I flew last night from BDL to BWI on the only rational choice, WN. Yes, you too can be one of 130 people paying a maximum of $77 for a one way, fully refundable ticket on the big brown (what is that color anyway) flying bus. As I flew on the short flight and thought I might note some interesting comparisons from the view of an AA fan.

1. AA’s service within the east coast is severely lacking. Other majors cover their east coast problem with a codeshare, ala UA/US or NW/CO. As PresRDC recently commented in a thread about PIT/NYC flights, many of us would happily backtrack through ORD or STL to stay on AA metal. In almost all cases, allowing reasonable backtracking at competitive fares would result in a net revenue gain for AA.

2. LTRC means LTFM (Less Travel for Me). I’m a lawyer in a large law firm and consult with clients all over the country. If they have issues in Nashville, I might need to travel there, or I might ask someone from another office to handle the matter and travel to Nashville instead of me, or I might find some alternative to travel such as teleconference or webex. Traditional coach seating is OK for average size folks so long as they have nothing to do but it is impossible to work in traditional coach seating. I use flight time on AA fairly effectively and appreciate the space and powerport that allows me to power up my laptop even when I am in coach (I don’t normally charge for travel time). If I can’t do this, I will travel less.

3. Cheap doesn’t mean bad. WN has friendly employees and perfectly acceptable gate areas. There was even free WiFi access in the gate area. The free WiFi was not advertised and I don’t know if came from WN but it was a good signal and I was not around any other airline gates. AA should really consider free WiFi in their gate areas. It costs next to nothing to provide WiFi in a gate area and keeps business travelers loyal. I’m not really suggesting that AA displace T-Mobile in ORD or DFW, but adding WiFi to O&D cities such as BDL would only cost a couple of hundred a month and help build loyalty in those cities where competition is particularly tough.

4. WN’s planes are clean. We have all seen dirty AA aircraft lately and attribute to cutbacks at AA. The WN aircraft I was on left from Houston and arrived in BWI at 7:05. It left from BWI at 7:35 and arrived in BDL at 8:40. It turned around at 9:10. There did not appear to be a cleaning crew in BDL but the airplane was still clean. Why? Because the flight attendants reminded everyone to clean up after themselves and to pass all trash to the F/A’s. People listened. AA should take heed.

5. WN does a good job with a lot fewer people. We had one gate agent to handle 130 people. He did a good job getting everyone loaded in 15 minutes. I have never seen this happen on AA. Why? People line up in A/B/C lines. AA’s Group 1/2/3/4 doesn’t work anywhere near as smoothly. I’m not suggesting AA drop assigned seating or keep us out of Group 1, I’m simply suggesting that AA invest in 1/2/3/4 signs for the gate areas and ask people to line up behind those signs. The line is there now – it simply isn’t organized. Similarly, on board there were only 3 flight attendants for 130 passengers. We still got drinks on a 40 minute flight. Why? The F/A announced the choices, told us that they were out of “What Do You Have,” and reminded us that all of this helped serve us more quickly. There were no meals but then ....

6. I like MD-80’s. 6 abreast LRTC seating makes me feel like I was back on school bus. I occasionally see postings complaining about MD-80’s. MD-80’s are a very safe reliable aircraft. Even in LTRC airlines, I prefer MD-80’s because they “feel” less crowded with 2/3 seating than 3/3 seating. Of course, FC in AA’s 737’s is even better.

7. AA could lower its costs without dropping to WN’s level. There a lot of things AA could learn from WN without impacting on my main dislikes of WN: (1) no assigned seating, (2) no room in coach, (3) no opportunity to upgrade and (4) a lousy FF program that doesn’t have good award destinations and where your credits evaporate every 12 months. I don’t think these areas are a significant savings to WN. WN makes money because it uses its employees more effectively than AA. WN also makes money because it uses its aircraft more effectively than AA and thus needs fewer airplanes for a given route structure. AA will never keep to 30 minute turnarounds in hub cities but it should be able to keep aircraft to 30 minute turnarounds in O&D cities.

8. AA needs to reduce its costs but offer greater value. AA will always have greater overhead than WN – it’s a lot more expensive to run an international airline flying to dozens of countries with multiple types of aircraft than to run a domestic carrier that deliberately avoids high cost airports such as LGA or BOS. Of course, there are economies of scale that AA should have over WN as well. The key to this is reducing costs while offering value. AA cannot compete in a commodity market where the only differentiation is price because its costs will always be hiring that the low-cost carriers. AA needs to understand that we will fly AA so long as it provides more value than the LCC’s. I see great signs in that regard since AA has been leading the last two customer service initiatives among the airlines, i.e., continued use of cellphones on the ground and changing the credit rules on non-refundable tickets. Hopefully, AA will decided to drop the LRTC initiative, at least in 757’s.

In closing, I feel sorry for those STL travelers that have been abandoned to the flying bus. Still, we can all hope that AA is on the airway to better cost control so that it can restore STL and other service.