Memo to US Haters

[drifterreno]

They would act differently if they actually did the agents jobs for a week-not an hour or a day--but a week!!

 

[4merresrat]

AND visa versa I believe. . . 😛h34r:

 

[jerseyfinn]

Delays, a lost bag, a rude employee, those things when it's our fault are, by the way, a valid complaint for someone, at some moment. I don't disagree about that. They should be directed to the proper channels like a supervisor, customer relations or the DOT. The venom that gets spewed on this board gets ridiculous at times.

Look, you're arguing about aesthetics and behavior. We're each a product of what we post and we know who is who. In this virtual world, one also needs virtual armor and either you ignore certain things/individuals or you get upset. I agree that this is not CA, but every serious company finds all sorts of feedback useful and instructive. I'd like to hope that some of your pax interactions here put a finger on the pulse of the people sitting in the back. Economics 101 underscores limitless wants with finite resource, so no surprise that some pax demand the moon ( more power to them if they can con you out of things ). It comes down to the product that the airline delivers.

The bottom line with your airline is the significant change in corporate ethos which came with the new owners. The issue is not that they made mistakes, but that they refuse to own their sh!t. The most fundamental business relationship is based upon look-'em-in-the-eye and admit when you're wrong. That along with with some strategic TLC ( also known as ass-kissing ) will assuage 99% of your disgruntled pax and buy a great deal of good will < also works in my own profession in medicine >. The old US hobbled along like a Benny Hill tricycle at times, but a better corporate ethos prevailed which turned the angry mob into an assusaged and mildly pissed mob that kept flying US with the help of dedicated employees. It isn't rocket scince you know.

To be honest, ops have improved dramatically to the point where I think that one can fly PHL at times without any of the former worries or cliches coming into play. Kudos to Tempe. But I still do not trust you because US continues to find ways to put their short-sighted cheapness and weak ethos on full public display. My comments here and the comments of many of your pax reflect this paradigm. As sergeant Friday would say " the truth & nothing but the truth".

Hey, I limped to gold status by 800 miles and hang on to our *A gold for international trips, our bags made it every trip this year, and almost every flight was on time. Cabins are most usually clean, and your temporary fixes on the Envoy seats on the A330s are holding up at this point. But you're only as good as my next flight.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Barry

< Hate Grape Nuts ( too hard to chew ), gave up on Capn' Crunch decades ago ( too sweet & too many cavities ), never a Coco Puffs fan, but I still like Trix. >

 

[Art at ISP]

Hello Newman,

It's good to see you too....

This is a good example of a problem perpetuating itself. Let's take a look.

I thought Newman's answer was proper, polite, and to the point. Unfortunately the customer decided to have an attitude because he didn't hear what he wanted to hear, so the "attitude" permeated itself to Newman. I don't think Newman was rude to the customer, but the customer was less than civil in return. If you multiply that by 100 or so, I can see where front line folks like Newman can get caught in the middle--defending or explaining bad management decisions, and taking the brunt of both management mistrust and customer anger.

That said, I think customers like this are more prevalent in the "kettle" group, although I am sure there are FF's who in fact are spoiled and unrealistic in their expectations.

Regarding the actual charges, I think the seat charge is ridiculous, and has already been dropped or modified by other carriers. Why can't US?

Regarding the beverage charges, why is US clinging to them? Oil is $38 a barrel right now--and although traffic is down, does anyone really think an extra $2 per person is going to make a difference in the long run? It will but not in a good way. This program is destroying what little good will the traveling public had left for US. Perception is reality...and they can't even manage that one right.

US fares are often equal to or higher than other major carriers, yet they offer much less in terms of product or on board amenities. They have clearly failed to execute the "hybrid" approach, and thereby mismanageed the expectations of the customer, so I think it's time to decide once and for all the business model they want to execute and do it already. If they want to be a true LCC dump F and lower fares to match the other LCC's like Spirit, Airtran etc. If however they want to be a player among business travelers, they need to do an about face and restore amenities like CO, AA, UA, DL et al are currently doing. They are TRYING to get the business travelers...not shoo them away like US appears to have succeeded in doing.

The fact of the matter is that at the end of the day among the ranks of legacy airlines, in my opinion US is the most vulnerable and least likely to remain in its current shape or form 18 months from now....and I am not even CONSIDERING the labor strife as part of that ......

 

[Hello Newman]

The attitude of disgust for the customer and management.
The customer, the one who pays his salary, had a valid concern, but he was a "moron" in his view. This attitude is pervasive at this company. . . the customers are stupid and management is evil.

Yes he had a valid concern, I attempted to answer his question and was met with hostility and THAT was moronic Don't pass judgement if you were not there

 

[4merresrat]

You sound hostile too. Sometimes those things feed off themselves.

The comment was actually meant more toward the culture that seems to permeates the company than to your one interaction.

 

[Hello Newman]

No hostility on my part,,,,,just stating the facts

 

[tadjr]

Face it Newman, us front liners arent going to win no matter what. Let the customer know whats going on and you've got attitude because they didnt like your answer or you charging them when they think they should be exempt. Dont engage the customer with an explanation as they're mumbling under their breath just loud enough to be sure you hear them and you dont care and are ignoring them. You arent going to win either way. Just check them in and send them on their way. 🙄 :blink: If they have an issue, Tempes address is online, on the back of their boarding pass and in the onboard magazine. They have plenty of ways to get the info to Tempe but most would just rather #### to us. Do you think we could get shrink fees for listening?

 

[freedom]

{so on and so froth}

I think it's time to decide once and for all the business model they want to execute and do it already. If they want to be a true LCC dump F and lower fares to match the other LCC's like Spirit, Airtran etc. If however they want to be a player among business travelers, they need to do an about face and restore amenities like CO, AA, UA, DL et al are currently doing. They are TRYING to get the business travelers...not shoo them away like US appears to have succeeded in doing.

{so on and so forth }

i think the company has done a good job of rolling with the punches thus far , by that i mean remaining fluid . if we had geared ourselves completely to 140 dollar oil we'd be in a really bad spot right now ... With this new economy , i think it's importance to extract every little bit of money we can out of the pax for as long as humanly possible . once we see a shift in travel trends we should then also shift our tactics ... with a weaker economy we may in fact be heading into a new model of low cost flying , with no one having any money after a time people will book based on price alone ..

 

[NCFL]

i think it's importance to extract every little bit of money we can out of the pax for as long as humanly possible .

I think it's important to note that I never do repeat business with a company that makes me feel like I've been fleeced.

 

[ChockJockey]

i think it's importance to extract every little bit of money we can out of the pax for as long as humanly possible .

This seems like a wise and shrewd thing to post in a thread that addresses the airline's critics, except that it is neither wise nor shrewd. What exactly is it you do for this company again?

 

[LD3]

once we see a shift in travel trends we should then also shift our tactics ...

I believe there has been a shift in travel trends, the FF's are jumping to othe airlines. That being said is enough to make the company reconsider their tactics...

 

[jimcfs]

once we see a shift in travel trends we should then also shift our tactics ...

I believe there has been a shift in travel trends, the FF's are jumping to othe airlines. That being said is enough to make the company reconsider their tactics...

Does "reconsider" what give back what we took away because of the fuel prices (the 500 mi min) or does "reconsider" mean be create, innovative, and do more like the other legacies to keep and gain more of the loyal FF market. The truth be known, the former here isn't even a crumb in what they need to be doing to get the latter. :blink:

 

[whatkindoffreshhell]

I copied the following from the "Fred Pryor Semiinars" website. It's part of a course description titled "How to Resolve Customer Complaints on the Spot". It's most interesting. The article speaks for itself.
Attend this powerful 1-hour audio conference and become equipped to keep complaints and petty situations from escalating into full-blown customer service disasters."

Any thoughts?

Re-hashed sales syrup. You could do better than this PB.

Sum this thread up in two words: fleeced & gone.

Quite simply I do not have any affection for the company USAirways. Why should I?
Perky 'we-are-the-best' employees and 'wasn't-we-great-when-Piedmont..' attitudes and constipated MBA-managers do not make me whole again after losing thousands of dollars
because I was stupid and trusted the product.

Truly I am sorry for the front-line employees but everyone has painful choices to make in life.

I only stick around here now for the amusement. Same as others.

 

[vantheman63]

once we see a shift in travel trends we should then also shift our tactics ...

I believe there has been a shift in travel trends, the FF's are jumping to othe airlines. That being said is enough to make the company reconsider their tactics...

Funny, I logged in to see if there was any yakking about the survey that the Sand Fleas infesting the Sand Castle sent out....none, very surprising.

Needless to say, I took it and it was VERY obvious to see the Sand Fleas infesting the Sand Castle are begining to see issues....doesn't take a genius to read the questions and how they are laid out.

My tranformation is complete...I think I flew 2 paid segments on US in the last quarter...and have booked exactly zero in the first quarter of 2009. I'm "Gold" this year, having fallen from CP...and in 2010, for the first time since 1987, I'll be dirt...nothing. I'll have a DM number and that's that. Platinum on CO, Gold on DL and I'll probably go for "A-List" on WN.

I guess the sad thing is this: I'm gone...and unless CO or WN pull some crazy silly moves, I'm not coming back. US can put free cokes in the back...they could clean their airplanes...they could put glassware on the airplanes....they could have real seats in Envoy instead of the narrowest, hardest, crapiest throw-back seats on earth....it matters not, my loyalty and trust have been betrayed and I've moved on.

And loyalty means something, it counts. I was loyal to US as long as I could be. Lets face it, I still maintain some of the greatest people on earth are those that work at PVD...and I enjoy saying hello to them and, strangely, hearing them on the PA...I hung in there for them...and the crews...many of which I still know well.

I stayed through two bankruptcies. I endured boxed lunches/meals on paid transcon F tix PHL/CLT-SFO, because, "thats what you do when you believe and are loyal."

Only to just be ####-slapped one too many times by the new "management."

You can only kick a customer so many times before that customer not only doesn't care any more about the product...but also can't stand and wants to tell everyone how awful the product and experience are.

So, there ya go....

I'll leave with this....on my Facebook yesterday....a friend of mine, actually a former business partner of mine, who's seen more countries and more airlines than 99.5% of the people here (myself included) had this to say about US on my Facebook page after flying to Europe from PHL:

John Mxxxxx wrote at 8:13pm
US Airways is the worst airline on the planet. I'd rather be on a train in India. Last time I'll fly them!!
Wall-to-Wall - Write on John's Wall

Think about that...owns 2 international businesses...how many people does he tell? Or the people I sell wine to in Malaga, Spain...who were involuntarily re-routed onto US in MIA (from AA) who spent an hour telling me about their crappy trip on US in Noevember after I'd landed there....(not crappy from an operational standpoint by the way.)

Lets hope the exterminator visits the Sand Castle to do something about that Sand Flea infestation...