I agree with your post and I have to say I am disappointed with many of the cuts in customer service. As a member of Delta, I have racked my brain trying to think of a way to raise ourselves above our competitors, to be able to have a quality product in every aspect and still price our product equal to or lower than our competitors. I have to ask you. What would you recommend we do?
I can't believe we actually agree on something for once.
Anyway, I know you were asking Bagboy, but I'd like to chime in if I may:
The first thing we (yes, we) need to decide is just what type of carrier we want to be. Do we want to be a global powerhouse, or an LCC. We seem to be trying to do both. I don't believe that's possible. I would hope we go with the former. Once that's decided, we can move from there.
A few ideas:
* Insource as much as possible (yes, I realize this is already starting, but we're taking small steps instead of leaps and bounds). The economies of scale that have come with our size now allow us in many cases to have M/L employees and still have it make fiscal sense. This would also bring an increased sense of ownership across the system, which brings me to my next point...
* Task each division with finding new efficiencies. This would be an ongoing process. I know NW has done this previously, and I imagine DL has as well?
Both of these could result in lower CASM which is what we're going for, right?
*Next, I don't think we need to chase junk yield. No more $99 transcon fares. Would we cede market share? maybe, but I'd rather have profitable flying.
* Simplify the fleet. we have too many types, and too many subfleets on top of that.
* Use some of the (now) excess capacity to replace contract carriers (as much as possible) with our own wholly owned subsidiaries. There's no reason to be paying fee for departure with a guaranteed profit margin to the likes of Freedom.
Anyway, there's just a couple of ideas. As for the previously mentioned safety cards, I'm sorry to say that Bagboy is correct: They look like crap. A simple switch to a non-glossy, heavier stock paper would fix that fast. They also failed to adequately stock a lot of the outstations, so we have no choice but to let these trashed cards stay in the pocket, which leads to a poor customer impression.
Also, as an AMT, can you explain why they're changing these on a plane by plane basis as opposed to a whole fleet type at once?
