Seems to me the highlights of the press conference were:

Move quickly to replace B767's with A330's (not clear how quickly), then plan to replace the A330's with A350's in 5+ years
Retain service to all currently served cities at approximately current levels (including PIT); don't sell any gates or slots
Repainting of the aircraft and rebranding from a customer perspective will happen "within months"
America West's fare structure will roll out across the full combined network
America West Arena in Arizona will become US Airways Arena
New headquarters will be in Tempe; new CEO will be America West's current CEO, but the new management team will be drawn from both companies' senior staffs


What else did people pick up on? Exciting news!

Do you mean AmericaWest Arena (soon to be home of the NBA Champ Suns)? :D

What's ameri west fare structure?

who can provide a link?

Where will the company be headquartered? Crystal City or Tempe?

EDIT: I Found it was Tempe. :( :( :(

RIP Crystal Drive.

America West Arena in Arizona will become US Airways Arena

:rolleyes:

I can't be the only one who thinks that sounds like s***.

New headquarters will be in Tempe; new CEO will be America West's current CEO, but the new management team will be drawn from both companies' senior staffs

All I can say is Scott Kirby better be staying. Why do they need any of the US mgmt team? It's obvious they had no clue.

Repainting of the aircraft and rebranding from a customer perspective will happen "within months"

So they have a livery already?

Do you mean American Airlines Arena (soon to be home of the NBA Champ Heat)? :DFixed it for you. :p :D

So they have a livery already?

Yeah.... the US Airways livery and brand identity.

Yeah.... the US Airways livery and brand identity.

I meant a livery other than one that resembles a flying hearse full of coffins.

:rolleyes:

I can't be the only one who thinks that sounds like s***.



All I can say is Scott Kirby better be staying. Why do they need any of the US mgmt team? It's obvious they had no clue.



So they have a livery already?

yes, repainting the HP fleet nearly black should do wonders to inflate the air conditioning bills at PHX and LAS...

I didnt hear this detail on the press conference, but saw it on the HP website:

The combined company expects $300 million in a signing bonus (read: bidding war) from the next affinity credit card contract.

WOW.

I didnt hear this detail on the press conference, but saw it on the HP website:

The combined company expects $300 million in a signing bonus (read: bidding war) from the next affinity credit card contract.

WOW.

It'll be interesting to see how all of this gets handled with the companies allied w/ HP & US.

Of course, BofA services both HP and US's credit cards, so I hope that remains (I'd hate to see it get transferred to MBNA or something).

... the new management team will be drawn from both companies' senior staffs...

Why? What has the US senior management team done to earn a seat at the table?

And when they use the word "rebranding," I hold out hope that they're not stupid enough to give the whole new airline the Darth Vader treatment. AC bills in PHX aside, the black look stands for a certain deep level of failure.

I didnt hear this detail on the press conference, but saw it on the HP website:

The combined company expects $300 million in a signing bonus (read: bidding war) from the next affinity credit card contract.

WOW.

Didn't I see somewhere that Amex handing over $750 million in advance FF miles payments to DL was one of, if not the, thing that kept DL out of ch 11?

I didnt hear this detail on the press conference, but saw it on the HP website:

The combined company expects $300 million in a signing bonus (read: bidding war) from the next affinity credit card contract.

WOW.

And I wanted to hit the powerball yesterday. It did not happen.

Didn't I see somewhere that Amex handing over $750 million in advance FF miles payments to DL was one of, if not the, thing that kept DL out of ch 11?

They did get a huge advance from AMEX, I imagine that may be what they are talking about, an advance and not a "signing bonus" (which to me implies something a little different, i.e., that US would be doing nothing more than agreeing to the contract and not receiving advance payment for miles).

Note that in the DL/AMEX case, they had a bit stronger of a tie since not only does AMEX do the DL affinity card, but they also have DL in the MR program (as is US) ... so it's possible AMEX could make a stronger offer than BofA because of that ... but on the other hand BofA does have strong ties with US because of the CLT hub (and there are quite a lot of BofA operations in Phoenix too actually) ...

Actually, to follow up my own post, it's right in the press release ...$300 million in a signing bonus and a loan from prospective affinity credit card providers for the merged company. Negotiations with credit card companies are still in progress.There is a signing bonus component it says, but it's probably dwarfed by the loan part and the loan itself would probably be in the form of an advance against future mileage purchases, much like the AMEX/DL linkup. Note that it says companies, I would guess that would be BofA and AMEX since they are the incumbants (AMEX through the MR program) and they may try and shop around now for a better deal, so the $300 million is a minimum.

BOFA might have some interest in some degree of investment in US.

Amex, I think not. US is currently carrying between 20 and 60 million on deposit with Amex to reduce their (meaning Amex's) exposure to a US liquidation. I don't see such an entitiy pouring money in simply because Doug Parker likes his own chances..

There are 38 cities served by both carriers. What are they?

I decided this query was worthy of its own thread.

See Thirty-eight shared markets in merged US Airways
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=434695

. . . full of coffins.

Huh???

I can't be the only one who thinks that sounds like s***.

Lol. US Airways Arena is not a new name. The old Capital Center in DC (well it wasn't in DC, it was in P.G. County in Maryland in the suburbs) sold the naming rights to US back in the early 90s I believe, so it was US Air Arena. The Bullets, Caps and Hoyas all played there before they moved to the MCI Center. When US changed to US Airways, it naturally became US Airways Arena.

Is it an ominous sign that the old US Airways Arena was blown up? (http://www.nbc4.com/news/1838917/detail.html)

Actually, to follow up my own post, it's right in the press release ...There is a signing bonus component it says, but it's probably dwarfed by the loan part and the loan itself would probably be in the form of an advance against future mileage purchases, much like the AMEX/DL linkup. Note that it says companies, I would guess that would be BofA and AMEX since they are the incumbants (AMEX through the MR program) and they may try and shop around now for a better deal, so the $300 million is a minimum.

Beckles - long time, no hear.

anyway as the original poster of the "affinity card angle" - I wasnt trying to ignore the loan component - just that I was really surprised by the amount of goodwill they've generated with these companies, loan or not. I suspect as mentioned above that the plan is to shop the offer around (as they've done with the previously leaked investors - sounds like they improved on some of the terms and found better deals).

Also - Lakefield is a CFO at heart - I wonder how much this has helped US/HP in attracting all of this additional money. Makes me wonder whether he had a general plan of all these different entitites participating and used his contacts to pull it off..?

...AC bills in PHX aside, the black look stands for a certain deep level of failure.When it comes to finances, black looks a lot better than red. :)

Yeah.... the US Airways livery and brand identity.

During the webcast yesterday when asked about the livery, Doug said they had not made a decision but that the name will be US Airways. I think they will change it and take about 3-4 years to paint all the planes.

During the webcast yesterday when asked about the livery, Doug said they had not made a decision but that the name will be US Airways. I think they will change it and take about 3-4 years to paint all the planes.

I'd hope that I'm not the only one who finds the idea of painting the airplanes of an airline with hubs at PHX and LAS dark blue to be absolutely insane?