Originally Posted by
superangrypenguin
Isn't it a fiduciary duty to cut costs where possible? That's why I'm confused when I read things like...the company is cutting travel. If it wasn't necessary in the first place...
It's also that reactionary thing. When things are great the strings get loosened. Up here in YMM the solution to EVERYTHING was throw more money at it. Hire more people, fly them in from wherever you can!
Now it's more like...we only want people from AB/BC, that flight to Dallas you wanted? Yea we can't do that anymore. All of our people from ON are over budget, they only figured it out now because they just decided to audit. It's ridiculous really.
Not saying I WANT this, but if you were just tighter in the first place the big profits would've been even bigger and it wouldn't be nearly the shock to the system that it is now that oil is <$45. ALL of a sudden you care they're over budget? If you had just told me 6 months ago what the budget WAS, I would've had them under it all along.
I think there's a happy medium for things like travel. Yea, maybe everyone travels economy, but on Flex fares so that at least when changes happen, they don't cost an arm and a leg, and the rider is free to use their upgrade instruments. But going from (and this is the extreme) J class on anything over 5 hours to cheapest Y ticket possible routing through 8 cities, is a huge overreaction. Personally I demand year long fiscal responsibility and sensibility rather than the "creep up" that we're talking about then the clamping down of those things when times are tougher.