MarkMyWords
Veteran
- Aug 20, 2002
- 1,900
- 1
PITOCC - You are incorrect. The Shuttle A320's are all overwater equipped. The A319's are not. Given the expansion to the Caribbean, we will need these addtional overwater airplanes, especially on the weekends, for fleet reliability and spares. Not meaning spares in the sense the aircraft don't fly, but spares in the sense that they are scheduled on domestic routes at the same time as the Caribbean departures. This provides swapping opportunities in the event of restrictive MEL's and other MTC issues. Moving theses aircraft to the mainline fleet is a definite positive.
Tom - I have read your posts and feel that YOU do not have a real grip on the demand for first class seats to Florida. I checked flight deaprtures out of PHL, PIT and CLT to various Florida cities for today (Jan 1) and there were only a handful of departures that were booked to more then 8-10 people in First Class, while the coach cabin on ALL the flights were oversold by nearly 10-12%. During peak travel to Florida (such as spring break) it is not unusual for inventory to block 12-16 seats in the first class cabin and bump the coach authorization levels up 12-16 people. This ensures that the ENTIRE airplane goes out full and the premium customers, like yourself, are assured of a first class seat when you check in.
And since today is a holiday, I check flights from PIT, PHL and CLT to Florida on the 10th of Jan. There is not one single departure that is booked to more then 8 customers in first class, yet the coach cabins are booked from 92-105% of capacity. First class is only booked to 15-30% of capacity. This should prove that cutting the first class seats on the 757's to 8-12 while increasing coach seating to 188-193 will increase revenues.
MetroJet was a great product. It offered the MAJORITY of customers what they wanted, cheap fares and convenient schedules to Florida. I took the cheap fare customers off the hub bound flights and providd them with the non-stop service they desired. It improved the profitiablity of the hub bound flights in the process too. But our premium customers, like yourself, were very upset that there were no premium seats on those airplanes. I think the company was listening then and is listening now, and will provide you with the service you expect and prefer. DL is going to that all coach configuration on their 757's to Florida. We have chosen to reduce the number of premium seats on our planes to retain your business, but need to be more realistic in the number of seats in that cabin. 8-12 seats seems like it is much more aligned to the demand then 24. As it is now, most of the 757's fly in the leisure markets. The majority of the 757 flying is to Florida and there are some caribbean routes too. If we didicated this fleet to fly strictly to those destinations, I believe marketing has finally gotten their head on straight. If we return to such markets as BOS and LGA to MCO, TPA, FLL, etc...we can recapture some of the revenue that we are losing to the likes of DL and WN.
Believe it or not, these are very positive steps in the right direction. In years prior, the 757 fleet was primarily used to the west coast. With the introduction of the A321, those planes were redirected to Florida. They need to be reconifigured to more accurately align capacity with demand.
Tom - I have read your posts and feel that YOU do not have a real grip on the demand for first class seats to Florida. I checked flight deaprtures out of PHL, PIT and CLT to various Florida cities for today (Jan 1) and there were only a handful of departures that were booked to more then 8-10 people in First Class, while the coach cabin on ALL the flights were oversold by nearly 10-12%. During peak travel to Florida (such as spring break) it is not unusual for inventory to block 12-16 seats in the first class cabin and bump the coach authorization levels up 12-16 people. This ensures that the ENTIRE airplane goes out full and the premium customers, like yourself, are assured of a first class seat when you check in.
And since today is a holiday, I check flights from PIT, PHL and CLT to Florida on the 10th of Jan. There is not one single departure that is booked to more then 8 customers in first class, yet the coach cabins are booked from 92-105% of capacity. First class is only booked to 15-30% of capacity. This should prove that cutting the first class seats on the 757's to 8-12 while increasing coach seating to 188-193 will increase revenues.
MetroJet was a great product. It offered the MAJORITY of customers what they wanted, cheap fares and convenient schedules to Florida. I took the cheap fare customers off the hub bound flights and providd them with the non-stop service they desired. It improved the profitiablity of the hub bound flights in the process too. But our premium customers, like yourself, were very upset that there were no premium seats on those airplanes. I think the company was listening then and is listening now, and will provide you with the service you expect and prefer. DL is going to that all coach configuration on their 757's to Florida. We have chosen to reduce the number of premium seats on our planes to retain your business, but need to be more realistic in the number of seats in that cabin. 8-12 seats seems like it is much more aligned to the demand then 24. As it is now, most of the 757's fly in the leisure markets. The majority of the 757 flying is to Florida and there are some caribbean routes too. If we didicated this fleet to fly strictly to those destinations, I believe marketing has finally gotten their head on straight. If we return to such markets as BOS and LGA to MCO, TPA, FLL, etc...we can recapture some of the revenue that we are losing to the likes of DL and WN.
Believe it or not, these are very positive steps in the right direction. In years prior, the 757 fleet was primarily used to the west coast. With the introduction of the A321, those planes were redirected to Florida. They need to be reconifigured to more accurately align capacity with demand.
58 PM PITOCC wrote: 
