the past. the employees made the sacrifice. now it's time for the customers to unfortunately pay the price. i have no problem with that. remember this will only be implemented i am sure on domestic economy only.
etops1, here's where I agree with you 1,000%. We're in complete agreement.
I couldn't say this in the past..but now that my wife is completely out of US...I can. I understand the issues and the airline biz a little more then the average pax. I'm married to a (now retired) F/A that spent 2 months shy of 24 years with US. She's original PI and was based in DCA and then CLT the last 19 years. She took that last out that was offered when, I believe, 134 F/As took the out.
I watched her "enjoyment" and enthusiasm for the job go from "I love to fly and it shows" to, "I can't believe how much I hate this job now." I watched her pay go down....I know, I understand, I agree with what you are saying.
When this merger was announced, we were both TOTALLY stoked! We thought it was going to be great, open up a new life for her and her flying, new people, new places to go and the promise of a product that she could/would be proud of..."all the amenities of a ful service, hub and spoke carrier with the low fares of a low cost carrier."
It almost sounded too good to be true....wait....it was too good to be true.
We watched Doug Parker charm the bejeebies out of people at first...I watched his INT "performance" when he said, "if there is any group of pax we'll charge every fee to, it's the CP group." That was when I was, as a pax thinking, "uh oh."
From there, it went SCREAMINGLY down hill, fast.
I've beat the stories of flying in Envoy and F that was so bad my client's 15 year old daughter couldn't rest her arm on her armrest enough to kill 50 horses, so I'll save those.
HOWEVER....getting back on topic....however, while I agree that the employees have bore the brunt of this environment and I agree that the $99 transcon must go away, I'm telling you, the management team at this airline has done an AWFUL job of creating, producing and executing this product....and they've done and even worse job of understanding the customer. There ARE people that can afford and will pay for quality. CLEARLY, these people don't want them...fine....stop pretending and just go full bore into a failed, time and time again strategy...."price." (wait, is it "on time, with my luggage?" Or is it the schedule?)
That's my point in all this....the sparring back and forth on WN or CO isn't intended to piddle on the shoes of US folk...I'm actually one of you! The point is, SOMEONE, ANYONE, get to these people and tell them they are not thinking about this the right way....
WHY doesn't US have leverage to go fetch capital? Because they are fully immersed and sinking themselves further into "commodity-itis." That's why....there is no "US Airways Franchise" any more. We have, a huge-ass regional carrier operating semi-internationally now...
It's just not a well thought out product, that's my point. And along those lines, trying to woo travelers into a dirt cheap $99 (or $199) transcon....just doesn't make any sense to me....especially when someone, like me, is going to pay $1,000 for that same ticket...and pay for, what essentially becomes a $500 can of soda, subsidizing the $199 transcon people.
It makes has made and will continue to make ZERO sense to me.
And contrary to popular belief, no matter HOW stupid Doug Parker and Scott Kirby think people like me are, we are "trainable." We can be made to understand that it costs more.
