Dec 08 DOT Numbers

[BoeingBoy]

Now lets look at the Benchmark Airlines WN and CO respectively.

in 2007 the average number of complaints per 100K was 1.38
in 2007 Southwest scored .26 per 100K which is 552% LOWER.

in 2008 the average number of complaints per 100K was 1.13
in 2008 Southwest scored .25 per 100K which is 452% LOWER.

I didn't check your math on the others, but you can't have 552% or 452% fewer complaints - reducing any number by 100% gives you zero.

For 2007 WN had an 81% lower complaint rate than the average. For 2008 it was 78% lower.

Jim

[I see FutureUScapt beat me to it]
[Don't fret Piney - lots of people stumble over percentages]

 

[HPearlyretiree]

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.

Amen to that, I swear the only time some people are happy is when they can attack US.

Good job to all involved! Ignore the haters, they are becoming more marginalized.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Never mind - I see you edited the post this response was aimed at.

Not yet - if you have 3 complaints you can't have 5.5 times 3 (or 16.5) fewer complaints.

When going from one number to a different number, you take the difference and divide it by the first - the number going from. You're dividing by the number you're going to.

So going from a rate of 5 to a rate of 2, you take 3 (the difference) and divide it by 5 (the "going from" number) and get a 60% reduction.

Conversely, going from 2 to 5, you take the difference (3 again) and divide it by 2 (the "going from" number) and get a 150% increase.

Jim

 

[NCFL]

The formula for calculating percentage of change is ((current - old)/old)*100.
Can math class be over, please? It's giving me a headache.

There's more discussion of this issue here:
http://www.tripso.com/columns/airline-perf...-2008-prove-it/

Literature from another group I belong to suggests that one can take two approaches to any subject:
- If I look for the negative, I will find the negative and stay mired in my problem.
- If I search for the positive, I will find some helpful attribute that will lead me toward the solution.

It's a whole lot easier on the soul to discuss improvement and ways to continue it, rather than to stay immersed in negativity and to keep looking for ways to bring things down.

Personally, that philosophical shift has been a big change for me!

 

[Itestwell]

I would remind everyone that following a point of view blindly got about 600 folks hanged in Nuremburg in the late 40's.

What?

not blindly held up as proof positive that all is well.

Please refer me to the post where anyone says that "all is well".

This board really has turned into the board for men whose wives will no longer touch them.




On a serious note, nice job on the improvement everyone. Even though most are still pining for the miserable days of res migration for lack of anything else to FFOCUS on, I believe there are a few who still appreciate our efforts. We worked hard for this.

 

[Be Careful What You Wish For.]

Improvement is improvement no matter which end of the spectrum you view it from.

 

[does this plane go to paris]

Concerning the complaint's and coding it back to Express or not, I would think that is disinqenuious to the Customer. If you go to the booking site and book a flight, let's say PHX to TYS, the flight numbers are all given as US.

The carriers that do the flying are part of USAirways and all have set standards that are put forth by USAirways, right? The planes are painted in the same scheme, the inflight magazine I'll bet are the same one's used on mainline.

So when Granny is flying and makes her connection and there is a foul up, why does US and for that part, any other carrier so quick to point out to the DOT that's it not them that it's their Express carrier. For marketing purpose's, it's great to advertise that US to flies to so many different place's. But when the nuts and bolts appear, bad service, late flights, the fingers are pointed and it's like a six year caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

Yesterday's announcement from Tempe regarding that US was number 1 for on time for 2008 is a joke. US was 3rd, Hawaiian was first and WN was second. US claimed in their announcement that among the "Big Six" their on-time was number 1. Excuse me, what size is WN? They flly more flights, serve more Customer's,(with less complaint's I might add) and do it better than most. Smoke and mirror's from Tempe. If US were to have served as many Customers last year as WN did, what would the rate have been?

 

[aredeeyou22]

.

Yesterday's announcement from Tempe regarding that US was number 1 for on time for 2008 is a joke. US was 3rd, Hawaiian was first and WN was second. US claimed in their announcement that among the "Big Six" their on-time was number 1. Excuse me, what size is WN?

The press release on USAirways.com does not simply say the "Big Six". It says "among the big six hub and spoke carriers".

From USA Today:

"Of the nation's six traditional hub-and-spoke carriers, the title of most-punctual went to US Airways, which had an 80.1% on time-rating for 2008."

(all bolding is mine)

I don't think anyone here is trying to take away from the fact that WN is an incredibly well run airline.


Nice job, everyone. Also, nice job with the upward trend for complaints.

 

[FutureUScapt]

Yesterday's announcement from Tempe regarding that US was number 1 for on time for 2008 is a joke. US was 3rd, Hawaiian was first and WN was second. US claimed in their announcement that among the "Big Six" their on-time was number 1. Excuse me, what size is WN? They flly more flights, serve more Customer's,(with less complaint's I might add) and do it better than most. Smoke and mirror's from Tempe. If US were to have served as many Customers last year as WN did, what would the rate have been?

Or put differently, how well would WN have done if they had flights into cities like BOS, LGA, EWR, ORD, etc? Just something to think about... (I don't mean to knock them, as they do one heck of a job running an airline year in and out).

BTW, US did OUTPERFORM WN in A14 in PHX and PHL, the two biggest cities that we compete with them in.

I would agree that WN should probably be included, but because they largely run a P2P network, it's often a better reflection to compare our performance to the other hub-and-spoke carriers.

HA is excluded from comparisons for obviously purposes I do believe...need I say more?


Also, for those posters who work in CLT -- CONGRATS! -- I just saw that it was #1 for A14 arrivals for all the major airports in December.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Yes, it's misleading but each certificated carrier reports separately and only carriers that have more than 1% of domestic passenger traffic are included in the DOT report. Therefore the only US Express carrier that is included is Mesa, and they report all their operations no matter whose brand is on the airplane.

On another note, you can call me a "hater" or whatever, but I believe that the improvement has little to do with the employees working harder. To say that it's harder work that produced the improved statistics is to also say that the poorer showing in 2007 was due to employees slacking off and not doing their jobs. I, for one, don't believe that was the case.

I believe that the proverbial 99% of employees work hard all the time, and that the rankings are largely driven by events out of the individual employee's hands - weather, atc, res migration, summer TA meltdown, etc, as well as the other carriers' performance.

Therefore, for those praising the improvement in 2008 over 2007, remember that there wasn't a res migration fiasco or summer TA meltdown in 2008. 30%+ improvement in 2009 vs 2008 is going to be difficult - a lot more difficult than the 2008 vs 2007 improvement.

Keep one thing in mind - the 2008 average for complaint numbers were 34% better than 2007's but still 60% worse than 2006 and US ranked #18 of 19 in 2006.

Jim

 

[does this plane go to paris]

The press release on USAirways.com does not simply say the "Big Six". It says "among the big six hub and spoke carriers".

From USA Today:

"Of the nation's six traditional hub-and-spoke carriers, the title of most-punctual went to US Airways, which had an 80.1% on time-rating for 2008."

(all bolding is mine)

I don't think anyone here is trying to take away from the fact that WN is an incredibly well run airline.


Nice job, everyone. Also, nice job with the upward trend for complaints.

A couple of years ago some analyst was comparing WN as a hub and spoke and most people in the room chucked and laughed and didn't think that the guy was too smart. He then went on to point out WN didn't call themselves a hub and spoke but refered to certain cities as "focus" cities. LAS, PHX, BWI and MDW are all over 200 flight's a day. There are then 6 other cities that have in excess of 100 flight's a day, DAL, HOU, SAN, LAX, OAK, BNA and I can't think of the last one. Anyway's, go to the ramp in any one of the first four cities I mentioned, LAS, PHX, BWI or MDW and each have transfer point's to move the all bags that are supposedly not acting as a hub and spoke. I believe that over 30% of all WN's pax are making transfer's. If you go to southwest.com and go to the interactive map, check out the destinations that LAS, BWI, MDW and PHX fly and then compare it to same thing on Usairways.com. Take out the Express destinations, like the DOT does and it would be the same or bigger for WN. So just because Tempe puts out some mindless statement that twist's and spins fact's to make themselves look good, doesn't mean that it's true. I think that WN should put out an advertisement that states that they are the number carrier in the mainland US. Then DL can come out and put a statement that they are number on time for all carrier's that start with the letter D

 

[aredeeyou22]

A couple of years ago some analyst was comparing WN as a hub and spoke and most people in the room chucked and laughed and didn't think that the guy was too smart. He then went on to point out WN didn't call themselves a hub and spoke but refered to certain cities as "focus" cities. LAS, PHX, BWI and MDW are all over 200 flight's a day. There are then 6 other cities that have in excess of 100 flight's a day, DAL, HOU, SAN, LAX, OAK, BNA and I can't think of the last one. Anyway's, go to the ramp in any one of the first four cities I mentioned, LAS, PHX, BWI or MDW and each have transfer point's to move the all bags that are supposedly not acting as a hub and spoke. I believe that over 30% of all WN's pax are making transfer's. If you go to southwest.com and go to the interactive map, check out the destinations that LAS, BWI, MDW and PHX fly and then compare it to same thing on Usairways.com. Take out the Express destinations, like the DOT does and it would be the same or bigger for WN. So just because Tempe puts out some mindless statement that twist's and spins fact's to make themselves look good, doesn't mean that it's true. I think that WN should put out an advertisement that states that they are the number carrier in the mainland US. Then DL can come out and put a statement that they are number on time for all carrier's that start with the letter D

You are absolutely right. All lies. When will they get it?

 

[HPearlyretiree]

Well then I guess the DOT are the real haters then aren't they? Since they NEVER have anything positive to report regarding US Airways and Consumer Complaints.

Perhaps you're angry with the 1,102 customers who were hissed off enough to take the time and contact the DOT.

Surely you can't think that a lowly customer like me could possibly hate anything. In fact the only thing I hate right now is this friggin' mouse I have in the house. I've set traps and glue boards to no avail. I feel like Bill Murray in Caddyshack. THIS is what has me hissed off.

It does however suck when facts discolor your rose colored glasses

Oh wait, I forgot, you are the expert on airlines and the last word in finance, customer service and everything about US.

Buy a mirror, bore yourself, we are tired of it.

 

[FutureUScapt]

I believe that over 30% of all WN's pax are making transfer's. If you go to southwest.com and go to the interactive map, check out the destinations that LAS, BWI, MDW and PHX fly and then compare it to same thing on Usairways.com.

WN is NOT a hub-and-spoke carrier. Sure, they inevitably carry connecting traffic, especially through some of their big focus cities that you mentioned, but the vast majority of their traffic is traveling P2P either nonstop or direct. Even if your 30% number is accurate, that pales in comparison to the amount of connecting traffic at nearly every legacy hub.



But don't take it from me, take it from them:

"...we've earned a title no other airline in the industry can claim: The only shorthaul, low-fare, high-frequency, point-to-point carrier in America."

-From About SWA section of southwest.com-



WN can and should put up a banner saying they are the industry's #1 on-time carrier in the 48 contiguous states (and a banner for being #1 in fewest complaints while they're at it), but that doesn't make US' any less true since they clearly state "hub and spoke carriers."

 

[BoeingBoy]

Personally, it's the changing yardstick that I find misleading. First it was the peer group, now it's the "big 6 network carriers". Will we see a press release someday with the headline saying "US is #1 in on time performance" but the text saying that US is #1 of all carriers with a hub in PHL?

Jim