US AIRWAYS FAN

You know most of us on this board know pretty much what is going on with many of the airlines. I am sure many of you know starting in Feb that US is going to be starting many new non-stops. Since DCA is my hometown airport (BCN too) DCA is getting 6 new non-stops starting in Feb.

Well I could not remember the exact dates of when they were starting the new non-stops out of DCA. So I called the CP line. I asked when the 6 new non stops were starting out of DCA. The RES agent asked me which and I went on to tell her: ATL, IAH, DFW, ORD, DTW and (I can't remember the 6th one at the moment) The RES agent told me that she was not aware that DCA was having any new non-stops and wanted to know where I heard that information from. I told her it's on the US Airways website and it was in an E mail bulletin back in either Oct or Nov. She asked me to hold on for a second. She came back and she said she asked her supervisor and he was not aware either.

So then she went into the system and starting pulling up Feb dates. Well she pin pointed it down to Feb 6th. I asked her how come you all were not aware about something that is important as that. This is part of the transformation plan and these are business cities that many people should be aware of. I told her if you all don't know then new customers or people who do not fly US that much are not going to know that is for sure.

After I got off the phone I called Consumer Affairs and told them that management needs to get the word out about these new non-stop services that are going to start here in Feb. I told her that there are easy cheap ways of "in house" advertising that US should take advantage of so that customers know. I said even having signs near gates of where US serves these new non-stops would be helpful. People who don't fly US that much might be interested. I went on to tell her that there were a few of my friends who live near the FLL and LGA airports that were not even aware that US has resumed the LGA FLL service. I said to her that if some of these people do not know how many more of them are out there that are still taking a taxi to JFK or EWR. She did tell me when I was on the phone that she just checked the loads of the two afternoon flights and they were full (I was shocked but pleased to hear that) Posters near airport gates on new non-stop service or near the check-in counters (especially at airports US does not have a huge presence IE ORD, DFW, IAH, ect.)

Marketing if your reading this. You guys need to inform your people more because today who ever was on shift did not have a clue of what I was talking about. If your employees don't know about new service then the customer is definitely not going to know.

Maybe I should go to CCY and apply to be head of Marketing. They need to get the word out more that is for sure.

Today was a shocker for me that is for sure.

jimcfsus

In big organizations, such as an airline, the staff is often the last to know anything important.

sbtinme

Since about 1990 or so (immediately post merger), this has been standard practice at US --- and, to be fair, many other mainline US carriers.

However, I fully agree with the OP. It would cost precious little to work up an e-mail bulletin to all stations and request that the Sta Mgr post such positive news bulletins in a designated spot for all employees to review. Not only would this help in building morale and confidence, it also makes line employees more informed about their company.

In all cases, the RES agents should be among the first alerted to major route announcements so they can be prepared to offer further information or suggestions as appropriate. This really is third grade stuff.

However, in the grander scale of things, it's important to remember that mainline airlines are quickly curtailing the role of the res agents these days. Workforces are being pared back to the ridiculous and wages are being slashed.

I don't forsee things changing on the info front. We'll all have to rely on FT for our news.

JAaronT

It's also in the recorded announcement when on hold for reservations (I don't recall if the date is)

BWI2MCO97

There used to be a Daily Bulletin that was required reading in res before beginning your shift. Not sure if this is the case now, though. Res reps can (could) pull those bulletin's up historically by month.

DC Mike

(Longtime lurker here...)

Nice legwork calling Consumer Affairs - on behalf of all of us in DC certainly.

US already faces a real hurdle since these new flights are to major business markets going against airlines that are running real jets, not just the E170s, which don't offer first class and frankly, are less enjoyable to fly (I just had one from DCA-ALB last week, and I'll tell you, the plane was not in great shape, felt dirty, rather surly flight attendant, etc.). Going against United, Delta, Continental, etc., to some of these markets, US needs to really promote their flights heavily, since looking online it appears they are basically matching prices with the other majors.

I'll be curious to see if they do a big push here in Washington as we get into January for these new markets - certainly the traffic to ORD, IAH, DFW, CLE, ATL is heavy, they should be able to fill those flights. I wonder if there are plans to move service up to Airbuses if possible, if they draw well initially.

Great for US - hopefully these are money makers.

EnvoyBoy

Welcome DC Mike!

US AIRWAYS FAN

Felt dirty??? I hope not. Those planes are brand spankin new. 3 months old at tops? What did you see? Spilled juice or food on the seat or something?

I flew one yesterday and I could still smell the new plastic.

I think US can do very well in these markets if they promote it right.

DC Mike

Agreed - I was surprised, it was my first ride on the 170s and to start with, I was glad that US has upgraded the ALB route to a bigger plane, there were only maybe 2 or 3 open seats.

The plane smelled bad, to start with (not the new plastic smell), and the floor already looked dingy/dirty, with a couple dark spots in the aisle and so on, the seatback in front of me and the one in front of the empty seat next to me both had dirt/scuff marks on the seatback and up near the headrest, the tray tables on both seatbacks were shaky, didn't move solidly and didn't sit correctly, etc.

It's not enough to keep me from flying US obviously (let's talk about this baggage nonsense in PHL), but on a route like DCA-IAH or DCA-ORD, you are competing against bigger planes, business routes where people have higher expectations than US Airways Express service. I just hope that they are able to at least assure great service on these flights and try to keep the planes in good shape, because I think they have potential on these routes, but they are already fighting against the perception that these are little planes.

monitor

Speaking of poor management (the prior bunch), how about these guys and the situation vis-a-vis NYC-FLL. I posted this on a earlier thread. It was somehat off topic and probably slid in under the radar. My opinions and thoughts on the matter for anybody who cares:

Posted 12/23/04 on thread titled "Looking good!"
"What doesn't make sense is why they have replaced two of the LGA-FLL nonstops with two from EWR. I think that they are so worried about short term yield that they think that they can sneak in there under Continental (which is consistently the highest cost carrier to FLA) and do a better yield in Feb and March flying from EWR.
This kind of thing flies in the face of what they told us that they were going to do to create a LCC somewhat in the image of HP. They were starting to create a certain image in NYC and now, in search of short-term cash flow (which I don't think that they are going to realize anyhow), they are going all out to blow whatever was created. Continental has the fortress and the image over there somewhat on the order of what US needed to create at LGA, and it will take quite a while, if ever, for the traffic to build at EWR as it seemed to be doing at LGA.
As far as this flyer is concerned, if I need to go to EWR, I will use CO to Florida. When you fly from a fortress hub, unless the fare disparity is very large, it pays to use the dominant carrier. It gets preferential treatment from most of the airport departments and even more important, has the ability to roll out another airplane in the event of mechanical difficulty."

You can add to the above the dominant theme of this thread and that is that almost nobody, not even most of the US phone agents, will be aware of this service change at first, and the whole thing makes no sense to me.

GWU ESIA STUDENT

What???? US is currently operating 4 FLL-LGA non-stops and has been for about a month or two, they have not moved any aircraft to EWR in favor of LGA. Once the focus city comes into being at FLL in Feb. then FLL will recieve one roundtrip a day between FLL and EWR. This trip will serve mainly to connect passengers to the Islands and Central America and its strength is not the O&D market.

Perhaps you are confused because US will be operating an extra return around Presidents Day Weekend to serve the O&D market. This flight is a good idea because Presidents Day Weekend is an insanely popular week for New Yorkers to visit FL (something about snow, grey and freezing temps in NY and sun, colors and 75 degrees in FL , makes people want to leave NY for a few days ) and filling it will be like shooting fish in a barrel.

Lastly I wouldn't know HP, they have done an amazing turn around in the last few year and are one of only two LCCs with true national reach (sorry FL but 3 cities west of the Rockies doesn't make you a truely national carrier) and US would love to be able to pull off that kind of change and return to profitability.

monitor

I know this quite well because since the first week on November, when the service started, I have taken two RTs and have another scheduled for January.


I don't think that I am confused about this because a quick reading on usair.com shows a severe cutback of LGA-FLL service on February 6 with no extra sections scheduled for the 17th thru 2ist. From maybe forty years of observation, I have developed some idea of how the tourist market operates between NY and Florida, and agree that filling extra sections around President's Day at a fairly high revenue point is a good and achievable idea, but usair.com currently shows only the two southbound nonstops on the early morning schedule that is to be instuted on February 6, with none later in the day and only the two northbound nonstops for the return traffic. It was my error stating that the two LGA flights were replaced by two EWR nonstops, since there appears to be only one, with no extra sections yet listed for that holiday weekend. If we, who are taking these flights all the time have so much trouble keeping up with these changes to the nonstop schedules, I would imagine that the agents will be having as much trouble as GWO ESIA STUDENT, who in his presence on this board has indicated that he has more interest in keeping up with such stuff than does the average flyer. Meanwhile, it was some Florida based FAs who alerted me to the changes, sad about losing the FLL service while not being aware of the new EWR flight. These things sometimes filter down rather slowly.


Nor do I, being an East Coast short haul slogger, but their name came up from one of the USAir execs (I don't remember which) at the RoachFest and has been bandied about since in a couple of articles written about the US transformation plan.