stop replacing us and bring us back to work. Stop making us the embarrassment of the industry. Have positive, revolutionary ideas instead of negative, reactionary ones. We like to be proud of our airline, and if you get on our good side and work with us this place will take off.

Hey Light,

Excellent post! I would only add one thing to the morale issue, Dave and Co need to show us some humility. He needs to stop trying to break our contracts and gain our trust back. Dave and co have a hell of an opportunity to do just that by pulling out of the courts and just plain do the right thing with our labor! Such a gesture would undeniably be the olive branch that he needs to extend to labor for a show of good faith.

 

[longing4piedmont]

Ok here is one for CCY

You want to cut cost, right?

Implement some form of reward to the employees for suggesting cost cutting ideas. I once worked for a company that took the employee ideas and computed the cost savings for the first six months if implemented and then paid the employee half of the computed cost savings for suggesting it. There were some very large checks passed out, but then that is the point, right? The company became one of the most competitive in the industry that I work in. I understand that some of those checks could be huge and my first thought is so what. My second thought is the company is in financial trouble so why not cap it at say $10,000.

You'll be surprised how many good ideas you get that will save a substantial amount of money.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Here's one I posted on another thread. AWA does it and is estimating $25 million additional revenue a year (hoped to get $2-3 million initially).

Sell upgrades to empty 1st/envoy seats to any coach pax (regardless of the fare they paid). Do it within 2-4 hours of departure. If worried about last minute upgrades by ff's could make it a standby list type of thing. AWA charges from $50 to $250 domestically, depending on stage length. Would bring in additional revenue from what would otherwise be an empty front seat.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Forgot to add on above post that AWA gives employee that sell upgrade $5. Doesn't seem like much, but the article on this said that one of the leading "sellers" averaged about 30 per month. That's $150 extra spending money. Obviously, the ticket counter and gate agents would benefit most, but more power to them.

 

[tadjr]

How about contracting our ground staff to handle other airlines? We used to do this often (in TPA we handled British Airways, Cayman Airways, Air Aruba before), but now no one. Continental handles America West, Frontier and various charters, Delta handles Laker and now Midwest and American handles British. (Air Aruba is no more and Cayman hired their own checkin staff). Why complain about us sitting around when we dont have flights when we could be handling other carriers? I know they arent going to pay our yearly salary, but surely we could charge enough to cover the cost of having the employees pay covered while working them in addition to some profit. Also tie in overtime costs to their contract in the event they run late so US doesnt get hit. We already lease the jetways so that isnt a factor (and if it is, add it to the contract). We just have to have the bodies there when they are needed for checkin. I think one of the reasons we ended up not renewing some of the contracts we had previously was that supervisors and management thought it was too much trouble. Needless to say they werent on the bottom of seniority and didnt care about keeping us busy ie with a job. How hard is it to write two agents names down on the work sheet to work the other airlines flight? I know there are more issues involved, but if AA/CO/DL are making it work, its something that should be looked into.

 

[BoeingBoy]

I don't take credit for this as others have mentioned it here or in other threads. Just wanted to add some perspective....

Fares - the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (part of the DOT) reported that 49% of airling passengers said they were traveling for "business/work". The pax survey also showed that 23% of pax were on a non-restricted ticket. The survey was conducted in the 1st quarter of 2003, so the percentages are probably higher than at some other times of the year (summer, holidays). So when our infamous BBB says that business travel is weak, he is wrong. The high fare business traveler is becoming an endangered species, but business people are traveling - they're just buying smarter.

I just checked the fares PHL-LAX-PHL for a quick trip in Janurary - out in the morning, back the 3rd day in time for a late supper. The lowest restricted fare was $270, the f/c unrestricted fare was $3238. How many of those $3000+ fares do we sell in a day, or a week, or a month?

Any agents out there can chime in here - I don't know how many of those people sitting in f/c actually paid for a f/c ticket, I only know how many are sitting there on a given flight. My guess is that most of them didn't - they're using their miles to upgrade from coach. If I'm right, why not see if we can sell half of those f/c seats at say 4x the lowest fare instead of almost none at 10x the lowest fare?

 

[USFlyer]

Any fare analysis must take into consideration corporate contracts. That $3200 F fare is only about $2100 under our corporate contract, which equates to about $900 each way before taxes. Go on down the line and you'll see the B fares everyone complains about are really not that bad for many of us that work for companies with CVAs.

 

[oldiebutgoody]

How about a REAL route network. One that DOESN'T rely on codeshares, commuters (the non wholly owned ones, of course) and actually goes where people want to go. UAIR has made GREAT progress in overseas and caribbean destinations, while virtually shutting down the midwest and west coast destinations. Seems that ALL the eggs ARE in one basket, that being the UAL codeshare. Heaven help us if UAL ever goes away or decides that they don't wnat to codehare anymore (ala Mexicana and the STAR alliance) or congress ever decides that these codeshares are anticompetitive (this has been argued on and off for years) and ends them. UAIR has a crappy network, and everytime they downsize or eliminate a destination it gets worse. UAIR really NEEDS a midwest hub, and it seems that STL is available, has tremendous facilities and may even spring for some of the cost of bringing another hub there.