ARLVACP

Ben Baldanza on an online chat with Wash. Post Reporter Keith Alexander just announced that miles earned on non-refundable fares will count toward elite status. Also, you can now stanby for a $100 fee. Baldanza credits changes to Customer feedback.

Doppy

Well, that's not getting me back on US.

I'm flying B6 in the markets where US is the only other airline.

d

Shareholder

Congratulations on getting this major victory. Means it will not be spreading to other programs like a computer virus among Microsoft products...

RustyC

This definitely helps. Was also interesting that the press release pointed out biz travelers flying on restricted tickets (juxtaposed with info about the standby fees).

I guess that's where they're aiming, but I think what'll happen is they'll snare a lot of very infrequent leisure travelers with it who were late to the airport and who might feel a bit exploited at the levels charged. Those people might pay but vow to take JetBlue or WN next time.

BrianB

That's pretty funny. What type of feedback were the expecting?

bp888

Unfortunately this "victory" is hollow. Sort of like 2 steps back, 1 step forward. Bottom line, it looks like the airlines have once again won in their constant battle to nickle-and-dime their frequent flyers.

marcuspratt

I'm still not sure if this gets me back on a US plane anytime in the future. Once bitten twice shy as they say.

You can't really show such an ugly hand and then decide to pull it back and hope that all will be forgiven and forgotten. Truth is that they showed their INTENTION and they will just find another way to screw us over again.

I'll give you my prediction. Can you see a major restriction on available award seats and/or the massive increase in the number of miles needed to make award travel? A reduction in the number BONUS miles offered to SP, GP, and CP? I say since they can't eliminate our miles/perks straight up they will just continually try to sneak through some other avenue over and over until they gradually succeed.

Also, did you pick up on the verbiage. BASE miles will continue to count toward perferred status. Thats a hell of a lot of 150 mile shuttle flights to get to 100,000.

I'm still perplexed about his continued insistance that somehow biz travelers are OBLIGATED to pay more for their flights than leisure travelers? What gives? What mandates that a biz traveler should get gouged just because they are traveling for business? It is a body in a seat, period. Forget about biz travel versus leisure travel, your just another passenger on the plane. Whether your wearing a tank-top and shorts or a 3 piece suite, the price should be the same. When are they going to get it beat through thier thick skulls that businesses and their travelers DON'T NEED the airlines. This isn't 1960 for Christ's sake and frankly business travel is almost a dinosaur as it is.

It is as if you wanted to go buy a new truck at the local Ford/GM/Dodge dealer and the salesman says "Well, if you just want it to cruise around in then the cost is $20,000 but if you going to haul things in it and use it for business purposes then the cost will be $80,000".

I guess confessing and re-confessing that the only true intention is to continually try to price gouge the biz traveler just makes me a little bit ill. What other industry tries this or has the audacity to think that the customer OWES them something extra. Why don't they just FORGET IT and move on with salary cuts for the $300,000 per year part-time pilots and the $90,000 per year wrench twisters and , of course, the multi-million dollar execs? Instead they are worried about full cans of pepsi and plastic knives which couldn't be a drop in the ocean of costs that they have.

Hey call me irate, crazy, or paranoid but you just remember one simple rule. "Fool me once shame on you , fool me twice shame on me". These A-holes will try something else underhanded for sure...and it won't be long before they do it.

Did you notice that the stand-by policy reversal has ambiguous "restrictions". Nice to not reveal all of the details when you have the opportunity. Just another smoke-and-mirrors trick to make you feel better until you get fried on a technicality. I really don't care either, I'm not paying a $100 to fly stand-by when they don't incurr 10 cents of cost to do let me go home earlier or later. They only win from the proposition.

The fact is that they were struggling BEFORE making these stupid policy changes. Now all of the sudden they want us to feel "Better" and at peace with paying $100 for stand-by. This is typical marketing (albeit HIGH RISK marketing) ploy. Gives us the worst news and then back it off a bit and hope that somehow it feels better and we feel like we have won something back.

I'll sit on the sidelines and watch for a little while longer and give my $$ to a different airline or simply drive.

Good Luck guys and gals, you'll need it with this airline. This all a bunch of BS, there is something more sinister brewing at the Crystal City, they aren't done yet, this is just buying time for them until they can think up a new scheme.

[This message has been edited by marcuspratt (edited 09-06-2002).]

dingo

Dear X,

We have heard from many of our top customers - and frankly, some of it wasn't very pretty - about the fare and Dividend Miles Preferred program changes that were announced in late August. We wanted you to hear directly from us that - based on this customer input - we have made revisions which we think strike a fair balance between customer needs and the economic realities of the dynamic airline industry.

Most importantly for our most frequent travelers, miles and segments earned on nonrefundable fares will continue to count as credit toward Dividend Miles Preferred status, allowing for all base miles earned on all standard non-refundable fares to count toward attainment of the Silver Preferred, Gold Preferred, and Chairman's Preferred levels.

Additionally, for travel on or after January 1, 2003, stand-by travel on nonrefundable fares will be allowed with a $100 fee, with restrictions. The previously-announced policy of nonrefundable tickets expiring after their planned date of use will continue. As was always the case, however, nonrefundable tickets can still be changed with the appropriate fees at any time prior to the scheduled flight, as long as you contact us prior to the departure time and let us know you cannot make the flight.

Some of our customers have told us that the original changes seemed punitive, so I would like to explain why we initiated this action. As many know, over the last few years, more and more business travelers have changed their buying patterns in order to take advantage of restricted nonrefundable fares which are less expensive. In fact, many companies now require these fares to be purchased. Admittedly, the complex pricing structure of the airline industry has forced some to this as corporate travel managers look for ways to reduce their costs.

These nonrefundable fares have traditionally been established to stimulate discretionary leisure travel for passengers who have flexible plans and are looking for lower fares. The prices were thus defined to attract travelers that generally don't need to stand by for other flights or fly enough to earn Preferred status. As the usage of these fares for business travel has grown and impacted our revenues, we have been put in the difficult position of either raising fares or modifying the rules to more accurately match our costs of providing the service. We must continue to find ways to balance the public's desire for low airfares with the economic cost of providing frequent, high quality service to the 203 communities which we serve.

We realize that our customers are key to our future success. We appreciate your loyalty and yes, even appreciated the negative feedback that some have voiced. I hope you see our action today as further demonstration of our desire to work with and listen to our customers. The fact that so many of our passengers cared enough to express their concerns shows that we are delivering a level of service that people want to utilize. We have 40,000 employees dedicated to customer service, and as demonstrated by our record setting on-time performance this summer, we plan to continue to earn your business each and every day.

B. Ben Baldanza
Senior Vice President
Marketing and Planning

CPRich

Congratulations on falling right into their plans. As I predicted...

ctuttle

You mean sort of like putting more rows of seats on planes, and then a few months later rolling out a big PR and advertising campaign announcing you are removing seats on planes to "give you more room in coach"?

It's funny the only thing USAir backed down was on the item that in comparison to the other items they changed did not create additional revenue. Oh sure, it might have when all the flyers would call their travel agents and tell them to only book full fare tickets, because they wanted to make sure they made elite status on USAir. Uh huh and that is going to happen. I wonder if they backed down because that was the only thing the other airlines didn't mimic and they knew they had to.

Guess USAir didn't get the memo from Continental, who during bankruptcy did everything they could to entice people to fly their airline by improving service, mileage bonuses, etc instead of nickle and diming their customers to get extra revenue. I thought when times were good and planes were full was the time to gouge your customers, not when you are running a lot of empty seats on flights where most seats were bought at a steep discount.

I guess I'll never understand airline economics.

marcuspratt

I could not have said it better myself. This is just what they wanted, to make us feel like we beat them at their own game. Now all of a sudden, paying $100 to fly stand-by seems "reasonable"

No thanks, they can still stick it where the sun doesn't shine.

It's a full reversal or nothing for me.

marcuspratt

Evidently, neither will they.

CO Flyer

I'm with you there - I have never understood why the airlines continually put out the low fares and then cry about how much money they lose when people buy them instead of the higher fare tickets.

I can understand why some higher demand days are more expensive (Sun, Mon, Thurs) and lower demand days are cheaper - but other than that, why should there even be a difference in the fare from one coach seat to the next on the same flight?