Now DL Joins AA, CO in Matching US

USFlyer

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Aug 19, 2002
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[A href=http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020905/atth011_1.html]http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020905/atth011_1.html[/A][BR]So I guess we're just waiting on UA and NW now.
 
SEPTEMBER 04, 2002 -- Northwest Airlines today joined its peers in further restricting nonrefundable fares by invalidating their value after the ticketed date of departure. Like American and Continental airlines, the new policy goes into effect for travel as of Oct. 1. US Airways last week led the industry in adjusting the nonrefundable fare policy.

Northwest, however, is excluding nonrefundable BizFlex fares and also chose to leave its same-day standby policy unchanged, meaning passengers still can try their luck waiting for a different flight at no additional cost. Both American and Continental as of Jan. 1 will charge passengers ticketed on nonrefundable fares $100 to fly on a standby-basis for an alternative flight on the same day. US Airways' policy completely disallows such passengers from flying standby. Northwest still will charge passengers $100 for confirmed same-day itinerary changes.

I added the bold bits to help point out that none of these guys are charging into the water -- they're dipping their toes.

There are also huge differences in the actual policies as compared to U.
 
Scratch that, NW matched too:[BR][BR][A href=http://www.nwa.com/features/new-policy.html]http://www.nwa.com/features/new-policy.html[/A][BR]
 
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On 9/5/2002 12:05:52 PM ChairPrefRes wrote:

Say......SWA just announced their load factor for August and stated weak sales of their full walk up fare...K C Flyer is probably holding out on them...Could even mighty SWA tighten up the rules a bit and be the next bad guy...we'll see
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As much as people try and paint them out to be GOD, things are not all wine and roses at LUV. Case in point..new union mobiliation for cust svc. Who is going to pay for all the extra wages and bennys they seek? Could it be......the passengers? Everyone ends up in the same boat sooner or later. This [b]is[/b] America by golly.
 
Good! IMO, the airlines should push passengers to use e-tickets instead of paper. And the airlines should clamp down on allowing non-refundable fares to be a free-for-all fly standby anytime, anyplace proposition.


On a different recent policy change, NOT ONE SINGLE airline has yet to match US's new "no-elite-status-on-discount fares" policy. They are too busy poaching frequent-fliers from US right now.
[:blackeye:]
 
Say......SWA just announced their load factor for August and stated weak sales of their full walk up fare...K C Flyer is probably holding out on them...Could even mighty SWA tighten up the rules a bit and be the next bad guy...we'll see
 
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On 9/5/2002 12:14:09 PM RealityCheck wrote:

[blockquote]
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On 9/5/2002 12:05:52 PM ChairPrefRes wrote:

Say......SWA just announced their load factor for August and stated weak sales of their full walk up fare...K C Flyer is probably holding out on them...Could even mighty SWA tighten up the rules a bit and be the next bad guy...we'll see
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[/blockquote]
As much as people try and paint them out to be GOD, things are not all wine and roses at LUV. Case in point..new union mobiliation for cust svc. Who is going to pay for all the extra wages and bennys they seek? Could it be......the passengers? Everyone ends up in the same boat sooner or later. This [b]is[/b] America by golly.

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If SWA adopts U's policies I'll get down on my knees, beg forgiveness and bow to your wisdom.

In the meantime I've got an expired, non-refundable ticket that says it'll never happen [img src='http://www.usaviation.com/idealbb/images/smilies/3.gif']
 
I had to edit my message because this new software doesn't like the word *****. So just doing a little test here... a question for mechanics - are there more nuts, bolts, or *****s on the typical airliner.
 
[blockquote]
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On 9/5/2002 12:14:09 PM RealityCheck wrote:
As much as people try and paint them out to be GOD, things are not all wine and roses at LUV. Case in point..new union mobiliation for cust svc. Who is going to pay for all the extra wages and bennys they seek? Could it be......the passengers? Everyone ends up in the same boat sooner or later. This is America by golly.

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I thought the Customer Service reps were already represented by the IAM (which in itself is a bit frightening, given their record at most every other airline).
 
[blockquote]
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On 9/5/2002 12:05:52 PM ChairPrefRes wrote:

Say......SWA just announced their load factor for August and stated weak sales of their full walk up fare...K C Flyer is probably holding out on them...Could even mighty SWA tighten up the rules a bit and be the next bad guy...we'll see
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[/blockquote]

And SWA recently LOWERED their full walkup fare to a maximum of $299. We'll have to see if that little move bumps up traffic for 3Q, and if the sheepies moves to try and force business to pay 5 times that much for the flexiblity offered by that fare. And you know something, even if SWA were to implement the use it or lose it rule (which I don't think they will), how many companies will find that flexibility for $299 fare beats the flexiblity of a $1,000 fare hands down.

A little side note. A few years ago, I was able to visit Herb K's office in Dallas (no, Herb wasn't in at the time). His office was not decorated with Harley's and Wild Turkey as one might think. No, his office was pretty much virtually a shrine to the great military minds of WWII. You know...little things like how to beat your enemy at his own game. That's kind of why I doubt you'll see SWA pulling this Let's mess with the leisure traveller who happens to be a businessman policy. For 30 years SWA has pretty much viewed the dollar of the leisure traveller to be every bit as important as the dollar from the high yield business traveller. The other guys seem to be forgetting that. IMHO, Southwest never will.
 
A spokesman for Delta discussed the new policy and said [blockquote]Baaaa baaaa baaaa valued business traveller baaaa baaaa services they want baaaaa baaaaa[/blockquote]
 
LOl no its more like the us1 desk with john doe calling to complain about his perks and the customer service hears blah blah blah blah.. what did u say again sir? AT least after a while thats what it sounds like lol
 
I wonder what they are going to do with the glut of agents in 2004 when the preferred population dwindles to about 10 percent of what it is now?

Care to speculate? I mean, surely they are not going back into the regular queues--after all, we have are going to provide service directly proportional to what people are paying, right? The body politic can surely wait on hold a bit longer, right?

Or had that thought not crossed anyone's mind?

Every time I call the US2/3 desks, I know exactly what I want to do, provide a PNR/record locator to save time, etc. In fact, if electronic upgrades and access to the Q seats ever made it online, I'd only ever call to beat the crowd of a cnxld flight to special services and the rebook.

Something to ponder.

OTOH, you could be pricing that $100 TPA-BOS fare for Maw and Paw Kettle.
 
[P]
[BLOCKQUOTE][BR]----------------[BR]On 9/5/2002 10:51:13 PM ClueByFour wrote:
[P][BR]Every time I call the US2/3 desks, I know exactly what I want to do, provide a PNR/record locator to save time, etc.  In fact, if electronic upgrades and access to the Q seats ever made it online, I'd only ever call to beat the crowd of a cnxld flight to special services and the rebook.[BR][BR]----------------[/P][/BLOCKQUOTE]
[P]believe it or not there is also a glut of preferreds who need their hand held and guided thru the process from the greeting to the goodbye in the course of a sales call.Those folks will still need help always.[/P]
 
[P]But I dont understand why SOUTHWEST CSA needs a union? If all is peachy(schnopps), why unionize? That question of mine remains unanswered..if the BOSS is so fair to his employees, why would these same employees want some sort of protection..or need it??[/P]
[P]It goes back to kindergarden econ 101..eventually people want more of the pie(we all do), they need representation to get more..and the moneys to get more gotta come from somewhere. The incoming revenue..which=The air fares...wow![/P]