Where are the promised "enhancements" to domestic F?

sbtinme

Member
Aug 6, 2007
51
3
I have to wonder if anyone out there has any updates to the long touted enhancements and improvements to domestic F on US. Both on the webpage and in press releases this past SPRING, US announced that significant changes were coming to domestic F "throughout the summer and into fall."

Unless I've missed something, the only change I've seen is the infamous Four Points Hotel pie.

Surely they have more up their sleeve......(right?). Can anyone speak definitively here about the planned changes and when pax might start seeing them?

thanks
 
Didn't you hear, now they are saying December. :rolleyes: All they do is lie--haven't you figured that out yet?
 
Surely they have more up their sleeve......(right?). Can anyone speak definitively here about the planned changes and when pax might start seeing them?

thanks

The only thing up their sleeves are more excuses for the delay in imnplementing the changes. It's been more than a year for the promised glassware for the east.
 
It's a sunny day and you are flying, you look out the window and see Arnold Ziffel flying by, then the F/A will hand you a drink in a glass served with a decent meal.
 
If I had time, I would dig out all those "merger update" e-mails Travis used to send (we haven't gotten one in months!) and create a spreadsheet of all improvements he promised which we still haven't seen. (Tempe seems to love spreadsheets.) On the other hand, we've seen a lot of unannounced "enhancements"!!!
 
So, the sense I'm getting is that no one knows much, if anything, about the enhancements that were promised months ago for domestic F. That's really a little mindblowing (even for US/HP).

The announcements were made, of course, in tandem with the realization that their own F product was substandard and far below competitors' offerings. Given that, I at least suspected that there was some substantial movement afoot internally to quickly get their F product in line with competition. The reasons were there and they were making statements to the press about the importance of doing so. Then they even put announcements on their webpage declaring it to the masses.

Well, here we are at the doorstep of autumn with essentially no changes in place and no specifics about what the plans are (or were?). I just don't understand......
 
So, the sense I'm getting is that no one knows much, if anything, >( PERIOD )<<<< ADDED BY ME :up:

Thats the sense weve had for 2 years.welcome to the board.Kids playing in the sand box.( Scottie gimmie my shovel back,no you traded it,replies Doug.)

:up: :up: :up:
 
Well, here we are at the doorstep of autumn with essentially no changes in place and no specifics about what the plans are (or were?). I just don't understand......

Welcome to the team Tempe School of No Management. I guess they are waiting for all the consultants to present their reports.

BTW. Has anybody seen or talked to a consultant yet?
 
I have to wonder if anyone out there has any updates to the long touted enhancements and improvements to domestic F on US. Both on the webpage and in press releases this past SPRING, US announced that significant changes were coming to domestic F "throughout the summer and into fall."

Unless I've missed something, the only change I've seen is the infamous Four Points Hotel pie.

Surely they have more up their sleeve......(right?). Can anyone speak definitively here about the planned changes and when pax might start seeing them?

thanks


Don't worry! the enhancments are coming , along with TA agreements for all of the work forces !! also santa clause is real ...

I'm sorry that our service is so poor , i really mean that , i wish i could personally give you better , but i can't because i hate my own company ... isn't that sad , i'm so obssesed over my lousy working conditions that i can't focus on you the coustomer ...
 
As Per the August 2nd About US,

1. September - Premium Beverage Test for Coach (Teas, Energy Drinks, Wine by the glass)

2. Late September/Early October - First Class Meals (Fresh, nutritional, higher-quality meals rotated more frequently and served during expanded/longer windows)

3. October - Buy On Board (Roll out better-quality fresh meals and expanded snack options. Also, provision greater quantities on board)

4. Ongoing - US Airways Club (Upgrade food and beverage choices and make them consistent with onboard offerings)

5. December - Envoy Class (Create a uniquely American experience that travelers seek out on an
American carrier, increase food and wine quality, provide more wellbalanced nutrition, trade “fluffâ€￾ for quality. These enhancements are in addition to new seats, inflight entertainment and other cabin improvements for the B767 fleet.)

6. January - Economy Class Meals (Upgrade transatlantic hot meal options and return to traditional tray service instead of current “meal in a box.â€￾ These enhancements are in addition to the new digital inflight entertainment servers, LCD flat screen monitors, leather seat covers and other cabin improvements on the B767.)

7. January - Inflight Hand Held Devices (Begin accepting inflight purchases using credit cards so customers aren’t limited to only using cash.)

8. January - Service Standards (Create a new set of “business casualâ€￾ company-wide service standards to establish customer service consistency.)

9. January though April - Service Training (Effectively communicate and train a new standard of customer service.)

10. March - Travel Like Customers Program (Evaluate the customer’s experience from beginning to end by deploying a team of part-time employees dedicated to traveling like customers, measuring their travel experience on US flights and providing feedback to marketing, senior management and operations for areas for improvement.)

11. Ongoing - Aircraft Cleanliness & Condition (Upgrade the interiors of our older aircraft, create consistently branded interiors fleet-wide and determine processes that need to be improved to help us better maintain our aircraft over time and between turns.)

There ya go.....lets just see if they can stick to the timetable and stick to actually trying to make the necessary changes to this airline
 
10. March - Travel Like Customers Program (Evaluate the customer’s experience from beginning to end by deploying a team of part-time employees dedicated to traveling like customers, measuring their travel experience on US flights and providing feedback to marketing, senior management and operations for areas for improvement.)
While they all sound good on paper, it won't change the fact that the FF program stinks now with fewer seats to upgrade to. And for those who actually pay a premium for a domestic F seat, they'll wonder why they didn't pay 25% of their fare to fly in E+ on United.

As for #10, why are they wasting money paying people to "Travel Like Customers" (in addition to letting them occupy revenue generating seats ) when other airlines use existing customers to get this valuable feedback. I wonder if the brainiac who thought of this one has ever even heard of FFocus.....
 
There have been enough e-mail from Travis and others that if you printed them out you could wallpaper the $hithouse with the empty and broken promises spewed forth from a company that would fire Baghdad Bob for being to candid.
Or better yet, use them for a projection screen on a 767.


<SNIP> As for #10, why are they wasting money paying people to "Travel Like Customers" (in addition to letting them occupy revenue generating seats ) when other airlines use existing customers to get this valuable feedback.
If you look up the word hubris in the dictionary, there’s a picture of a cactus next to the definition.
 
As Per the August 2nd About US,

1. September - Premium Beverage Test for Coach (Teas, Energy Drinks, Wine by the glass)

Wine by the glass stupid and time consuming for coach. What do you do, leave the cart and wander up to another cabin to pour wine? Energy Drinks, maybe, worth a test.

2. Late September/Early October - First Class Meals (Fresh, nutritional, higher-quality meals rotated more frequently and served during expanded/longer windows)

Anything would be better than the crap we have now.

3. October - Buy On Board (Roll out better-quality fresh meals and expanded snack options. Also, provision greater quantities on board)

About time. People are sneering at our snack box.

4. Ongoing - US Airways Club (Upgrade food and beverage choices and make them consistent with onboard offerings)

Is it really an upgrade to be on par with our spartan onboard offerings? Scary.

5. December - Envoy Class (Create a uniquely American experience that travelers seek out on an
American carrier, increase food and wine quality, provide more wellbalanced nutrition, trade “fluffâ€￾ for quality. These enhancements are in addition to new seats, inflight entertainment and other cabin improvements for the B767 fleet.)

What? So, a bigger disaster than now. Crappy here-in-the-desert regional mgmt thinking they know best how to do international premium service. Use of the word "fluff" worries me- we don't have enough fluff, hence our service being called "bare bones," "stark," "basic," and "primitive"- online reviews, not my words. What are they considering fluff? Linens? The whole description above reeks of the "bring these snobs down to our level" mentality that has irked so many in this merger. This is the group that said our inflight magazine was too "highbrow" and our basic suit uniform too "stuffy". "Uniquely American?" WTF does that mean? I'm envisioning cheeseburgers and Budweiser, and if you prefer finer dining you are a commie. And it will be unique, but people already seek it out? Huh? I'd like to see evidence of this, an untapped market of premium transatlantic customers who find all current offerings to be too 'foriegn' and having "too much fluff". "Quality over quantity?" The biggest complaint is that we offer so much less than everyone else for the same price. What does this mean? Less food on the plate? A smaller but tastier "Arrival Pizza" for them to laugh at? I'd like to see thier marketing research on this particular segement of the market and what has brought them to this choice of product. I'd be surprised if they have done any. Arrogant kids way in over thier heads.

6. January - Economy Class Meals (Upgrade transatlantic hot meal options and return to traditional tray service instead of current “meal in a box.â€￾ These enhancements are in addition to the new digital inflight entertainment servers, LCD flat screen monitors, leather seat covers and other cabin improvements on the B767.)

About time. Seat covers are a joke though, tacky and ill-fitted. How is it that other airlines reconfigure entire 100 strong widebody fleets all the time, while US makes a half-ass, major production out of our ten decrepid, junker 767s? Covering a seat is okay for a college dorm, not here. They are so damm cheap.

7. January - Inflight Hand Held Devices (Begin accepting inflight purchases using credit cards so customers aren’t limited to only using cash.)

Progress.

8. January - Service Standards (Create a new set of “business casualâ€￾ company-wide service standards to establish customer service consistency.)

I wonder if word has hit Phoenix yet that our frequent fliers and flight attendants are using the term "Business Casual" derisively... e.q "Wow that is one business casual airplane, is it airworthy?" or "That lav smells really business casual, we need it dumped." Business Casual is already a punchline, I wish they would stop saying it... maybe it's an Arizona thing, maybe they are behind the times there but the whole "business casual" thing is as cheesy and 90's as Wilson Phillips... it makes you think of "Dilbert". It's a negative connotation and these clowns seem to think it's a compliment to call something business casual. I guess when you're coming from Straightup Crap, Business Casual is a step up? Marketing error, don't proudly announce the deterioration/dumbing down/cheapening of your product. Duh.

9. January though April - Service Training (Effectively communicate and train a new standard of customer service.)

Hmmm. How do you train a lowered standard? Should be interesting. Maybe it's reverse psychology. Since this business casual nonsense came about, alot of F/As seem to have adapted a better appearance and demeanor in an attempt to distance themselves from the garbage the airline has become... an effort to show that they came from better.

10. March - Travel Like Customers Program (Evaluate the customer’s experience from beginning to end by deploying a team of part-time employees dedicated to traveling like customers, measuring their travel experience on US flights and providing feedback to marketing, senior management and operations for areas for improvement.)

Uh.... why not just ask an actual customer? Afraid of the answers? FFOCUS?www.usaviation.com/usairways?

11. Ongoing - Aircraft Cleanliness & Condition (Upgrade the interiors of our older aircraft, create consistently branded interiors fleet-wide and determine processes that need to be improved to help us better maintain our aircraft over time and between turns.)

Unnacceptable. This shouldn't be a goal, it should be a reality. This should not be even discussed as a 'service enhancement.' The fact that they see basic cleanliness as a product, something they have been forced into, shows just what white trash mentality we are dealing with here.

These people should not be allowed anywhere near anything to do with product or marketing. Since they are so willing to outsource my job and everyone elses, how come they do all this stuff in-house/trailer? They are quick to pay Republic, or El Salvador, or teenage mechanics in Louisiana to do our jobs, why not hire a marketing firm to come up with something modern that the public wants and employees will be willing to go along with?

There ya go.....lets just see if they can stick to the timetable and stick to actually trying to make the necessary changes to this airline
 
1. September - Premium Beverage Test for Coach (Teas, Energy Drinks, Wine by the glass)

Wine by the glass stupid and time consuming for coach. What do you do, leave the cart and wander up to another cabin to pour wine?
Don’t worry; the Sandcastle has come up with an innovative service procedure that won’t take any time at all.

It’s sure to fit right in with the LAS crowd.

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