Notes from US' media day

[BoeingBoy]

Cranky Flier is tweeting from the US media day - for those that don't recognize the name he writes an aviation blog as well as airline related articles for BNet under his real name, Brett Snyder.

- US testing ground radar @ CLT and PHL to pick up problems before they become issue.

- Wants to achieve real-time baggage tracking this year.

- 70 seat & larger RJ getting FC by Jan next year - 9 seats on all but 175's which will have 8.

- Pounding the message that US has lower revenue generating hubs and thus needs lower costs.

- US has lowest cash obligation than other network carriers (a good way to spin US being so much smaller than other network carriers hence lower financial obligatiions - Jim)

- current flight attendant cost is $400m (proposed increase by $40m) and pilot is $700m per year (proposed increase by $120m)

- pilots want industry standard contract, but if that means a Delta, United, American contract, it's not going to happen

-one big issue with flight attendants - east is scheduled with pilots while west is independent of pilots - company wants west

- flight attendants propose $129m cost increase vs company's $40m - big gap

- for pilots, they propose $600m cost increase while company proposes $120m - HUGE difference

- FAA bill is "generally a really good bill b/c it doesn't have new taxes, fees, or charges"

- DCA perimeter rule relief would be good for US

- like to see perimeter rule abolished so it could fly all over from DCA but that's not likely

I gotta go for now - will post other notes later if anyone would like.

Jim

 

[beachboy]

Let me just dispel the line of garbage about 40million $ increase for the F/A group they are selling the media. They are not offering us $40 million in increases! That $40 million is just the cost of bringing the West group of F/A's to parity with the East! That is it. No increases for the East who gave TWICE in bankruptcy. Not a thing. I think what we forget here is that in past mergers such as US-PI US-PSA that cost (ie $40 million) was built into the price of the merger upfront. Bringing the groups to parity is the cost of doing business. AWA management never budgeted that cost into the merger with US so now they think spending that $40 million should count as an improvement? In actuality, it does not one thing to help the East side. Not one improvement.
Shame shame Mr. Parker. That lie will only get you so far.

 

[galley princess]

The one I like is the "our hubs are smaller so we need you to work for less".

I don't see them volunteering.

Not to mention, this nonsense is coming from a company that closed BOS and LGA at a great cost. Uhhh New York City = big hub.

Sooooorrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyy, not buying it.

Pay industry standard or get out of the game.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Sorry - didn't mean to start a labor thread. Anyway, continuing...

Afternoon session began with "going green" which elicited nothing more than "boring"...

- "cautiously optimistic" that the slot swap with @Delta will still get done

- in 2006, 83% of capacity was in Phoenix/Philly/Charlotte/DC/Shuttle markets - now up to 98%

- Today 40% of US departures have First Class - that will climb to 61% now when RJ's done.

- new seats and entertainment in coach on -300s as they updating Envoy to the Suites

- new amenity kit for intl biz - will have a pen included - good for filling out customs forms

- talking about US1549 on the Hudson - US didn't have Facebook or Twitter acct and that was a huge mistake

- did a survey on who was following on Twitter - more than half were in the hubs - 86% were Dividend Miles customers. (wonder when the survey was - they were giving away prizes on twitter regularly at the start and that was a hot topic on FlyerTalk - Jim)

- 81% of followers were doing it for discounts, 56% wanted info about company, 51% operational info, 29% cust svc (guess that answered my question - Jim)

More as it comes in - Jim

PS - I'm leaving out those that are already general knowledge as best as I can.

 

[BoeingBoy]

US has now created a tweeter account for employees - @USEmployees #usmediaday (I'm not sure if that space belongs or not - there was a line break at that point which might have cause the space. In fact, it may just be @USEmployees - I've noticed that all cranky's tweets end in #usmediaday.

For those on Twitter you can tweet back with opinions, comments, whatever. I'm getting this off the RSS feed.

For those like me that don't Tweet I'll keep posting the notes.

Jim

 

[traderjake]

Let me just dispel the line of garbage about 40million $ increase for the F/A group they are selling the media. They are not offering us $40 million in increases! That $40 million is just the cost of bringing the West group of F/A's to parity with the East!.................................................................................................................................................Shame shame Mr. Parker. That lie will only get you so far.

"They are not offering us $40 million in increases!"

Does the fact that the money doesn't go in your pocket mean that the $40 million increase is a lie?

 

[BoeingBoy]

Continuing with the social media portion.

- social media for mktg: it's not a discount channel "that's not in our DNA"

- in Twitter - keep it simple (complex offers bomb); on Facebook, more complexity to encourage exploration/engagement

- working w/ customer relations to see how or if they should be doing Twitter for customer support but volume is incredibly low

- "not committed that this [Twitter] is the most effective way to service the customer"

Nothing new for a while - they may be taking a break. More later.

Jim

 

[FM2436]

Any word(s) regarding Piedmont and/or PSA?

 

[BoeingBoy]

Other than FC in the CRJ-700's nothing yet. This event is for media types - while FC in the RJ's was a big announcement but I doubt many if any are interested in what's happening at a specific Express carrier.

Jim

 

[BoeingBoy]

Sounds like they're going to finish up with the dog & pony show - Q&A with the execs.

- Q: How much is retrofit of regional fleet going to cost? A: Not going to disclose actual cost

- wait . . . now CFO chimed in saying it's $35m

- expect to recoup revenue on premium pax, fares, and upgrades

- no news on slot swap with DL but Scott Kirby says better than 50% chance of it getting done

- Doug Parker: NextGen is not a project that will likely have a positive ROI, so why should we [airlines] be forced to pay for it?

- Doug: We're willing to pay for the benefits we received but not the nationwide infrastructure that we don't benefit from

- "don't look for individualized entertainment onboard anytime soon" - less important as internet becomes more prevalent (domestic fleet presumably-Jim)

- no power outlets anytime soon - too expensive, low usage rates, and hard to maintain

That's all folks - thanks for coming.

Jim

 

[BoeingBoy]

For those interested, a FlyerTalk member started a thread with the tweets and has subsequently added tweets from another reporter in attendance. Between them they were more inclusive than me. It's all in the first post at:

FlyerTalk thread

Jim

 

[I Was... Now US]

Im surprised to not hear of any news from media day of the Flight Attendants that picketed outside of Rio Dorito today. Tempe police were called and could do nothing about the protest disturbing the executive lunch in the courtyard due to the picket line being on public property.