pbarnette

You may not want those irritations, but what is important is whether your employer cares. More and more employers (rightly, IMO) don't care.

More importantly, you are still back to the same issue: just how much do you value those services and just how many people agree with you. Any airline of size will almost always bump into a free-rider problem. An airline the size of CO can't fill their seats with only business travelers. At some point, they will likely need to sell those seats to the general public and they will have to do so at market prices. Once they do that, you would be an idiot to not simply hold out for full-service at discount prices.

Eventually, nobody will pay a premium, because nobody would need to. I think CO has learned this - they admitted as much about the checked bags, and I suspect the ditching of meals is another tacit admission that the strategy failed. Simply put, the legacy airlines have been pushing the concept of "full service" as a point of differentiation for the better part of 20 years now. If it were actually a feasible way to make a profit, we should see some evidence. At the end of the day, plenty of people claim they want full service, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and too few are actually willing to put their money (or their company's money) where their mouth is.

flygirl29

It was a dumb decision. It is one reason my friends and I prefer to fly European carriers, which still offer good customer service such as free booze. To heck with these stingy US-based carriers.

F23Coupe

What you're looking for is a LCC which already exists in virtually every market. There should be some distinction between a mainline carrier such as CO and a LCC like Allegiant and USA3000.

sbm12

There are many differences, mostly in loyalty program, route network and frequency of service.

There used to also be differences in on-board amenities but those have pretty much disappeared as customers have demonstrated that they aren't really willing to pay for such.

specialeffects

They already do over the small pond "Atlantic" not the bigger pond YET.

deelmakur

I first flew CO in 1970. They didn't go east of Chicago. My original Presidents Club membership was by invitation. They opened access to those clubs a few years later. I still have the framed certificate, signed by the CEO, and personally delivered to my office, in Phoenix, by the local manager. I was on the inaugural flight, DEN-EWR, when they first went transcontinental. I went through two bankruptcies, the total chaos of the Lorenzo era, which began with the deposed CEO shooting himself in his Denver office, and the Eastern merger. Lifetime platinum, earned the hard way. Acidic, no. Jaded, possibly. To really know what a company is like, you have to know how it got there. I'm sure this guy is talented, but Bob Six or Gordon Bethune, he's not. Following his lemming like cohorts at the other so called Legacy carriers, he simply joins a long list of would be marketers, who never quite get it, that if you emulate the cut rate guy, he wins. The same customer who gladly tolerates JetBlue's horrendous on time (or lack thereof) performance, is the first one to complain to DOT if CO does it. Good luck.

mybagfits

they do- flew 10 hours to europe and enjoyed $5.00 heinekens

IAHtraveler

Personally, I think you're being a bit unrealistic. I do think 4 drink coupons and the amazing luggage tags is a bit stingy, but I don't expect everything to be free for a $300 flight.

walkerci

Are you a paid CO spokesman or do you have a lot of CO stock or both?

Seriously, I met you, flew on at least one flight with you, and I am searching for a reason why you consistently push the CO corporate line against that of CO's most loyal and profitable customers. Yes, us Million Milers and year over year Platinums. FWIW, I earned > 210K miles last year and this was 90%+ business travel where I had a choice of carriers.

There are thousands of us who are becoming VERY disillusioned with CO as a direct result of the latest changes. If we wanted Un-ited level of service, we would have been flying with them all a long. We DO NOT want to compete with UA flyers for upgrades. This entire "alignment" is nothing but a losing proposition for a loyal CO Platinum.

Why should I pay $213 for an upgrade that I already earned though many, many years of high margin business. No it is not acceptable to me.

Why is it that my FF miles keep getting devalued year after year, they become harder to earn, yet my chances to redeem them are fewer and fewer? As a loyal customer, I feel betrayed and cheated, and I am not in the minority.

I would rather pay much more money to an another airline that will treat me well today than be mistreated by an airline that I have steering millions of dollars of business to over the last 12 years.

You clearly don't understand the value of customer loyalty. Apparently CO doesn't either.

I am tired of waiting for battlefield upgrades that I normally would get 5 or more days out. I am tired of my FC seat being sold out from under me for a few measly bucks. This experiment is a long term failure despite any marginal short term gains. I control significant business travel spend and I will direct it elsewhere if this nonsense continues.

hockey7711

Perfect!

RobS

I agree. Did you listen to the JP Morgan conference? Smisek tried to be cute and quippy but what might have been knee-slappers in Houston stunk up the hall.

The new guy should be factual, incisive, and accurate to build credibility. Only after at least six quarters of y-o-y successes can he strut a bit.

JC1120

He isn't new, he's just has a new title. As I understand it, Jeff was part of the original trio with Bethune and Kellner that turned the company around "from worst to first".

The griping here seems to be the typical consumer only liking change when it benefits them, not when it takes away a "free" benefit that generates negative revenue. Someone earlier said it best when they pointed out that moving away from "meals at mealtime" is a tacit acknowledgment that the strategy has not worked out (in other words, did not generate the premium revenue that it in theory was supposed to create). People en masse still flew on the cheaper airline, regardless of whether there was food at mealtimes or not.

Thus, this just seems prudent business strategy to make the switch. CO will, of course, have to provide a differentiation other than price, which it tries to do mostly through OnePass and its route network.

sbm12

Absolutely not. I've applied for a job or two there but they never saw fit to hire me.

Well, if others are actually buying the F seat then you aren't going to get the upgrade. If others are buying more expensive fares than you are then you aren't going to get the upgrade. This policy is not particularly new, though the marketing effort behind it certainly is. Oh, and the part where CO doesn't charge a change fee for folks who want to buy up to the higher fare classes is a direct result of lobbying for that exact benefit by folks here on FT. So you may not like it but that is actually something that came out of CO's participation in this community and listening to their customers.

Your miles are worth significantly more this year than they were last year at this time thanks to the *A move. Beyond that, miles have never appreciated in value. Burn 'em as you earn 'em.

So vote with your wallet. But you are in a very small minority of the overall traveling public, IMO.

And I think you place too much faith in it. Even the most loyal customers have to look at the bottom line - ticket price - and for the vast majority of customers that is THE deciding factor. Not airline, not alliance, not miles, not meals. Price. Because of that there isn't really a viable financial model that allows carriers to offer more at the same price, and there isn't a viable financial model to regularly charge more at the initial point of sale.

Customer loyalty is useless if the company isn't in business. For that reason I do believe that the most important thing for me as a loyal CO customer (though not necessarily a particularly profitable one any more) is that the company remains solvent. After that I look at the other details and go for what I see as the best value in a program. For some folks that is CO. For others it isn't. But I definitely don't let my loyalty and previous habits blind me to other options nor the bigger picture.

I applaud you for taking a look at other options. Customers always should be. I hope you find greener pastures.

cova

Charging for meals, etc - is no big deal in my view. If CO sells a good coach meal product then it likely will be an improvement. Jeff is the new guy at the top and he is doing what he thinks will make CO profitable. And I think CO is trying different things and making adjustments.

CO was selling (my mistake or plan) cheap upgrades earlier this year to non-elite on cheap fares at check in at cheap prices - but I think they corrected that. I have stories of non-elites on L transcons (<$200 RT) offered FC upgrade for $100 on a 752 with BF from EWR-SFO. I think CO has fixed this.

Also - CO was selling B and M fares too low - so that Silvers could pay $200 over a W fare and get a B fare with instant upgrade. I think CO has fixed by raising fares. If am M fare is $1100 (with instant Plat upgrade) that is Ok, with the B fare at $1500, and a Z fare at $1800 - these are OK. It was when the M fare was $600 and the B fare $700 - that there was a issue with cheating Elites.

deelmakur

You are right. This guy has been there since Bethune. All the more reason his early actions are puzzling. Evidently he has not agreed with how it has been run. He will certainly have an opportunity to test his theories.