Dec 08 DOT Numbers

[tadjr]

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Number 1 in On Time among the 10 largest in Dec! $50.00

Number 2 in On Time among Major Airlines in 2008 at 80.1% (WN was number 1)

Number 1 in On Time among the 6 Network Carriers in 2008

Baggage numbers and Complaints also better than Dec 07 and we werent at the bottom of complaints in Dec either (that honor goes to UA this month).

Hopefully when they decide to implement whatever grand plan they have to help alleviate problems with reroutes, etc, the complaint numbers will go down. Not sure if they still dont know what they're doing or are waiting for something to kick in and get it started, but we're already 2 months into the year of "Service Recovery". Maybe since they've had their managers meetings for 2009 we can get the ball rolling and get back to the Customer Service Business?

 

[UPNAWAY]

And that #1 was done with "Unpading of the schedules".

Just look at the Year over Year D0 vs. the A14 improvements.

Mis handled Bags & Customer complainis both improved YOY in the area of 50%.

 

[UPNAWAY]

Another year of similar improvements Piney and we will not be last. Also DOT complaints lag at least 3-4 months from the operation and maybe even more than that. And do not discount your and FOCUS concerted effort to write DOT complaints, no other Airline is as fortunate to have such advocates for improving customer service.

But all in all we are getting there.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Also DOT complaints lag at least 3-4 months from the operation and maybe even more than that.

I take it that you haven't looked at the actual DOT reports...

For complaints received by the DOT in December, which is what counts for this report, 46.6% were about incidents that occurred in December. That's no lag at all, zero, nada.

Another 26% concerned incidents that occured in November - one month lag. people that fly the last few days of one month will most likely have their complaint received the following month, so somewhere between 10-20% of complaints being about incidents that happened the previous month is built into the system

Only 21.9% of complaints received in December concerned incidents that occurred before November.

Those percentages are relatively constant - they change only a few percentage points from month to month. So I have no idea where you came up with "lag at least 3-4 months from the operation and maybe even more than that."

Jim

 

[Dog Wonder]

And do not discount your and FOCUS concerted effort to write DOT complaints.

We would be the greatest if those pesky customers would go away.

 

[UPNAWAY]

Boeing Boy, I would bet almost no one writes a DOT complaint for the 1st time they have a bad expeirence. It is the final straw so to speak. If you have an improved operation you will have less chance of having re-occuring bad experiences. And perception plays a big part. SW could have the exact same issues for years and not get the same number of DOT complaints. Just as we can be better then everyone and will still get more complaints. That rightly earned negative perception will take years to overcome.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Boeing Boy...

So you're talking about a lag in perception, not a lag in complaints as you originally said. That could be but there's no empirical evidence one way or the other - how many complaints start with "If this had been Southwest I wouldn't complain but since it's US Airways I could hardly wait to get off the plane and complain"? Or even "This has happened six times before on US so I finally decided to file a DOT complaint"?

In other words, you're giving your opinion and not stating a fact. My personal opinion is that US just gives more people more things to complain about. As (or if) the customer service improves, complaints will come down, when there's big screw-ups (like the res migration) complaints soar. That seems to be a constant theme. Even Parker admits that US doesn't recover from irregular ops well, so maybe he's not seeing that perception affect either.

Jim

 

[N903AW]

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Complaints also better than Dec 07 and we werent at the bottom of complaints in Dec either (that honor goes to UA this month).

Hopefully when they decide to implement whatever grand plan they have to help alleviate problems with reroutes, etc, the complaint numbers will go down. Not sure if they still dont know what they're doing or are waiting for something to kick in and get it started, but we're already 2 months into the year of "Service Recovery". Maybe since they've had their managers meetings for 2009 we can get the ball rolling and get back to the Customer Service Business?

Personally, I think that the only reason the numbers of Complaints are lower than those of last year is because we are flying a smaller airline (reduced schedules) and carrying less passengers...therefore, less letters. I really do not think that the numbers have gone down because the "brilliant" minds at Corporate are making our airline a better experience for the customer or the "Airline of Choice"...HAHAHAHAHAHA!

We are carrying less passengers not only because of a reduction in flights, but also because many have left US, probably forever, because they are treated better elsewhere...in regular or irregular operations. Until that changes, we will always be at or near the bottom of the Customer Satisfaction reports....got that Tempe??

 

[john john]

And don’t forget if US can put the complaint on express it’s not recorded with mainline stats

 

[UPNAWAY]

The numbers are a rate per 100,000 enplanements so less flying would not really impact the rate except of course the overall operational benefit that comes with less flying.

 

[UPNAWAY]

The bottom line is things are better and some people need to learn to look at the positives and not always dwell on the past.

 

[NCFL]

Y'all just had to know I'd be chiming in on this subject eventually, right?

I would bet almost no one writes a DOT complaint for the 1st time they have a bad expeirence. It is the final straw so to speak.

This comes up a lot. I studied -- month after month after year -- the reasons why every customer wrote to the DOT. The lion's share (like 80% or more each month) contacted the DOT after they'd tried to resolve their issue with the airline first. And that goes for people who contacted the DOT more than once, too. Each time, they'd try to solve the problem in-house first. It was frustration with US and its unacceptable response, perceived unhelpful attitude, lack of empathy, etc. (whether from front-line, Consumer Affairs or elsewhere) that drove the person to go "over their head" to the goverment for help.

And don’t forget if US can put the complaint on express it’s not recorded with mainline stats

I say this every month when this subject comes up: US Mainline can only move a complaint onto an Express carrier's stats when it can be proven that the complaint is that Express carrier's responsibility. That complaint must be discussed individually with the Express carrier's designated representative and the responsibility must be mutually agreed upon.

Mainline can't just plop a complaint elsewhere for the sake of improving its complaint rate at the first sign of something gray or vague (like which employee was rude to a customer on a US-USE connection in a hub). And even then, this whole process of moving from one airline to another gets reviewed and approved by the DOT before it's final. There is no willy-nilly rubber stamp.

Piedmont and PSA (and a lot of the other smaller Express carriers) don't show up on the DOT's report because they do not carry > 1% of “total domestic scheduled-service passenger revenue.

The numbers are a rate per 100,000 enplanements so less flying would not really impact the rate except of course the overall operational benefit that comes with less flying.

True. Expressing complaint rates (which are ratios of complaints per enplanements) levels the playing field. Just like the company's internal reporting of complaints and so forth gets reported with ratios so that one can get an apples-to-apples look at CLT's performance versus a smaller city like CHS. If one just looked at raw numbers, it would be a skewed comparison.

The bottom line is things are better and some people need to learn to look at the positives and not always dwell on the past.

True. US Airways' complaint rate was down 36% from 2007 to 2008. Last place is last place is last place, and the nay-sayers (admittedly, I can be one sometimes) are always going to "say nay." But a 36% improvement is nothing to sneeze at.

 

[FutureUScapt]

I don't see what the problem is with making YOY comparisons; as NCFL says, 36% is nothing to shrug at.

If they left it at that, then perhaps there would be cause for concern. BUT, they immediately follow those comments by saying that "this is not where we need to be" and that they're working on improving service recovery and developing better customer-friendly policies. I guess a year from now, we will be able to see how successful these new initiatives were.


Probably the main reason people like Piney are less than impressed is that they care more about RELATIVE movement as opposed to ABSOLUTE movement. Because US had such an abysmal 2007, it took a whole year just to catch back up to the next-to-last-place airline. Now that they are back in the ballpark, we will hopefully begin to see some improvement RELATIVE to the other airlines in 2009.


On the A14 note, it is quite impressive to see that US beat out WN in on-time arrivals in PHL, when all they do is essentially run a P2P operation there.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Using the full year numbers - all of 2008 compared to all of 2007 - WN barely improved. I guess that's the price paid for only getting 1/4 of a complaint per 100,000 passengers - or 1 complaint per 400,000 passengers.

Just eyeballing the numbers, looks like AS and NW each had about a 40% improvement. The average improvement for the 19 reporting carriers was about 18%.

Jim

 

[FutureUScapt]

Piney,

I hate to nitpick (and not that this take's away from your central argument), but you might want to check how you calculated your percentages.

For example, US' 2008 complaint was 84% higher than the average, not 184%, or you could say that it was 184% OF the industry average, but not higher (same would go for WN's 552% figure)