American Ranked Last Again in Operational Performance (WSJ Jan 2020)
Jan 16, 2020, 11:05 am
#47
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Is is he ready to be inducted into The Hall of Fame, along with Frank Lorenzo, Carl Icahn, and most recently, Jeff Smisek?
Yes, as soon as a pig is cleared for final approach at DFW.
The fact that he still has a job is astounding. A few posts back, I posted the ranking that really matters to those who employ Parker. He's produced a negative return during a 12-month period where the stock market was up big and his major airline competitors all produced positive returns (one of them even beating the S&P 500).
Oh, I get it. Sarcasm?
Last edited by JDiver; Jan 19, 2020 at 12:18 am Reason: Close quote
Jan 16, 2020, 11:17 am
#48
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Allegiant should have very high rankings for on-time performance and baggage handling given the nature of their operation. The MD-80s are gone; they're all Airbus now so that lessens the aging aircraft issue maintenance delay potential. As for AAY's route map, pretty easy to avoid ATC delays when you fly to such metropolises as OWB, BLI, PGD, GFK...
Jan 16, 2020, 11:18 am
#49
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Jan 16, 2020, 12:06 pm
#51
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Jan 16, 2020, 12:17 pm
#52
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Nice strawman there. I agree there is a huge difference in corporate philosophy. In fact, offering generous VDB compensation to avoid involuntarily bumping your customers is a pretty customer-friendly approach. But the specific mechanism by which Delta achieves a VDB rate hundreds of times lower than AA's is through generous VDB compensation. It's also possible that they overbook less aggressively and/or have fewer IrrOps situations that result in overbooking, but you can see that Southwest (who doesn't overbook at all) has more involuntary bumps than Delta
And if you want a data point, the two airlines that have substantially upped their VDB compensation in recent years (United also caps out at ~$10K now) are the airlines that have IDB rates at least 10x lower than anyone else which is why they show up as #1 and #2 in the metrics now. (United was dead last before they made the change and is still pretty terrible in most operational metrics.)
And if you want a data point, the two airlines that have substantially upped their VDB compensation in recent years (United also caps out at ~$10K now) are the airlines that have IDB rates at least 10x lower than anyone else which is why they show up as #1 and #2 in the metrics now. (United was dead last before they made the change and is still pretty terrible in most operational metrics.)
Jan 16, 2020, 12:41 pm
#53
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As mentioned in the article, I think AA's IDB performance was also likely impacted by the MAX grounding -- they had to pull those aircraft from the schedule and they typically replaced them with un-Oasised 738s with fewer seats that ended up overbooked and eventually oversold. DL obviously didn't have this. I'm not sure if WN's MAXes had the same issue, and for UA the MAX was a smaller piece of the capacity. Of course AA could have probably proactively managed this better, and certainly the VDB comp limits helps mitigate it (hence UA at #2 on IDB). So I think it just comes down to AA not giving a hoot about its passengers.
In fact, Delta actually VDBs more people than AA. From this article:
Government statistics show that Delta oversold more flights in the third quarter this year. Some 142,403 Delta passengers voluntarily took themselves off flights during the period, compared with 138,708 at American.
So, even though Delta overbooks more than AA, they end up with massively fewer IDBs. There's no possible explanation for this other than higher VDB compensation.
Jan 16, 2020, 1:00 pm
#55
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Jan 16, 2020, 1:40 pm
#56
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9 vs 15000 IDB?
I can't believe it.
There's gotta be a typo or something. Or an error in the metrics that do not compare apples to apples.
Also out of the millions of pax DL has I find it statically impossible that they had only 9 Idbs
Would like to see the numbers of the other airlines to put it in perspective.
I can't believe it.
There's gotta be a typo or something. Or an error in the metrics that do not compare apples to apples.
Also out of the millions of pax DL has I find it statically impossible that they had only 9 Idbs
Would like to see the numbers of the other airlines to put it in perspective.
Jan 16, 2020, 2:13 pm
#57
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9 vs 15000 IDB?
I can't believe it.
There's gotta be a typo or something. Or an error in the metrics that do not compare apples to apples.
Also out of the millions of pax DL has I find it statically impossible that they had only 9 Idbs
Would like to see the numbers of the other airlines to put it in perspective.
I can't believe it.
There's gotta be a typo or something. Or an error in the metrics that do not compare apples to apples.
Also out of the millions of pax DL has I find it statically impossible that they had only 9 Idbs
Would like to see the numbers of the other airlines to put it in perspective.
- HA - 37 / 0
- DL - 46,408 / 3
- UA - 20,702 / 15
- B6 - 785 / 8
- WN - 4,806 / 314
- AS - 3,430 / 152
- AA - 37,367 / 3,481
Jan 16, 2020, 5:34 pm
#58
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This is all reported by the DOT. For the July - September period in the report I linked to (VDB / IDB):
- HA - 37 / 0
- DL - 46,408 / 3
- UA - 20,702 / 15
- B6 - 785 / 8
- WN - 4,806 / 314
- AS - 3,430 / 152
- AA - 37,367 / 3,481
These numbers are much more telling.
So in that time period DL denied boarding to roughly 46000 pax; AA, 41000
Makes sense.
But then DL seems to be giving away a lot of money in vouchers to bring the IDB number down to 3.
46000x$500 average voucher = $23 millions in vouchers in 3 months.
Interesting!
Jan 16, 2020, 9:15 pm
#59
Join Date: Dec 2014
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Wow. Thanks.
These numbers are much more telling.
So in that time period DL denied boarding to roughly 46000 pax; AA, 41000
Makes sense.
But then DL seems to be giving away a lot of money in vouchers to bring the IDB number down to 3.
46000x$500 average voucher = $23 millions in vouchers in 3 months.
Interesting!
These numbers are much more telling.
So in that time period DL denied boarding to roughly 46000 pax; AA, 41000
Makes sense.
But then DL seems to be giving away a lot of money in vouchers to bring the IDB number down to 3.
46000x$500 average voucher = $23 millions in vouchers in 3 months.
Interesting!
First, Delta prioritizes superior operational performance, which means that denied boarding is more a result of intentional overbooking (which generates revenue) rather than irregular operations (which incurs costs).
Second, Delta focuses on creating a superior experience for the customer, which increases willingness to pay, as evidenced by Delta’s higher PRASM. You can’t run a customer-centric airline by constantly telling your customers to pound sand and find another airline to fly.
The difference in IDBs is symptomatic of why AA is so bad. IDBing a passenger might be financially beneficial for AA transactionally, but it also is working against AA making improvements.
Jan 16, 2020, 10:09 pm
#60
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I think you mean VDB, right? When the VDB number is high enough, there is no need for IDB, Delta is extremely generous on this front (e.g $1400 on ATL-BOS). A Delta manager explained that they do this in order to help boost the metrics they care about the most.
Last edited by JDiver; Jan 19, 2020 at 12:21 am Reason: Close quote