Don't Fly Ted

[Just Plane Crazy]

Found the following website. It explains how PAX feel about Ted and UA's decesions.

(Click on the link below to go to the Web Site)

Don't Fly Ted



😳

 

[boeing787]

Whatever dude. It is what the market DEMANDS right now. A few disgrutled people won't change the masses and their minds.

 

[Dave]

I agree with 787. The people I've talked to seem to like it. And the loads are above expectations, so we must be doing something right.

 

[Fly]

It makes perfect sense that a regular customer is not going to like having to have his regular routes downgraded. But as all the majors have seen, the price is king. Regardless of what their employees want, companies are forcing their employees to choose according to the price. If the majors are able to supply a product in the right price range, then they'll get the business.

 

[mweiss]

Hey, maybe you guys can help me understand something here. How much more does FC really cost?

OK, in width you're typically taking 50% more space on a narrowbody. In pitch it's typically one row's worth for the entire cabin, so I'll throw a dart at a board and say it's an additional 25% (granted, it all depends on whether you're looking at E+ or E-). So 75%. The difference in the cost of service in FC couldn't possibly be more than about $15/person on average.

So I wonder why UA can't have a FC cabin in TED, with a 75% + $15 (roughly) premium over the typical coach fare (which ain't Y, nor is it the cheapest fare). Say double the price, to make it easy. Does anyone think someone would pay that amount for a FC seat?

 

[novaqt]

Mr. Kaine, the author of the website, is clearly disgruntled that he has to give up flying first class. He cannot accept that market conditions and demand have changed so that LCC's are in vogue. Companies are no longer willing to spend to send their road warriors first class. In reading Mr. Kaine's bio and looking over his business website, he might want to lease a corporate jet from Birkshire Hathaway. He should not demonstrate such childish whinny behavior in crafting the Don't Fly Ted website. As a public speaker, he possibly could loose business by taking such tact.

 

[avek00]

As a public speaker, he possibly could loose business by taking such tact.

As a major airline that caters to business travelers, UNITED might lose business by alienating its bread-and-butter traffic in favor of chasing the low-yield "backpacks and flip-flops" crowd.

 

[Just Plane Crazy]

As a major airline that caters to business travelers, UNITED might lose business by alienating its bread-and-butter traffic in favor of chasing the low-yield "backpacks and flip-flops" crowd.

There are plenty of PAX that are willing to pay a higher price to travel. If they would just look at prices they would have a long time ago switched to other LCC's. And loosing these PAX on domestic routes will also have the effect that UA will loose them on international routes too. At the end the PAX is the gurantee that we will receive sallaries. So brushing their opinions off is not wise.

novaqt
Just think of the time when UA wanted to create a seperate airline just for the business traveller. Do you remember how every one was screaming against it. Now you are tellingn the customers go fly with someone else. Go to the competetion.

boeing787
Ted was supposed to be an addition and not replacing. You alianate one group of PAX for another. You gain some %points in load factor and lose at the end $'s on international and other routes.

Could there be an alternative motive for UA to take such a bold step? One comes to my mind. A closer cooperation between UA and U. UA converts all domestic routes to Ted and hands over all business Travellers and higer paying customers to U. That way both airlines will feed of each other as one big family. All customers will be satisfied and maybe a merger will not be that crazy. One airline three systems. Low Cost (Ted) Domestic Mid and High Class service (U) and premire International Service (UA/U).

 

[avek00]

FWIW, I'm hoping that Ted will run the same course as AC's Tango - specifically, that United gains some operational and pricing expertise that could then be applied to mainline once the "experiment" is shut down.

 

[avek00]

There are plenty of PAX that are willing to pay a higher price to travel. If they would just look at prices they would have a long time ago switched to other LCC's. And loosing these PAX on domestic routes will also have the effect that UA will loose them on international routes too. At the end the PAX is the gurantee that we will receive sallaries. So brushing their opinions off is not wise.

You are 100% correct. The key is not to alienate your core customers, but rather to attract more of them. TED alienates the 1K/UGS types by taking away the very thing that attracted them to United in the first place (namely, a full-service product that offered domestic upgrade opportunities). Why the heck should a UGS buy a no-frills ticket on Ted when the same amount of money/status could get you a first class seat AND a meal on another airline? But don't take my word for it - both CO (CO Lite) and US (MetroJet) learned this lesson the hard way.

 

[HPearlyretiree]

OK, lose means to not have what you once did. Loose means not tight.

How come no one on web boards can figure out the spelling?



What a bunch of LOOSERS

 

[mweiss]

FWIW, I'm hoping that Ted will run the same course as AC's Tango

Ahh, yes. And Air Canada has done a fine job keeping costs down. Did you happen to notice that their CASM is higher than even US Airways?

 

[coolflyingfool]

I wonder, was Mr. Kaine paying for these F/C seats himself, or were they paid for by the people flying him out to speak and make presentations?

 

[Diesel8]

cff,

Does it really make any difference who paid for the tickets? Does it really matter to the bottomline at UAL, whether the businessman, his company or a third party paid? No, absolutely not. What matters, is the fact, that they chose United for their travel needs.

Now, you can certainly argue the merit of his website and dislike for Ted.

 

[avek00]

Ahh, yes. And Air Canada has done a fine job keeping costs down. Did you happen to notice that their CASM is higher than even US Airways?

I didn't mean to imply that AC is a model for success. Heck, no major Star Alliance carrier currently has a business model worth emulating. The point is that AC did learn some expertise from Tango that is gradually being implemented in mainline operations.