UAL takes advertising aim at Southwest

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wnbubbleboy

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Aug 21, 2002
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By God Indiana
Gosh. I guess we have awakened the Sleeping Giant. I guess its plan Alpha, institute MULE right away!



UAL takes advertising aim at Southwest


By Rich Thomaselli
Jan. 11, 2006

Southwest Airlines is offering limited non-stop service to Denver-a fact rival United Airlines is touting in its advertising.
The unit of Elk Grove Township-based UAL Corp. is running print ads in United's signature illustrated style that show a confused man with his hand on his chin pondering a signpost in which the arrows are all twisted. The text reads, "With Southwest, you are kinda, sorta free to move about a few places in the country nonstop"-a clear reference to Southwest's tagline, "You are now free to move about the country." Denver is a United hub.

The print ads, to be followed with radio, TV and online campaigns, were created by Publicis Groupe's Fallon Worldwide in Minneapolis.

"Southwest entered the Denver market, and we needed to let our customers know how we were different and better than Southwest," says a United spokeswoman. "Our ads will point out the differentiators."

Southwest is offering 15 daily flights from Denver, compared to United's 400. United's spokeswoman says future ads will note that, as well as the fact that there are seat assignments on United as opposed to what she called the "cattle call" offered by Southwest in which passengers line up and select their own seats.

Southwest did not return a call for comment. Omnicom Group's GSD&M, Austin, Texas, Southwest's longtime agency, said it had no plans for retaliatory ads.

This isn't the first time United has called out a competitor, and UAL's spokeswoman says it won't be the last. "Things will change" in 2006, she says. "A lot of our advertising will be market- or city-specific. "

In March 2005, the airline tweaked its biggest rival with a series of ads that poked fun at American Airlines for abandoning a push that promoted more legroom. One print ad showed an illustration of a man bent into a cube. The caption read, "Fly American, and you could kick yourself. Literally."

Another showed a man sitting in a seat with his legs straight up in the air. The caption on that one read, "Tired of flying American?" The chatter under each caption pointed out that American put seats back in its planes, while United continued to offer extra legroom in its premium economy class, Economy Plus.

Will the strategy of taking on a competitor directly work?

At least one person purporting to be from GSD&M doesn't think so. In an anonymous posting on FlyerTalk.com, a poster who identified himself as working at an ad agency that "does all the advertising for Southwest," said, "(Southwest) will win this advertising war. (Southwest) will be seen as the better, cheaper alternative- with some spunk. Let the war begin."

(This article appeared in Crain's sister publication Advertising Age)
 
When I walk into a Chevrolet dealership to buy a car I don't want the Chevy salesman to tell me why Ford sucks.

And if United's "signature illustrated style" of advertising is so damned good then how did UA wind up in BK?

Just matching some cartoons with George Gershwin does not result in superb, compelling advertising that is proven to sell more tickets.

It will make the expensive MBA consultants proud though. Course they don't pay for their own tickets, the good Judge Wedoff does.
 
When I walk into a Chevrolet dealership to buy a car I don't want the Chevy salesman to tell me why Ford sucks.

And if United's "signature illustrated style" of advertising is so damned good then how did UA wind up in BK?

Just matching some cartoons with George Gershwin does not result in superb, compelling advertising that is proven to sell more tickets.

It will make the expensive MBA consultants proud though. Course they don't pay for their own tickets, the good Judge Wedoff does.


You obviously have not bought a car recently. Numerous dealerships know that consumers do more research now than at any time in the past. Enter a dealership and the dealer will provide you a Consumers Report article for just about any vehicle. This article will compare the vehicle you are looking at to others. The dealers way of trying to keep you in his location.

Cartoons and selling tickets must be working. UAL's LF #'s are outpacing the Herb Tur&s at a significant clip.

What are you referring to in the last paragraph? Are you implying UAL is not paying its bills? Please present a debtor that is not being paid?

You guys are a good fit a DEN. We have a 16K+ foot runway, Southwestsized just for you.
 
You obviously have not bought a car recently. Numerous dealerships know that consumers do more research now than at any time in the past. Enter a dealership and the dealer will provide you a Consumers Report article for just about any vehicle. This article will compare the vehicle you are looking at to others. The dealers way of trying to keep you in his location.

Cartoons and selling tickets must be working. UAL's LF #'s are outpacing the Herb Tur&s at a significant clip.

What are you referring to in the last paragraph? Are you implying UAL is not paying its bills? Please present a debtor that is not being paid?

You guys are a good fit a DEN. We have a 16K+ foot runway, Southwestsized just for you.

You can never have too long of a runway, lol.


ck this out:

United States and Canada Airline Rate Flights FLE* Events Last 26 years.

Airline Rate Flights FLE* Events Last

Air Canada 0.33 4.75M 1.58 3 1983

AirTran (ValuJet) 5.88 0.17M 1.00 1 1996

Alaska Airlines 0.50 4.05M 2.02 3 2000

Aloha Airlines 0.75 1.34M 1.00 1 1989

America West Airlines 0.00 2.30M 0.00 0 -

American Airlines 0.59 17.0M 10.08 13 2004

American Trans Air 0.00 0.33M 0.00 0 -

Continental Airlines 0.18 8.0M 1.47 5 1997

Delta Air Lines 0.16 20.0M 3.24 6 1997

Hawaiian Airlines 0.00 0.33M 0.00 0 -

JetBlue Airlines 0.00 UNK 0.00 0 -

Midway Airlines 0.00 0.08M 0.00 0 -

Midwest Express 3.85 0.26M 1.00 1 1985

Northwest Airlines 0.28 9.2M 2.61 4 1993

Southwest Airlines 0.00 9.50M 0.00 0 -

United Airlines 0.37 18.0M 6.69 11 2001(2)

US Airways 0.35 14.3M 4.97 9 2003


Even though, sadly, a little boy died WN's occurance wasn't classified as a fatal event because:

Fatal Event: Any circumstance where one or more passengers on an aircraft flight die from causes that are directly related to the operation of that aircraft. The fatal event may be due to an accident or due to a deliberate act by another passenger, a crew member, or by one or more persons not on the aircraft. These events include sabotage, hijacking, or military action and exclude cases where the only passenger deaths were to hijackers, saboteurs, or stowaways.
 
What are you referring to in the last paragraph? Are you implying UAL is not paying its bills? Please present a debtor that is not being paid?

I suspect that you can find a very long list of such creditors (NOT debtors since debtors are the one's that owe the money, which would be UAL) among the exibits to the POR. The US list ran several pages, all the parties who were going to get a few cents on each dollar owed to them. The remainder of what was owed them is generally called "unpaid bills" - all perfectly legal under bankruptcy.

But legally not paying creditors and saying that UAL (or any company in BK) "pays it's bills" are two very different things.

Jim
 
Jetdoc, save your breath.

Follow my lead:

You have chosen to ignore all posts from: magsau.


Ok Ok we will see if they can put arresting cables on 16R. The service station is just south of the runway so that is also available if you need it.
 
Cartoons and selling tickets must be working. UAL's LF #'s are outpacing the Herb Tur&s at a significant clip.

Hmmm...seems I recall that SWA considered a 75% load factor to be on the high side. How's UAL's profits compared to Herbs turd birds? What will UAL's profits look like when/if they ever energe from bankruptcy?
 
Cartoons and selling tickets must be working. UAL's LF #'s are outpacing the Herb Tur&s at a significant clip.

Meaningless. How is UA's profitability versus Herb's....

As for the runway jab, that is in extremely bad taste--perhaps LUV should have moved into Colorado Springs and watched to see if UA sent anymore mainline metal down to attempt a double-corkscrew with two and one half twists....

(in an attempt to illustrate the "but for the grace of god go I" thing that seems to be lost on a few people around here..)
 
Hmmm...seems I recall that SWA considered a 75% load factor to be on the high side. How's UAL's profits compared to Herbs turd birds? What will UAL's profits look like when/if they ever energe from bankruptcy?


The profit of UAL's JETS IS higher than the profit from Herbs "turd birds". WN's "profit" was NOT from it's jets, it was from it's INVESTMENTS. Big differance. And if it matters, UAL will report a profit in 2006 that EXCEEDS $10 BILLION.
 
The profit of UAL's JETS IS higher than the profit from Herbs "turd birds". WN's "profit" was NOT from it's jets, it was from it's INVESTMENTS. Big differance. And if it matters, UAL will report a profit in 2006 that EXCEEDS $10 BILLION.

Just a thought here.

If UAL makes a 10B profit in 2006, would it be too much to ask for them to send some of that to all the creditors and suppliers they stiffed thru the bankruptcy courts?

Would it be too much to ask for them to send some of that progit to their pension plans so that the federal insurance that covers those sorts of things doesn't have to?

We should still have some money left, so let's throw a little bit at the shareholders who got hosed by the bankruptcy.
 
Just a thought here.

If UAL makes a 10B profit in 2006, would it be too much to ask for them to send some of that to all the creditors and suppliers they stiffed thru the bankruptcy courts?

Would it be too much to ask for them to send some of that progit to their pension plans so that the federal insurance that covers those sorts of things doesn't have to?

We should still have some money left, so let's throw a little bit at the shareholders who got hosed by the bankruptcy.
Short answer Elp...would it be too much? Yes.




The profit of UAL's JETS IS higher than the profit from Herbs "turd birds". WN's "profit" was NOT from it's jets, it was from it's INVESTMENTS. Big differance. And if it matters, UAL will report a profit in 2006 that EXCEEDS $10 BILLION.
I believe Boeingboy had a pretty good explanation of this phenomenon...I think it has something to do with shedding about 10.5 billion in liabilities. Gotta wonder what 2007 looks like for UAL...you know, the first year they operate without that big ole profit making writeoff.
 
The profit of UAL's JETS IS higher than the profit from Herbs "turd birds". WN's "profit" was NOT from it's jets, it was from it's INVESTMENTS. Big differance. And if it matters, UAL will report a profit in 2006 that EXCEEDS $10 BILLION.

Please, PLEASE: Somebody kindly remember this and rub Pompous Ass' face in his ludicrous prediction when January '07 rolls around...
As usual, what an IDIOT!
 
If being in BK is such a cake walk, perhaps WN should give it a try. :rolleyes:
UAL would sh*t bricks if they did. Probably scream about how the bankruptcy laws ought to be changed. Y'all can talk about how Southwest dragged down the industry and take pot shots at "turd birds" and such, but the fact is, the airlines responsible for the crappy state of this industry all share one thing in common...bankruptcy. UAL and US are the leaders of the pack.
 
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