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

[freedom]

Did you ever think that the reason someone with a few bucks does not shop at Wal-Mart is because they know that items are more expensive over time there than, say, at a Costco? That may be why they have a few bucks as opposed to those with your thought process? (I would much sooner pay slightly more for an item knowing it will last four times what the cheaper item will last.)

When you sit down at the computer and your looking at price line , or Travelocity your seeing the major airlines and the price listing for each flight … being the average consumer , your going to look at the price and go with the lowest because most people assume the level of service there going to get on any of the majors minus southwest will be about the same …

Understand that I’m thinking like the average joe here , not the business guy and not the 20 year veteran of the airline who takes pride in service/appearance etc …. also as the average joe , with GAS for my car at almost 4 dollars a gallon how much do you think I WANT to spend on a plane trip to get me from point A to point B … geez airlines , stop gorging me with all of your fees!! (what that means is the average guy wants to pay the LEAST possible )

I don’t want to get into a pointless debate about economics 101 ..

 

[sharktooth]

I don’t want to get into a pointless debate about economics 101 ..

You are the one who used Wal-Mart as an analogy.

and, I wonder that you consider debates about economics 101 pointless tends to lead to your misunderstanding about US's problems, thinking they can be solved by employees tossing more "benefits" to management, especially those "benefits" that cost the company little to nothing.

 

[PA18]

I have harped upon this ad nauseum on this forum, but since Freedom posed the question...

Why does US Airways insist on funneling every single north-south passenger through PHL, instead of offering selected non-stop, seasonal flights like they did years ago (when they were making money)?

Especially in the winter, when a majority of passengers from the northeast -- US's alleged "stronghold" -- are traveling to Florida and the Caribbean?

Every person I know who travels to Florida or the islands in winter buys tickets on either American, JetBlue, Southwest, or Delta. Why? Because they can get there non-stop, and not worry about missing their connection in a congested hub, or having their bags lost in transfer.

Now, for those of you who are already bleating the management mantra of "we lose money on flights to Florida", I say; a) Then why do you sell tickets to Florida, if you lose money? and b ) Who do suppose loses less money on a flight to Florida? The airline that uses two narrowbody airplanes, two crews, three ground stations, and millions of gallons of jet fuel and de-icing fluid to get that family of four from BOS or LGA to MCO through PHL?

Or the airline that has one aircraft depart from BOS, overfly PHL and CLT as it merely sips fuel at cruise altitude, and land in MCO with four happy customers and all their bags?

Of course, I'm sure the 2009 winter schedule is already loaded, and all the $99 tickets from BOS to MCO through PHL have already been sold, so this argument is probably moot.

 

[Twicebaked]

Here are a few suggestions.

1)Remove all or most of the ovens of the airbus back galleys. This will probably reduce the weight of the aircraft.

2)Remove seatback pockets so that customers can no longer store trash in them. Print the safety demonstration information on the back of the tray table. I believe that one European low cost-carrier already does this.

As a result of the decreased garbage, the company will be able to reduce the cleaning staffing to perhaps even one only person for an entire A320, thus being able to renegociate that contract to lower cost on a permanent basis.

Cleaning staff? The f/as are the cleaning staff!!!

We killed an entire work force in BK!!

 

[freedom]

You are the one who used Wal-Mart as an analogy.

and, I wonder that you consider debates about economics 101 pointless tends to lead to your misunderstanding about US's problems, thinking they can be solved by employees tossing more "benefits" to management, especially those "benefits" that cost the company little to nothing.

Obviously I don’t think our problems can be solved SOELY by throwing our benefits under the bus , and to be honest I would hope the company wouldn’t do something like that unless the situation was dire ..

With all of the great ideas I’m reading on here we can probably save our company some money ,We must innovate our way straight to the top …

I know many of you have problems with the executives , and that’s fine , just remember don’t let your anger toward the people running this company prevent you from contributing to it’s survival …. remember if this ship goes down they have their golden life rafts and the rest of us are going to drown in the worst recession our country has seen in decades .. (or so the business guys say )


Ok Here’s another idea , we here in the airlines are hurting from the rise of oil and the downturn in people flying …

We need to revive tourism , we need to make travel exciting and reasonable in these tough times . We should send someone to LAS to negotiate with the hotels and car rental companies that are suffering from the decreased traffic .. Let’s low ball the hotel’s by saying to them “look your suffering right now , and things are only going to get worse , why don’t we come to a mutually beneficial agreement , you give us the best rates on the strip and we’ll BRING you the passengers by promoting a new us airways travel package … sure you won’t make much off of the hotel rentals , but you’ll have people in your hotels gambling and buying food again , you’ll make money off of the other amenities you offer ..â€￾

Low ball those mo fo’s ….

 

[SS255]

What about offering 5 or 6 different fare options that are easy to understand? Most Y pax have 2 options 1) Cheapest available (i.e. US loses money), or 2) Fully refundable/changeable (i.e. US gouges).

Most leisure travelers will choose option #1, and many companies require or encourage their employees to choose option #2.

What about 2 in-between fares:

1) Reasonably-priced Y fare which enables the customer to make up to 1 changes in each direction, at no cost, and each subsequent change at a modest (i.e. $25) cost.

2) For a slight premium, a Y fare which is non-refundable, but allows unlimited changes.

The dirt cheap, fully restricted fare could include the nickel-and-dime fees.....but these fees should be fully transparent at the time of booking, and the customer should have the option of paying for them at the time of booking. More power to US on this one, as people who fly for less than what it costs US to carry them deserve to pay for the extras. And I can say this with conviction, because most of the time I buy these fares!

The Y/B fare which is fully refundable should not be a BlowFare, and would include one free alcoholic beverage if the customer is not upgraded. There would be no fee for checking the 2nd bag. This would not be a big loss for US, because most of the people who fly on these types of fares never even check one bag, much less 2. It would essentially be a free "good will gesture."

I'll bet if US tried something like this, they would be surprised at how many business travelers (and even some leisure travelers) would choose one of these 2 in-between fares!

As Art says....."It's the fares, stupid!"

Edited to add a few more thoughts:

- US needs to enable customers to book by fare class. They are certainly losing money by not having this capability.

- Bring back corporate contracts. Get over your arrogance of "our fares are cheap enough," and start courting those deep pockets again. Do you have any clue of how much business you drove away because you refused to negotiate a corporate discount? If you are not on a corporation's "preferred airline" list, you are virtually guaranteed not to get any business from that company.

 

[N965VJ]

<SNIP> With all of the great ideas I’m reading on here we can probably save our company some money ,We must innovate our way straight to the top …

US does not need to save money; it needs to charge the Kettles rational fares.

 

[freedom]

I disagree, we should go with saving money , and making money however we can …


Personally I find the term kettles to be rather disdainful … your looking down at the general American public simply because most of them want the most bang for their buck when they fly …. We don’t live in Russia and we aren’t a socialist state yet , until that day capitalism will rule the skies ..

Raise the rates more than 5 dollars against our competitors and they will fly the other guys … right now the flying public still has choices on whom to fly , we aren’t a monopoly yet and therefore we cannot single handily gorge the public …

With the recession hitting us there’s still too much supply and not enough demand , and as things get worse that trend will continue until one or two of the major airlines in this country shut down for good ..


Simply raising the price of our airfare will not solve our problems (especially if everyone flee’s to the other guys )


Now I could be completely wrong in my post , but because your answer was so short and unexplained I simply understood you to be meaning we should just “raise the rates across the board “

 

[john john]

With the recession hitting us there’s still too much supply and not enough demand , and as things get worse that trend will continue until one or two of the major airlines in this country shut down for good ..


Simply raising the price of our airfare will not solve our problems (especially if everyone flee’s to the other guys )


Now I could be completely wrong in my post , but because your answer was so short and unexplained I simply understood you to be meaning we should just “raise the rates across the board “

Do you even know what the load factors are for the majors?

 

[freedom]

Freedom are you willing to take a pay and benefit cut just to help out US. I’m sure it could be arrange

Absolutely not ,


If it’s not clear to you , the reason I started this thread is so that we can go WITHOUT taking pay cuts and the like …..

I can’t stress this enough , we must get our #### together TODAY before it’s too late ..if we’re going to make plans and take action it’s better to start now than later ….

Think of it like global warming ,we could just continue status quo doing nothing , and then 80 years later humanity fully realizes the dilemma their in and tries to take action , only to realize it’s too late ..

We must begin to act NOW …

There’s waste out there in this company , lets find it and cut it off … there are ways to generate more revenue , let’s explore and discuss them ..

 

[Be Careful What You Wish For.]

Since we all know the only people Doug Parker cares about are the Shareholders then perhaps this novel idea will be the best value for shareholders

1. Cease Operations Immediately - Put the employees and customers out of their collective misery.
2. File Chapter 7 the next business day
3. Auction off all of the assets and leases where applicable. I'm sure the Computer system will net a small fortune!!!!! (note sarcasm)
4. Distribute the monies accordingly.

Doug Parker will be a hero because he singlehandedly drove capacity out of the domestic system, so a new job for him is virtually assured elsewhere in the industry.

With 3 billion in cash and a market somewhere around half a billion the shareholders would certainly do better with a liquidation now rather then wait until it's forced.

I can't disagree with you, as I go whistling past the grave yard.

 

[dexter]

No pay cuts and the like....
A little different spin huh...go back two pages where a certain someone want us to pay for a benefit called the "term pass".

Piney, outrageous but true...put us out of our misery.

 

[freedom]

Anyways , let’s move back on topic , let the haters hate … if their lives are so sad that they’ve regressed to just sitting on the floor in a pathetic emotional heap, having given up on life , so be it .

 

[Twicebaked]

Absolutely not ,


If it’s not clear to you , the reason I started this thread is so that we can go WITHOUT taking pay cuts and the like …..

I

Non Rev travel is part of our "salary" per say..... charge me for that and that would be a pay cut.....

 

[john john]

With fares going up and gas going up non-rev travel benefits are looking better and better one could say like yesteryears. Travel benefits are something to hold on to not a giveaway by some unrealistic person(s) that thinks giving them up to save the airline form mismanagement. Sometime this rhetoric comes from people that don’t benefit for the same