FWAAA

Yes, we could combine them into a government run airline - call it Amsky.

brp

PriceClub/CostCo, perhaps.

Cheers.

State fan

Just curious as to what makes AA's ff program better? I don't know much about it at all, but found US's program to be the best one for me out of all of Star Alliance programs. Very generous w/ upgrades, nice redemption rates using partners and extremely for actual redemption on partners.

Ultimately, the most important thing to me is how easy/hard is it to redeem mileage. US is not great on its own metal, but has been extremely good to me when using Star Alliance.

sts603

EXP desk (not sure how the current US Chairman's desk is - it was great back when I was a Chairman's in 2005-2006), 8 VIPs per year for EXPs usable on any fare, few to no upgrade shenanigans, one-way redemption awards, and an equally generous redemption chart across One World (noting the big negative of the BA YQ issue).

I think the bigger issue is that EXPs generally feel very well treated by AA. Upgrade percentages vary base don travel patterns but I think most EXPs think that the airline does well by them (with a few, but increasing number, of bad apples in the TA/GA/EXP desk system).

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

FFs look at programs very differently based upon their needs. As an EXP that flys almost domestic I'm more concerned about things like full meal service going away on flights less than 3.5 hours or the ability to maintain unlimited, space available complimentary upgrades for EXPs. Redemption of miles to me is secondary. I can usually get the (saver) award I want by being flexible on dates.

Now if I was flying to Asia or Europe a couple times a month my expectations and concerns would likely be very different. Some top elites have hordes of miles (even after giving away to family and friends) just because if you are flying 20,000 miles plus per month the last thing you probably want to do on your very limited free time is get back on an airplane.

I also like that FTs do not represent harden road warriors that have neither the time and more specifically the desire to blog about travel.

sts603

Meal service on shorter flights is a concern even though I think that the new AA-US will know it has to look at DL/UA service levels which are still much closer to the current AA than to the current US. That said, US's meals when they do serve them are pretty good.

I don't think losing unlimited upgrades at least for EXPs is a concern given that all UA and DL elites get them.

Ritz

And, in the process, breaking both of their "guarantees" to their customers over the short and long term - raising rates by nearly 25% almost immediately, and dumbing down the service by losing nearly 15% of its channels. Definitely a successful merger for the consumer.

GadgetFreak

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 6_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/536.26 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0 Mobile/10B143 Safari/8536.25)

I am refuting it. I don't think people change their way of approaching things that much. I think such changes are almost unprecedented in fact. If you spend your life thinking it works to focus on cutting costs and operating in non-competitive niches you don't wake up one morning and say that your big focus is customer service and a class operation.

GadgetFreak

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 6_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/536.26 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0 Mobile/10B143 Safari/8536.25)

If you reread my post I am not "bagging" on Southwest. In fact I am saying they have a similar model to US but do it better in my opinion.

eponymous_coward

You're quite wrong about this, then (which was also my point). US has regional carrier relationships like AA does, WN does not. US has widebodies flying TATL and a mixed fleet like AA does, WN does not. US has lounges like AA does, WN does not. US is a member of a major frequent flyer alliance like AA is, WN is not. US has first class like AA does, US has longhauls. And so on, and so on. US and AA serve first-tier airports like JFK, ORD, DFW, MIA, WN does not (in those markets, WN serves the LCC/secondary airport, save for NYC, which is a very recent change).

Like it or not, US and AA are far more similar in their services and how they operate as an airline than US and WN.

sts603

+1. There is not one similarity between US and WN that isn't also similar between AA and US.

GadgetFreak

I am aware of those differences. I however feel more or less like a cow on either carrier. And I think Southwest at least tries to make it nicer to be a flying cow.

sts603

Could you please be more specific. Because frankly the Y experience on AA/US/DL/UA is pretty much awful all around.

grahampros

Seems very prudent moves to stop all the red ink. The alternative would have been no satellite radio all together. Still remains to be seen if it remains given all the internet options now, but the moves likely improved the chances. It's a business not a charity.

sts603

thank you. outside the airline industry, companies that continually lose money go out of business. inside the industry, companies that continually lose money get chewed up by doug parker.