I agree things like FC, meals, etc are not the big problem. However, you can only cut salaries and benefits so much. Other than pilots, most non-management airline employees are already among the lowest paid folks around. If you cut them down too much no one will want to work in the business.

The big picture is how the business is operated. LCCs are newer companies and run clean and lean. Legacy corporations like CO and DL have massive amounts of overhead that need to get cleaned out like lint from a dryer. I have said in previous posts that before any customer benefits are cut, an airline which is primarily a service business, must examine its entire operation - everything from its cost of real estate down the monthly cost of photocopier rentals and everything in between. The business or back-end operations need to lean out to free up revenue for the service side of the business.

I look at it this way. For a manufacturing company to thrive, it must invest a certain amount of money in R+D. Even if it's not doing well, you still need R+D to drive product and manufacturing innovation. In my view, an airline must do the same. Their R+D translates into service improvements that can drive new revenue and attract business - service improvements which set it apart from the competition. So, an airline should look to cut from its business operation before cutting its customer product...and not only that, it should always have some revenue devoted to improving the customer product. The olives off the salad routine, which was an odd source of pride for Crandall, was the wrong way to go. Everyone remembers it and the amount of money saved does not come close to the damage done by the negative way it was perceived. It was not the silly olives, it was the perception that value was being removed from the product - that something was being taken away from the customers.

Right now, United doesn't have a pot to pee in money wise, but with their new PS service, they are rolling out the biggest news in airline product innovation in years. Maybe it's a gamble, but if it pays off, they have created a new product that will make their service the standard for quality when flying between the coasts. They saw the need to innovate or perish. Attract new business or be left behind. Think outside the box for once.

Look at CO - no product innovation or program changes that have any chance of driving new business. Slight improvements to BF seating certainly do not offset cutbacks and nickle-and-dime initiatives in other places. The airlines need to make money, but they won't do it by proudly showing off savings which are just cuts to service. The shareholders might like it, but the customers won't. If there aren't enough customers, there won't be any shareholders. One of CO's problems is thinking their airline is better than everyone else's because that is what Gordon says. Just because Gordon says so, doesn't make it so. Many companies have failed by assuming they are the best and their customers should be honored to do business with them. That is just the wrong attitude to have in a competitive industry where customers have choices.