SAAve AA's Money: Some Ideas
 

I thought it might be interesting to offer some suggestions on how AA might save some money. The best money-saving ideas would have no negative impact on customer service (or might even improve service). Here are some of my ideas, not necessarily in order:

1. Ask passengers to close window shades before deplaning. Saves heating and cooling expenses. Potential downside: more frequent repairs to window shades.

2. Plastic hangers in coat closets. Lighter than current stock (save fuel).

3. Switch to retail industry receipt printers for tickets and boarding passes. Ticket stock is incredibly expensive. Since passengers can print boarding passes on ordinary copy paper and use them quite effectively, it makes sense to switch to cheaper printing. Would likely pay for the new equipment rather quickly.

4. Southwest-style beverage trays for drink service on smaller aircraft. The beverage carts are heavy and also block the aisle. Somehow Southwest manages to pour and serve drinks without them, and the drinks arrive quicker anyhow.

5. As they come into maintenance, remove the "No Smoking" lightbulbs and replace with permanent signage (such as seatback embroidery). The lightbulbs consume electricity and weigh a fair amount (fuel). Also, reuse the bulbs for the "Fasten Seatbelts" lamp, saving bulb costs.

6. LED reading lamps (replace as reading lamps fail). Lighter, consume less electricity, last a LOT longer, brighter, more focused, generate less heat (and save on cooling costs). Downside: initial cost of bulb is higher. (Might also use such lamps elsewhere, such as lavatory lighting, cabin lighting, and various courtesy lamps.)

7. In a row of three seats (such as right side of MD-80), stock two copies of inflight publications (aisle and window seats). I've never seen all three people reading American Way. Cuts down on some pounds (and weight) while maintaining readership.

8. Staggered MRTC/LRTC. JetBlue has a good idea, I think. Give the front of the coach cabin a little less legroom and the back some more. So then you choose what's important to you: getting off the plane earlier, more legroom, or a first class seat (which offers both). Might let AA put another row on current MRTC aircraft and remove one on LRTC. (Then AA would have MRIBC = More Room in Back of Coach.)

9. Handheld GPS. This one's a bit complicated to explain. If AA has any aircraft left that do not have point-to-point navigation, and if AA cannot justify installing panel equipment, allow pilots to bring aboard a simple handheld GPS (like the light Magellan 315A). They can note "VFR GPS" in the flight remarks then accept clearances such as "fly direct the Bradford VOR via heading 098 radar vectors." Basically they still fly headings as primary, but it allows ATC to offer direct-to routings while they have radar coverage. (It's a legal clearance.) Could cut down on the inflight time and save fuel.

10. Mesh seatback pockets. My car has these. Perhaps lighter (saving fuel), but more importantly facilitates cleaner cabins. Discourages passengers from leaving their (now visible) garbage in the seatbacks, and allows crew to more quickly identify garbage to collect both inflight and during quick turns.

11. Eliminate Skymall? Does this publication really generate money now that inflight telephones are gone?

12. Better signage to find seat. As America gets older, it would be prudent to improve the seat numbering signage. That might also include not skipping letters. (An MD-80, for example, would have seats A, B, C, D, and E in each row.) Helps board planes faster.

13. Eliminate airplane logo vanity lights. Saves weight. It's questionable whether this advertising is of much value any more now that non-passengers cannot enter the gate areas.

14. Consider using "AA.com" as the airplane logo. Saving letters saves paint and thus fuel. (Northwest is doing this.)

15. Consider Southwest-style group queues. I'm getting really annoyed at all the Group 18 passengers that stand right in front of the agent, blocking the Group 1 through 17 folks. Southwest has three or four lines set up for each group. Might not work at every gate due to space, but it would help planes board faster and improve turnaround.

16. AAirBus. At the big, congested hub airports, get a couple buses (with "legs") that can load/unload passengers off-gate if necessary. Helps improve airplane turnaround, customer satisfaction, and on-time arrival statistics.

Any more ideas? Any comments on these ideas?

all good suggestions but you missed a few..

1. reuse the plastic cups. collect the ones from the front of the plane when pax are done with their 2 oz of soda (don't let 'em keep the 6oz of ice - that can be reused too) and use them to serve the pax in the back. saves the weight and cost of 50-100 plastic cups per flight.

2. eliminate seats, install subway-style handrails and handhold-straps.

3. remove all that heavy, space-wasting safety equipment: life vests, emergency slides, rafts, oxygen masks, and all those weird machines that take up all the room in the overhead bins at row 8 on the MD80s. When was the last time you saw anyone actually use any of this stuff? (Even the floor-level emergency exit indicators add unnecessary weight.)

4. airframe insulation is heavy and unnecessary - passengers can bring sweaters if they don't like cabin temperatures below zero. And it's ok if the cabin gets slightly noisier; this will allow the removal of the in-flight entertainment and public-address systems, since no one would be able to hear anything anyway. A simple bullhorn will allow announcements before takeoff. ("Flight attendants will be in the aisles to sell industrial earplugs for the cost of only $2")

I'm sure others will have even better cost-saving suggestions.

I am especially taken with your AAirBus suggestion. The 'big, congested hub airports' which board and deplane on the tarmac are lots of fun. Further, those spoil sports avoiding this kind of adventure in customer satisfaction will lighten the load, thus increasing fuel efficiency even more.

Buy Full-Fare Non-Discounted Tickets? ;)

Enough of this crud. I don't mind if they keep it all, add some, and charge us $10 more a ticket.

Before you race to the bottom, remember you are going to have to live there. :

I still prefer stocking each seat with the American Way Magazine. I really don't want to be sticking my hand into my seatmate's seat pocket to grab his/her magazine.

Why can't we just have MRTC throughout?

I sure hope that every aircraft is equipped with GPS and point-to-point navigation.

I prefer "American." AA.com reminds me of low-fare no-frills airlines.

Your other ideas sounds pretty good. I don't know how feasible they are though.

There are some other threads today about nightmarish waits for gates due to weather. I'd much rather have an AAirBus option in trying times.

I can do better. The new Open Wide(TM) drink serving method eliminates cups altogether. Requires intensive flight attendant training, but it is possible.

Hopefully. Look, I want airline service to suck less. Dollars spent on unnecessary and stupid stuff could be funding service improvements. We don't need illuminated "Fasten Seat Belt" signs any more. If that means decent meals return, sign me up.

Ask AA, because they've got LRTC on many aircraft now. Wouldn't it be better if we passengers could choose MRIBC on every aircraft (per my idea)?

I'm not sure what the current situation is, but they weren't all so equipped just a short time ago. Anyone know for sure?

Thanks. I don't know either.

More ideas:

- Bag of popcorn as snack in coach (replacing the current junk). Light weight, popular, relatively easy to clean with dustbuster, inexpensive, relatively filling, lower carbs than pretzels. Downside: Is it more messy in practice?

- Plain cocktail napkins in coach. (Does printing them with the AA logo really cause anyone to buy more tickets?)

What are you talking about? Do you mean on the jetbridges? Or on the tails of the aircraft (lighting up the logo on the tail)?

The tail. Are they logo lighting elsewhere?

Does this one really gain AA anything over what they can already get from domestic ATC without any special RNAV/GPS type equipment? I was under the impression that ATC centers can calculate approximate direct headings. I've heard a lot of ATC clearances that appear to be vectors that will take a plane "direct" to a VOR a thousand miles away. I.e. somewhere over Iowa: "American 47, fly heading 235 for radar vectors direct Coaldale when able." And a few sectors and 500 miles further west you might hear something like "American 47, turn left 5 degrees, course correction for Coaldale"

Deleted. I hit submit before typing a message.

A few more ideas...
 

Cut FA pay by a third.

Decrease the quality and quantity of food served in FC.

Stop cleaning the cabins between flights and reduce overnight cleaning staffs.

Stack up flight arrival and departures to reduce the amount of time charged by ground crews.

Put increasing pressure on GAs so that they become more surly. This has a hidden benefit as PAX become less likely to ask for assistance and ground staff are less likely to waste time helping to change seats, escort elderly pax, or leave time for parents with children to board.

Oh, and my favorite, serve only half a can of soda to PAX.

How about charging a premium for overweight passengers like SW