Miscellaneous Rants

[BuffaloJoe]

Must be nice staying West of the Mississippi River. However, you owe it to yourself to take a field trip to PHL just for fun. The city is great, lots of American History, The Mint, and don't forget those Cheesesteaks.

Cheesesteaks should never be missed. Oh how they would sell as "Buy on Board". Even cold they are delicious, better than what they serve now. And the Mummers Parade is today, something great to experience almost a whole day event. Anyway Happy New Year!

 

[Low&away]

How do you delete a post entirely?

 

[sharktooth]

Our business is simple "if" you understand that it is totally operationally driven...

Correct, though I would amend your statement to the following:

Our business is simple "if" you understand that it (should be almost) totally operationally driven...

 

[Low&away]

Correct, though I would amend your statement to the following:

Our business is simple "if" you understand that it (should be almost) totally operationally driven...

Point well taken, you are correct Sir...

 

[RowUnderDCA]

ANY business that is not "customer focused" will not last long term. Now one can argue that being "operationally Driven" is in fact customer driven.

This management seems to be more "Spreadsheet Driven". I'll bet dollars to donuts that when the seating configurations of the east planes were being discussed somebody "Ran The Numbers" and determined just how many fuel stops for an average year, how many missconnects, PAWOB's there would be versus what they felt they could make revenue wise by adding seats.

Adding seats "on paper" was the way to go, so they did. Revenue opportunity greater than potential risk. Classic Risk Analysis. Additionally adding seats enabled them to show a lower CASM which investors like. That's playing with numbers at its finest.

I wonder did anyone consider that due to Weight & Balance issues a certain percentage of those seats now go unsold, or worse require compensation in Denied Boarding Vouchers? Increased DOT Complaints? Delivery of bags and that cost?

It also doesn't appear that the concept of "Goodwill" was taken into account. Leaving customers stranded, delayed and ticked off is NOT "goodwill" by any standard. From what I can see, at no time was the customer considered in these decisions. Operational issues were certainly not included and Doug & Scott have pubically admitted they are "More Concept than Operational in our thinking"

This is a prime illustration of how the cost of everything and value of nothing thinking creates for customers and employees alike. IMO these decisions do NOT represent the best interests of the Shareholders.

I think your analysis is correct, but it's just not enough with $100 a barrel oil, cheap fares and plenty of stupid customers chasing shrinking/stagnant seat inventory with air traffic congestion and no solution in sight. I mean obviously, the solution is somewhere more customer focused than where LCC is now, but how much more? With economics like we're having now, cost-side spreadsheets are going to play a bigger role than they did in the 90s.

 

[SPAM]

crusher said on Dec 31 2007, 02:45 PM We had our issues prior to this merger , but at least we knew how to operate a professional airline.We had some of the most loyal passengers around but no more thanks to Tempe. Their choice to cater to the lowest common demoninator is destroyed any good will we might have still had.
===============================================================
Are kidding me Crusher? US Airways was about to close shop due to incompetence and was known by customers as THE WORST airline. Until Tempe came in and saved your airline through the merger, you would have had no job to whine about.

True, the merger has not gone well, but it is mostly due to using East procedures and systems because they were supposedly cheaper. Whoever sold management on that bit of goods did a great whitewash job. We essentially stepped back 2 decades technologically by using the East systems, and by doing so dragged HP down in the muck.

This is what happens when bean counters run an airline.

 

[USstew23]

crusher said on Dec 31 2007, 02:45 PM We had our issues prior to this merger , but at least we knew how to operate a professional airline.We had some of the most loyal passengers around but no more thanks to Tempe. Their choice to cater to the lowest common demoninator is destroyed any good will we might have still had.
===============================================================
Are kidding me Crusher? US Airways was about to close shop due to incompetence and was known by customers as THE WORST airline. Until Tempe came in and saved your airline through the merger, you would have had no job to whine about.

True, the merger has not gone well, but it is mostly due to using East procedures and systems because they were supposedly cheaper. Whoever sold management on that bit of goods did a great whitewash job. We essentially stepped back 2 decades technologically by using the East systems, and by doing so dragged HP down in the muck.

This is what happens when bean counters run an airline.

Whoa Dude!!!! Are you living under some kind of f3c%ing rock???? No way was the legacy US perfect but when you compare to what we have to work with now then oh yes it was a gem. I'm really kind of over the East vs. West thing, however maybe a reminder is in order to refresh your mind of what has gone completely down the tubes since the Marketing know it alls and IT in Tempe got their hands on everything.

1. Shares (QIK)
2. The ETC (which by the way worked just fine prior)
3. Airbuses making fuel stops
4. Aircraft configurations done half a$$ that have ruined once beautiful airplanes (to include the flagship of the US fleet) that have cost more than will ever be saved
5 Dividend Miles hackjob
6. TransAtlantic service that, while it has been expanded, has taken a complete 180
7. The new mx system (Sceptre?)

there's more but you get the idea. Now this CLP issue that just started with the cutover. The West folks are pointing fingers at the East and East is pointing fingers at West. Obviously something has been tweeked with the cutover that has caused the system to go crazy and whether it was cheaper or not I think that the folks out West should know that indeed CLP did work just fine prior to the cutover and whatever is wrong now is NOT the fault of any frontline employees and we only need to consider past experience to get an idea of what the problem is.

 

[YVINTERN]

Whoa Dude!!!! Are you living under some kind of f3c%ing rock???? No way was the legacy US perfect ...

Thanks dude...now I don't need to take my Bayer aspirin over this rockhead.

 

[N965VJ]

<SNIP> We essentially stepped back 2 decades technologically by using the East systems, and by doing so dragged HP down in the muck.

 

[SPAM]

US Airways may or may not have closed "shop". Same for HP! No one including you has a crystal ball and public statements by many executives from both companies refute your contentions, which are irrelevent to the issues and topic at hand.

When referring to US procedures and technology your statement doesn't hold water. Using these systems, US Airways was able to complete 5,000 transatlantic flights consecutively. How did US do this summer using these "lousy" procedures and technology when managed by the folks from Tempe?

Additionally they were also able to rank number 1 in OT Performance even while in BK for a substantial period of time. Funny thing is they did that with the same procedures and technology you decry this very day.

Any desire to compare the pre merger stats of the two airlines to the present merged airline. Do so at your peril as you will find the comparison saddening.

Here is the bottom line. You have the US technology, policies and procedures as a constant. The workforce is essentially a constant. The varible is the respective management teams in place at the time.

Given the above, which Management Team has performed better as reflected by the DOT stats?

Whoa, where did your get your stats from? The same place that claimed that the East systems were superior to the West? How can going back to green screens with DOS prompts be considered a "best practice"? The typical response given by East personnel to questions about their processes has been, "well because that's the way we have always done it." How lame is that?

Instead of going forward with using a best practices methodology during the merger, the Tempe boys and girls swallowed the misinformation spewed out by East management, who were more interested in saving their individual "empires" or doing things the easy way, i.e. the way they had always done it.

There is absolutely no doubt the old US Airways was going to close down, and in fact were only weeks away from doing so before America West bailed them out.

P.S. I am not a "dude", I am the real thing.
P.S.S. I am not a current member of any airline, but have considerable knowledge of the situation as it continues to stumble towards another substandard year.

 

[700UW]

Wow, revisionist history.

US got the money for the merger, not HP.

Sabre is vastly superior than shares, that is why it is the worlds most used reservation system.

Merlin is far superior to Sceptre.

Shall I continue?

 

[john john]

P.S.S. I am not a current member of any airline, but have considerable knowledge of the situation as it continues to stumble towards another substandard year.

DUDE YOU ARE CLUELESS you have no working frontline knowledge of the airline environment or its financial workings

 

[SPAM]

Wow, revisionist history.

US got the money for the merger, not HP.

Sabre is vastly superior than shares, that is why it is the worlds most used reservation system.

Merlin is far superior to Sceptre.

Shall I continue?

Please go on, but you will only amplify your ignorance. Your ilk reminds me how thankful I am to be away from the idiocy of legacy airline employees. Don't be so simple!

 

[700UW]

Dispute my facts.

 

[SPAM]

DUDE YOU ARE CLUELESS you have no working frontline knowledge of the airline environment or its financial workings

OUCH...That really hurts coming from a senior lav truck driver!