Am I the only one who has this image in his head.
This marketing guru at USAir is an industry dinosaur with about 30 years of "experience" kicking his feet back thinking..."This is exactly how I have it all planned out, sure there will be some uproar, but they are so stupid that they will be back begging for us again."
This guy somehow has the perception that this is sellers market and that his supply is far less than demand and that somehow people just HAVE to fly USAir.
The other thing that bothers me is the undertone that somehow the FFs are doing something sleazy here. Almost has the flavor as if we are stealing from USAir. This guy wants us to feel like scumballs for GIVING HIM MONEY. Isn't there something fundamentally flawed here? Are we not simply purchasing the fares that are offered?
I also don't "get" how upgrades cost anything at all (other than the small cost of the preferred desks). Look, upgrades are only good if somebody doesn't PURCHASE the first class seat right? So, if nobody does, then at flight time what economic difference does it make if I sit in coach or FC?
Here are the facts. First and foremost, the FFs are not the scumballs here nor are the employees at USAir. The real sleaze is in the executive level at USAir (don't believe it, as some FA's or gate/ticket agents, they will tell you also). Here's what they have done.
1. Screwed over the employees (asked them to take salary cuts and then recently gave out $6,000,000 in bonuses to upper management).
2. Screwed over the stockholders and pensioners (remember all the "hang in there we aren't going to file bankrupcty" emails so people didn't dump their already massively devalued stocks? By the way, U was delisted from the NYSE and now is OTC worth basically nothing).
3. Screwed over their suppliers and lessors for billions of $$ (all outstanding debts are uncollectable).
4. Screwed over customers with this last batch of crap.
I don't know what they call that in airline lingo but in baseball (I know a bad example also) they call it a grand slam.
These "executives" are really ethical aren't they? Congratulations on a job well done.