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On 8/6/2003 10:22:23 AM MarkMyWords wrote:
Clue -
What is your issue with US? If we make you that miserable why do you even bother? Seems that no matter what we do, we can't satisfy you. Would you prefer a 737 on the BOS-DCA route or on the PIT-LAX route again? The 737 is still a staple in our fleet and they have to be flown somewhere. I would think frequent travelers, especially our top level frequent travelers, would appreciate having the ability to upgrade if they wanted to.
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I _am_ one of your top level frequent travelers. It's been an off year. Only around 55K status to date, although that will be closer to 60k after this weekend. A good junk of that is transatlantic non-cockroach Y and even a few paid J trips.
That said, especially on the Shuttle routes, you won't always get the upgrade. It's supposed to be, or used to be a preimium product. The 733s and 734s, as they currently stand, do not provide a premium product in the back. It's that simple. Reconfigure them with new seats, laptop juice, and airbus style overheads and you have me as a convert.
As for the remark about PIT-LAX on a 733, I've been there and done that. It was dumb when it was done, especially when UA and AA and TWA were running 757s and widebodies to the coast.
US does not make me miserable. The current crop of bozos in Crystal City make me miserable because they lack any sense of operational or marketing acumen. They are taking all of the painful concessions from the employees and squandering it away with moves like moving the shuttle to a sub-par platform, not performing adequate mainenance on the baggage belt in PHL and then hosing the situation that followed up to a far-thee-well, expressing stations that board 20k folks/month, driving pure connecting traffic thru one of the worst connection facilities in the nation when a perfectly good one goes to waste (the PIT-PHL issue), and so forth. The list goes on and on.
US frontline folks are the best in the business. After that, it's the same crop of morons with a new face. Someone in CCY has to figure out that you can be a financial guru and still not be able to turn a profit. Half of leading a profitable enterprise is operational excellence. The folks in charge of such things at US don't have any, and think that "best practice" is the pinnacle of the little league season.....