US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - US Airways Strives to Raise On-Time Rate

Article by Keith Alexander (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/09/AR2005050901324.html?sub=AR)

And then the rest of the story......

In addition to its on-time rankings, US Airways is focusing on the cleanliness of its aircraft.

The airline, which contracted out the cleaning of its planes' interiors in March, wants to ensure that the job get done properly. So it has posted job openings for "aircraft appearance supervisors" at its three major airports in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Charlotte. According to the job description on the US Airways Web site, the supervisor's job is to oversee the cleaning of the aircraft and "ensure that all areas of aircraft cleaning are accomplished in a timely manner."

For some frequent fliers, the attention to cleanliness couldn't come too soon. New York-based clinical researcher Michelle Cousin, who has logged more than 100,000 frequent flier miles on US Airways since 2002, has taken to carrying her own bottle of Formula 409.

When her seatmate went to the restroom on a flight to Houston last week, Cousin pulled out a rag and got busy with her bottle of 409.

"Sometimes the filth you encounter is deplorable," she said.

I would like to welcome Ms. Cousin to the dog house

My, what lofty goals you have, US. Methinks that setting something a little more plausible than No. 1 would result in more employees actively trying to reach the goal and therefore improve overall performance vs trying to be No. 1. A few months ago, AC started a similar program where the goal was to improve OTP each month by 3% over the same month the previous year. So far, it seems that they've matched the target each month. What's even better is that AC is treating the $75 as an 'advance' from the end-of-year profit-sharing so it's win/win for them and seems to motivate the employees too. A similar bonus program also exists for customer satisfaction levels each month based on AC's inhouse formula (focus groups, etc).

US was fighting for #1 in on time not that many years ago. And they were in the race too and the employees were motivated by it. Then some pinhead decided to change their software for passengers. When did they totally change the software, so that everyone would have to be retrained, and new with it? Maybe in January and February when not many people are flying so that they would have an easier time dealing with the ineveitable problems? Why of course not, that would require someone who actually knew something and was capable of a form of thinking process. No, they did it right before Thanksgiving week. No rocket science award for these guys.

The bottom line was on time plummeted, dropped by more than half as I recall. Passengers were outraged, employees were frazzled by all the problems plus several I talked to indicated they were completely demoralized by the loss of the on time race in that way. I dont think US has been the same since in fact.

I think that US should start paying attention to other FAA rankings if they have any hope of surviving.

For the month of March, US was 19th out of 19 in per capita consumer complaints with the FAA. This means they had more complaints than any other airline. Also for that month, they were 17th in baggage complaints with 12/1000 complaints. Those are only the folks who bothered to complain to the FAA. Who knows how many actually had problems that weren't reported.

At this rate, US will easily again #1 in on-time arrivals. It's much easier to turn and launch flights when there are no passengers or baggage on board.