Timmmberrrrrr.......

[ELP_WN_Psgr]

The national air transportation system can be left to pure free market forces and the likes of a JB and SW, but in the end, you won't like what you get.

On the contrary, some of us have seen the future and are realy happy with what we have.

Those of us from Texas have been watching the future for 30+ years and find it satisfactory.

The free market suggests that I, a passenger from El Paso to Dallas, should not be subsidizing the travel of someone who has the misfortune to live in Killeen TX or Alexandria LA.

If someone lives in those places (and I guess somebody has to, otherwise they would not be places) then they ought to pay for their own air travel.

If they don't like paying higher ticket prices because they live off the beaten path, then they can move. We all make choices.

And the problem is not that the government doesn't control medical care...the problem is government got involved with it in the first place.

Anybody remember going to the doctor before Medicare and Medicaid and what-have-you was signed into law?

An office call was $4 or $5. and we aren't talking prehistoric times....we're talking early 60s. Even adjusting for inflation you are looking at $25 or $30 in 2004 dollars.

A semi-private hospital room charge was essentially what you would pay nowadays for a room at a Holiday Inn Express.

Granted, medicine has gotten more high tech with a whole lot of gee whiz stuff that wasn't even on the drawing board in the early 60s.

I guess my point is that passengers in one place should not be forced to subsidize travel for passengers in other places.....and the government ought to keep their hands off medical care.

As far as WN "cherry picking" routes...you hear that a lot, but I don't see a lot of other airlines lining up to put full-sized jet services into the Harlingens, Lubbocks, and Midland/Odessas of the world. I don't see a plethora of airlines clamoring to offer nonstops from BHM to MSY and OKC to MCI and ABQ to AMA. The real deal is Southwest serves a lot of fairly dense routes...but many of them were a whole lot less dense (in terms of traffic) prior to them commencing service.

 

[Winglet]

Well, I suppose if the government goes to a national health care system they can tell the doctors what they're going to make, allocate the resources to suit the population and charge part of the bill to you Bear. So I suppose the well-healed do wind up subsidising after all.

I also wonder if ELP will think the same way when he's seriously injured in a car accident far from a city and they tell him . . . . geez we're sorry but we're going to have to drive 150 miles to get to an emergency room for you. The mid-sized hospitals all closed, the docs and small surgery centers don't take emergency cases, and the life-flight helos aren't available out here. Sorry, but you might not make it.

 

[NeedForSpeedNFS]

WNforlife,

You really need to get a life! and fast!
This is not a sporting event; and, as much as i attack your overzealous, if psychotic allegiance to your airline (which, i guess, is also your life...so, i rescind my initial advise), the more determined you become to heckle and annoy the hardworking employees at usair?!? if swa has an eap program, i heartfully suggest you take advantage of its psychological services! and, should you pursue that advice, you will certainly see that the only thing going "timmmberrrrrr..." is what little clarity and psychological stability you have left!!!
pjn

320 pilot is a Us employee, he likes stirring the pot wherever he goes.

 

[NeedForSpeedNFS]

Legacy-to-LCC

As an employee of SWA, my 6th airline of which two are legacies still in business, it is very unkind and downright repulsive for any other airline employee to show any kind of joy of what state that USair is in or any other airline for that matter. Most all of SWA's employees feel the same. We are all operating in a depressed industry and I hope and pray for its full recovery soon. Although SWA is doing OK right now it is a long race. Unless we are careful, we are just as vulnerable as any other airline.

I do hope the best for ALL in the airline industry.

I'm a U mech, thanks for the kind words. Now....... get me a JOB at SW!!!!!!! LOL

 

[NeedForSpeedNFS]

KC - that's quite a vivid imagination you have there. Have you always felt that there are people out to get you. When the voices in your head speak, what do they say?

I'm not here to stir the pot against anyone, I was just trying to help the USAir employees face reality. The sooner they do, the sooner that they can get new jobs and get on with their lives. To stick their heads in the sand and hope for the best is kind of pathetic.

I agree with you Wn!! I have been sayying as much for some time, looking for new employment, that is. As of this writing this ship at U is sinking fast!!! Also, I agree with your quote about U employees who "have their head in the sand"(i'm not one of them), however, I prefer my trusty pic..............

 

[NeedForSpeedNFS]

WN,

We here at US Airways are painfullyaware of where our company is and are aware of the "REALITIES" . We do not need others reminding us, much less "stirring the pot", thank you very much.

I take it you work for Southwest? What do you do? The reason I ask is that for many of us (f/a's and pilots), our jobs are a lifestyle and a lifestyle that only other f/a's and pilots could possibly understand. In the case of the US f/a's, almost all of us are now on A scale, or the highest level of wages. All of us sacrifice the first 5 years of our careers, making $20,000-$25,000 a year until year 6. Most of us came to this job for fun, variety, a love for travel, flight benefits and schedule flexibility. Also, when you step off that airplane, your day is done. While a schedule could change on you at the last minute, rarely do they. On a layover, we are delivered to our hotels and the next day delivered back to the airport. I may be having breakfast in LA on day one, dinner in NYC on day two, and brunch in Seattle on day 3. WOW!! It gets old at times, but it really is a pretty good gig.

To tell people they need to get on with their lives is not as simple as saying somehow "get over at." I, like many others, are indeed doing what I can to prepare for the worst, but for many, like myself, I would prefer to keep my lifestyle if at all possible. I don't see that as having my head in the sand in any way.

May I suggest that if you are going to discuss "failing" airline, that you be more sensitive, and that you do a little research on the airline industry. While your beloved airline is doing very well now , that has been the case for many airlines of the past now only a memory. It's a crazy industry.

OK....OK..... My last post for the night!!! First... Why should the poster you refer to be more sensitive?? I'm a mech at U, and you and I both know what we have been going through for the last 10+ YEARS!!!!!!!! This didn't happen over 9/11, or the downturn that followed(although it accelerated mngmt's plans). This has been a long, painful ride for us at U. My previous post was merely trying to state my agreement with Wn that the employees at U had better be prepared, for the downfall is surely to come........sooner, sorry to say, rather than later. If I misunderstood his/her post, i'll stand corrected. But, unfortunately, I think Wn hit the nail on the head! GOOD DAY!!!!!!

 

[sfb]

I also wonder if ELP will think the same way when he's seriously injured in a car accident far from a city and they tell him . . . . geez we're sorry but we're going to have to drive 150 miles to get to an emergency room for you. The mid-sized hospitals all closed, the docs and small surgery centers don't take emergency cases, and the life-flight helos aren't available out here. Sorry, but you might not make it.

Actually, if you were in a serious accident far from a "big-city" trauma center, you probably wouldn't make it even if there were a small-town or mid-sized hospital nearby. The quality of emergency care at many small hospitals (beyond the routine stuff that's not life-threatening) is really nowhere near what you'd get at a major hospital in a city. And government-sponsored single-payer care (as in Canada) doesn't improve the quality of care, either, given that there's simply not enough money in the budget to fund top-flight care in smaller cities.

As an example, a relative of mine was in a float plane crash on the Canadian side of Lake of the Woods; she was taken to the nearest hospital in Kenora. The hospital serves a region of 60,000 or so people, and yet though she complained of abdominal pain (which could indicate a ruptured spleen) and had fractured a vertebra (and there was no full-time radiologist there, so she read her own x-ray films, since she's a radiologist herself), the extent of her "care" there was to be kept in a semi-private room overnight with a nurse checking her temperature and blood pressure every four hours. No monitoring, nothing. If her injuries had been more serious (and a plane crash does count as a trauma incident), she would probably be dead, even with much-touted government-sponsored health care right there. The hospital didn't even have the resources to do a proper scan, with only x-ray and tomogram equipment. We are talking about health care that is stuck in the 1960's and 1970's, but hey, no one goes without it!

The situation with air service to small communities (EAS) is indeed similar to medical care. Just as most small towns can't support adequate modern health care, they also cannot support modern air service given that surface transportation is far better than it was 40 years ago. Most turboprop service from small towns within a two-hour drive of a major airport provides little to no time savings over driving to the larger airport, given time needed for connections, flight time, etc. And that doesn't even factor in high-priced tickets, inconvenient schedules, loud and uncomfortable cabins, the potential for delays and misconnects, etc. Most of these communities simply would not offer enough traffic to regularly fill a 737-sized jet, even with drastically reduced fares. That said, WN continues to do an admirable job of offering mainline service to a number of Texas cities that only see RJ's and props from other carriers. And as far as "cherry-picking" goes, I think WN and US now offer mainline jet service to almost exactly the same number of domestic cities at this point.

Look, Southwest announced service to PHL a full SIX MONTHS before US Airways management mounted any sort of meaningful competitive response. And I think it was pretty easy to guess which cities would be in the first waves of new Southwest flights. And yet instead of focusing on the product from PHL and its marketing, UAIR management spent its time hammering on the employees instead. Does this make any sense? And the tag line for the "GoFares" is pitiful -- "They're Unbelievably Low" (compared to how we used to ream you). The fares aren't new --they're the matching fares that went into the system when WN announced its flights and fares, but maybe the triple miles promotion will help (assumung WN doesn't offer something similar).

 

[WNrforlife]

Some of the majors are in deep doo-doo..................

[B]Which airline is next?[/B]

http://money.cnn.com/2004/05/25/news/fortu...tlook/index.htm