Domestic Cuts

[Hatu]

NEW YORK, Jan 18 (Reuters) - American Airlines has identified $700 million in potential cost savings and $300 million in revenue enhancements for 2006 which should help offset $600 million in inflationary expenses for the year, its chief financial officer said on Wednesday.

http://yahoo.reuters.com/financeQuoteCompa...18213036_newsml

 

[young_gun_flyer]

I know how you can...cut out your bonuses and salaries until you start making a profit!!! Maybe I should be the CFO....

 

[Gooney Bird]

http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/stocks/tra...=FREE&cm_ite=NA

"reduce domestic capacity by 4% in 2006"

"international capacity will actually expand by 4%"

"reduce costs by $700 million, largely through a 5% reduction in its management ranks and reduced distribution costs"

 

[coolflyingfool]

Those are going to be some hefty cuts in management and distribution to come up with $700MM. If I was in the management area, I might be a little worried. just my thoughts...........

 

[eolesen]

Those are going to be some hefty cuts in management and distribution to come up with $700MM. If I was in the management area, I might be a little worried. just my thoughts...........

The first round of the management RIF already took place just before Christmas.

Distribution is the far bigger target -- renegotiating what AA pays to companies like Orbitz, Sabre, Worldspan, etc. for selling AA's product, and finding ways of getting more people to book directly with AA either on AA.Com or thru reservations.

 

[FWAAA]

The first round of the management RIF already took place just before Christmas.

Distribution is the far bigger target -- renegotiating what AA pays to companies like Orbitz, Sabre, Worldspan, etc. for selling AA's product, and finding ways of getting more people to book directly with AA either on AA.Com or thru reservations.

One much-needed improvement to aa.com: Force the Techies and the fare/yield/routing management personnel to sit down and sell tickets the way Southwest does on its website. Very simple, very easy to use. Ya plug in your dates and other preferences, and the WN site gives you all the possible flights that day WITH prices shown.

Sure, AA is a little more complex, what with Saturday night stays and married segments and other fare complexities designed to gouge/charge/extract as much as possible from the pocket of each customer, but I'm confident that AA is up to the task. After all, AA was once the airline industry leader in applied technology. Time to show off that expertise to consumers via aa.com.

On top of that, it would be nice if AA would share with us the "hidden inventory" like Z, R, X, C, etc. that requires a subscription to www.expertflyer.com to access. It would be nice to be able to see all available fare buckets and choose from them so as to avoid buying a cheap non-mileage earning, non-upgradable O or Q fare, for example. Sometimes pax would pay more to get a higher-priced fare class. Right now, that requires an inefficient phone call to AA Web Services. Should be able to do it online.

Customers should be able to book any kind of award ticket on aa.com as well, not just plain vanilla domestic coach and first awards. That capability would enable AA to further trim the phone staff.

That's just a start. Hope the techies and the money-people can team up to make aa.com more useful - enabling further cost savings.

 

[formeraa]

One much-needed improvement to aa.com: Force the Techies and the fare/yield/routing management personnel to sit down and sell tickets the way Southwest does on its website. Very simple, very easy to use. Ya plug in your dates and other preferences, and the WN site gives you all the possible flights that day WITH prices shown.

Sure, AA is a little more complex, what with Saturday night stays and married segments and other fare complexities designed to gouge/charge/extract as much as possible from the pocket of each customer, but I'm confident that AA is up to the task.

On top of that, it would be nice if AA would share with us the "hidden inventory" like Z, R, X, C, etc. that requires a subscription to www.expertflyer.com to access. It would be nice to be able to see all available fare buckets and choose from them so as to avoid buying a cheap non-mileage earning, non-upgradable O or Q fare, for example.

Actually, nothing is preventing AA from displaying the available fares like Southwest. Southwest's displays are simply a user-friendly way of displaying the inventory found on a site such as experflyer.com. In fact, AA is no more complex than Southwest for most trips. Say you are 10 days before departure, Southwest's system doesn't display the 21 day advance purchase fares. Southwest may well have married segments, but that is explicitly taken care of with the fares that are displayed.

In fact, Southwest may be gouging you with their "simplified" fare displays. I know that they don't check to see if there is a lower fare by adding up the individual legs of a trip.

 

[Connected1]

Those are going to be some hefty cuts in management and distribution to come up with $700MM.

As Beer mentioned in his remarks, the $700M is the sum total of hundreds of initiatives. Management reductions and distribution cost savings are only two of many ideas to be implemented this year.

 

[TWU informer]

As Beer mentioned in his remarks, the $700M is the sum total of hundreds of initiatives. Management reductions and distribution cost savings are only two of many ideas to be implemented this year.

I just went to the, MRI Imaging Center, the Orthopedic Specialist, then to the Physical Therapist, bought some prescribed medication, and presto, I made a significant contribution to the $700 million.

My wife has Dental and Doctor appointments next week, I am sure the family contribution will double what I have already submitted.

Not to mention the increase in bi-weekly premiums.