Too bad management really isn't interested in what the rank and file think. Take a look at the suggestion board on the hub. Most ideas are rejected outright, others including one of my one, have been "under review" for three months or longer. Guess we are going to need a new Managing Director of Suggestions if anything is going to get done around here. What is the point of having any kind of suggestion program if nothing really is going to be considered.
Constructive Ideas?
- Thread starter just a f/a
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Ok here's my 2 cents worth on this subject of suggestions:
1.) Treat the employees with more respect, dignity and APPRECIATION.
2.) Revamp our price structure and refer to "ART at ISP'S" ideas. He seems like a very savy business man who likes our carrier.
3.) Utilize the WO's as the LCC network to go head to head with WN and the likes.
4.) Refer to idea number 1!!!!
It's no wonder the state of affairs at U and the WO's. Uncle Dave has done nothing exceptional that no other first year college business major could accomplish. Yes the pilots need to wake up too! Just re-negotiate a J4J program to keep all RJ flying in the house instead of contracting to Mesa and others. The resources can be used to be the best. It's time to just do it!!
1.) Treat the employees with more respect, dignity and APPRECIATION.
2.) Revamp our price structure and refer to "ART at ISP'S" ideas. He seems like a very savy business man who likes our carrier.
3.) Utilize the WO's as the LCC network to go head to head with WN and the likes.
4.) Refer to idea number 1!!!!
It's no wonder the state of affairs at U and the WO's. Uncle Dave has done nothing exceptional that no other first year college business major could accomplish. Yes the pilots need to wake up too! Just re-negotiate a J4J program to keep all RJ flying in the house instead of contracting to Mesa and others. The resources can be used to be the best. It's time to just do it!!
1) Drop the props and small jets.
2) Have more international routes.
3) Drop one of the eastern hubs and have more western routes and have a hub on the Pacific side of the US..
I think the main idea for US is to have a management that has a VISION for the airline.
2) Have more international routes.
3) Drop one of the eastern hubs and have more western routes and have a hub on the Pacific side of the US..
I think the main idea for US is to have a management that has a VISION for the airline.
BoeingBoy
Veteran
- Nov 9, 2003
- 16,512
- 5,865
Good idea PineyBob,
I'd just add a couple of remarks...
If you're just flying from/to Florida, the old "Florida Shuttle" name works, but I'd probably not use just "Shuttle" to avoid confusion with the DCA-LGA-BOS Shuttle.
Learn from the problems of MetroJet, Delta Express, and United Shuttle. By this I mean establishing the unit as a stand-alone brand and avoid the perception that it is just part of US. A customer (especially business traveler) shouldn't fly part of the journey on mainline and the remainder on the LCC unit. Delta seems to be doing this with Song. Ted is not far enough along for me to tell.
I'd just add a couple of remarks...
If you're just flying from/to Florida, the old "Florida Shuttle" name works, but I'd probably not use just "Shuttle" to avoid confusion with the DCA-LGA-BOS Shuttle.
Learn from the problems of MetroJet, Delta Express, and United Shuttle. By this I mean establishing the unit as a stand-alone brand and avoid the perception that it is just part of US. A customer (especially business traveler) shouldn't fly part of the journey on mainline and the remainder on the LCC unit. Delta seems to be doing this with Song. Ted is not far enough along for me to tell.
i dont know why many of you keep saying that US should drop the RJ's? Airlines such as Delta and Continental who have many more RJ's than US, have incorporated them into their network just fine. Sure some people can't stand the limited space they offer, but how can it be profitable for US to continue to operate large 734's to many small Midatlantic and Northeastern cities, especially in these economic times.
Some of the ideas that I have been thinking about I've mentioned in other threads, but will post them here too:
1) Ask the customers what they want! If the customer were given a choice of flying a LCC competitor or us, what services should/would/could we provide to make us the carrier of choice? When is the last time we, as a company, have surveyed the consumer?
2) We continue to add RJ/SJ's all across the system and there is no end in sight. Make the stations that have (or will get) RJ's more user friendly. This goes back to customer perception again. If we continue to make customers walk down a jetway, out into the elements, to get to their airplane, then it will still be viewed as an inferior product. Fix or retrofit the jetways to access the RJ's.
3) Image. Get every station manager to look at their facilities and fix what is broken or looks like crap. I will again refer back to the sky cap stand at an airport I flew to. Our airline word mark and banner was being held to the podium with duct tape! The same goes for boarding areas and jetways. If they are dirty and filled with garbage, get the appropriate airport contractor there to clean it up ASAP. Bring back Mr. Wolfs aircraft image campaigne. If we allow customers to think we didn't care about the looks of the ATO's or the airplanes, they will start to question the things that they can't see.
4) Consistency. Whether you are flying Mesa, AirMidwest, PSA or mainline, we should offer a consistent product on all flights. If I am flying from PIT to DCA I should expect the same service whether it is mainline or express.
5) Coordination. There needs to be a level of coordination between all of our regional carriers (wholly owned and contract). In most markets we have several express carriers that fly the same route. As an example, PIT-ERI is flown by Shuttle America, Transstates, Chautauqua, PSA and Allegheny. In todays environment, each carrier acts independently and doesn't know what the other is doing. It is possible that you could end up with back to back to back cancellations or delays in a market because one carrier doesn't know what the other is doing. There needs to be a bridge built between all of these carriers and mainline to tweek the best possible operational performance. This would also be especially helpful during irregular operations such as weather and ATC events.
6) Return service to the customers. Especially in First Class. If you are going to market or sell a first class seat, then you better offer a first class product. Use that seat/product to enhance FF benefits and generate additional revenue. Having glorified coach seats does nothing to sell the product.
7) Issue travel cards to furloughed employees, parents, domestic companions and anyone else on term passes. This will allow those customers to get out of the agent lines and utilize the kiosks. If we don't want to taken on the cost of issuing cards, then reprogram the kiosks to accept Credit cards for non-revs.
8) Roll the PHL hub......enough said on that from me. LOL
9) I like the idea that someone had about the smaller cans of coke for shorter flights. This would allow the Flight Attendants (mainline and express) to hand each customer a cup of ice, a can and a bag of pretzels and go. You would save time serving customers because you wouldn't have to pour each cup and wait for the foam to go down. It would make serving the cabin on short flights a lot easier.
10) Preplanning. There have been numerous events like snow storms, hurricanes and othe severe weather events that we have completely dropped the ball on. We continue to fail to plan properly for these events. Somewhere, someone is sticking their head in the sand and saying the event will not happen and when it does, all hell breaks lose. If we know that there is going to be an impact to our operation, react to it more then a couple of hours out. Don't wait until the customers report to the airport and then cancel their flights. I looked at it this way. DL, NW and CO have done a tremendous job over the past couple of years in preplannign for North East Weather events. They have canceled flights the night before in anticipation of bad weather. We don't react in the same way and begin to accept reroutes from the other airlines. Now it is the morning of and the customer shows up at the airport for their US flight and we just canceled it. Who is the customer going to be more upset with? DL or NW for cancelling their original flight, or US for dragging them to the airport to wait in line after line after line? I know that the theory is that we don't want to cancel one more flight then we have to, but there has to be a balance between reality and revenue.
Well, how is that for a starting point?
Mark
1) Ask the customers what they want! If the customer were given a choice of flying a LCC competitor or us, what services should/would/could we provide to make us the carrier of choice? When is the last time we, as a company, have surveyed the consumer?
2) We continue to add RJ/SJ's all across the system and there is no end in sight. Make the stations that have (or will get) RJ's more user friendly. This goes back to customer perception again. If we continue to make customers walk down a jetway, out into the elements, to get to their airplane, then it will still be viewed as an inferior product. Fix or retrofit the jetways to access the RJ's.
3) Image. Get every station manager to look at their facilities and fix what is broken or looks like crap. I will again refer back to the sky cap stand at an airport I flew to. Our airline word mark and banner was being held to the podium with duct tape! The same goes for boarding areas and jetways. If they are dirty and filled with garbage, get the appropriate airport contractor there to clean it up ASAP. Bring back Mr. Wolfs aircraft image campaigne. If we allow customers to think we didn't care about the looks of the ATO's or the airplanes, they will start to question the things that they can't see.
4) Consistency. Whether you are flying Mesa, AirMidwest, PSA or mainline, we should offer a consistent product on all flights. If I am flying from PIT to DCA I should expect the same service whether it is mainline or express.
5) Coordination. There needs to be a level of coordination between all of our regional carriers (wholly owned and contract). In most markets we have several express carriers that fly the same route. As an example, PIT-ERI is flown by Shuttle America, Transstates, Chautauqua, PSA and Allegheny. In todays environment, each carrier acts independently and doesn't know what the other is doing. It is possible that you could end up with back to back to back cancellations or delays in a market because one carrier doesn't know what the other is doing. There needs to be a bridge built between all of these carriers and mainline to tweek the best possible operational performance. This would also be especially helpful during irregular operations such as weather and ATC events.
6) Return service to the customers. Especially in First Class. If you are going to market or sell a first class seat, then you better offer a first class product. Use that seat/product to enhance FF benefits and generate additional revenue. Having glorified coach seats does nothing to sell the product.
7) Issue travel cards to furloughed employees, parents, domestic companions and anyone else on term passes. This will allow those customers to get out of the agent lines and utilize the kiosks. If we don't want to taken on the cost of issuing cards, then reprogram the kiosks to accept Credit cards for non-revs.
8) Roll the PHL hub......enough said on that from me. LOL
9) I like the idea that someone had about the smaller cans of coke for shorter flights. This would allow the Flight Attendants (mainline and express) to hand each customer a cup of ice, a can and a bag of pretzels and go. You would save time serving customers because you wouldn't have to pour each cup and wait for the foam to go down. It would make serving the cabin on short flights a lot easier.
10) Preplanning. There have been numerous events like snow storms, hurricanes and othe severe weather events that we have completely dropped the ball on. We continue to fail to plan properly for these events. Somewhere, someone is sticking their head in the sand and saying the event will not happen and when it does, all hell breaks lose. If we know that there is going to be an impact to our operation, react to it more then a couple of hours out. Don't wait until the customers report to the airport and then cancel their flights. I looked at it this way. DL, NW and CO have done a tremendous job over the past couple of years in preplannign for North East Weather events. They have canceled flights the night before in anticipation of bad weather. We don't react in the same way and begin to accept reroutes from the other airlines. Now it is the morning of and the customer shows up at the airport for their US flight and we just canceled it. Who is the customer going to be more upset with? DL or NW for cancelling their original flight, or US for dragging them to the airport to wait in line after line after line? I know that the theory is that we don't want to cancel one more flight then we have to, but there has to be a balance between reality and revenue.
Well, how is that for a starting point?
Mark
Keeping it going....
With the arrival of new aircraft (EMBs and CRJs) to group, and the possibility of an all- Airbus mainline fleet, I'm wondering about equiptment standardization.
I know the gallies on the regional aircraft are smaller, but since these are being built to US specs, could they make it so they all use the same galley equiptment?
For example, a single cart from the A320 would be the same cart on a CRJ. The Atlas drawers and carriers used on the Airbus fleet could also be used on the EMB and CRJ fleet and be interchangable.
This would cut down on the cost and hassle of maintaining so many different types of equiptment and make catering easier. I wonder if its possible?
***
Also, laptop power ports- every seat? They arent used all that much, must cost money to maintain, and take up carry on space under the seats. Same goes for the Airfones.
Maybe we should only have them at every seat on A330, domestic first, and Shuttle. In economy we could have select "business" seats (exit row, first row of coach perhaps?) that have the power ports and Airfones- we could do this on the SJ/RJs as well. Also, why not have the type of power port that doesnt require an adaptor?
With the cost savings we could offer better IFE on our aircraft, which is obviously a priority for the traveling public and a great marketing tool (you would think JetBlue is curing cancer onboard with the good publicity they get about LiveTV).
With the arrival of new aircraft (EMBs and CRJs) to group, and the possibility of an all- Airbus mainline fleet, I'm wondering about equiptment standardization.
I know the gallies on the regional aircraft are smaller, but since these are being built to US specs, could they make it so they all use the same galley equiptment?
For example, a single cart from the A320 would be the same cart on a CRJ. The Atlas drawers and carriers used on the Airbus fleet could also be used on the EMB and CRJ fleet and be interchangable.
This would cut down on the cost and hassle of maintaining so many different types of equiptment and make catering easier. I wonder if its possible?
***
Also, laptop power ports- every seat? They arent used all that much, must cost money to maintain, and take up carry on space under the seats. Same goes for the Airfones.
Maybe we should only have them at every seat on A330, domestic first, and Shuttle. In economy we could have select "business" seats (exit row, first row of coach perhaps?) that have the power ports and Airfones- we could do this on the SJ/RJs as well. Also, why not have the type of power port that doesnt require an adaptor?
With the cost savings we could offer better IFE on our aircraft, which is obviously a priority for the traveling public and a great marketing tool (you would think JetBlue is curing cancer onboard with the good publicity they get about LiveTV).
The EMB 170's will have the same galley packouts and equipment used on 319/320/321. Or so we have been told.
Survey the employees. Schofield did this and promptly buried it, because we told it like it was, instead of what he wanted to hear. (I attached addendum to my survey )
Let employees evaluate management. These can be designed to avoid popularity contests or witch hunts. I know for a first hand fact management can fly beneath the radar, and I know first hand the powers that be were shocked, shocked, I tell you, when they had cause to look in on the goings-on of one of their own. We'd only been trying to tell them for 4 years.
On a lighter note, I saw a faux survey years ago, and one of the questions was;
"Your manager
A. Knows his sh*t, commands awe and respect, has been known to walk on water,would walk thru fire with him.
B. Is semi-knowledgeable, rates a corteous nod, seen dog paddling, would hand him a bucket if he's headed for fire.
C. Can't pour piss out of a boot, gets the finger, would throw him an anchor if drowning, wouldn't piss on him if he were ON fire, AND, can't lead a pack of starving wolves to red raw meat.
)Let employees evaluate management. These can be designed to avoid popularity contests or witch hunts. I know for a first hand fact management can fly beneath the radar, and I know first hand the powers that be were shocked, shocked, I tell you, when they had cause to look in on the goings-on of one of their own. We'd only been trying to tell them for 4 years.
On a lighter note, I saw a faux survey years ago, and one of the questions was;
"Your manager
A. Knows his sh*t, commands awe and respect, has been known to walk on water,would walk thru fire with him.
B. Is semi-knowledgeable, rates a corteous nod, seen dog paddling, would hand him a bucket if he's headed for fire.
C. Can't pour piss out of a boot, gets the finger, would throw him an anchor if drowning, wouldn't piss on him if he were ON fire, AND, can't lead a pack of starving wolves to red raw meat.
Offer some type of stand-by 1st class upgrade. Especially to the caribbean and west coast. I wish i had a quarter for every time ive been asked by a passenger if they could upgrade their ticket. I would be able to buy Stephen Wolfs estate!!! I think were missing out on many thousands of $'s daily.
USAIR just started charging the contract carrier employee $25 per segment to commute..this should add nicely to the coffers and is especially nice to those that can least afford it.....Just another way airlines are changing there old school policies, but be careful what is started, what goes around comes around.....
I like the upgrade to 1st class Idea. I see this as a way to make coach customers return and promote some loyality to USAIR, of course AIrtran has been doing this for severa years with its business class, for $50 per segment, though I hear some routes are more expensive now..
I like the upgrade to 1st class Idea. I see this as a way to make coach customers return and promote some loyality to USAIR, of course AIrtran has been doing this for severa years with its business class, for $50 per segment, though I hear some routes are more expensive now..
3green-
Where did you get this info about the contract carriers? I posted this in another post and was pretty much called a liar... could you post any info you have on it? Its under "Express to pay for Non Rev"
Where did you get this info about the contract carriers? I posted this in another post and was pretty much called a liar... could you post any info you have on it? Its under "Express to pay for Non Rev"
