What Airline Am I Today?

[Light Years]

I saw a Chautauqua ERJ145 today that was all white with a blue tail, and nondescript interiors. Apparently this one can be used on any of thier codeshares. There is also a Mesa CRJ that is all white except with a US tail minus the flag (!) and a few Saabs and Beechcrafts that are all white. So our customers are walking out to these planes trying to remember which airline thay are flying. This doesnt do much in the way of a standard, recognizable brand. Are we not even requiring Express carriers to paint thier planes anymore? Then you have flight attendants on these flights wearing black pants and a white shirt... no uniform. On the other hand, one of the carriers has thier flight attendants wear the US Airways uniform (I guess 'cos its so generic) on all of thier other Express flights for other airlines!

And call me paranoid, but none of the new facilities (A-West, PHL/CLT Express terminals) have any sort of identifying US logos or colors... ever been to ORD or DEN? You see the sweeping U everywhere to remind you whose hub it is. Same with NW's new WorldGateway at DTW. We dont even have our logo on our darn cups anymore (only very small on the bottom). And we all know the marketing/advertising situation.

Everyone on the board is talking about the condition of the cabin interiors and alienation of our customers towards the US Airways brand. Say what you will about Wolf, but he did leave behind a classy corporate image as well as onboard service and frequent flier program to be proud of. Again, call me paranoid but the sheer disregard for our reputation and image means somethings up...

 

[RowUnderDCA]

I feel like a broken record, but, as I have repeatedly posted, my intuition tells me that USAirways may not always be U's brand identity. It's just a hunch.

 

[Dea Certe]

UAL is slowly turning itself around by treating their customers much better and caring about their product. U doesn't appear to make any effort to reach out to its customer base, can't/won't grasp what its market wants/needs to stay in the game. So, it's probable an attempt to double-deal someone some where would be no surprise. I'll guess that's the penultimate solution.

I'll admit I'm plenty confused so someone please help me out. Is our goal the business flyer who regularly gives us money or the fickle leisure traveler who picks and chooses from what's happening on Priceline.com? Or is the ultimate goal trying to build up the golden parachutes?

I hate being this cynical!

:unsure:

Dea

 

[diogenes]

Dea,


Cynicism cannot keep pace with the headlines. <_<

 

[airlineorphan]

Dea, I know how you feel.

It is painful to have to view this through such jandiced lenses. I don't know if it is any great solace that our cynicism has not yet sunk to the depths at which this company is operating on.

My take is that on some level Mr. Glass and crew have chosen US Airways to be a laboratory experiment on just how much they can get away with busting up the unions. If you do a good lexis-nexis on Mr. Glass you will find that he has been present at pretty much every labor dispute in the airline industry over the last 10-15 years. :jerry: ....Mouthing off in the press about how tragic it is that airline workers don't just show up at work for free for the shear joy and romance of it all. (And he's been blasting all unions, whether they are AFL-CIO or independents like AMFA--yes, he's been around on behalf of Northwest management too).

Over his history, Glass has worked for a number of union-busting consultancies and law firms, most recently Ford & Harrison. It is strange that after all these years of freelancing for all the airlines that suddenly he chose to work directly for one of them. It was also strange that he and his entire coterie were unreachable for a couple weeks leading up to the American Airlines concessions last spring (yes, I know, possibly completely coincidental, but it deserves a suspicious glance given his history of consulting with all airlines in labor disputes--is he moonlighting, or perhaps does he have a bigger job description than busting up US Airways union contracts?)

It's not much of a stretch to see what has happened at US Airways as a test run for the rest of the industry. If they pushed it too far and blew apart the company in labor strife, well they could rationalize that it was not one of the big 3. If they succeeded, then there would be a firm basis for going after labor at all the other airlines. And so they have.

Who is this "they" I'm speaking of? Airline management has a long history of cooperation and collusion when it comes to bashing labor. Go back to the mutual aid arrangements before deregulation and the strange organization airline management used to have called Los Conquistadores de Cielo (Conquerors of the Sky). So strange that one could not even begin to make it up....

I believe that the contract violations and gun-to-the-head concessions at US Airways are only part of a bigger project of massively restructuring the airline industry.

Now those who have invested in US Airways certainly hope to get something out of their investments, and they will maneuver to do so, but loyalty to the brand is certainly not high on their priority list. Golden parachutes, selling off the company in whole, in pieces, or for scrap, or deciding to keep it going in some fashion.... any of these are possibilities. But these folks have only one loyalty: The color green (and I don't mean Mr. Nader!)

Of course I could be totally wrong and it could be massive and spectacular incompetence on management's part (or worse, a combination of machinations and incompetence--more likely)....

In solidarity,
Airlineorphan

P.S. Dea, having said all this, I want to add that I really appreciated your earlier thread about what a f/a does. I can tell you're someone with a good heart and a positive spirit. Exactly the type of qualities we all need to see us through this long dark night!

 

[Light Years]

Looking at the seemingly little quality/ consistency control Airways has over its multitude of Express contractors, how does this make one feel about third party maintenance? If they cant get Uncle Al's Flying Service to paint thier plane blue, how can we trust people maintaining the planes? Not to mention they would send it to the lowest bidder, and we've seen the results of that customer service wise. Scary when you compare the two issues. I'll say it again, you get what you pay for.

Keep the flying, maintenance, and all other work in-house and everyone can work to make something out of this mess. If not, remember Eastern? Or is that the idea so United can pick up our scraps, sans employees?

 

[Capecod]

"There is also a Mesa CRJ that is all white except with a US tail minus the flag (!)"

In Mesa's defense, that white CRJ was in the paint shop (hence the painted tail) when U asked them to pull it out b/c they were desperate to have it on the line. When they get a chance it will go back to be finished. -Cape

 

[Light Years]

Thanks for the info, Cape. That just goes to show that its US itself that doesnt care about our brand image. I've also heard they are making Mesa operate with no operational spares.