Ual Appears To Get It

[Art at ISP]

I have been flying UA rather regularly for the past three months, and have had the pleasure of flying with some of your colleauges who, for the most part, have done an excellent job. I have been flying PS alot--UA has benefitted from about $7000 in revenue which US lost because they took out hot meals in F on transcons.

Now that I have had the PS experience a few times I must say I am impressed. I know US is bringing back hot meals, but PS is hard to beat. It appears to be consistent, it's almost always full, and the service is always great. I especially love row 9 in the 757 business class. This appears to have been an excellent move on UA's part to reduce capacity on transcons while maintaining frequency and appealing to the business traveler.

I have been saying all along that business travelers are not necessarily looking for the CHEAPEST fares--we are looking for value. With PS we get it--excellent service at a FAIR price.

That said, can anyone enlighten me as to how happy management is with the response to PS? Is it working? Are they making money? I hope so, because I think it was a brilliant move.

Thanks to all the UA crews I have met over the past few weeks, and to Timo at Skywest-the comedian/FA on my first CRJ flight in First Class yesterday SNA-SFO.
He is not only funny but a great FA.

My best to you all.....

 

[markkus757]

The unfortunate problem is that there are not enough of these routes for the legacies to really reap the benefits. Good service can still be had, but for most other routes, this is only a dream of what once was a proud industry.

 

[Segue]

With the exception of an attentative cabin crew, there is really very little an airline can do to disinguish itself on shorter flights. I recently flew AirTran, and it was amazing - you could not tell the difference between them and UA or any other major carrier except of course the fares. As an added bonus, they recognized the full fare I paid and bumped me up to Business Class on the return leg (same seats as UA First) and on the outbound leg I purchased an upgrade for $35. Now, thats "getting it"!!!

 

[767jetz]

Art,

As you know, I'm happy to hear you are having such great a experience flying UA. Unfortunately it doesn't surprise me that the few responses to your post so far have been negative.

I don't know the specifics of the profitability of PS service, but I do know that the response has been overwhelmingly positive. I believe the intent to repurchase on PS is higher than any other segment, and far exceedes the company's expectations. I'm sure it is here to stay.

Also, good to hear from customers who "get it" as well.

Glad we have your business.

 

[kiowa]

I have to agree with Art. I have been on 2 PS planes this year. Their business seats are wonderful. It is truly a worthy product. UAL continues to do a nice job despite all the distractions of late. Last week I was in row 9 of a 757 from ord to anc. Nice seating, free movies (2) and atc comunications on chnl 9 do differentiate United from the low budget carriers. I flew spirit out of ord to fll a while ago. I won't do that again. The whole operation ran like a third world country and the seats were nearly as bad as Northwest's dc-9s. (my least favorite aircraft in the industry)

 

[FA4UA]

Thanks for Flying United! I'm so happy to hear more and more compliments on this service. I've had the fortune of working these flights out of SFO to JFK a few times and I can tell the passengers really enjoy it.

Look forward to WiFi access expanding on PS first! United is trying hard to be the business traveller's first choice for air travel! 2006 the rest of the fleet will get WiFi.

Concerning financial results, they don't tell us much. One easy test is to look at bookings in First and Business where all the yield is, and consistently it's been very strong over the past few months since this product was introduced.

FA4UA

www.unitedps.com for more information for those unfamiliar with our service