Freedom,
With all due respect, I would like some of the kool aid you are smoking.
The current management of US Airways is one of the worst and most incompetent group of managers I have ever seen in ANY industry. The merger between US and AWA has been BOTCHED big time. The penny wise pound foolish attitude has backfired, and has created a monster.
Three years into the merger, you have the worst IT in the industry...a web site which is slow and spotty, and a reservation system which still doesn't work 15 months after the switchover--because they were too cheap to invest in a system capable of handling the new operation.
Three years into the merger you have total labor unrest--a splintered pilot group capable of shutting the whole thing down, and divisive problems in all the other workgroups. Integration has STILL not happened, and the practice of getting the longer tenured people to leave is proving disastrous.
Customer service is at an all time low....customer relations is nothing more than complaint resolution. US doesn't even respond to many complaints, and when they do they don't address the issues. They throw vouchers at customers, rather than investigating and fixing the problem which caused the customer to complain. Oh--and the vouchers are almost impossible to use, and are worthless to many people who have NO intention of ever flying US again. And US is always in the top 2 of complaints to DOT.....
And you call Doug a Success???????????? All he has done is lined his pockets, and manipulated the numbers to show some profits.....AT THE EXPENSE OF LOYAL EMPLOYEES AND CUSTOMERS.
IF there is a merger between UA and US, and Doug is in charge, it will be doomed to failure...what the company needs is leadership from outside the two companies at this point.....I understand Gordon Bethune is available.
You need to realize the truth.
Wow that was quite a post ART … at this point I’d have to say your completely biased in your opinion .
First of all by merging the two airlines Doug parker saved THOUSANDS of job , mine included and with the price of oil the way it is today , I highly doubt EITHER airline would still have its doors open if we hadn’t combined …
You criticize our IT department , customer service and make the usual baseless accusation that management has lined their pockets at the workers expense… I can’t express how tired I am of hearing the same sad song played over and over and over ….
Guess what people this is 2008 not 1975 ….. Our mission is a simple one , get people from point A to point B with their luggage and on time …
In order to do this we MUST remain competitive , this means that it was necessary for Parker and crew to try new things , lowering service levels ETC … if I recall ,were we not one of the first major airlines to offer REALLY REALLY low prices to business travelers ? Yet I don’t hear anyone singing us praise ? Why ? Because many of you are trapped in some sort of idealistic past … where all of the FA’s are hot female flight attendants , you can still smoke on planes and your part of the “elite†class in this country all by sitting in business class …
This is the cold reality … oil is at 130 a barrel , Americans are cutting back their travel , businesses are cutting back their travel or putting their people in coach and flying ISN’T classy anymore , it’s just a mode of transport ..
The reality that I spoke of translates into this “we need to have the lowest overhead and costs for everything “ …This means we absolutely do not WANT a state of the art ,top of the line reservations system , we want what is cost effective for our company …it’s the same train of thought with customer service , we want to do what we can , but we’re not going to throw a free 757 at the PAX because one of the LAV’s smelled funny ..
What you want ART is a return to the old days of us airways , where service was everything and the workers were blinded into another reality where it was impossible for them to bankrupt their own company by demanding everything and the kitchen sink in their labor contracts ..
No thank you art , I’ll settle for our current reality , service is important , but not ALL important and while I’d like to be compensated for the work I do like a rock star , I’ll settle for what is fair …When we follow reality , the flying public gets a competitively priced seat and the workers get to keep their jobs .
Win win for everyone ..
