DesertFlier, you aren't the first HP traveler I've seen/heard say "US wrecked my airline." I've heard others say it too.

For the record, I flew HP only 3 times in my life prior to this version, so I'm not sure I'm terribly well qualified to comment on HP...but there are two things I can recall, witch excellent clairity.

About a week (or less) after the marriage was announced, I found myself on an HP flight, OAK-SJD with a client. We were in an exit row on an A320.

After the crew came through the cabin with drinks and a pretzel, I went to the back to chat with the crew...introduced myself, explained my US credentials both as a CP and as the husband or a F/A who started with PI in 1984. And I explained how excited I was at the marriage. (And I was VERY excited when this thing first rolled out.)

The senior F/A who claimed she was one of the most senior F/As in the entire system had, I believe either 17 or 13 years (can't remember which) and said, "it's hard for me to believe this marriage can be anything easy, America West is the most stripped down company in the business." I looked at her and said, "you have no idea how far down US has come with 2 BKs." She said, "there is no way US could have less then we do."

Hindsight being 20/20....she was right. US was still a much, much better product, from my vantage point....it's just that US was rooted in the Northeast, which is a BRUTAL place from a traffic perspective as well as our legendary "coarseness" in our attitude. LOL

But I also remember this...lots of people in the west liked the airline. I do LOTS of biz on the west coast, and I've not really met anyone that has the attidue toward HP that I now have.

Which brings me back to where I've been ALL along.....I personally believe this is a CLASSIC case of "over-promising and under-delivering." I don't believe this management team knew what they were doing in creating the positioning they did...I don't think they even REMOTELY knew how challenging the business environment is here in the northeast nor the personalities and expectations we have.

And, I believe they cut SO much...that they took both airlines down. HP inherited a MASSIVE number of pax and therefore elites, making upgrades harder to come by...and US inherited the retarded "business casual" mentality that is HP.

In the mean time, W. Douglas Parker and his team have ZERO idea of how to cope with high yield, VFFs...because he had none...he had to battle WN on price to stay alive. ANY moron that says, "if there's any group we're going to hammer with fees, it's the Chairmen's group" CLEARLY does not know how to deal with that group.

So there ya go...