$2 Coach Fares And $39 In First (Merged topics)

[jimcfs]

The big money losers are likely the UA code shares if there were any. But even that is unknown -- UA "gets the revenue" if the flight is on UA metal. But what revenue do they get? What US charged? Or some pre-set amount? If it's a pre-set amount and there are any significant number of these things fitting the bill (especially the F fares) then we could be looking at big bucks. But it takes a lot of time and effort to arrange that sort of routing. I don't think there could have been too many of them.

I doubt that it is hundreds of millions of dollars worth. It's probably actually not all that much. It would have been a lot more if it had run all weekend and the buzz had spread.

[post="262966"][/post]​

To answer your question, Tom, UA codeshares were offered... and I know folks who did book some. I guess there's more US $$$ down the drain, right?

BTW, preliminary numbers are saying only about 1000 tickets were sold. That's a pretty low number if you ask me. I was expecting at least 10X that.

 

[longing4piedmont]

BTW, preliminary numbers are saying only about 1000 tickets were sold. That's a pretty low number if you ask me. I was expecting at least 10X that.

[post="262970"][/post]​

More lipstick for the pig?

"Maybe passion purple will work this time" says a US spokeswoman

Most of the flights were to Lebanon, New Hampshire and Watertown. The airline saw the Web site glitch Saturday afternoon and corrected it right away.

"We did have just about a thousand tickets sold to customers at the very low fares and we will be honoring those tickets," said Amy Kudwa, US Airways spokesperson.


First of all, US knew early on Saturday morning, not long after the thread went up on flyertalk, that they had a problem. As we all know the problem continued well into the afternoon on the US web site and into the night on other web sites. To say that it was corrected right away is a pure false hood. Again this a very poor attempt by the corporate communications department to spin the truth. When will they ever learn? You would think the D.O.T report would have taught them a lesson. Guess not. Maybe they need a another couple of tubes of lipstick to remind them of the error of their ways. Maybe a LIME GREEN color will get the message across this time.

So if statement number one is a direct attempt to spin the truth (and control the damage) why would you believe statement number two?

 

[jimntx]

Thank you... Thank you!! As one who teaches this stuff, it's refreshing to hear this. I have several hot shots who think they can code until they get to my upper level courses where they are expected to code and TEST their code by themselves... they soon find out the master can crash their code faster than one can say "$2 fare".

Today, corporate execs are in too big a hurry to get code running (translate this as get the latest/greatest thing on the web). So, you get nice looking websites that knock the socks off the corporate types that when push comes to shove don't work worth poopie. Anymore as a programmer, I'm paranoid if something goes out or gets used that isn't tested, retested and re-retested (is that a word?). I guess it's experience talking... but try telling that to a junior in college or a 25 year old junior coder. :blink:

[post="262952"][/post]​

Some other reasons that I left the business...
1. Company bosses on a business trip who read one article in American Way magazine about client-server system installed at some other company. He/she decides that is what is needed to make his crappy IT system perfect. They would call me, and say we need a client-server system. I would ask, "For what?" We would go around in circles, boss insisting that he needed a new system and me asking "to solve what problem or enhance what business process?" One of my favorite quotes is from Richard Saul Wuerhmann (sp?)..."For any problem, there are many hows, but only one what. For best results, the what should precede the hows."
2. IT managers who tell some poor sap of a programmer, "You start coding. I'll go talk to the user and find out what they want. If necessary, I'll convince them that what you write is what they need."


But, don't get me started....

 

[longing4piedmont]

"Let's try Red Hot Red and see if it is any more believable" says a US Airways spokesman

Talk about your low-fare airline.

For a few hours this weekend, US Airways was selling tickets to a handful of smaller cities for $1.86 round-trip plus fees -- a tremendous deal that quickly filled Internet boards with chatter.

After discovering a "system glitch" Saturday afternoon that caused the low fares, US Airways corrected the errors by Saturday evening, said airline spokesman Chuck Allen. He said he did not know how many people bought the super-cheap tickets

 

[longing4piedmont]

Is it OK to gain from a `glitch'?


You spot a round-trip airfare for $1.86, plus fees -- an obvious error. Do you buy?

Travelers bought about 1,000 such tickets from US Airways over the weekend, before the airline fixed what it called a "system glitch." But others saw the deal and passed on it, believing it is wrong to exploit a mistake.......

.....US Airways on Monday described the financial effect as minor, since it sold only about 1,000 tickets to smaller cities, such as Lebanon, N.H., and Watertown, N.Y. The airline declined to provide more details on how the error occurred.

Well at least they quit trying to mislead the press about what happened

 

[longing4piedmont]

Well one thing for sure, the folks in the Corporate communications department have been busy the last couple of days..........


$1.86 Flights: Too Good to Last

Alexandria resident Alysia Brown grabbed 12 tickets. To ensure she got the most frequent flier miles possible, she arranged a series of stopovers on one journey taking her from Baltimore to Watertown to Houston and back. Total price: $39, including airport taxes.

"I'm going to make out pretty good on the miles," she said.

 

[whlinder]

The big money losers are likely the UA code shares if there were any. But even that is unknown -- UA "gets the revenue" if the flight is on UA metal. But what revenue do they get? What US charged? Or some pre-set amount? If it's a pre-set amount and there are any significant number of these things fitting the bill (especially the F fares) then we could be looking at big bucks. But it takes a lot of time and effort to arrange that sort of routing. I don't think there could have been too many of them.

I doubt that it is hundreds of millions of dollars worth. It's probably actually not all that much. It would have been a lot more if it had run all weekend and the buzz had spread.

[post="262966"][/post]​

It is unknown to the 'public'. Perhaps USA320 can get some one to explain it to him and he will have no trouble letting us know. I'm not going to disclose it, I don't have specifics but do have a very good idea of how US & UA settle their interline bills. Of course, US might do a special settlement for UA since it was their screwup, (especially since they benefit immensely from the codeshare) but they are not required to by their contract AFAIK.

The bargain-basement prices were on flights in and out of Altoona, Pa.; Johnstown, Pa.; Jamestown, N.Y.; Asheville, N.C.; Bradford, Pa.; Hilton Head, S.C.; Watertown, N.Y.; and Lebanon, N.H.

(From WashPost)

As is pretty typical with these things, the full extent isn't even realized on FlyerTalk. I didn't see anyone mention AOO or JHW over there, and I don't think many tickets were sold to JST or BFD.

 

[longing4piedmont]

Ok, I've been fairly consistent over the past couple of weeks in my criticism of the palace. I do feel however that some one did make the right decision to honor the tickets.

Like Tom I'm not sure the damage was huge (damaging, but not deadly). From what I can gather, no planes were sold out or over sold as a result of this mistake. This is one time capacity controls may have saved the day. I don't know how many of these tickets were sold on the B1900 flights but my guess it was only a couple per flight. The big birds haven't been full any way. Maybe some can shed some light on that aspect of it.

The resulting fervor from not honoring the tickets would have only escalated the discussion about being in bankruptcy and all the crap about surviving that comes with it. The quickest way to get this to die down was to honor the tickets.

Now with that said, if I happen to be back in coach and I find out that the big wide seat upfront is occupied by some one on a $2 RT, I will of course change my opinion.

 

[jimcfs]

As is pretty typical with these things, the full extent isn't even realized on FlyerTalk. I didn't see anyone mention AOO or JHW over there, and I don't think many tickets were sold to JST or BFD.

[post="262990"][/post]​

Once I found JST, I looked at AOO, nada. Once I saw BFD, I looked to JHW, zippo. (That was a good funny esp. if you know that BFD is the hometown of jimcfs and Zippo lighters. ) Both of those pairs have 1 stops to PIT on the same Colgan planes. I guess that's why these fares had no rhyme or reasons... one would have thought the other airport would been in play too. Same with ART yes, OGG and Massena, no.

If I could have easily gotten to JST or BFD from southern WV, I would have booked a bunch. The one I did book had a $2 fare from CRW-ART, so I know ART worked for me.

 

[jimcfs]

Now with that said, if I happen to be back in coach and I find out that the big wide seat upfront is occupied by some one on a $2 RT, I will of course change my opinion.

[post="262992"][/post]​

You may want to... the gal mentioned in the Wash Post article that you and I both know so well has some confirmed F seats bought at the fare.

And the one I have to IAH is in F also.

Please be nice to us... especially when she's eating chicken up front from the box.

 

[longing4piedmont]

Please be nice to us... especially when she's eating chicken up front from the box.

[post="262996"][/post]​

B)

 

[whlinder]

Once I found JST, I looked at AOO, nada. Once I saw BFD, I looked to JHW, zippo. (That was a good funny esp. if you know that BFD is the hometown of jimcfs and Zippo lighters. ) Both of those pairs have 1 stops to PIT on the same Colgan planes. I guess that's why these fares had no rhyme or reasons... one would have thought the other airport would been in play too. Same with ART yes, OGG and Massena, no.

If I could have easily gotten to JST or BFD from southern WV, I would have booked a bunch. The one I did book had a $2 fare from CRW-ART, so I know ART worked for me.

[post="262994"][/post]​

That is weird, because they put out the fares to AOO and JHW at the 'sale' price. I wonder why those didn't sell? I figured no one knew about them and thus didn't look. Maybe the destinations/fare basis codes were more limited from those two cities for $2.

 

[shell nyc]

That is weird, because they put out the fares to AOO and JHW at the 'sale' price. I wonder why those didn't sell? I figured no one knew about them and thus didn't look. Maybe the destinations/fare basis codes were more limited from those two cities for $2.

[post="263009"][/post]​

I actually saw AOO for $2 with a much more convenient flight schedule than ART, however the flights either "sold out" or were pulled much earlier, my guess is by 11 or 11:30am.

 

[cancer69]

Computer error pushes US Airways' prices below $2 per round trip
US Airways sold round-trip flights for just under $2 this weekend. The rock-bottom prices were the result of a computer glitch that lasted several hours. A spokesman said the airline will honor the tickets.

 

[repeet]

Since Cancer69 couldn't find these seven pages of discussion, we'll Bump them back to the top.