Ideas on what we can do to cut costs at US airways …or generate revenue 2

[JoeDirt]

Quit overbooking the flights to ridiculous numbers.

When we have to pay out hundreds if not thousands of dollars for denied boarding we would be better off letting
the flight go out with a few empty seats. I don't work in CS but from what I hear the amount can often run into
the thousands. How many fares does this literally wipe out? Not to mention the number of passengers that this
pisses off. Maybe Shannon could address this problem and give some actual numbers.

 

[Piedmont1984]

For all you posters that have suggested raising prices.......please understand the company is way ahead of you on this. Many attempts have been made to do just that. Most have been unsuccesful. If one airline does not follow suit, then we lose customers and are forced to back off in price. How many remember just a few weeks ago when we announced we were not going to match those ridiculous $69 fares anymore? Well, when we stopped matching them, our future bookings were flushed down the toilet. We had to back off on that. Getting $69 for a seat is better than $0.00

The fair increase last week by UA that we matched is ony going to stick in markets where WN does not fly. Since we compete head to head against wn probably more than anybody else, we will get less benefit from this price increase than the other Legacy carriers. I think this is why Freedom started this thread....to brainstorm ways to generate revenue. If increasing fares would work, it would have been done a long time ago.

As far as charging non revs to fly, I'm certainly against it. But, if it was a last resort, if all other options had been tried and it came down to closing our doors or charging non revs to fly, then I say go for it. But it would have to be temporary. America West did this back in 1992, I beleive and it was rescinded as soon as was feasibly possible. It brought in millions in revenue when we really needed it. But again, all other options should be tried first. This should be a last resort and I know Doug has no desire to start charging employees to fly.

So, lets think of some ideas so we won't have to start charging non revs. I'll even go for the idea for the whistle for kids or whatever..if it works.

Then the current model no longer works. That model was one in which the average legacy carrier controlled from about 7 to 17 % of the market. We need to move toward the air freight/package model ala Fedex and UPS. Fewer players with more pricing power.

These would be corporate decisions made at the executive level.

Maybe Doug Parker needs to subordinate his ego for the sake of the company's long term health.

 

[flygirl74]

Freedom,
Why can't all the airlines raise fares? All the gas stations raised THEIR prices...collusion ?? All the bread companies raised their prices....UH OH..more collusion. And the egg, milk companies. They too ALL raised prices. OMFG, there must be MASS COUNTRYWIDE COLLUSION going on!!!

Sometimes I think I work for a charity. Everytime I go to work, someone has their hand out. Doesn't matter who it is...but someone wants something. For free. THE CHARITY STORE IS CLOSED. Two things in this sad economy have not gone up. Airfares and MY SALARY!! R A I S E A I R F A R E S !

Bloodletting is a 19th century practice no longer used. So stop subjecting employees to this wasteful, useless practice. Leave travel privliges alone.

Have you ever seen the Lombardi trophy presented to the football team BEFORE THE GAME?? Me neither. They had to win it first.
Enough with the bonuses and incentive pay UNTIL a good job has been done.

Please do not charge for a piece of luggage. With the new "economy corrected" price of a ticket a customer can know that they can bring all their crap and get a soda. Not be shaken down 16 times.

 

[InternationalShannon]

Quit overbooking the flights to ridiculous numbers.
Maybe Shannon could address this problem and give some actual numbers.

Well, since we're being all serious now and stopped crying about the nonrev charge that never happened, I'll give you what I know based on experience. In my own city.

However, if you're expecting me to bust out with some kind of pie graph and dollar figure versus something or the other, you might find what I have to say pointless drivel.

MORE ONTIME DEPARTURES CREATES LESS MISX
That being said, I agree that the overbooking situation has gotten out of control, however I have no idea how to fix it. We definitely have a high no-show factor,but that has actually increased due to the recent consistency of our arrivals and departures. You can call it schedule padding, but I attribute my performance to being jerked into the office trying to find new ways to explain where we lost a minute. Employees here are being held much more accountable to the point where we're striving to get the gate side finished as early as possible AND beat the ramp operation so that if there's a delay we KNOW we were finished. Incidentally, the ramp knows we'll try to blame them if possible so they're doing the same thing. Voila, more ontime departures!

Wait!! Why are we offering twice the compensation and overselling the flights worse than ever? Well, I think that those responsible for the departure activities are taking more seats out of inventory and using them for "protection" - - seats they can hang onto until it gets really ugly and then release them for the oversold passengers whom volunteers were not possible. The end result is a flight that goes out at capacity, had been oversold by like 20 or something, but ended up only denying about three or four.
After a few months of this, the number crunchers find that it can be oversold by three to five seats more because of the seemingly harmless handful of seats that the gate staff has used for "protection".

The supervisor will book the protection and the agents will use it at the last minutes. It is the last resort.

Unfortunately, when I look at the PBT for FRA and it holds 29/259, it's already sold to 266 at 8am. 12noon it's at 270 and counting. Availability says there's still seats to sell and the number is going up and up and up. now it's time to board. The flight has already checked in 10+ pax too many , theyre standing in front of you, no one is volunteering and the oversold passengers are calling reservations saying there are still nine seats to sell, so why can't they have a seat?

Oh, and now LH has mtc and has started to rebook their passengers without a courtesy call because they see that we have a few seats.

Now the agents have a ton of people in front of them, families pissed because they're not together, oversold passengers demanding a seat in Envoy(fulll also) and compensation out the wazoo and frustrated because the chairman's desk says there's still nine seats to sell. (jerks)

So, in desperation, the last nine seats are built into a protection record so that the availability reads zero, preventing the ticket counter, reservations and any other airline from taking the seats and worsening the situation at hand.

They get 15 or whatever volunteers to get off the plane and go tomorrow (which is already technically full, but has 20 seats still to sell) give them a free ticket and send them to The Comfort Inn with some meal vouchers, advance seat assign them so someone else gets the short straw tomorrow and they're on their way. Whew! Thank goodness we took those 9 seats out of inventory or there would be nine more people in front of us!

WRONG. It takes care of the task at hand, but it throws off the statistics and gives the pencil pushers the idea they can oversell it even MORE because of the no show factor that just went up by 9 thanks to today's flight. 9 no shows were actually 9 fake people who were never meant to show.

There is no way for those bean counters to see that those were fake pnrs because they're just looking at bookings vs capacity.

So, it's just a worsening cycle and now we're so oversold we can't even use protection and we're having to offer one to even FOUR rtfc's to bribe people off their flights.

I'm sure that's pretty expensive, but I'll let someone else do the math.

Oh, you CLEVER DOG! You got me to monologue!! *tsk tsk*

 

[LongTimeF/A]

I believe there was a employee program called "Ideas, that Fly" all about employee suggestions on saving money.. We all know how long tthat lasted..

 

[JoeDirt]

Sorry Shannon but I figured you couldn't resist. LOL
Thanks for the info that was exactly what I was looking for. Its has gotten way out of hand.

 

[freedom]

Look , I personally think the charging non rev’s is a good idea , IF it’s cost effective , I sat down today and gave it some more thought , yes morale DOES have a price … if charging non rev’s truly wouldn’t bring in a nice sum of money , then absolutely don’t do it .. But if it WOULD , then do it …

I HEAR that us airways used to charge it’s non-revs In the past …. Is this true ?

I also feel that we should end ALL non essential funding , no more macy’s books on the planes unless it’s completely paid for by someone else , no more anything , yank the funds from the stations that haven’t spent them on the employee’s yet …. Batten down ALL hatches …

Everyday I pick up the paper I keep reading about increased economic woe, things are predicted to get worse , on the type of scale that 9/11 was for our industry …At least this is what I interpret from reading the news and listening to the industry pundits …

We should all try and work out in our heads what things are going to be like 6 months ,a year from now … I’m betting on the us economy to continue it’s decline and the price of OIL to go higher along with the price of a plane ticket , fewer people will elect to fly …. Sooner or later something’s going to have to happen to the airline industry , it’s simply going to be too large in it’s current state a year from now … we won’t need all of these planes to fly around half empty etc …

I believe we should begin preparing for war with the other airlines TODAY …



p.s .. please quit slandering me that I heart this company sooooo much … I’m not THAT kind of guy … I’m not one of these types that will work for free like when PHL had the baggage meltdown at Xmass , I don’t get paid , I don’t go into work , it’s as simple as that …

EDIT :I’m tired of speculating , does ANYONE have any projections on what a non rev charging program would generate in terms of revenue for this company ? ANYONE ? Would anyone care to take a guess ?

 

[Justme]

View attachment 7575Shannon....I like your idea....is this going too big?? Just tryin to make a contribution...

 

[Iheartflying]

Look , I personally think the charging non rev’s is a good idea , IF it’s cost effective , I sat down today and gave it some more thought , yes morale DOES have a price … if charging non rev’s truly wouldn’t bring in a nice sum of money , then absolutely don’t do it .. But if it WOULD , then do it …

I HEAR that us airways used to charge it’s non-revs In the past …. Is this true ?

I also feel that we should end ALL non essential funding , no more macy’s books on the planes unless it’s completely paid for by someone else , no more anything , yank the funds from the stations that haven’t spent them on the employee’s yet …. Batten down ALL hatches …

Everyday I pick up the paper I keep reading about increased economic woe, things are predicted to get worse , on the type of scale that 9/11 was for our industry …At least this is what I interpret from reading the news and listening to the industry pundits …

We should all try and work out in our heads what things are going to be like 6 months ,a year from now … I’m betting on the us economy to continue it’s decline and the price of OIL to go higher along with the price of a plane ticket , fewer people will elect to fly …. Sooner or later something’s going to have to happen to the airline industry , it’s simply going to be too large in it’s current state a year from now … we won’t need all of these planes to fly around half empty etc …

I believe we should begin preparing for war with the other airlines TODAY …



p.s .. please quit slandering me that I heart this company sooooo much … I’m not THAT kind of guy … I’m not one of these types that will work for free like when PHL had the baggage meltdown at Xmass , I don’t get paid , I don’t go into work , it’s as simple as that …

EDIT :I’m tired of speculating , does ANYONE have any projections on what a non rev charging program would generate in terms of revenue for this company ? ANYONE ? Would anyone care to take a guess ?

It's not happening. No one cares for your silly ideas. At this point I think you should just quit talking.

 

[galley princess]

I've said this before but here it is again:

Companies make money from CUSTOMERS, not employees. When you go after your employees for money, the lights are about to go out, that was the only reason that Old US was able to get the concessions that it got, and speaking for myself and many others, I WILL NEVER vote for another concessionary contract again. They can shut the lights off first.

You've gotten some good ideas but you keep hammering the Non Rev travel.

Not going to happen.

East is working under the cheapest contract in the industry. We are not paying to non rev. Twenty pages back you were informed that it would require contract changes in some work group cases. This isn't on the table. Explore the other options.

The reason that you pamper business flyers is because they fly you when economy vacationers contract their spending. Parker chose to ignore this longtime industry fact and pursue the lowest common denominator. Continental pampers its business travellers. They are not in lights out mode.

Do you see the facts?

There are a couple things that could happen.

Parker could admit he was wrong, reverse course and court the business traveller again, while sticking it to the economy traveller who clicks on the lowest fare. US is small enough to become a sort of "boutique" airline for business travellers. The only thing standing in our way of profitable economic growth is the lack of wide body aircraft. Philadelphia originates international travellers that will support almost any European, South American or Asian flight.

Problem? AIRPLANES. And the solutions are not easy.

The one thing that is not a solution is further alienating your workforce, greater than 70% that commute. US is experiencing a slight bump in morale from the new uniform. Intelligent human beings would try to extend that bump as long as possible, not put it in a shredder.

Charge for sodas, bags and eliminate paper and weight. Shrink the silly cup. Get rid of the US magazine and embroider the safety card a la Ryan Air. These are all viable options. Charging employees for the last and only benefit of working at US? NOT.

 

[InternationalShannon]

View attachment 7575Shannon....I like your idea....is this going too big?? Just tryin to make a contribution...

Wow.....hold on, let me go get the anxiety medication....this is going to be HUUUUUGEEEE!!!! The mods are going to be so proud of us when they learn that US was revolutionized by THIS website. *sigh*..... great minds.....great minds...

 

[InternationalShannon]

Sorry Shannon but I figured you couldn't resist. LOL
Thanks for the info that was exactly what I was looking for. Its has gotten way out of hand.

It didnt work. Theyre still doing it. MOOOooOOMM!!!

Well now my brain hurts so can we stick to something simple and on topic like kazoos? Or a cuss jar? Let's force them to pay us when they say dirty wordage. Then we can provoke them AND get them to pay in one swoooooshhhhhh!!! Nah, Kazoos are way more fun.

 

[hp-csr-phx]

How did the test for premium non-alcoholic beverages go? I see WN is now selling Monster for $3 or 1 drink coupon.

 

[InternationalShannon]

Gross. I don't like those, I dont see what's so great anyway, you can pop an excedrin migrainewith like a ton of mgs of caffeine in them for way cheaper and you get way more pills for the same price. Let's sell PILLS!!

 

[Iheartflying]

How did the test for premium non-alcoholic beverages go? I see WN is now selling Monster for $3 or 1 drink coupon.

Are energy drinks in a an enclosed metal tube for several hours really the answer??