Took my 2nd to last USAirways Shuttle flight today LGA-BOS.

Below is the letter I just e-mailed to US:

Dear USAirways,

I have been flying the shuttle between Boston and LGA for the past 3 years. I am a Silver Preferred member and have the USAirways Platinum Visa. I have earned over 200,000 miles on your airline over the past 3 years.

I am a 21 year old college student and have always purchased your student flight packs for offpeak shuttle flights. Today at LGA I was discouraged to learn that USAirways no longer offers the student flight packs for offpeak shuttle flights.

I just called Delta Airlines and they still offer the student flight packs for their BOS-LGA shuttle flights at the same price I always used to pay for my USAirways packs.

I have one coupon left with your airline. After that, I will cancel my Platinum Visa USAir card and switch all of my shuttle travel to Delta immediately.

While I have enjoyed the service on your airline, I cannot pay double or triple the fare when Delta offers the same flights every hour as your airline does. I think you are making a huge mistake. Not a single offpeak shuttle flight that I have ever been on using the student flight coupons in the past three years has ever been full. If your airline does not want me filling those seats, I will go to your competitor who obviously still appreciates business from students on offpeak shuttle flights.

Thank you.

[This message has been edited by Ringside (edited 09-08-2002).]

[This message has been edited by Ringside (edited 09-08-2002).]

FYI...Flightpass for seniors also discontinued, BUT US still offers offpeak Child/youth/senior fares....JUST not in booklet form.

The offpeak child/youth/senior fares are DOUBLE the price of the booklet fares per flight. It's a ripoff and I have no choice but to switch to Delta.

While your decision is definitely warranted, don't be surprised if DL discontinues theirs, too. It seems that every major airline is penny-pinching anywhere they can.

These are empty seats!! being sold to college students and old people. Both who do not have a lot of money.

What good does it do them to have even more empty seats? College students will fly less, drive, or take the train/bus if they are more affordable options.

[This message has been edited by Ringside (edited 09-08-2002).]

Ringside,

US Airways offers ShuttleGo Fares for college students.

http://www.usairways.com/promotions/specials/shuttle_gofares.htm

Fares are $98 roundtrip or $78 if booked on USAirways.com

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Ringside:
These are empty seats!! being sold to college students and old people. Both who do not have a lot of money.

[This message has been edited by Ringside (edited 09-08-2002).]</font>

Due to todays economy there are a lot of us out there without a lot of money. My company is just trying to cut costs associated with anything paper due to high distribution and tracking costs ( I guess). US was the first to discontinue senior citizen 10pct discount and Golden Ops booklets and the other majors followed. I think it's only a matter of time for DL to match this one as well. BTW, has anyone seen if AA will be distributing booklets or promo tickets ?

The problem with the GO Youth fares is that they are valid on flights from 7pm Friday night through 3pm Sunday afternoon.

I frequently return on the 7pm Sunday LGA-BOS shuttle flight so obviously this option would not work for me.

The student packs give you 8 one way coupons for $461 and allow travel Monday through Friday 10am-2pm and 7pm-10pm. All day Saturday and Sunday.

The student GO Fares have holiday blackout dates of Nov 26-27; Dec 1-2, 20-21, 26, 28-29, 2002. The booklets do not have holiday blackout dates because that is exactly when students need to travel.

Also, with the GO Fares I am bound to the exact flight time I purchase. With the student coupons you can get on the next flight available when you get to the airport. If I booked the 7pm Sunday flight and then changed my mind and wanted to take an earlier flight, US would charge me $100 to change. Who needs that BS.

Why are you so confident Delta will copy US's move? Wouldn't they have done it already? I certainly hope that Delta doesn't copy them. It doesn't make any sense given the fact that there are a ton of shuttle seats that go empty and the offpeak student discounts in no way affect sales of the $200 one way fares business people pay.

Delta also allows every shuttle passanger to standby on earlier offpeak flights. US does not. Hopefully Delta see's this as an opportunity to gain market share on their most profitable routes.

In my opinion US is handing Delta precious shuttle market share with their dumb policies. If it's one of the most profitable routes that they have, why mess with a good thing?

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

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by PHL:
While your decision is definitely warranted, don't be surprised if DL discontinues theirs, too. It seems that every major airline is penny-pinching anywhere they can.</font>

It wouldn't be surprising if DL matches on the student fare packet thing....but it also wouldn't be surprising if they didn't. Right now DL has the competitive advantage over US on prices and flight rules. I think they'll wait a bit to see if they get the boost in business.

DL is still offering a level of free standby service on the shuttle that is attractive enough to make me switch to them. I have a US shuttle flight this week. If US doesn't change its standby rules to match DL, my shuttle purchases are going to DL. If DL matches US (which I just don't see happening) I'll switch to Amtrak.

Ringside is right to switch. US has about 3 weeks to change or I'm gone too.

OK, kids, remember to let Delta know why
you're defecting. (US Air, too, maybe, but
they're so far in the toilet that it won't
matter.)

I absolutely agree.

I have noted on other boards that the US shuttle ticketing staff are rude and know nothing about their own product.

It is a shame, though, because after switching to DL last weekend, I now want to go back to US. DL has no assigned seats and it feels more disorganized than on US. That being said, I will switch everything over to DL now.

I know someone already asked, but does anyone know what is going on with AA's new shuttle? I thought that their last flight leaves at 7 PM, but the youth tickets are valid from 10 AM to 2 PM and then at 7 PM again. Maybe they will accept Delta coupons, maybe not. But it would be great if they would!

Looks like US Airways just pushed me over to Delta. Some questions:

-- Will Delta still accept any remaining US youth pack tickets? (My girlfriend has a RT or two left in her book).

-- What flight times are the Delta tickets good for in the DCA-LGA market? I'm assuming 9:30-2:30 and again at 6:30. Is that right?

-- Should I open a SkyMiles account or just throw the mileage from the Delta Shuttle runs into my United account?

-- Does AA offer youth packs for its mini-shuttle? Will they accept US or DL youth tickets?

edit

[This message has been edited by 2DCALGA (edited 09-09-2002).]

http://www.studentadvantage.com/buyandsave/?action=showPJP&business_id=9356

Looks like they are still selling them, at least through Student Advantage.

n/a

[This message has been edited by 2DCALGA (edited 09-15-2002).]

Another problem with the ShuttleGo Fares for college students: They seem only to cover the BOS-LGA and LGA-DCA markets but not the all-important BOS-DCA. What's a Boston-DC student commuter to do?

Looks like Delta matched:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum21/HTML/006597.html

I flew on Delta yesterday and had a conversation with the ticket agent about this. She also told me the following:

1) Delta will still be selling shuttle packs until the end of September.. you can purchase them up till the end, and still use them for 1 year (ticket agents will STILL sell these packs-- I flew with a friend on Friday who had just purchased one).
2) After September, 2 options for Shuttle flight:
A) Purchase your ticket a week in advance for $116-$126 roundtrip
B) For flexibility,there are 2 categories of youth fares that you can purchase at the gate (there’s a slight premium over the 1 week advance)
i) $65 one way (confirmed, that you can buy at the ticket counter, for off peak travel – ie 10:30AM-2:30PM and 7:30PM-9-30PM, all day Saturday, and until 2:30PM on Sunday)
ii) $100 one way (confirmed, that you can buy at the ticket counter for peak travel—all times other than the times mentioned above).

The good thing about these new youth fares is that they are confirmable, ie you don’t need to wait on standby. But, obviously, with this flexibility, there is a price premium.