Big News from AA? Emphasis on the ?

 
Old Nov 17, 2004, 1:23 pm
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Big News from AA? Emphasis on the ?

The Dallas TV stations are running teasers for their 10pm news about big news coming from AA which will lure flyers (frequent and otherwise I guess) to them by the zillions. Stay tuned.

Could this be the Game Boys or whatever they are calling those IFE things they are going to be passing out?
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Old Nov 17, 2004, 1:31 pm
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The only news coming out of aa today appears to be the removal of the pillows (please, no more threads on this topic) and the naming of a new director, neither of which is likely to attract zillions of passengers. I suspect that this is just another case of local news doing what it does best: pretending that a total non-story is newsworthy.
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Old Nov 17, 2004, 1:35 pm
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Originally Posted by Blumie
The only news coming out of aa today appears to be the removal of the pillows (please, no more threads on this topic) and the naming of a new director, neither of which is likely to attract zillions of passengers. I suspect that this is just another case of local news doing what it does best: pretending that a total non-story is newsworthy.
I agree. Could be the naming of the BNSF railroad exec to the board or perhaps this non-story:

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/041117/daw026_1.html

Either way, yawn.
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Old Nov 17, 2004, 1:37 pm
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Originally Posted by Blumie
...I suspect that this is just another case of local news doing what it does best: pretending that a total non-story is newsworthy.
It IS November. (Sweeps.)
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Old Nov 17, 2004, 1:51 pm
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Originally Posted by bbkenney
The Dallas TV stations are running teasers for their 10pm news about big news coming from AA which will lure flyers (frequent and otherwise I guess) to them by the zillions. Stay tuned.

Could this be the Game Boys or whatever they are calling those IFE things they are going to be passing out?
Which stations? All of the "majors"?
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Old Nov 17, 2004, 1:55 pm
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Which local station(s) is(are) hawking this?

Here are my guesses (in order of likelihood):

KDFW
KXAS
KTVT
WFAA

I'm in Charlotte so I've missed out.
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Old Nov 17, 2004, 1:59 pm
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"Guaranteeing" all flights on time?

Wife heard the tease for NBC5 (I'm currently in NYC) and she said (and I am paraphrasing) the tease went something along these lines:
American Airlines is going to guarantee all of their flights will be on time. How can they do this? Find out tonight @ 10 on NBC5...
She sent this to me via TXT msg on my phone, so I haven't been able to confirm our deny, just passing along my part of the rumor
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Old Nov 17, 2004, 1:59 pm
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This is what it is....

I live in Dallas and it will be on NBC 5 tonight at ten....I know somone who works there and apparentlly AA has concucted some way of making all flights on time 100% of the time ALL THE TIME.....I dont know how in the world this would be possible personally but stay tuned tonight and we will watch and see.....the website for that station is www.nbc5i.com
if you guys wanna check that that site around 1030pm central time tonight Im sure they will post something as to what its about.....
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Old Nov 17, 2004, 2:00 pm
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My guess is WFAA based on how far they are up the arses of the AA folks. Wasn't there come crossover with the Belo and AMR boards at one time?

I find that the local media is usually a day (or week) late and a dollar short when it comes to reporting AA news. Probably some announcement of Thanksgiving fare sales or the like.

Has anyone checked the press releases on the AMR site to see what they pushed out today?
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Old Nov 17, 2004, 2:06 pm
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Originally Posted by mwhitted
Which stations? All of the "majors"?
Primarily Channel 5 (NBC), which loves to "blow the lid off stories" involving AA, with teasers like "Another round of bad news for a doomed local carrier" when quarterly financials are out, stuff like that.

Near as I can tell, they're going to do a story on "TANGO" which is a project to get more planes to the gate within DOT A+14. The AA media relations people have been pushing this story pretty hard, so no surprise a headquarters local affiliate picked it up.
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Old Nov 17, 2004, 2:12 pm
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Originally Posted by more777sneeded
apparentlly AA has concucted some way of making all flights on time 100% of the time ALL THE TIME.....I dont know how in the world this would be possible
It's not possible, of course, and if NBC5 positions the story that way, it's simply irresponsible journalism beyond reproach. Here is some of the backgrounder info on Tango, which was for at least a while, available to media through AA.com:

TANGO INFORMATION
In the commercial airline industry, A+14 and D-0 are considered the "holy grail" in arrival and departure times. And, as you'll see below, American has created an innovative initiative that just had a major impact on its grabbing that "holy grail" of on-time performance.

BRIEF BACKGROUND
Airlines strive to ensure their planes depart exactly on time, or, reach the gate within 14 minutes after their originally scheduled arrival time. Running an on-time operation is critical to an airline's business, impacting customer satisfaction, lowering costs and increasing revenue. In fact, the Department of Transportation (DOT) airline rankings are based on A+14 performance.

With reputation and bonus money on the line, on-time arrivals are obviously a major focus. Based on feedback from more than 100 frontline employees who gathered together in Q1 and Q2 this year to generate ideas on how to improve customer service, American implemented a program called "Tango." Tango was designed to improve on-time arrival and dependability by offering priority to select flights that are within minutes of meeting the scheduled arrival time. The effort can potentially impact up to 50 flights per day.

SO HOW DOES TANGO WORK?
When a flight lands with a chance of narrowly missing or making the A+14 time limit, the captain uses the Tango identifier when speaking with American's ramp control tower. For example, a captain will say, "DFW, this is American 1043 TANGO on for Gate C31." The captain is essentially asking for priority to get to the gate to meet A+14. American also developed an employee intranet Web site to help Ramp Control identify Tango flights and re-sequence in-bound flights up to two hours before landing. Tango improves the coordination between incoming aircraft and Ramp Control, the ground crew and gate agents.

By focusing on those flights that are close to making A+14, Tango could "save" as many as 40-50 flights per day. To date, American has already seen a significant impact at key hubs and has saved more than 20 flights per day.

TANGO'S MAKING A DIFFERENCE
In fact, in September, American jumped into the number three position in DOT rankings for on-time arrivals. American edged out Continental by .1 percent. This 1/10 of a percent means four to five more flights are arriving on time each day. The last time American finished in the top 3 DOT rankings was March of 2003. American's September ranking shows American's highest on-time arrival percentage since October 2003 (88.2 percent and a fourth place finish).
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Old Nov 17, 2004, 2:22 pm
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Originally Posted by techgirl
...Has anyone checked the press releases on the AMR site to see what they pushed out today?
Yes. Nada.
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Old Nov 17, 2004, 2:27 pm
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Hmmm....sounds like something AS implemented earlier this year...see the AS board for their version of TANGO..."Turn Aircraft -N- Go. Not exact, but similar ideas. These two airlines are getting more alike every day...
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Old Nov 17, 2004, 2:30 pm
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Originally Posted by mickwrites
It's not possible, of course, and if NBC5 positions the story that way, it's simply irresponsible journalism beyond reproach. Here is some of the backgrounder info on Tango, which was for at least a while, available to media through AA.com:

TANGO INFORMATION
In the commercial airline industry, A+14 and D-0 are considered the "holy grail" in arrival and departure times. And, as you'll see below, American has created an innovative initiative that just had a major impact on its grabbing that "holy grail" of on-time performance.

BRIEF BACKGROUND
Airlines strive to ensure their planes depart exactly on time, or, reach the gate within 14 minutes after their originally scheduled arrival time. Running an on-time operation is critical to an airline's business, impacting customer satisfaction, lowering costs and increasing revenue. In fact, the Department of Transportation (DOT) airline rankings are based on A+14 performance.

With reputation and bonus money on the line, on-time arrivals are obviously a major focus. Based on feedback from more than 100 frontline employees who gathered together in Q1 and Q2 this year to generate ideas on how to improve customer service, American implemented a program called "Tango." Tango was designed to improve on-time arrival and dependability by offering priority to select flights that are within minutes of meeting the scheduled arrival time. The effort can potentially impact up to 50 flights per day.

SO HOW DOES TANGO WORK?
When a flight lands with a chance of narrowly missing or making the A+14 time limit, the captain uses the Tango identifier when speaking with American's ramp control tower. For example, a captain will say, "DFW, this is American 1043 TANGO on for Gate C31." The captain is essentially asking for priority to get to the gate to meet A+14. American also developed an employee intranet Web site to help Ramp Control identify Tango flights and re-sequence in-bound flights up to two hours before landing. Tango improves the coordination between incoming aircraft and Ramp Control, the ground crew and gate agents.

By focusing on those flights that are close to making A+14, Tango could "save" as many as 40-50 flights per day. To date, American has already seen a significant impact at key hubs and has saved more than 20 flights per day.

TANGO'S MAKING A DIFFERENCE
In fact, in September, American jumped into the number three position in DOT rankings for on-time arrivals. American edged out Continental by .1 percent. This 1/10 of a percent means four to five more flights are arriving on time each day. The last time American finished in the top 3 DOT rankings was March of 2003. American's September ranking shows American's highest on-time arrival percentage since October 2003 (88.2 percent and a fourth place finish).
So this could be at the expense of a flight that had landed early, so could be left sitting on the ramp because it was not in danger of being late yet? Or worse, one that was late already so could not be "saved"? They could just do something like Amtrak and schedule 4 hours for DFW-ORD flights so that they'll (almost?) always be "early".
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Old Nov 17, 2004, 2:49 pm
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Originally Posted by mwhitted
So this could be at the expense of a flight that had landed early, so could be left sitting on the ramp because it was not in danger of being late yet? Or worse, one that was late already so could not be "saved"? They could just do something like Amtrak and schedule 4 hours for DFW-ORD flights so that they'll (almost?) always be "early".
:-: :-: :-: :-:

Give this man a prize for the right answer!!!
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