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

[Twicebaked]

I was prepared for this kind of response , so let me be CLEAR ….

WHATEVER IT TAKES….

There is NO ONE with a gun to your head telling you that you need to take that trip up to LAS for lunch ….

Free flying is a convenience , but if you hadn’t noticed these are inconvenient times .

Do you have a better idea ? Lets hear it , I’m all ears ….

Hundreds of us commute!!!!!

Are you telling me that I need to pay this company for the "convenience" of coming to work because they closed my base? Not to mention slashed my pay, took away my sick time by 30%, wiped out my pension, raised my health insurance????????? My expenses all around are going up because of fuel. I am not going to subsidize pax leisure travel..... let them pay $10/$20 to fly......

Thank God you are not in upper mgmt!!!!!!

 

[Jimmy Neutron]

I was prepared for this kind of response , so let me be CLEAR ….

WHATEVER IT TAKES….

There is NO ONE with a gun to your head telling you that you need to take that trip up to LAS for lunch ….

Free flying is a convenience , but if you hadn’t noticed these are inconvenient times .

Do you have a better idea ? Lets hear it , I’m all ears ….

I guess you were not thinking of all of us employees who, because of lame management, BK's downsizing and everything else under the sun must commute or fly regularly to see our families....

Dear God man why is it that whenever management cries, someone wants to give up even more than they already have.....Haven't you(we) given enough?

I would have loved to receive a 200% bonus and live in million+ homes.......

But since that is not a reality, I will continue to Non-Rev to be with my family for FREE as you call it, THANK-YOU

 

[freedom]

dear twice ..

I assumed that most would think it was already implied in such a suggestion of charging for non revs that’s commuters would be exempt … so just to be explicit let me say that “commuters should be exemptâ€

Dear jimmy , I understand where your coming from , for me a suggestion of charging even 20 dollars for a round trip is pricy (awa baggage handler here )… but I would FAR rather pick and chose what we give up NOW than be forced by a BK …

I assume your well aware of the situation our industry is in are you not ? Now is not the time for us to stick our heads in the sand …

As for cutting the wages of our execs … well there’s nothing we can do about that is there … and to be honest , if their like I am , ain’t NO ONE touching my money … althou perhaps we could charge our executives a bit more than the rest of us to non rev ..

Anyways , rather than crying about the idea I’ve offered up , how about you come up with some yourselves ?

 

[robbedagain]

instead of the NONREVS paying for travel, have the entire mgmt from DP down to station managers pay for their space positives and first class. if they didnt get those priviledges, id wonder if we make more money with those seats. Secondly, stop the huge incentives and payment the entire upper mgmt gets all for doing nothing. third, may be raise the fares say by 20 to 30 dollars. I do not think the charging for 1st bag will work but we shall see how AA deals with that. Fourth, why not charge for a pillow and charge for a blanket use, like AA does. the idea of getting rid of the pretzels probably doesnt even come close to trying to make a profit but why not offer more food than what they offer for say no more than 10 bucks

 

[giantfan]

The AWA experience with animals in the cargo hold was, as I recall, not a positive experience.

Think about this scenario:

1. Ramp temperatures that routinely exceed 130 degrees;
2. Reliablility issues with aircraft
3. Minimum ramp staffing resulting in crews being moved to different gates, especially during irregular ops

Result? Animals dying in the heat when they are stuck or left on the ramp during unscheduled plane swaps, change of gauge, weather problems, etc. This was a lose/lose scenario for AWA.

I don't doubt what you're saying however, I work in a FL station and I have no recollection of ever having an animal die at my station. I'm not saying it never happened but if I don't recall it, it must have been very rare. We may not get reach 130 on the ramp but have ya ever been to FL between May & September??? Somehow US made it work and it was really no big deal...

 

[freedom]

I’ll bet you the reason we failed in the attempt GF was because of inept management (planning , tools etc ) …. I think things may have improved enough for us to perhaps give that idea a spin again ..

Good idea gf!

so far thou , i think this one by LD3 takes the prize .

"Maybe someone from maintenace could answer this, all the aircraft that are in for maintence(CLT) always have their APU's running, would it be cheaper to use ground power. Last week I took a ride to the hangar at night and of the 8 aircraft on the ramp only one used a gpu, is the apu able to power more of the aircraft? If they are able to power the aircraft equally you would think the gpu would be a cheaper to run..Just wonderin...."


If what you say is correct and true , cha ching! you just saved us cash money ...

 

[Jimmy Neutron]

dear twice ..

I assumed that most would think it was already implied in such a suggestion of charging for non revs that’s commuters would be exempt … so just to be explicit let me say that “commuters should be exemptâ€

Dear jimmy , I understand where your coming from , for me a suggestion of charging even 20 dollars for a round trip is pricy (awa baggage handler here )… but I would FAR rather pick and chose what we give up NOW than be forced by a BK …

I assume your well aware of the situation our industry is in are you not ? Now is not the time for us to stick our heads in the sand …

As for cutting the wages of our execs … well there’s nothing we can do about that is there … and to be honest , if their like I am , ain’t NO ONE touching my money … althou perhaps we could charge our executives a bit more than the rest of us to non rev ..

Anyways , rather than crying about the idea I’ve offered up , how about you come up with some yourselves ?

Now, now put yourself in our position-----Do the math------If you had to make 4 or 5 round trips at $20.00 a pop that would be a pretty big hit, would it not.

I think I've already given my fair share after 25 years......

Maybe the morons at the top need to start actually running the airline instead of trying to find more ways to line their own pockets as they take more from me...Obviously you feel they haven't taken enough from you yet, so I say go ahead man, give all you got, cause I've got nothing left to give...

 

[REACC1]

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

I know that those of you with 20,30 ,40 years in the business can come up with some great ideas ."

We did,...nobody listened. :angry:

 

[CaptBud330]

AirTran has a program where a college student pays I believe $79 to standby for an open seat . It would cost the company zero to institute it and if the plane has an empty seat, well we just made $79. We can start by looking at what works at other companies. Why reinvent the wheel?

 

[YVINTERN]

AirTran has a program where a college student pays I believe $79 to standby for an open seat . It would cost the company zero to institute it and if the plane has an empty seat, well we just made $79. We can start by looking at what works at other companies. Why reinvent the wheel?

You do realize that these "standby" customers get on before employees/spouses/dependents/registered guest/buddy pass travelers. Idea would be nice but a huge slap in the face of the hard working employees.

 

[SS255]

If US increased (i.e. doubled) their lowest fares so that essentially each flight brings in the same dollar amount in ticket sales, but as a result of the higher fares less people flew, their loads would drop. Lower loads = less fuel burned = cost savings.

I think that all of the airlines are so obsessed with filling their planes that they lose sight of the fact that it is more profitable to let seats go empty and to sell the remaining seats at fares that actually cover their costs. Plus, it makes it that much easier for US to accommodate cancellations and misconnects. Lower loads = less oversells = less revenue lost to voucher travel.

This is all logically spoken from the outside looking in, of course. The reality from the inside may be far different, so I welcome opposing opinions.

 

[REACC1]

I

I don’t think what I’m suggesting is unreasonable at all considering what we’re in today , and If you think it IS , then please prove to me how our OIL prices don’t matter and how our PAX won’t flee in droves to another airline when faced with even a fare of 5 dollars more than the other guy ..

Aparently they're are people that missed or fudged a class or two in college.
Maybe, other airlines are paying the same price for fuel as US?
Not directed at you, I just didn't know of any other way of saying it.

Price it correctly or else.

 

[dexter]

We are not scabs and deserve to fly for free.

A great idea for generating revenue would be to charge any director and higher with a positive space term pass for themselves and their family members. I say 20.00 a segment for postive coach and 40.00 a segment for positive first class. Not to mention all the OA Carrier VP's that have term passes with us, AND THERE ARE ZILLIONS.

Makes sense. I also know for a fact that these "elite" employees charge their tickets on a company credit card and get mileage. We all know the fare is 0.00 or 0.01 per ticket...so on top of the free positive space they get mileage for relatives to travel for free like most of our preferred passengers get when they fly alot.

Take from the Rich employees and give to the POOR employees would be a good slogan.

 

[freedom]

Aparently they're are people that missed or fudged a class or two in college.
Maybe, other airlines are paying the same price for fuel as US?
Not directed at you, I just didn't know of any other way of saying it.

Its all how you think about it , consider it like this ,all of the business have a leaky faucet , some of them are leaking on full throttle with the water just gushing out of the faucet and others like us have a slower but steady drip drip drip leak … now imagine that the water is coming from the water heater in your house and that you have a ranch that’s not connect to the water grid … some of the houses are going to run out of water before the other ones do depending on the rate of the leak … now imagine that the water is money , and the houses are airlines .. What we want to do is tighten up the leak so we don’t have to go and make a trip to go and get water before the other companies do (think of the trip to get water meaning BK or CH7 )




SS25 .well that’s a good attempt at an idea , but I think someone mentioned something like that once before and the problem was people would just go fly the other guys ..

 

[LCC_#1]

Ways to generate more revenue?

1. IMPROVE F/C. not DEGRADE F/C! These are our high revenue customer.
2. Get rid of pillows and blanket. They are nasty period!
3. In coach, limit choices of soda to Coke, D Coke, Sprite ( big bottles) and juices to OJ and AJ (large containers). In addition, offer coffee, tea, and water. Each selection is $2.00 with free refills for coffee. Take off ALL liquor, beer, and wine. It causes too many problems anyway. Same BOB, but add Funbox to flights 1.2 hours and up.
4. Last minute military/student fare...With valid I.D., anyone in the military or students can book a flight at the airport 24 hrs in advance if there are seats. In future, provide place on usairways.com for these groups to sign up for special fares done at home online.