Originally Posted by
bkafrick
I know. The free hot meals and beverages and free pretzels is what makes me want to take an airline. Oh my...
I still dont get it. Who cares about all these free drinks and nuts. Why does that make them the most admired airline?
Just be sure to correlate the patterns of behavior by every carrier's CEO. For instance, when comparing CO and US, CO never cut their J and F cabins by as much as 60%. US did. CO never started charging for beverages. US did. CO never "expanded" internationally only by using the same number of a/c and reducing the number of days per week that they served long-served Europe destinations. US did. CO never let their lavatories and cabins be so uninhabitable that most flight attendants would not use the lavatories. US did.
The point is that CO and most other carriers except for US never went purposefully into the pit under the lead of the CEO. US did to such a degree that although they are now attempting half-heartedly to scratch their way back to where they were over 3 years ago, they still have a long way to go. "On time", because almost all carriers are so close to one another, is in no way a competitive advantage for them, or even a symptom of improvement efforts by them.
We will all know that they are committed to surviving when they add back that inch of pitch in Y and double their F and J cabins.
Until then, what they are doing is low end window dressing.
Anne