To All US1,US2,US3

I think what the company is trying to shoot for here is that: If you are wanting all the extra perks -- free upgrades, bonus milage, club access etc -- you should be willing to pay more. Chairman Preferred will become just that...and elite status of flyers wanting the extra perks and willing to pay a little more for them. It doesn't make much sense when you can have a 18 year old flying around on cut throat fare and then attain elite status and get the perks that a businessman is getting from flying an equal number of routes but paying a much higher fare.

.........................


FYI.....USAIRWAYS and a few other airlines LOWERED the requirements to obtain Chariman's Preferred, Gold and Silver status after 9/11/01 to encourage the flying public to get back to flying.

By 9/11, I had already acquired 80 segments and I knew I would be reaching the required 100 to gain my US1 status before the end of the year. I infact did surpass the 100 segments at the end of 2001 (total segments flown for 2001 = 107). Do you want to know how many bargain basement flights I took last year to help obtain my preferred status? Only 1. And that was a special USAirways was having to Europe in the spring of 2001. I had to cancel my reservation and vacation because of personal reasons and I kept my ticket for future use. I used this ticket to fly from PIT to LGW at the end of September, 2001 and paid the service fee and additional cost of the price difference from my original purchased date to the date of my actual travel. So I paid an additional $275 to the original price. I was thankful that I could use this ticket for future use and knew and understood the conditions required for future use. I am also very glad I flew USAirways to London. The flight attendants were great and the flight was very enjoyable.

99% of my travel is for business purposes. I have had many refundable and non-refundable tickets that I have been able to use towards my future travel on USAirways. Now I am not going to be able to rely on the ability to use these tickets for optional travel. I know my schedule weeks in advance usually and purchase my tickets accordingly. But I do have occassions that my pre-purchased tickets have to be cancelled because my customer is not ready for me to arrive for me to do my job. So this ticket is used towards the purchase of another ticket because I'm being sent to another city for another job instead. But now I am going to loose a majority of my pre-purchased tickets because of USAirways new policy about non-refundable ticktes. This is a shame. And my company will not allow me to fly USAirways anymore because of this policy. I wonder how many other northeastern US based companies are going to do the same?

By October 1, 2002, I will have flown 100 segments. I know this because I have already prebooked my flights until that date. But from October 2 until Dec. 31, I will not be flying USAirways anymore. I have already booked a flight on United and another on American.

What I guess I'm getting at here is, I've paid my dues for all those perks that I get with US1 status. Want to really know what I get? Hopefully a first class seat on my flights if they are not already taken by other preferred members or a pruely purchased first class ticket. Nothing special. USAirways domestically offers nothing special in first class other than a bigger seat and a bit more leg room. I will say my experience in Envoy Class to London last year was nice but it was the same as my experience on United's business class to Tokyo and Taiwan that I had in July, 2000. By the way, you have to purchase your Club membership or you can redeem frequent flyer miles too. Being US1 doesn't automatically gain you access to ANY USAirways Club. And I'm not like a lot of other US1, 2 or 3's I've witnessed. I don't ask for a glass of wine or champagne as soon as my butt hits the seat. I don't say to the Flight Attendant, "here, hang my coat up" as soon as I board the plane. I've actually been told my a few flight attendants over the last year or 2 that I'm one of the nicest US1's they've ever met. I don't demand anything from them during the flight unless I'm really thirsty. And I always wait until the F/A asks if they can hang up my coat and I make sure I say PLEASE and THANK YOU. I was taught proper manners by my parents. Something that I've witnessed is lacking by some passengers lately.

Guess Mr. Seigel is getting his loyal customers ready for the arrival of the RJ's. No first class to worry about in those. But I'm sure I will be paying first class prices because I had to cancel my reservations and book them for another flight last minute.

Don't quote the....."if you cancel in advance" line to me. I know, I already read that statement. I will be affected by the fare code when I purchased my advance ticket.

It's been fun flying USAirways for these last 6 years every week. I've meet a lot of nice USAirways employees in PIT and the various other cities I spend a lot of time in. It's a shame upper management is proabably taking you out of the skies.
 
DFW, I pay for my Club membership, and a good percentage of my upgrades as well. But I also pay for my own tickets, and I have better things to do with my money than throw it down a rathole in the form of full Y fares as the pricing structure is currently set up. I would love to have greater flexibility and I would be happy to pay more for that flexibility -- but not that much more, especially when the coach product and air travel in general has become so unpleasant, i.e., no food, long lines, etc. Cut the walk-up fares to something reasonable and prioritize upgrades on the basis of fare paid and I'll probably pick the higher fares. But after the boneheaded way US handled these changes, there's a good chance I'll be doing so on another airline, regardless of how this shakes out. The only way this MIGHT work is if US decided to offer a truly superior product. I see no indication that such an approach is in the works. To the contrary, the reliance on RJs means that things will get worse rather than better, i.e. coke, diet coke and sprite for your $500 one way fare.
 
I think what the company is trying to shoot for here is that: If you are wanting all the extra perks -- free upgrades, bonus milage, club access etc -- you should be willing to pay more. Chairman Preferred will become just that...and elite status of flyers wanting the extra perks and willing to pay a little more for them. It doesn't make much sense when you can have a 18 year old flying around on cut throat fare and then attain elite status and get the perks that a businessman is getting from flying an equal number of routes but paying a much higher fare.

.........................


FYI.....USAIRWAYS and a few other airlines LOWERED the requirements to obtain Chariman's Preferred, Gold and Silver status after 9/11/01 to encourage the flying public to get back to flying.

By 9/11, I had already acquired 80 segments and I knew I would be reaching the required 100 to gain my US1 status before the end of the year. I infact did surpass the 100 segments at the end of 2001 (total segments flown for 2001 = 107). Do you want to know how many bargain basement flights I took last year to help obtain my preferred status? Only 1. And that was a special USAirways was having to Europe in the spring of 2001. I had to cancel my reservation and vacation because of personal reasons and I kept my ticket for future use. I used this ticket to fly from PIT to LGW at the end of September, 2001 and paid the service fee and additional cost of the price difference from my original purchased date to the date of my actual travel. So I paid an additional $275 to the original price. I was thankful that I could use this ticket for future use and knew and understood the conditions required for future use. I am also very glad I flew USAirways to London. The flight attendants were great and the flight was very enjoyable.

99% of my travel is for business purposes. I have had many refundable and non-refundable tickets that I have been able to use towards my future travel on USAirways. Now I am not going to be able to rely on the ability to use these tickets for optional travel. I know my schedule weeks in advance usually and purchase my tickets accordingly. But I do have occassions that my pre-purchased tickets have to be cancelled because my customer is not ready for me to arrive for me to do my job. So this ticket is used towards the purchase of another ticket because I'm being sent to another city for another job instead. But now I am going to loose a majority of my pre-purchased tickets because of USAirways new policy about non-refundable ticktes. This is a shame. And my company will not allow me to fly USAirways anymore because of this policy. I wonder how many other northeastern US based companies are going to do the same?

By October 1, 2002, I will have flown 100 segments. I know this because I have already prebooked my flights until that date. But from October 2 until Dec. 31, I will not be flying USAirways anymore. I have already booked a flight on United and another on American.

What I guess I'm getting at here is, I've paid my dues for all those perks that I get with US1 status. Want to really know what I get? Hopefully a first class seat on my flights if they are not already taken by other preferred members or a pruely purchased first class ticket. Nothing special. USAirways domestically offers nothing special in first class other than a bigger seat and a bit more leg room. I will say my experience in Envoy Class to London last year was nice but it was the same as my experience on United's business class to Tokyo and Taiwan that I had in July, 2000. By the way, you have to purchase your Club membership or you can redeem frequent flyer miles too. Being US1 doesn't automatically gain you access to ANY USAirways Club. And I'm not like a lot of other US1, 2 or 3's I've witnessed. I don't ask for a glass of wine or champagne as soon as my butt hits the seat. I don't say to the Flight Attendant, "here, hang my coat up" as soon as I board the plane. I've actually been told my a few flight attendants over the last year or 2 that I'm one of the nicest US1's they've ever met. I don't demand anything from them during the flight unless I'm really thirsty. And I always wait until the F/A asks if they can hang up my coat and I make sure I say PLEASE and THANK YOU. I was taught proper manners by my parents. Something that I've witnessed is lacking by some passengers lately.

Guess Mr. Seigel is getting his loyal customers ready for the arrival of the RJ's. No first class to worry about in those. But I'm sure I will be paying first class prices because I had to cancel my reservations and book them for another flight last minute.

Don't quote the....."if you cancel in advance" line to me. I know, I already read that statement. I will be affected by the fare code when I purchased my advance ticket.

It's been fun flying USAirways for these last 6 years every week. I've meet a lot of nice USAirways employees in PIT and the various other cities I spend a lot of time in. It's a shame upper management is proabably taking you out of the skies.
 
trvlr64,

Very well said. The firm I work for last year spent approx. $125 million on air travel, with a HUGE chunk of that on US Airways (my guess, and it's only a guess, is about $50-$60 million). We are now being pressured to fly our other contract carriers, a "boycott", if you will, to divert as much revenue from US until they come up with something more reasonable. And diehard US loyal passengers, and I mean LOYAL, are now saying they will not fly US. These are people who go out of their way to connect when nonstops are available on other carriers. These are people that hauled themselves up to BWI to continue flying US while DCA was closed (as opposed to flying UA out of the much closer IAD). These are people that faithfully renew their Club memberships every year.

There are other approaches US could have taken: Eliminate V and other "dirt cheap" fares from earning status, but H/K are fares many business people travel on a lot these days (assuming planning ahead is possible). Make H/K tickets "worthless" if the passenger doesn't call US, let's say, 7 days in advance to "cancel" the ticket. No money is returned but they lose their reservation on the flight. To reinstate it would cost the change fee plus fare difference, and the ticket value can be applied to a future ticket. If the passengers calls < 7 days, then the new policy goes into effect. Just brainstorming here, but god knows we all realize US could have handled this situation better. Just pissing off loyal passengers seems like a weird stance to take... and, honestly, those passengers flying solely on F/Y tickets are probably less loyal than those of us that give US business no matter what.

Many of the regular passengers want US to succeed, but now I'm even beginning to throw in the towel and just fly someone else until the dest settles. The FF program is what keeps people on US, especially when, over the past few years, we've seen shutdown threats from management, CHAOS threats from unions, a potential merger with United (which would have eliminated the very US FF program everyone now thinks is being destroyed), one of US's major airports closed for an extended period, downsizing of once mainline flights to turboprops and RJs, repeated news stories about how US loses unbelievable amounts of money every quarter, closure of a major hub (BWI) and significant pullback in other major markets (e.g., BOS), termination of the AA marketing agreement and other airline partners in the DM program (e.g., Swissair, Alitalia), etc. ... Oh, let's not forget too US is technically a "bankrupt" airline trying to reorganize itself to stay in business. Destroy the FF program and you lose a valuable asset!!
 
I agree with you...The business fares/ full coach fares seem very high...and moves are not to lower fares but to lower the perks to preferred flyers...In the past it was said the preferred members are our best customers...Now it seems that you are... if you pay full fare, which alot of businesses have tight budgets now too...
I think the new idea is lose as much money as posible...make customers mad....declare bankruptcy....break union contracts....break lease agreements...sell to the highest bidder...
 

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