US Airways Employee Message On New Travel Policy

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chipmunn

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US Airways today introduced a new set of policies designed to ensure its ability to continue to offer low fares for its most cost-conscious customers, while protecting the value of less restrictive fares for
business travelers. The policies continue to reward higher paying passengers with options that reflect their willingness to pay more for their tickets in exchange for added benefits and flexibility. In addition, fees for various services are being implemented and fare rules and restrictions are being strictly enforced.
"These changes are a necessary response to the rapidly-changing marketplace for air travel," said Ben Baldanza, senior vice president of marketing. "Economic pressures continue to impact both air travelers and the airline industry. US Airways is seeking to retain valuable benefits for our premium travelers while trimming costs in a manner that allows us to maintain low fares for cost-conscious travelers to the hundreds of communities in our system."
Effective immediately, non-refundable fares for all US Airways domestic, Caribbean, U.S. to and from Canada and U.S. to Europe destinations must be used for the specifically ticketed flight and will have no value
once the flight has departed. Changes may be made to the non-refundable itineraries before scheduled departure, subject to certain restrictions and fees. Under the previous policy, the value of an unused non-refundable ticket could be credited toward the purchase of another US Airways ticket, less the applicable reissue fee, for up to one year.
"This change makes purchasing airline tickets like many other products that people buy for a specific date and time such as Broadway shows and sporting events. If you miss the event, your ticket isn''t good
for the next day," said Baldanza. "Since most people travel as originally ticketed, most customers will not be impacted by this change. This policy does not change our commitment to provide a high level of service to all US Airways passengers."
Ray Pierce, chairman of Washington D.C.-based Executive Travel Associates, a member of the Travel Management Alliance, said, "This is the most sensible thing that US Airways can do. It makes a non-
refundable ticket truly non-refundable and allows the airline to price accordingly. I applaud US Airways for taking this action. I''m glad an airline has the business sense to do this."
Other policy changes to non-refundable fares:
--Customers ticketed on non-refundable fares will continue to earn full Dividend Miles credit. Effective for travel Jan. 1, 2003, and beyond, miles and segments earned on most non-refundable fares will not count toward Dividend Miles Chairman''s Preferred, Gold Preferred and Silver Preferred status.
--Corporate discount programs will no longer be applicable for certain non-refundable fare classes, generally those with advance purchase and minimum stay requirements.
--Customers who have non-refundable tickets will not be allowed to stand by for alternate flights.
--Tour and consolidator tickets will become non-refundable and have no value after the ticketed travel date.
"Customers have clearly shown their preference for low fares. These moves allow US Airways to offer these fares in a more economic way while maintaining the benefits extended to higher paying passengers, such as the ability to refund and exchange tickets, stand by for other flights and earn Dividend Miles credit toward Preferred status," said Baldanza.
In addition to the rule changes, US Airways, like other carriers, has implemented the following changes:
--Existing fare rules and restrictions, as well as policies on the collection of fees, will be strictly enforced.
--Customers ticketed by US Airways that qualify for an e-ticket and request a paper ticket will be charged $25 per ticket.
--On transatlantic flights, alcoholic beverages will no longer be offered for free to Economy class passengers.
--US Airways also has reduced its utilization of certain distribution channels, including online sites which do not specify the airline prior to the travel purchase, and domestic consolidators. The airline will continue to focus on making its lowest fares available on its Web site and via other effective low-cost channels.
"US Airways is recognizing a new competitive reality and tailoring our product accordingly," Baldanza said. "These incremental changes will be the first of many that will positively impact our bottom line. By improving US Airways'' revenues and our long-term viability, we will provide customers with continued competition and choice in the marketplace."
 
Well I guess that will take care of the highest operating costs in the industry, the lack of a major national route system, and all those pesky competitors, who, seeing this, will immediately raise prices. USAirways is fortunate to have the services of such clever managers, who, among other things, have delivered effective control of the company to a group investing $200 million. I wonder what that works out to if you divide it by the number of worthless shares outstanding?
 
"US Airways today introduced a new set of policies designed to ensure its ability to continue to offer low fares for its most cost-conscious customers, while protecting the value of less restrictive fares for
business travelers."



The real world translation of the "protecting the value" of restricted fares:


US Airways will continue to offer low, non-refundable fares to be competative with the low cost carriers AND we will do anything we can to try and force business and last minute travellers to use our arcane pricing system and pay 6 or 7 times what the guy in row 23 paid for the non-restricetd fare. However, we have failed to see that our low restricted fares are now MORE restricted than those of Southwest and JetBlue and AirTran so chances are we will lose even more of the leisure market to them AND now we have priced our Preferred tier-mile earning non-restricted fares so high that the benefits of earning Preferred status pale in comparison to the cost of actually obtaining that status.


My thoughts: If US Airways wanted to clamp down on business travellers buying advance purchase fares and then simply paying (even several) change fees to make the flights work, they could have found about a dozen better ways to do it. If giving thousands of $$$ to US Airways (as I've done as a US2 for the last 7 years in a row) is not enough to let me "qualify" as an appreciated customer, than US has, in my book, positioned itself no different than the low fare carriers. And if that's the case I'll choose another major carrier who does appreciate my $$$ thousands every year or fly Southwest... at leat with them I'll earn a free roundtrip every five roundtrips flown AND I can make changes without penalty to my non-refundable tickets.


Ben Baldanza screwed up big time on this one. The folks at Southwest have got to be celebrating this announcement!!!
 
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On 8/28/2002 7:54:06 AM

"US Airways today introduced a new set of policies designed to ensure its ability to continue to offer low fares for its most cost-conscious customers, while protecting the value of less restrictive fares for business travelers."


The real world translation of the "protecting the value" of restricted fares:

US Airways will continue to offer low, non-refundable fares...
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It's better than that -- they're also offering a plethora of high non-refundable fares! Just imagine paying $1,700, you get stuck in traffic, miss your return and then pay another $2,500 for a one way walk-up because it was "non-refundable"...
 
Hi Reality:

Reality said: This is old news Munnster,,everybody and their great great grandma has already read this as of about 18 hours ago.Why do you think the board is so busy?

Chip asks: Do you feel important by calling people names? By the way, my seven and four year old do not do this...but I do not remember the company's theHub.usairways.com comments posted on www.usaviation.com. Can you show me where they are on this message board?

Thanks, by the way...would you care to publicly identify yourself, Mr./Ms. Courageous?

Chip
 
Chip, thank you for posting this information. We all know that CCY is famous for announcing big deals without notification to the front line employees. Your post gave us, word for word, how some of this info was passed along.
 
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