I was speaking with a co-worker the other day who had just arrived in AMS from CLE (on US). A few things about his trip stood out to me as ways that US could save money and/or drive more revenue. The two that come to mind:
1. CLE-PIT-PHL-AMS was $300 cheaper than CLE-PHL-AMS. WTF? Yeah, I suppose the carrot is 2.5 hours less time in transit, but it strikes me that once you accept the better part of 20 hours in transit that someone set up with a mobile office might just take the $300 difference. This strikes me as dumb (although in US' defense, I'm quite sure that the routing was purchased thru our corporate engine and not US directly).
2. At PIT, the airport is providing free wireless. The club has nothing. No US club has wireless access. Both UA and AA have deals with T-mobile. I'd be willing to wager that T-mobile would be perfectly willing to ante up the costs of installing and operating the hotspots. While not driving any revenue from the hotspots themselves, it might give people a reason to actually join the club. This would cost US a grand total of nothing. I found it amazing that a US club member could not actually do any work in the club itself, but could walk down the stairs to the adjacent TGI Fridays, get a beer, and work for an hour on the airport's wireless.
The wireless issue is huge, IMHO. It's amost funny that US does not offer it in their clubs, especially in light of the fact that it could probably be offered at absolutely no cost to them.
1. CLE-PIT-PHL-AMS was $300 cheaper than CLE-PHL-AMS. WTF? Yeah, I suppose the carrot is 2.5 hours less time in transit, but it strikes me that once you accept the better part of 20 hours in transit that someone set up with a mobile office might just take the $300 difference. This strikes me as dumb (although in US' defense, I'm quite sure that the routing was purchased thru our corporate engine and not US directly).
2. At PIT, the airport is providing free wireless. The club has nothing. No US club has wireless access. Both UA and AA have deals with T-mobile. I'd be willing to wager that T-mobile would be perfectly willing to ante up the costs of installing and operating the hotspots. While not driving any revenue from the hotspots themselves, it might give people a reason to actually join the club. This would cost US a grand total of nothing. I found it amazing that a US club member could not actually do any work in the club itself, but could walk down the stairs to the adjacent TGI Fridays, get a beer, and work for an hour on the airport's wireless.
The wireless issue is huge, IMHO. It's amost funny that US does not offer it in their clubs, especially in light of the fact that it could probably be offered at absolutely no cost to them.
