WSJ recommends booking away from AA
Sep 19, 2012, 8:25 am
#31
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: National Capitol Region
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Sep 19, 2012, 8:26 am
#32
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: NYC
Posts: 1,393
I don't care if I arrive 30 minutes late. Flying isn't a Swiss train. Not saying this is acceptable, but from here to labeling AA 'unreliable'?
Sep 19, 2012, 8:27 am
#33
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: TPE, MNL
Programs: AA lifetime GOLD, but still an AA Baby compare to people here. CX nobody. BR Silver.
Posts: 984
AA, please layoff the right person, who does not want to work....
I believe most of the employees are good, just some are .........
AMR expects about 4,400 job cuts, warns 11,000
http://news.yahoo.com/amr-expects-4-...ce.html?_esi=1
I believe most of the employees are good, just some are .........
AMR expects about 4,400 job cuts, warns 11,000
http://news.yahoo.com/amr-expects-4-...ce.html?_esi=1
Sep 19, 2012, 8:45 am
#34
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 111
AA has a great ff program and a great elite program. DL and UA have both ruined their ff and especially their elite programs. Booking away from a great ff program to move to a crappy one would be stupid. I can put up with a few irrops, especially with AA's great handling of them. This travel editor has his head up his rear end.
Sep 19, 2012, 8:53 am
#35
Join Date: May 2004
Location: DFW-In Plano & CDG-In the 11th
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When reading articles like this in the WSJ, the Sun Sentinel, or elsewhere, it is well to remember that the writer is a union member and almost always a strong supporter of unions in general. This should not influence what is written, but almost always does. News writers feel it necessary when writing about labor-management disputes to write the article that the head of that particular union would write (in some cases, it is the union's PR staff that has written the article and shipped it over).
When reading articles written by travel writers, it is also well to remember that they generally don't travel much. When they do, it is on comped tickets that identify them as travel writers, so they have a far different experience than normal travelers do. The typical travel writer knows less about travel (from personal experience) than the average Kettle does. They do read a lot about travel, though, and tell us what they have read.
When reading articles written by travel writers, it is also well to remember that they generally don't travel much. When they do, it is on comped tickets that identify them as travel writers, so they have a far different experience than normal travelers do. The typical travel writer knows less about travel (from personal experience) than the average Kettle does. They do read a lot about travel, though, and tell us what they have read.
Sep 19, 2012, 8:53 am
#36
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Sorry, but a 39% on-time rate indicates massive unreliability, especially for a hub-and-spoke network where that many arrivals running 30+ minutes late can lead to thousands of misconnects daily.
Sep 19, 2012, 9:00 am
#37
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: ORF
Posts: 1,740
When reading articles written by travel writers, it is also well to remember that they generally don't travel much. When they do, it is on comped tickets that identify them as travel writers, so they have a far different experience than normal travelers do. The typical travel writer knows less about travel (from personal experience) than the average Kettle does. They do read a lot about travel, though, and tell us what they have read.
Sep 19, 2012, 9:29 am
#39
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I can't say that's necessarily true. I write on the side while I work and travel, and there are many like me. I flew, drove, sailed about 250k + last year, so I covered a decent amount of ground, and my tickets are never comped or have a note that I write, in fact, I can't think of any writer I know that does, short of Bryson or Bourdain, and maybe Simpson. It doesn't actually work that way. Everyone and their uncle wants to travel write and score free stuff, but it's just a fantasy that is happens.
Sep 19, 2012, 9:51 am
#40
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Sep 19, 2012, 10:00 am
#41
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: ORF
Posts: 1,740
Comped does not equal paid to travel. They are completely different. If you are using them interchangeably that is an error. I could not begin to say how much he travels, other than I would take a wild guess he is somewhere in the 50-75k a year range. Also, I would not personally consider him a travel writer in the least, he is a journalist who specializes in transportation issues.
Sep 19, 2012, 10:15 am
#42
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: SF Bay Area
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"Unreliable airlines have to cut prices and offer deeper discounts to win back travelers."
Is that good for us, cheaper airfare on AA.
The pilots have decided to be one unit so that they have more bargaining power to negotiate more favorable terms.
This is similar to why large companies get the best deals on AA with a favorable CoC while the rest of us are forced into one-sided terms in favor of AA.
If the employees feel they can get more power by acting as one unit, more power to them. If they don't like the union they may fire the employees, it is as simple as that.
__
BTW just because another country does something doesn't mean we should do it here.
Is that good for us, cheaper airfare on AA.
Oh well done pilots. In some parts of the world you would be put in prison for doing this. If you don't like your employer then quit, it is a simple as that. Stop taking your job and your customers for granted and behaving selfishly, the FA's made an agreement to take cuts, but your too superior to do it?
Fortunatley for AA they can impose a contract that can make employees more productive, which can offset the attempts at pilots sabotaging the company. How long will this take because this cannot go on for much longer? Also fortunatley UA/CO is a basketcase and have been delaying many flights recently, although they seemed to have improved.
Perhaps AA can wet lease some planes off another airline like Frontier during the union action. BA wet leased a Titan 757 for Gatwick operations this summer due to an aircraft shortage.
Fortunatley for AA they can impose a contract that can make employees more productive, which can offset the attempts at pilots sabotaging the company. How long will this take because this cannot go on for much longer? Also fortunatley UA/CO is a basketcase and have been delaying many flights recently, although they seemed to have improved.
Perhaps AA can wet lease some planes off another airline like Frontier during the union action. BA wet leased a Titan 757 for Gatwick operations this summer due to an aircraft shortage.
This is similar to why large companies get the best deals on AA with a favorable CoC while the rest of us are forced into one-sided terms in favor of AA.
If the employees feel they can get more power by acting as one unit, more power to them. If they don't like the union they may fire the employees, it is as simple as that.
__
BTW just because another country does something doesn't mean we should do it here.
Last edited by Xero; Sep 19, 2012 at 10:21 am
Sep 19, 2012, 10:38 am
#43
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 1999
Posts: 12,097
UA is a disaster, especially since the start of the summer. My planes have been hours late or in one particularly grim instance, I had a terrific double mechanical of a p.s. redeye in July that led to my flight being cancelled at 4:30AM.
Before you buy into the article's FUD, be sure to verify that the grass is actually greener.
Before you buy into the article's FUD, be sure to verify that the grass is actually greener.
Sep 19, 2012, 11:04 am
#44
Join Date: Jun 2010
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When I made my OP on the thread that ended up bringing this to light, in order to get a sense whether something was broken with FlightStats I did browse DL and UA stats. And they didn't seem broken. Yesterday, for example, they cancelled 0.7% and arrived "ontime" 71% -- not great, but not broken (compare to AA's 3.3% and 46% and DL 0.2% and 67%).
Sep 19, 2012, 11:18 am
#45
Join Date: Jun 1999
Location: NYC/LA
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