US Airways Highest Complaint Rate

[sharktooth]

SWA will IMO always be lower because they do a better job of setting and then exceeding customer expectations.

SWA is only the lowest price about a quarter of the time, so price isn't the only driver. SWA markets the
"Cheap" so well some people never even compare elsewhere.

It's all about managed expectations.

I think SouthWest will go down in history as the first carrier to train Americans that when the average 'Merican hears "low cost" they think "low fare". Everyone else, (including LCC) are simply trying to capitalize on something on which SouthWest already did all the work.

SouthWest works hard to keep costs down. All those who thought SW was coasting on their "fuel hedging" I thought were pretty ignorant about what it takes to control costs. Unfortunately, many of our managers bought into such silliness.

Watch Airline on A&E to see how SouthWest has eliminated an entire layer of management by enabling those employees with direct customer contact, something we do with multiple mgmt layers and a motivation system embracing the stick method that costs a lot.

Simple. SouthWest pilots fly 67 hours per month working 11 to 12 days. USAirways pilots fly 51 hours working 17 to 19 days (Within the training department I see at least two instructors working 26 days during May).

All these employees concessions and no change on the part of management. Wonderful.

 

[a320av8r]

I think SouthWest will go down in history as the first carrier to train Americans that when the average 'Merican hears "low cost" they think "low fare". Everyone else, (including LCC) are simply trying to capitalize on something on which SouthWest already did all the work.

SouthWest works hard to keep costs down. All those who thought SW was coasting on their "fuel hedging" I thought were pretty ignorant about what it takes to control costs. Unfortunately, many of our managers bought into such silliness.

Watch Airline on A&E to see how SouthWest has eliminated an entire layer of management by enabling those employees with direct customer contact, something we do with multiple mgmt layers and a motivation system embracing the stick method that costs a lot.

Simple. SouthWest pilots fly 67 hours per month working 11 to 12 days. USAirways pilots fly 51 hours working 17 to 19 days (Within the training department I see at least two instructors working 26 days during May).

All these employees concessions and no change on the part of management. Wonderful.

Bullshark!
I am away from home 18-19 days per month and get 90+ hours of flying. Don't believe all you read. (This board proves it.)

 

[fly with US]

Simple. SouthWest pilots fly 67 hours per month working 11 to 12 days. USAirways pilots fly 51 hours working 17 to 19 days (Within the training department I see at least two instructors working 26 days during May).

You can't compare WN and US pilots anyway. WN, as a point-to-point airline, can have better utilization of their crews. US, as a hub airline, have many breaks in their flights while they wait for the next bank.

 

[nycbusdriver]

I agree with BoeingBoy:

Consistency is the key. As a "born again" low cost carrier, USAirways needs to simplify the product it delivers, and then deliver it consistently over a wide range of its diverse route structure.

Decide food beverage service based simply on stage length, then deliver that service in the exact same manner without fail on every flight.

Decide inflight entertainment based simply on stage length, then make it available without fail on those flights.

This way, everybody can easily be on the same page. You won't get an agent saying food is available for purchase when the company decided that "on this particular city pairing we won't offer food at all," and the flight attendants end up bearing the brunt of the passengers' understandable anger. Then, the next month food is back on that city pair. Then, the next month it's gone again. Etc.

The way US operates now, no one (including staff) knows what to expect in the way our product is delivered. How can passengers possibly get any consisent experience?

 

[Henderfuzz]

The other thing SW doesnt have are express carriers that operate on some of there routes. With us our pax may fly on a mainline flight for 1 segment than fly on a contract carrier the next. And we all know how different the service level is on those contract carriers.

 

[SKY HIGH]

The entire 2006 AQR is here.
Actually, you can.....if you expect a service and don't get it. Hence Piney's comments about "managing expectations".
Jim

My point is because they DONT OFFER those services, First class, meals, interline etc. Passengers CANT COMPLAIN BECAUSE THEY DONT OFFER THEM, HENCE LESS COMPLAINS.

 

[BoeingBoy]

I was sorta pulling your leg, but only sorta.....

If you look at the catagories that get the most complaints, most of the items on your list - "First class, interline baggage, Airline clubs, Business class, hot meals, assigned seating, Movies, upgrades...etc..etc" - aren't close to the top.

The top catagory for 2005 was "flight problems", consisting of cancellations, delays, & misconnections. Those accounted for about 25% of all complaints industry-wide.

The next catagory was "baggage", which accounted for another 22% of all complaints - there's where your interline baggage can come into play as long as you don't mean xfers between Express and mainline.

The rest of your list falls into the catagory of "other" with "FF" as a subcatagory. That accounted for 1/29th, or less than 4% of all complaints.

So where did we fall down on complaints?

Flight problems accounted for 176 of our 776 complaints - about 23%. WN got 20 in this catagory out of 160 total (12.5%), B6 got 7 of 41 (17%).

Baggage accounted for 287 complaints - about 37% (with a strong likelyhood of a carryover from the Christmas 2004 meltdown. WN got 22 (14%), while B6 got 10 (25%).

Operating the flights is something that every airline does. Likewise, getting the passenger's bag to the destination at the same time as the passenger. Having FC or not, business class or not, clubs or not, meals or not, assigned seating or not, upgrades or not - these don't have an impact on those two primary reasons for complaints.

Those two catagories accounted for 463 of our complaints - for a rate of 1.11 per 10,000 passengers. If nobody had complained about anything else, we would have been #17 of 19 - ahead of Comair & IAir, but far behind WN & B6. And behind all other major airlines.

So, offering all those things you mentioned may have moved us down a notch or two on the list. But not doing the basic things that every airline should do is what put us way down on the list.

Jim

 

[Henderfuzz]

I would imagine that the complaints from flight problems
includes those that our express carriers cause. Which I see as a major problem. There seems to be little accountablity
from these carriers and there operational problems.
And from where I work Mesa is a big problem. The jury is still out on Repbulic but they too seem to have problems.
Pax dont see these express carries as another airline.
There ticket is on USAirways no matter who transports them.

 

[BoeingBoy]

I don't disagree at all, Henderfuzz. Between operational problems and weight restrictions, I suspect that's a big source of the complaints.

Jim

 

[BoeingBoy]

Just a little blurb from Aviation Week that puts the cost of mis-handled bags in perspective:

Airline Outlook
SITA Says Mishandled Baggage Problem Increasing
Aviation Week & Space Technology
04/10/2006, page 13

Edited by Frances Fiorino

Printed headline: Where's My Luggage?

Infotech provider SITA, which tracks airline baggage information, says the mishandled baggage problem is getting worse on both sides of the Atlantic for a number of reasons, including airport congestion, tight turnaround times and mounting passenger volumes. SITA asserts that the airline industry in 2005 lost about $2.5 billion in efforts to reunite mishandled baggage with the owner. The happy side, according to SITA, is that reunions occur 99% of the time. An average of 204,000 bags have been lost or stolen each year, but that's expected to climb to 30 million when passenger traffic reaches the 2-billion mark--which will occur sometime this year.

Jim

[ps - I do wonder if there isn't a typo in this line - "An average of 204,000 bags have been lost or stolen each year, but that's expected to climb to 30 million when passenger traffic reaches the 2-billion mark--which will occur sometime this year." Seems like an awfully big jump so one of those numbers may be wrong]

 

[ALCARLOS]

On the smaller planes........ Since it is common knowledge that they are weight restricted, why does the full complement of seats continue to be sold?

 

[lwcntry]

On the smaller planes........ Since it is common knowledge that they are weight restricted, why does the full complement of seats continue to be sold?

They don't always sell all of the seats, but it is very hard to judge. Weight restrictions depend on many things, including temperature and winds. These are variable from day to day and hard to,far enough in advance, accurately predict what the restrictions will be. In adition, is there any bad weather around which would call for an alternate and additional fuel? So it's hard for inventory to just stop at a certain seat number.

I have dealt with inventory in several stations I have worked in, and have found them wanting to eliminate our problems, but it is not easy. You don't want to go out with empty seats you could have filled, nor do you want to have to bump pax or bags.

We have to turn in reports to the company daily on weight restricted flights and the company is working hard to fix this, but it isn't as easy as you might think.

Just to give an example, I have seen a 50 seat CRJ take 50 pax and all their bags one day, and the next day they could on take 32 pax and 35 bags, all because of the different weather.