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USAirways CEO tries to shed airlines past.

This I hope will be a Grass Roots of sorts to address the issue of those that came back to America West/Usairways Under the terms of the " Interim Transition Agreement ". Those that are presently working under these rules please respond to my email address at the following.

usfurloughed@yahoo.com


Hopefully we can address the seniority issues. Please include your name and current station. These will be validated, so try and include any other Fleet Workers or pass on the email address, because I know there are alot who don't read these forums.

Thank You

usfurloughed


Why does Doug try to pass himself of as a "Pioneer" of mergers. He also saved 30,000 jobs. What happened to the other 6,000. We used to "Brag" 36,000 employees. He is the other "Bush".
 
Nothing to do with being cheap, the HP Airbus fleet was not configured with cargo heat to carry animals, your pet is allowed in the cabin in a animal carrier if it fit under the seat in front of you. All the B737's have cargo heat, and I believe the B757s do too.
Regards
DC

One of the main reasons that America West did not allow animals in the hold was due to the excessive 100F+ temperatures on the ramp in the two hubs of Phoenix and Las Vegas that could persist for six months or more. All airlines prohibit the transport of animals through hubs where ramp temperatures may be oppressively hot.

For once, in these circumstances, being cheap was not only humane, but also made sense when America West could not transport animals for half a year or more. At least someone thought this one out before we had peoples beloved pets dying of heat exhaustion during transfers on the Phoenix ramp where temperatures can climb well over 130 degrees on a typical Summer day.
 
All airlines prohibit the transport of animals through hubs where ramp temperatures may be oppressively hot.

Ahem. Not Continental. They've got air conditioned vans that are waiting when the planes arrive to transport the animals in comfort. They've also got a climate controlled holding area available for the pets if they've got a delay before their next flight. They do this all through the blazing summer. Who knows how hot it is on the ramp...plus how humid it is in Texas. I've seen this with my own two eyes while flying through Houston.

AWA is not animal friendly because they choose to be...not because they're forced to be 🙄
 
Ahem. Not Continental. They've got air conditioned vans that are waiting when the planes arrive to transport the animals in comfort. They've also got a climate controlled holding area available for the pets if they've got a delay before their next flight. They do this all through the blazing summer. Who knows how hot it is on the ramp...plus how humid it is in Texas. I've seen this with my own two eyes while flying through Houston.

AWA is not animal friendly because they choose to be...not because they're forced to be 🙄

Touche'. You do realize, however, that these pet comforts were not implemented at Continental until animals died or were lost while in their care don't you? It took full blown media attention as well as action by tree-hugging groups like PETA for them to make changes. I guess you could say Continental was "forced" to be animal friendly. 🙄

Pet reports on Continental Airlines

Continental does not accept pets to Phoenix in the summer months, either.

Continental pet restrictions in Summertime

"Heat Restriction: Pets will not be accepted by some airlines when the current or forecasted temperature at the arrival or departure airport is above 84F (29C) at either location on the itinerary (75 degrees for snub-nosed dogs and snub-nosed cats).

The Airline Summer Heat Embargo

During the summer months, May through September your airline may not allow you to transport your pet in the cargo department. Some airlines seem to take the position that they will not accept any pets in cargo during these months while others take a more flexible approach.

Solution

Check with a different airline, Continental does have this restriction except for a few airports where it is very hot in the summer such as Phoenix."
 
No one will argue that animals should not be shipped through Phoenix in the summertime. But Continental and other airlines have worked out systems to still offer animal transportation to their customers with certain safeguards and restrictions. AWA/US has simply stopped this service to the customer completely because of the conditions in one hub and in the smaller portion of the present day fleet

One more service that we do not provide and cannot compete with other airlines.

By the way SWA does not allow pets at all.

Get the picture?
 
Just like HP stopped shipping hazmats, so US has too use Fedex to ship O2 cylinders, a/c batteries and fuel pumps.

If there is an AOG need and a plane is grounded, instead of putting it on your next flight to that city they have to use an air taxi which costs big bucks or the plane sits.
 
Did you forget your past? If you think that USAirways had a good reputation before Doug and the investors put this deal together, you are not dealing with reality. If you had God running this company, you would complain and act as if you are more intelligent. Give me a break...

Hula,

Better keep swiveling your hips until you get it right.

You are quite clueless about the difference between the old US and the "new and improved" Tempe product which is at the heart of today's pax and employee angst. I agree that no airline ( make that individual ) is perfect. Sure, human nature is such that folks often spout off before thinking, but when all is said and done, we all know what is what.

Indeed the old US has lots of problems. But there were also people who stood behind the product and either acknowledged the problem or they endured it with you ( note that I do not say that they solved the problem ). Although US has always borne the brunt of criticism for decades, your FFers stuck with you. Truth be told, easy UGs helped to smooth out the problems and proved that you can screw up without having folks hold it entirely against you. Folks remained willing to swim upstream to qualifying fares and sit in dirty/dysfunctional Envoy seats because there was a quid pro quo. The US FF family was noisy and sometimes over-demanding, but it was a family where forgive and forget was as much a part of the equaiton as complaining about bags which ended up in Uganda.

Now we do indeed live in a new era of aviation as life moves on. But the constant remains people and their word. The new US speaks tons of words but their promises are empty and business practices deceptive. All while taking away and revamping and reconfiguring and telling us that this is a "new and improved" product. Bullsh!t. And that's my point; all of us can smell the sh!t that Tempe is selling.

US has lost a big chunk of those legacy ( and very loyal ) FFers who stuck it out for years when things don't always go right. They left not because the product is torn and tattered. They left because you can not keep laying lies on top of a dysfunctional product. FFers are very much creatures of habit. Tempe discovered a way to break them of their habits. Your fickle, but still patient and loyal paxs are now sitting on DL, UA, WN and who ever else is out there ( each with their own problems and dysfunction ). It's the lies and the arrogance which did it along with a product which never lived up to what Tempe claimed it would be.

That article reveals a slick, incredulous and very consistent Dooug Parker. Never heard the term "useless air"? Even Hillary and Barak are not throwing lies like that around. Tempe stuck its hand into a product they never understood. The one thing they did accomplish is that they did change the product -- for the worse. Tempe has somehow found a way to take an airline ( which like any airline, can never be perfect ) and they've got pax focused upon EMBFA's axiom -- you're only as good as your last flight. Only now when you don't have a handle on operations, unions, or customers, the pax do indeed take note of the product and they are fleeing.

Barry
 
Piney....

you are right......!!!

It is just when after battling the management and seeing NO RESULTS....one becomes quite
hopeless. It seems that they will only wake up when all the planes are empty!!

We appreciate the FFocus group...and all of your loyalty.......

thanks.....
 
That article reveals a slick, incredulous and very consistent Dooug Parker. Never heard the term "useless air"? Even Hillary and Barak are not throwing lies like that around. Tempe stuck its hand into a product they never understood. The one thing they did accomplish is that they did change the product -- for the worse. Tempe has somehow found a way to take an airline ( which like any airline, can never be perfect ) and they've got pax focused upon EMBFA's axiom -- you're only as good as your last flight. Only now when you don't have a handle on operations, unions, or customers, the pax do indeed take note of the product and they are fleeing.

Barry

Hi Barry.

This will no doubt set off a huge firestorm, but it is actually what either I think or what I believe that Tempe thought.

1. US Airways, pre-merger, was at death's door and had few, if any, options to survive.

2. The plan was never intended to raise the customer experience of what had been America West to that of US Airways, but actually the opposite. The merger was a way to expand America West in a big way to the East and Europe with relatively minimal expense. The changing of the stock symbol to LCC is a huge tip-off regarding Tempe's intent on this.

3. Even though all the due diligence was accomplished, as is often the case the management made critical errors in their assumptions on how the resulting airline would actually coalesce.

4. That the folks in Tempe are now regretting that the combined airline was named US Airways because of the confusion that has occurred between both the employees and the public of what the airline is and what expectations either should have been or what expectations should be going forward.

The only way we will ever know the truth is for some creative lawsuit to come about for some reason and then get Parker, Kirby, Lakefield and Bronner under oath to testify about what actually went on, and why, without some PR shills spinning the truth.
 
The combined carrier should have been named High-Fares-Low-Paying-High-Screwing-Low-Morale Airlines or HFLPSLM Airlines 😉
 
The only way we will ever know the truth is for some creative lawsuit to come about for some reason and then get Parker, Kirby, Lakefield and Bronner under oath to testify about what actually went on, and why, without some PR shills spinning the truth.
HP_FA

Great points!

I think you hit the nail on the head in terms of what Tempe believed they could do with the merger. But it is not the name that Tempe gets wrong. It's the product model they elect to impose upon the merged operation and the business ethos by which they decide to pursue their attempt. Although very cocksure of themselves at the time, Tempe tries to get a size 16 gal to wear a size 2 dress. What more, they were marrying their cousin. Truth is HP is not in such great shape either and this arrangement was more of a shotgun wedding than a match made in heaven. Parker and his crew were too smug and assured and their lack of candor has poisoned the whole deal from day one.

If rising fuel costs and continued inefficiencies continue to plague US, I would not be at all surprised if your final observation comes true as there's gotta be someone out there holding the stock who gets tired of the spiral to no where which US presently flies. Yet if Tempe had been upfront day one about what the goal was, I do not think that pax perceptions would be so bad as they are now as those not wanting an lcc carrier would have moved on while others wait and see if the shoe will fit them.

At this point in time, there's only one place to stick that shoe.

Barry
 
If rising fuel costs....
Speaking about which, jet fuel prices are 50+ cents/gallon higher today than they were when it was said that the 2008 fuel bill could be $800 million higher than 2007. The company says that every 1 cent increase in the price of fuel equals a $16 million increase in total fuel expense - another $800-900 million above the estimate.....

Jim
 
Ashame DOUGIE did not bring the east pilots to parity, the IFB program is killing him.
 
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