I've been reading this thread and reactions on various news sites. Seems that the overwhelming majority of complaints mention overhead bin space and folks trying to carry on even more to avoid the charge.
IMO, people are looking at this wrong. This should be an opportunity to learn to pack smarter and travel lighter.
It's like gas prices. People would rather whine and complain--however warranted--rather than trade in their massive SUV for a more fuel-efficient vehicle, or even carpool in lieu of driving to work alone.
I think that you have hit the nail on the head. At $4 for jet fuel and rising paxs want fares low but then they don't want to see additional or higher fees (some of which could be avoided with a little common sense) and somehow they think that the airlines won't go out of business. AA's loss for the second quarter, including the MD80 grounded debacle (which the FAA is at least partially to blame for) will probably exceed the approximate $325 million loss for the first quarter. AA is headed towards an annual loss of about a $1 billion.
I see paxs at JFK going to places like MIA (probably for a week at the most) and they are bringing enough "rubbish" along to support themselves for days on end. And all of that crap forces higher fuel burn. Don't want to pay the $30 RTW, pack lighter and use small sizes of liquids.
If you were CEO, what would you do. And the proiblem with huge capacity cuts is that a good portion of aircrafts have lease or debt payments associated with them. Can't just take 25% to 35%+ of the fleet and park in the desert.
I fly on aa (exclusively) for the perks I get when I become executive platinum (one of which is free domestic upgrades); if i aa wouldn't let me keep my perks i'd go elsewhere--and i guess others would also.
But someday when all airlines do this (it will happen), it will be the same everywhere else as well. Revenue will go up with full price first class fares and it may help keep coach prices a little lower than they might be. Everyone wins.
But someday when all airlines do this (it will happen), it will be the same everywhere else as well. Revenue will go up with full price first class fares and it may help keep coach prices a little lower than they might be. Everyone wins.
I don't think upgrade privileges for elites will disappear. It may become more infrequent, but I think that's a massive part of their incentive for brand loyalty.
10 years ago, AMR's average fuel cost was $0.55/gal.
Today, the spot price of jetA is over $4/gal.
AA should have been charging everyone for the services they consumed all along. But failure to charge properly a long time ago is no excuse for not doing it now.
Back then aa was trying to make the hub system the way it was planned: planes from hub cities to most (important) destinations nearly hourly, lots of empty seats, so that misconnects could easily be accomodated. Even at $0.55/gal they were probably running an inefficient operation. Now they run fewer planes (many runs are at full capacity); even with $4/gal, they may be better off now.
[While not a direct comparison, the swiss railroads (based on a referendum a few years ago) run (IMHO) a good system, 2 trains from most big cities to all other big cities/hour, even though outside rush hour most trains are sparsely populated. Electric rr's are non-poluting and are not (directly) dependant on fuel costs.]
If it weren't for FT, I would not be on my way to getting status soon and I would be in trouble - kudos to FT! Still super shocked about the 1st bag charge though...
The worst thing now, for AA passengers, is that we're going to have to deal with employees in mourning over the next couple of months. Service will get horrible while people wait for the axe to fall.
I think they should have stated this fee differently:
We know some passengers prefer not to check a bag. Because of this, we will waive $15 from the additional fees/taxes when a passenger chooses not to check a bag.
Of course, ticket price stays the same, this is waived from the additional fees that are not part of the ticket but added to the fare.
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Sometimes I forget that I have a photographic memory.
Back then aa was trying to make the hub system the way it was planned: planes from hub cities to most (important) destinations nearly hourly, lots of empty seats, so that misconnects could easily be accomodated. Even at $0.55/gal they were probably running an inefficient operation. Now they run fewer planes (many runs are at full capacity); even with $4/gal, they may be better off now.
[While not a direct comparison, the swiss railroads (based on a referendum a few years ago) run (IMHO) a good system, 2 trains from most big cities to all other big cities/hour, even though outside rush hour most trains are sparsely populated. Electric rr's are non-poluting and are not (directly) dependant on fuel costs.]
I agree, the hub system allowed the airlines to expand into more markets and create the means to get paxs to their destination in a much more effective manner, thus taking market share. Prior to the hubs, a business man traveling for example from MCI to ORF would probably need to go through several plane changes and onto more than one airline.
However, the hub system is an expensive structure to maintain that has become severly strained with capacity levels that hubs were never mean't to have. If oil remains at $100 plus (and now realistically $150 plus) for an extended period time all airlines will be force to alter their business model (including non hub lccs) ,assuming that they can stay in business for the short term.
Wheew, with a 10-11% reduction in flights, and thus higher loads, when exactly will be we able to redeem (dump) AA miles?
Does AAdvantage offer magazines for miles...
I hardly ever redeem miles for domestic travel, which, if what I understand is correct, is where that 10-11% reduction will come from. Int'l is where the redemptions are most useful. YMMV
) destinations nearly hourly, lots of empty seats, so that misconnects could easily be accomodated. Even at $0.55/gal they were probably running an inefficient operation. Now they run fewer planes (many runs are at full capacity); even with $4/gal, they may be better off now.
/AA EXP Platinum but AA SUCKS Avoid if you can/ CO Platinum/AR Club Condor
