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New on time initiatives (Reuters article) begin in Jan

New on time initiatives (Reuters article) begin in Jan

Old Aug 30, 2015, 5:59 pm
  #61  
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Originally Posted by entropy
OCtober will mark 5 years since the merged entity was legally created. In October they will still be accepting CO planes and UA planes into separately scheduled and crewed entities.
Can we say US East and West, reincarnated?

Sad.
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Old Aug 30, 2015, 10:45 pm
  #62  
 
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Originally Posted by halls120
Can we say US East and West, reincarnated?

Sad.
+1

Way back in 2008 I was advocating for a CO/UA tie up. See e.g. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/9332305-post389.html

I could post 50 links c2008-2010 where I said it made perfect sense to have these two airlines join up. That I'm now flying basically anyone but United says a lot about how sad the merged carrier has become.

The concept was good, but horrible management just destroyed the potential. I feared the worst when "freshbrew" came out, boy was I right...
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Old Aug 31, 2015, 12:06 am
  #63  
 
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Originally Posted by entropy
I suppose at least now agents will be able to see where inbound connectors are arriving from and determine if they can even make the flight. UA had this pre-shares.
They already have this. They know you have just run from your gate in F terminal to the B terminal from your delayed DTW to ORD flight only to gleefully shut the door in your face 12 minutes before scheduled departure time on the last flight to LAX. They just don't give a crap!
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Old Aug 31, 2015, 5:55 am
  #64  
 
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The article almost seems to imply that they'll be "re-banking" at all hubs. When they say they'll "circulate planes like competitors in their network" that is my takeaway.

However, again, why follow Delta? pmUA and pmCO used to have pretty solid on-time records. Can't they look back and see what made things work? I always used to feel that pmUA had a solid on-time track record especially in the years leading to the merger.
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Old Aug 31, 2015, 6:45 am
  #65  
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The article (and United?) is a hot mess.

1) United made C-level folks available with comments, you would think they would control their message. What should have been a strong message about focus on operations becomes diluted with other nonsense. I really don't know what the point of the article is? This is just PR 101.

2) United is fixated on some magic back-office cure to their ills. It isn't going to happen. No re-banking, no cleaner with RFID chip... What is needed is real operations management. Empowered staff on the ground and actual oversight of their many contractors. It is hard work and doesn't fit into an investor-targeted press release, but that is what would start to turn United around.

It is obvious when you watch operations that this is lacking. No sense of urgency, no management presence even at Intl irrops gates. There really is no leadership...
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Old Aug 31, 2015, 6:46 am
  #66  
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Originally Posted by mh3265a
The article almost seems to imply that they'll be "re-banking" at all hubs. When they say they'll "circulate planes like competitors in their network" that is my takeaway.

However, again, why follow Delta? pmUA and pmCO used to have pretty solid on-time records. Can't they look back and see what made things work? I always used to feel that pmUA had a solid on-time track record especially in the years leading to the merger.
pmUA did have pretty good OT record. But since that was pmUA, that practice has no doubt been rejected by current management.
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Old Aug 31, 2015, 7:07 am
  #67  
 
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Originally Posted by goodeats21
No re-banking, no cleaner with RFID chip... What is needed is real operations management. Empowered staff on the ground and actual oversight of their many contractors. It is hard work and doesn't fit into an investor-targeted press release, but that is what would start to turn United around.
My guess is that they tossed someone out there not for investors, but because United is getting real pressure from corporate accounts and its own corporate sales staff. United will spend the next few months negotiating with corporate travel departments, and they need a pitch to try to counter the very effective Delta ads, and actual accomplishments. Are you going to be the guy who switches to United? The guy who keeps an exclusive deal with United? They guy who tries to get more of your staff to fly United? Discounts only go so far, when United not only has far worse service, but runs 10-15% points less OT with 6x the cancellation rate.

The real problem, and why we see a mindless piece that makes United look silly though is that there is no plan. The plan was to tighten connecting times with rebanking, get more out of staff and equipment. It blew up in Jeff and Co's face. And its not a surprise, nearly all of us predicted this. So United is back to the old CO "savvy" strategy of promising some "changes you are gonna like" at some point in the future.
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Old Aug 31, 2015, 7:43 am
  #68  
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Maybe, but it ran in Yahoo Finance section and there was certainly messages in there about controlling costs - the favorite mantra for United to investors:

tackle the delays and cancellations that have hurt its competitiveness, company executives told Reuters.

They reflect a broader effort by United to boost customer and investor confidence...

United grew revenue nearly 5 percent from 2012 through 2014 to $38.9 billion, while Delta has grown revenue twice as fast to $40.4 billion.

"We know your plane landed," she said. "How can we use data and analytics to actually hold that door open for you?" The move saves United the costs of rebooking.
If this aimed at corporate account negotiation, it really missed the mark...or at the least should have been MUCH more effective. Any message intended is incredibly muddled.
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Old Aug 31, 2015, 8:10 am
  #69  
 
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Originally Posted by spin88
My guess is that they tossed someone out there not for investors, but because United is getting real pressure from corporate accounts and its own corporate sales staff. United will spend the next few months negotiating with corporate travel departments, and they need a pitch to try to counter the very effective Delta ads, and actual accomplishments. Are you going to be the guy who switches to United? The guy who keeps an exclusive deal with United? They guy who tries to get more of your staff to fly United? Discounts only go so far, when United not only has far worse service, but runs 10-15% points less OT with 6x the cancellation rate.

The real problem, and why we see a mindless piece that makes United look silly though is that there is no plan. The plan was to tighten connecting times with rebanking, get more out of staff and equipment. It blew up in Jeff and Co's face. And its not a surprise, nearly all of us predicted this. So United is back to the old CO "savvy" strategy of promising some "changes you are gonna like" at some point in the future.
Agree 100%.
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Old Aug 31, 2015, 8:24 am
  #70  
 
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Originally Posted by goodeats21

2) United is fixated on some magic back-office cure to their ills. It isn't going to happen. No re-banking, no cleaner with RFID chip... What is needed is real operations management. Empowered staff on the ground and actual oversight of their many contractors. It is hard work and doesn't fit into an investor-targeted press release, but that is what would start to turn United around.

It is obvious when you watch operations that this is lacking. No sense of urgency, no management presence even at Intl irrops gates. There really is no leadership...
You described just how I feel. They can blame weather, union contracts, whatever. But until there is good leadership with both a short and long term plan to fix operations, very little is going to change.

The RFID chip actually made me laugh. Maybe I just don't understand how it would work. But today, a cleaning crew exits the plane right next to the desk at the gate. That's the GA's signal to know the plane is clean. I'm not sure how knowing this 30 seconds earlier is going to help much. And they still have to wait for the cleaning crew to exit before they can board. Seems like a huge waste of money to me.
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Old Aug 31, 2015, 8:43 am
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Originally Posted by JBord
The RFID chip actually made me laugh. Maybe I just don't understand how it would work. But today, a cleaning crew exits the plane right next to the desk at the gate. That's the GA's signal to know the plane is clean. I'm not sure how knowing this 30 seconds earlier is going to help much. And they still have to wait for the cleaning crew to exit before they can board. Seems like a huge waste of money to me.
Agreed, but from a PR standpoint, it sounds like they are actually doing something, especially something "tech-y". (Ooh, look at us, we're investing in RFID!) The common sense approach you stated doesn't win any press points.
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Old Aug 31, 2015, 9:19 am
  #72  
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I wonder how they'll make holding connecting flights work. You hold that flight, and it delays downstream connections. I suppose they can apply some magic algorithm to see how many people are impacted and by what measure, and take that into account... but that's way more faith in UA IT than I think is warranted.

They'd need to be able to proactively change arriving gates--if there are a lot of pax with close connections, and you can do a gate change so that the arriving flight is closer to the departing one, that helps. Of course, it has to be done early enough that you don't confuse people with the gate change, and if there's already a plane there, moving it isn't easy or cheap. It would be nice if mainline-to-mainline connections could at least analyze and prioritize connecting pax in choosing gates well ahead of time.

They'd have to also be able to forecast average speeds for pax walking between gates and distances. Arriving at G100 at SFO and connecting to gate 68? Probably you aren't making that 10 minute connection, so why hold the flight.

The most ridiculous I experienced was IAD-DEN-ABQ, where IAD-DEN arrived late... but parked at a gate immediately opposite the DEN-ABQ flight. It was literally about 10 yards away. I was in F and had a clear shot off the plane to the connecting flight. Clearly, the DEN-ABQ GA should have seen that on the manifest...

... yet even though my bag made the flight, and I met a closed door for DEN-ABQ.
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Old Aug 31, 2015, 9:31 am
  #73  
 
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Originally Posted by exerda
I wonder how they'll make holding connecting flights work. You hold that flight, and it delays downstream connections. I suppose they can apply some magic algorithm to see how many people are impacted and by what measure, and take that into account... but that's way more faith in UA IT than I think is warranted. ...
Perhaps you're over-thinking this.

Instead of implementing sophisticated IT or procedural changes (a capability that demonstrably does not exist), all they need to do is add 1 hour to the scheduled flight time, then they can "make it up" in-flight.
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Old Aug 31, 2015, 9:32 am
  #74  
 
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Originally Posted by goodeats21
If this aimed at corporate account negotiation, it really missed the mark...or at the least should have been MUCH more effective. Any message intended is incredibly muddled.
Corporate accounts are focused on what's contracted and delivered, which is addressed in private negotiations. A piece written by Reuters is oriented more towards investors and unmanaged corporate business.
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Old Aug 31, 2015, 9:46 am
  #75  
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Originally Posted by fly18725
Delta's (fka Northwest) operating philosophy is nothing like PMUA's outside of the dependence on older aircraft. Northwest and Continental were much more similar in those respects.

Delta does have a very unique fleet strategy.
Not really. Northwest was generally super reliable even at MSP and DTW in the middle of winter with a great computer system. NW exceeded at IRROPS, CO always pooped the bed during it because of not having enough schedule padding, available seats, or aircraft. If anything, NW philosophy has dragged up DL's o/t rating since was pre-merger it wasn't great.

CO philosophy of "domino affect" scheduling is alive and well at UA. Hence a 738 being backed up with one rolling delay if it flies ORD-EWR-SDQ-EWR-FLL-EWR-SFO. Look at flightaware -- these are the types of CO schedules that contributes to the sub 80% on-time rating.
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