Is it time to send Doug Parker on a media blizt ?

[safety stud]

i'd say he's taken care of all three of those objectives l

1. he's taken care of employee's by seeing too it that most of us continue to HAVE a job in these tough times (unemployment rate has edged up to 6%)

2. he's mangaged to keep fares reasonable and you now have choices when you buy a ticket , do you WANT to pay an extra 10 dollars for that meal or checked bag ? well now it's up to you ...

3 . as for our share holders , our company is on firm finicial footing for now ... hence their stock isn't going to go away in a disloved company ...

Are you for real? The employee group has not been taken care of by any means... Look at the furloughs coming up... Yes I am going to have a job.... Yes I am thankful... that has nothing to do with it. Your employees make up the standard of the company, not the CEO's. It's the worker bee's that run the company, that hopefully bring the customer back. Mis-management from this company is at a size that would make Goliath cry. You have many labor groups without a merged contract from a merger that took place YEARS ago. DP is banking on the easts contracts that come from 2 BK's. Since the merger (not including this year of course) the company made almost 2 Billion in profit. Were did that money go... 2 days after the company started a-la carte the company announced stock incentives for its top EXEC's... Get real, he has done nothing to the employee's but take, take, and take some more...

As for the fares, simple, you want to make money, you charge what it costs to do the service... simple... Yet he doesn't... He is afraid of what the other carriers will do... When you go to the grocery store, you are paying more for your goods because it cost them more to provide it. Do we stop buying... No... We put up with the higher costs and deal with it... When you order a pizza for delivery do you now pay for a delivery charge? .... Yep... You want the pizza... Simple... If it cost's you $299.00 to fly passenger x to destination y... Charge the damn $300.00 and forget about it. People will pay... Other airlines will raise their prices also... Quit being afraid of what everyone else will do and worry just about yourself....

Firm Footing is a generailzed term. Just because the stock price is up a little bit is no guarantee the company is in great financial shape. Long term debt, A/C lease's, Jet fuel prices, etc. all play a part in the financial success of the company. As of the last Quarter the company only had a little over 2 Billion in unrestricted cash and credit. A company the generates 10 Billion in revenue and only has a fifth of its cash available is not in "Good Financial Shape"...

Just my Opinion...

 

[freedom]

oh heyyyy , you watch out for that spilled milk , would you like a cleanx ?

so what do you think we should do john john , go grab a banner and run around crying about the past and how hard it was for what , a week , a month ? boo hoo...


We've got a streach of nothingness laying out before us .... between now and thanksgiving we need to hit it .. and hit it hard ...


our operations are contacting yes ... but doesn't mean our image has to as well ... if we are becoming a smaller airline we should at least mantain the image of a larger more prestigious one ....

i think now's the perfect time to win over the population , and we're not going to do that if people like you folks are running around crying rivers about how horrible everything is ...... i'd say "if you don't like it leave " (which i reallly don't like to say ) but these days there's no where else to go .... we should focus on solidifying our market postion and brand imiage . you know polish it up a bit ...

smiles and sunshine !

 

[john john]

and brand imiage .

PEOPLExpress
The airline used a simplified fare structure whereby all seats on a given route were offered at the same price, with slight differences between "Peak" and "Off-Peak" fares. All seats were in economy class, with the exception of "Premium Class" seating on overseas flights. Fares were paid on the flight. Passengers were permitted to bring one carry-on bag for free, while each checked bag was charged a fee of $3.00. People Express was the first United States airline to charge a fee for each checked bag. PEx also charged modest amounts for customers wishing food or beverages. Sodas cost 50 cents per can, honey-roasted peanuts and Rachel's brownies (also 50 cents), and the "famous" People Express "snak-pak" (an assortment of cheeses, crackers and salami) for $2.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_Express

 

[Garfield]

does any one need more proof stupid can't be fixed?

I'm out any more I'll get tossed if i speak the facts on this one

 

[freedom]

{so on and so forth }

Just my Opinion...

You make good points , BUT


First of all the furloughs are unfortunate , but that’s a part of the industry contracting sad to say … no one’s fault there , painful things that need to be done in order for us to survive . While the employee’s may make up the standard of the company , our employee’s are for the most part a regular group of people … parker , I think he has brand image that could be worked in a PR push … As to having labor groups working without a new contract , we sure do have them …. The pilots are a hopeless cause , the FA’S waited too long etc ..unless market conditions improve we can expect to realistically see no traction for any of the remaining work groups .. At least that’s my humble opinion . You mention that we made 2 billion in profits , well how much do we have in our companies bank account right now ? About 2 billion something right ? So you can see where that money went .. As for our execs being over paid you’ll get no argument from me there … corporate has always been rather weak about having too many over paid VP’s ….it looks like they maybe making some progress in this area by not replacing two of the three positions that are about to become vacant . As to your point about take take take , well , he’s done a fine job of keeping both companies alive …after everything we’ve been through , I’d say that’s good enough for the workers ….

That fares thing your going on about , you must be rich , I swear it’s like people who have money can’t understand what it’s like to not have money ….you raise the prices and scrap the ala carte and just charge “what it costs†and us regular folk will flee to any other airline where we can save 20 or 50 dollars …..that’s money we could put into our gas tanks or use to buy food to put on the table …


As for the investors , yes I was generalizing , that latest stock dilution was a great idea to grab some more cash (150 million ) while the investors might not have cheered at least it fortifies our position and ability to hold out . As for the ten billion in revnue and what not , I’m not intimate with the numbers for our company , but I do recall someone saying something about our fuel costs rising a few billion or so …

 

[tadjr]

So what's your point ? it's sept 2008 , time to spin baby , spin!!!

Then you would think that they would have it working half decent right? Not the case. Obviously you know nothing about the actual working ability of our current computer system to get the job done. If you want to continue to rant about moving on and how great a job it is doing, I'll take the rest of your postings with the same credibility I give your postings of the computer systems ability to work, 0. Babble on.... :blink: :blink:

 

[Richard]

Just a friendly reminder--keep on topic and let's refrain from making remarks aimed at individual posters.

Thank you.

 

[john john]

run around crying about the past and how hard it was for what , a week , a month ? boo hoo...

Your lack of knowledge of the pass and present and future of passenger service group is evident. And by the way the media is a powerful tool just ask PITBull

 

[Art at ISP]

Let me make a couple of salient points here.

1. US just released 3 of their top VP's. Although in each case completely justified, it shows a contraction in the executive ranks-position eliminated, and the other ones absorbed by other executives.

2. US faces a monumental cash crunch coming soon regarding the credit card processors...one in which Doug is VERY worried. So to state that the company is financially sound is not very accurate.

I keep hearing from members of FFOCUS who have left US completely--including many who either WON'T fly US at all costs or those who will only do so as a last resort.

What they need to do is not worry about SPIN, but worry about fixing the problems and start treating employees and customers better NOW.


As the old commercial goes, it's time to Stop the Insanity..................

 

[ussnark]

Freedom,

are you the company's person who publicizes ideas just to see if they float?

Your justifications for your floated "ideas" are really teh funny. Do you really think the last DUI, speeding drunk through residential areas, is something you want to publicize as showing the CEO as a "risk-taker"? as in, risking the life of families? How would that translate over to his CEO duties and what kind of risks he is willing to take, with, say, aircraft maintenance?

and the computer "change-over", demonstrating the incompetence at so many levels in Tempe, cheered by you, apparently. Seemingly, not one employee broke open a book dealing with regressing a company wide computer system. Even a book on the value of "cheap" would have been appropriate.

and, you think the CEO would be a perfect cheerleader to sell the public, on what, exactly? He has alienated the business flyers and is working on alienating the leisure flyers. So far, all I have seen are leisure travelers who don't know any better and masochists. Going public has a real possibility of educating those leisure pax to where they will go elsewhere but could swell the ranks of the masochists.

and, to say that he "saved your job" is really wrong-headed. I'd say that, more than once, he and his naive decisions have unnecessarily placed US jobs at extreme risk.

Every company has someone just like you. It is the role you play that upsets people, not you, yourself. Try a different role, please.

 

[robbedagain]

freedom, I dont think DP has what it takes to actually run the airline. Ive been with the company since 1998 and I have yet to see a Herb Kellher type of show at US which sadly, probably wont ever happen.
David Seigel, Wolf, and now DP have and continue to screw employees royally and the passengers. Notice that NO OTHER airline has ACTUALLY charged for drinks except alcohol. Now if they took the charge a la carte away, hooked up with a retail company to sell pillows and blankets as a set whereas folks can take it home, I think that would be a seller. I wonder if they brought the 1980s style perks back, charge higher fares, Id bet they wouldnt be in the scary position in that they think theyre in.

 

[UPNAWAY]

Art Labor day weekend was a RASM records!

It is still a cost crisis, not a FF leaving crisis.

 

[signals]

Freedom,

If you think the computer changeover was not really that bad, you are either on drugs or in denial.

US is a company which has been thoroughly mismanaged. It has about the worst labor/management relations, the poorest morale, and customers booking away in record numbers. Doug Parker should be shown the door, just like he just did to three of his cronies.

I think you really need to sober up before you post ... and get off the kool aid.

Until and unless Parker realizes that his employees are his MOST VALUABLE ASSETS, and that he needs to work with them instead of against them, there is no hope.

Until and unless Parker realizes that the CUSTOMERS are an immediate priority directly behind the employees, and that happy customers will come back and continue to contribute to the bottom line, there is no hope.

EMPLOYEES First
CUSTOMERS Second
SHAREHOLDERS Third.

It does NOT work the other way around.

WOW, I was waiting to see how far out of touch some people are and there you have it. Ask any business what Rule #1 is? and the answer is: THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT. Rule #2 is:See Rule #1.

If Parker is mismanaging, why are stocks up? The customers booking away isn't evident in my area. Parker works for the shareholders, therefore you are WRONG who the most valuable assets are. Telling a customer that he isn't as important as the employee might send him booking elsewhere. Although I must say that the old US Air, that had most locations by the ..., employees would actually have an arrogant air like the customer really didn't matter. If they didn't have a choice but to fly US, they really didn't.

Shareholders and customers put up money, and the 'paid' help think they're more important? Fine, let them give the employees everything that makes them happy, and $@rew customers and shareholders!

That'll be the greatest management move in a fantasy vortex!

 

[freedom]

No nark , I’m the worker who gets tired of sitting around with the feeling that their company is slowly dying right now and wants to stir up debate about some forward movement ..

The DUI image isn’t something we can play up consciously …. But when you hear someone has a DUI ,one tends to gets the impression that the person who has them ,knows how to have a little too much fun , a risk taker … yes yes , DUIs are horrible and no one’s advocating them saying their cool , parkers stance should remain he’s had some troubles in life , it could humanize him to the public however…


As to everything else , I’m not suggesting that we be “honest†with the public here .. We need to shape our own image , I DON’T know how our reservation system is working right now , but I do know that it “works†… it gets the job done …

I think the CEO would be perfect at selling our company on numerous angles , first he’s an industry an insider who can talk about what’s affecting the industry on numerous levels … secondly he’s got that “nice guy “appeal that makes him seem trust worthy and honest … (not saying he is , just saying he has the look )

Look I understand that some of you want deep and important fixes , but I don’t think a renewed focus on a better reservations system is going to help us at the moment during this down turn in PAX , right now ,what we need are more pax ….



As for parker saving our jobs , I used to work for America west airlines , I’m fairly certain that we would not have survived in this high cost of oil environment , so I can say that I feel he saved my job …

As for my role , what other role would you like me to play ? Shall I constantly discourage our company …. How would that now serve my ends ? Yes we have problems , yes they need to be fixed …. But I just can’t take a mental attitude of complaining without offering any sort of way forward

Here’s a problem that we have : low boarding totals …. Here’s a solution , we get our name out there in the public and perhaps more people will book us .. The best method I can think to do that would be to use parker , he’s controversial , but that’s not always a bad thing , he can generate publicity , and with our worst to first performance we can paint him as an business mastermind (this is to the public , not ourselves )

 

[N965VJ]

<SNIP> WOW, I was waiting to see how far out of touch some people are and there you have it. Ask any business what Rule #1 is? and the answer is: THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT. Rule #2 is:See Rule #1.

Who was the airline CEO that said the customer is *not* always right?