First Flight in About 3 years

[jimcfs]

WN plans ten years into the future, US thinks thirty days into the future.

This is giving the Sandcastle too much credit. Many of us don't see any planning skills in this group... they make it up as they go. No planning involved that way.

 

[freedom]

I hear lots of complaints , but I think too many of you are discounting the so called “worst recession since the great depression “ if you put things In perspective we really aren’t doing that badly .

The high yielding customers who have moved away from US airways will return if we have the lower fare …. Because

A. in an attempt to keep their jobs they will show their bosses that they can travel at little or no expense to their companies ( they will chose the cheapest first class seat on any carrier that they can get )

B. Their company will set new rules or guidelines instructing their workers to chose the cheapest fare possible at all times .


In the end

WE WIN .

 

[Singleflyer]

While a lowly silver on US (soon to be gold because of 4th qtr promo) US gets about 15% of my flying, since sometimes they are the only option, and last night was no exception.

I needed to fly SDF-BOS. So US was the only option. SDF-CLT-BOS. Flight left 8:01 PM and ticket purchased at 6:30 PM The fare a whopping $146.20 All in. U class fare. It does not take a Mensa member to know that ticket was below cost, ON A TICKET SOLD 1 1/2 HOURS BEFORE FLIGHT.

The flight SDF-CLT was an RJ900, flown by Mesa. Enough said. Flight had about 50 customers

CLT-BOS was an 321, and was full. The amazing part, as a silver I was up-graded. So on a plane the holds more than 160 people, there were only 16 elites, less than 10% of the total.

The service is the bottom of the barrel. No closets, tight seats, whith the changes the overhead lights don't leign up for reading. Since it was a 321 no pre departure drink, not even water at the seat. There are good overhead space. Since I was in row 4, my seat did not recline because of the crew jackets hung their. Service after take off two minis of jack, (boy do I miss woodford reserve on DL), in a party cup. She came through only once.

All an all, the planes are cleaner, and are running on time, and that is about it.

 

[ebwgs]

First of all, US is an LCC--not a low COST carrier, but a low CLASS carrier......

But seriously folks.....

Doug Parker has been quoted not long ago as saying he doesn't understand why other airlines concentrate so much on customer service.....I may be paraphrasing a bit, but that is the gist of what he said. That is about the only honest statement he's ever made.

Regarding Sparrowhawk's comment about credibility, I have had my own experiences with Team Tempe--which include sitting across a conference room table with them and having them discount some ACTUAL market information we offered them for FREE and having one member of staff lie to my face.

I flew out to Tempe on at least two occasions to meet with them to try to speak up for customers (and employees by the way), and we all see the result of my actions---nothing. They told me they would do some things and never did. We have ALWAYS tried to support employees--some of you remember the "Kissed by a Cockroach" event we did where we gave Hersheys candy to flight crews, and some of us flew to PIT on our own dime to support folks who were displaced by the Greentree closing.

Now CCY was far from perfect, but here is a small contrast to their attitudes toward customers:

When the closing of some clubs, including ROC was announced a few years ago, I was having lunch with Deborah Thompson (one of the best customer relations experts ever). We got to discussing the closures, and as I gave the passenger's point of view she saw I had a point, and at the table got the executive responsible for clubs and marketing on the phone and put me on with him. He explained all the reasons why the ROC club had to close (rents and facilities reasons) and that they knew they would take a hit but they couldn't afford the increased rents. We didn't win that one, but we have been successful in getting SOME club closures reversed..

Now to the current team. One of my conversations with a Customer Relations manager (who in fairness is not there any more) centered on a list of high value flyers who belonged to FFOCUS who asked me to find them new airlines. These people spent an AVERAGE of $18K a year on US alone, and a good number of them were well over $50K in US spend. Now if I were in charge of customer relations and found out these people wanted to bolt from US I'd be concerned....wouldn't you?

So this person said she really didn't think so many high value flyers were unhappy, but if I gave her a list of 10 of them she would call each one personally to see how she could get them to stay. My list at the time was approaching 300, who had contacted me personally by the way. I gave her 64 names, and followed up individually with EACH one over the next month. What do you think the result was? NOT ONE PERSON WAS EVER CONTACTED....NOT ONE.

As a result, about 80% of the people on my list to my knowledge now fly CO or DL as their primary carriers, and avoid US wherever possible. Admittedly it is not as easy for some to move, but there are people who live in CLT and PHL who have moved. I would estimate that the lost revenue from this group alone is between $3.5M and $5M per year, but remember as I said before for each hundred who come to me there are thousands who move quietly.

To be fair to Tempe, however, I will say that the new person in charge of Customer Relations is excellent, and has been very open to helping us get member issues resolved when they come to us. We have begun to build a good working relationship with him, and our two excellent liaisons have done an amazing job to date....so perhaps all is NOT lost, but there is a LONG way to go.

To summarize, until Tempe realizes that the customer and the employees are not liabilities but assets, there is no hope for this place...

EMPLOYEES should be the first priority of management. Happy employees find it much easier to make customers happy.

CUSTOMERS should be the next priority--happy customers come back over and over, and do spend more.

SHAREHOLDERS should be last--fix the first two and this one fixes itself.

Unfortunately Team Tempe has an inverted view of the priority list--and we are all paying the price.

My BEST to you all....

Very compelling, thought provoking and interesting post. Thank you.

 

[CallawayGolf]

Let me ask you this - in 2008 when ala carte was announced Tempe said the fees would provide $400-500M in additional revenue. Throughout the rest of 2008 and 2009 additional fees were added and some previously announced fees were increased (US led in some of those changes and followed for others), yet the $400-500M figure stayed the same. Until just recently, after adding/increasing fees yet more the number changed to "over" $500M. Would that not indicate that even Tempe realized that the additional revenue for each fee added/increased was at least partially offset by loss of passengers willing to pay those fees? That the gross fee revenue wasn't all tranferring to the P&L bottom line?

Jim

Is it possible that US, like all other airlines inclding WN, didn't anticipate in mid-2008 the onset of the worst recession in 70 years changing PAX behavior at unprecedented levels. These loss of revenue expereiced by the majors didn't all go to WN; their LF is up in 2009 but their revenues are down 7.9% and ASMs are down 4.3%.

Revenue projections need to be reguarly adjusted based on the current climate. So is it possible that US remodeled their forecasts to account for lower industry demand while also pressing forward with new revenue sources to come back to the same ancillary revenue targets they originally projected? The world is not static and a forecast that doesn't track with current conditions shouldn't remain static either.

 

[SS255]

I needed to fly SDF-BOS. So US was the only option. SDF-CLT-BOS. Flight left 8:01 PM and ticket purchased at 6:30 PM The fare a whopping $146.20 All in. U class fare. It does not take a Mensa member to know that ticket was below cost, ON A TICKET SOLD 1 1/2 HOURS BEFORE FLIGHT.

The flight SDF-CLT was an RJ900, flown by Mesa. Enough said. Flight had about 50 customers

CLT-BOS was an 321, and was full. The amazing part, as a silver I was up-graded. So on a plane the holds more than 160 people, there were only 16 elites, less than 10% of the total.

The service is the bottom of the barrel. No closets, tight seats, whith the changes the overhead lights don't leign up for reading. Since it was a 321 no pre departure drink, not even water at the seat. There are good overhead space. Since I was in row 4, my seat did not recline because of the crew jackets hung their. Service after take off two minis of jack, (boy do I miss woodford reserve on DL), in a party cup. She came through only once.

But for $146.20, you got a great deal.

The real problem is that if US wants people to actually purchase F tickets more than once, they need to sharpen their pencils at the pointy end of the plane.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Is it possible that US, like all other airlines inclding WN, didn't anticipate in mid-2008 the onset of the worst recession in 70 years changing PAX behavior at unprecedented levels.

Absolutely, now what's your excuse for early/mid-2009?

These loss of revenue expereiced by the majors didn't all go to WN; their LF is up in 2009 but their revenues are down 7.9% and ASMs are down 4.3%.

Let's see...

US' passenger revenue dropped 18.5% ($549M) while WN's dropped only 7.8% ($227M) - which lost more passenger revenue? US - almost twice as much.

US' "Other" revenue increased 8+% ($21M) while WN's was flat (-$1 million) - there's your additional fees US added in the 12 months.

US' ops revenue dropped 16.6% ($542M) while WN's dropped 7.8% ($225M).

So who did better - the fee happy airline or the no fee airline? That $21M in additional revenue that US collected (and WN didn't) from fees added after the 3rd quarter of 2008 pales compared to the $440M drop in passenger revenue that US experienced. Even the total "Other" revenue that US took in ($277M) didn't come close to offsetting the drop in passenger revenue.

Looks like that "changing PAX behavior" was a lot of people buying WN tickets instead of US tickets, as reflected in the disparity of the drops in passenger revenue. And those US fees? They didn't come close to offsetting the drop in passenger revenue.

One could certainly argue that US would have had a lot less revenue without the fees - the numbers say upwards of $277M less revenue. But that begs the question - how much smaller would the drop in passenger revenue have been if US didn't have all the fees? Using WN's numbers for guidance, US' drop in passenger revenue would have been only $232M - a $317M improvement and more than the fees added.

Jim

 

[Singleflyer]

But for $146.20, you got a great deal.

The real problem is that if US wants people to actually purchase F tickets more than once, they need to sharpen their pencils at the pointy end of the plane.

I agree I got a great deal.

The problem is US is selling ticket ONE hour before flight time BELOW cost. Granted WN does not fly that route, but a walk up on a flight of that would have been 330 bucks.

 

[SparrowHawk]

I agree I got a great deal.

The problem is US is selling ticket ONE hour before flight time BELOW cost. Granted WN does not fly that route, but a walk up on a flight of that would have been 330 bucks.

Once again Frequent Flyers lead the charge for FAIR Fares.