Originally Posted by
EIPremier
As I have said numerous times on various forums, I think this report is worthless. It has nothing to with how AS scored, as I said the same thing even in years when AS was ranking at or near the top. The problem is that the authors plug the data into this phoney baloney formula which places completely arbitrary weights on the different performance metrics. It's really comparing apples to oranges.
You really shouldn't bash empirical data like you do. Multivariate research does look like a phoney baloney formula, but it actually has some merit. Of course, as you point out, there may be some bias with weight given, but it is more than likely minimal.
According to their study, it is plausible that AS dropped as it did. Why not accept that? (if you want to wrack up $ for IDBs come fly SJC/SEA, because when I do there are almost always two requests - though it's slowing down now with our bigger planes back).
However, I agree that no "real" person would base their choice on a survey such as this. They think of the soft product or hard product.
Still, they got little justice when the CBS evening news merely mentioned their ranking without stating what the survey was about, but I think they did get recognition for being number two in on-time from CNN.