readywhenyouare

It sounds like Belea Bower needs to find a new a job away from Delta. Her attitude does not belong among the rest of the professionals at Delta Air Lines. Looking forward to my flights tomorrow. Hopefully snagging an MCO or CVG crew on MCO-CVG and then a great Skywest crew on CVG-MEM.

hazelrah

Heavily unionized Southwest Airlines still has costs 8% lower than Delta. @:-)

adamj023

JetBlue is non union. Not sure on Southwest but I will assume you are right.

jamesteroh

Not out of DTW on most routes. In fact, DTW/LAS, I have seen First class on that route in Delta (on a P fare) only $20 to $30 more than Southwest on a non-full fare. Most routes the kettles checking a bag would be better off flying Delta and paying the $25 each way than flying on WN with "no bag fees". And not to mention I can fly direct non-stop on DL as opposed to dealing with plane changes on WN and poor service with IRROPS..


And trying take WN to Atlanta Or CVG or MEM All Delta hubs.

WN's fares are no longer competive lately. I think a lot of it has to do with the loss of the advantage of their fuel hedges.

DL2SXM

and if delta were unionized, it would be that much higher, your point is baseless.

jamesteroh

WN is heaivlly unioned. They also have the most unprofessionally dressed flight crew in the industry (but the employees are friendly). However in the past year, WN is not the cheapest carrier, and in many cases out of DTW is quite a bit more than Delta.

Daze

I'm sure...Southwest is union. It is a common error to think WN is non-union...how could employees be happy and well paid and unionized?

jamesteroh

I don't understand why some FA's are upset they won't be unionized. The ACJ article says their pay is going to increase immediately to the same pay as a Delta FA PLUS they will no longer pay union dues. A pay raise and no union dues, why on earth complain about that?

FWAAA

hazelrah was talking about Southwest's costs, not its fares. WN has lower costs than most airlines, despite industry-leading pay to its heavily unionized workforce.

Without a union, the PMNW FAs will be forced to be more efficient than, say, AA or UA FAs (in effect, having to work more for their pay).

hjime223

I agree with this. I can not understand why former NW employees would want to stay unionized when they are really being screwed over as non unionized Delta FA's are earning more money without having to pay the union.

jamesteroh

IIRC Delta has the best paid FA's in the industry. WN also posted a loss for Q3. They had a big cost advantage for years with their fuel hedges. If WN's costs are lower than Deltas then their fares should be reflecting that as well.

There are other ways a non-union company can stay competitive as well. Look at all the petty complaints the AFA filed such as no size 28 designer dresses and not being able to use carts in first class. Stuff like that costs an employer money.

WN and Jet Blue and F9 are also going to have lower costs than Delta seeing they don't have catering expenses, they don't have the expense of lounges, they don't have gates at some of the more expensive airports like ORD and JFK, they don't provide international service.....

adamj023

I often see airline personnel on the LIRR. Not sure if some are pilots/first officers or flight attendents and the like. Some are very professionally dressed which is very nice to see. These personnel would be out of JFK and I guess a lot of personnel make use of the Air Train since it is very convenient.

Southwest and JetBlue really don't cater to the business class traveller.

Delta picks up a lot of these business class travellers I must say across the board.

BamaGirl

I'm sorry, I don't understand. In my work world, being 'more efficient' is something that we strive for. How is that a bad thing?

jamesteroh

For unprofessionally dressed I was referring to Southwest FA's. If they are flying out of JFK, they couldn't be Southwest FA"s because WN doesn't fly out of JFK. (and to be fair to WN's FA's they are always very friendly even though the dumb jokes get old fast).

jamesteroh

I was wondering the same thing. Effiiency is something a business strives for.