ClueByFour

They can't possibly be that stupid. Okay, so they can.

Your point, as always, is very well taken. I can't believe, however, that they could miss the fact that the lion's share of the profit since the merger (if you believe what you read and taking into account the tricky way of allocating backed costs to the west may have skewed things) is coming from the East. Somebody out there has apparently been lobotomized and allowed to remain employed if they missed this.

But even in PHX--why do this? Let's say, for the sake of the sake, that I'm a weekly commuter to LAX.

It's now something like 34 trips to a roundtrip ticket (if my math is right--370x2=740 miles to the roundtrip, 34 R/Ts to 25k). Or 17 roundtrips.

I now have 2 rapid reward award tickets on Southwest for those same trips. That also assumes you could actually get a 25k roundtrip on US. Heck, you could get one "freedom award" on Southwest and be guaranteed a set. If you bought business select fares on WN (at 1.25 credits to the trip), it's even worse.

This comparison looks even worse the shorter the flight is on US. There may be city pairs where it's possible to get to 3 awards on WN for every 1 on US.

I'd like to see the list of shorthaul flights if you have it. It may be apropos for another thread, but I'll let you and the mods fight that out .

vysean

Check PHX-FLG, PHX-PRC, PRC-LAS, PHX-YUM. Those should all be at/over 50 cents per mile. High-RPM routes aren't exclusively found in the east, though they certainly are home to the majority of them.

SpaceBass

My comp to Continental came through this week and it looks like it was just in time.

Its been real...

BoeingBoy

The problem I have is that the Air Fare report only has markets that have at least 10 O&D passengers a day. I assume, just like TRI/AVL-CLT, that most of the passengers on those flights are connecting in the hub and thus those markets don't show up in the report. I'll also admit not being as familiar with the western routes so wasn't sure if something like PHX and LAS to smaller west coast markets were both non-stop or if one connected in the other hub (meaning two short-haul flights) and which one connected in that case - so I left them out.

Oops - I did miss PHX-YUM.....$1.28/mile average yield.

For Clue, the list. As said, I make no claim that it's all inclusive - it started with a list of mainline sub-500 mile flights and expanded with known non-stop short haul Express flights from the Air Fare report. (I added PHX-YUM)

East:
PHL/BWI 90 mi
DCA/PHL 119 mi $1.43/mi
CLT/RDU 130 mi $1.67/mi
PHL/DCA 134 mi $1.26/mi
DCA/ORF 142 mi $1.81/mi
CLT/MYR 156 mi $1.59/mi
CLT/CHS 168 mi
CLT/TYS 177 mi $1.27/mi
BOS/LGA 185 mi $0.90/mi
CLT/ILM 185 mi $1.13/mi
LGA/BWI 185 mi $0.86/mi
ROA/DCA 192 mi $0.86/mi
PHL/BDL 196 mi
PHL/RIC 198 mi $1.42/mi
LGA/SYR 198 mi $0.56/mi
DCA/PIT 205 mi $0.81/mi
PHL/ORF 211 mi
PHL/ALB 212 mi
CLT/SAV 213 mi $0.86/mi
DCA/LGA 214 mi $0.75/mi
CLT/ATL 227 mi
PHL/SYR 228 mi $1.16/mi
PHL/PVD 238 mi $0.35/mi
CLT/CHA 242 mi $0.93/mi
CLT/CHO 245 mi $0.88/mi
DCA/GSO 248 mi $0.92/mi
DCA/CRW 249 mi $0.86/mi
DCA/ITH 253 mi $1.01/mi
LGA/ROC 254 mi $0.45/mi
CLT/RIC 256 mi $0.67/mi
PHL/ROC 257 mi $0.97/mi
PHL/PIT 267 mi $0.31/mi
LGA/PWM 270 mi $0.47/mi
PHL/BUF 279 mi
PHL/BOS 280 mi
CLT/LEX 282 mi $0.90/mi
CLT/ORF 290 mi $0.79/mi
PHL/MHT 290 mi
DCA/BUF 296 mi $0.58/mi
DCA/SYR 298 mi $0.73/mi
DCA/BDL 313 mi $0.57/mi
DCA/ALB 318 mi $0.72/mi
DCA/ILM 320 mi $0.73/mi
CLT/IAD 321 mi $0.73/mi
DCA/CMH 322 mi $0.60/mi
CLT/BNA 329 mi $0.71/mi
CLT/JAX 329 mi $0.65/mi
CLT/DCA 331 mi $0.72/mi
LGA/PIT 335 mi $0.40/mi
CLT/CVG 335 mi $0.97/mi
PHL/RDU 336 mi $0.25/mi
CLT/SDF 336 mi $0.80/mi
CLT/CMH 346 mi $0.75/mi
DCA/PVD 357 mi $0.68/mi
CLT/BWI 361 mi
CLT/PIT 366 mi $0.60/mi
CLT/TLH 386 mi $0.59/mi
BOS/DCA 399 mi $0.50/mi
DCA/MHT 407 mi
CLT/MDT 413 mi $0.58/mi
CLT/IND 428 mi $0.53/mi
CLT/CLE 430 mi $0.47/mi
CLT/PHL 448 mi $0.68/mi
PHL/DTW 453 mi
CLT/MCO 468 mi $0.35/mi
CLT/ABE 481 mi
BOS/PIT 496 mi $0.32/mi
DCA/IND 499 mi $0.35/mi

West:
PHX/TUS 110 mi $1.52/mi
PHX/YUM 160 mi $1.28/mi
LAS/ONT 197 mi $0.48/mi
LAS/SNA 226 mi $0.45/mi
LAS/LAX 236 mi $0.42/mi
PHX/LAS 256 mi $0.37/mi
LAS/FAT 258 mi
LAS/SAN 258 mi $0.37/mi
PHX/SAN 304 mi $0.31/mi
PHX/ONT 325 mi $0.29/mi
PHX/ABQ 328 mi $0.28/mi
PHX/SNA 338 mi $0.28/mi
LAS/RNO 345 mi $0.28/mi
PHX/ELP 347 mi $0.26/mi
PHX/LGB 355 mi $0.27/mi
PHX/BUR 369 mi
PHX/LAX 370 mi
LAS/SJC 386 mi $0.31/mi
LAS/SMF 397 mi
LAS/OAK 407 mi $0.29/mi
LAS/SFO 414 mi $0.28/mi
PHX/BFL 425 mi $0.35/mi

Jim

IADCAflyer

Wow....And to think that I had talked myself out of switching all my earnings to United over to USPrayer. Well, I still have time to reconsider.

photog72

You will love CO (on this Valentine's Day). I have been in sheer happiness ever since I made the move. Even when I don't make the upgrades, Y in CO is not bad (as long as you get a bulkhead or exit row). Plus, the no middle seat guarantee is nice to have too!

jeffhacker

Another reason to stop flying with US:

Accrual
Tickets purchased on/after March 1, 2008 for travel on US Airways on/after May 1, 2008 will earn the actual number of miles flown and will no longer earn a minimum of 500 miles per segment.
Tickets flown on partner airlines after May 1, 2008 will earn the actual number of miles flown.
Tickets purchased prior to March 1, 2008 will continue to earn the 500 mile minimum for travel after May 1, 2008. Accrual on flight segments greater than 500 miles in length are not impacted by this change.

Jeff

GaryZ

Well, first you would be a masochist...

OK, so you're telling me the 130 miles lost, AKA: $1.30 means something to you?? My two young sons worry about these denominations, me, not being a mileage hound (or the other less tasteful word often used for the crazies on these forums) thinks absolutely nada about it.

roder

I am soo glad I dumped US Dividend Miles in favor of UA Mileage Plus as of 1/1/08. Now it's just time to spend my miles and say goodbye to US forever. Thanks for reaffirming my decision to leave!

vysean

A few higher-RPM west routes (based on lowest available ITA published fare for r/t service with a sat night stay):

PRC/PHX 88 mi $0.72/mi
PRC/LAS 185 mi $0.41/mi
PRC/IGM (actually $30/seg - good? for segment runners)
IGM/PHX 181 mi $0.42/mi
IGM/LAS 90 mi $0.71/mi
FLG/PHX 118 mi $1.08/mi
FMN/PHX 312 mi $0.72/mi

BoeingBoy

Tell the east coast short-haul flier who's often only on RJ's or turboprops, with no chance to upgrade, get a meal, or even a beverage/snack basket in some cases, that about the only perk they get for sitting on a US flight is being taken away. A flier that often pays more than you per mile (how often have you paid $1 or more per mile for your long-hauls?), but gets much less already.

Maybe they should stop giving miles to anyone paying less than 50 cents/mile - or make everyone earn status with segments.....

Jim

PHL

The first thing I thought was that they hired back Big Bad Ben Baldenza, who was famous for Black Tuesday announcement of DM changes in 2002 (or was it 2003?).

I'm glad they know how to email this info to only a select group of DM members (I didn't get this email update, even though I get other DM news and my address is current in my DM profile).

What's more un-surprising is that they have chosen to not update the web page as of this moment.

http://www.usairways.com/awa/content....aspx#uairways

I see nothing about mileage earning changes. Let's take bets on whether or not they'll update the above page by 3/1, when the changes go into effect (for tickets purchased, at least)

Sure am glad I cashed in my remaining 125,000 points for a First class intl. trip on LH. I have ZERO incentive to accrue on this fleabag of an airline.

vysean

More importantly, IMO, and as-yet unanswered is does this policy change affect RDMs only or also EQMs?

If EQMs are affected, LOTS of people may find themselves falling short of status if they qualify on miles but fly a lot of short segments.

SOBE ER DOC

Appreciated, but the enhances they've made do not even bring them up to standard with other US carriers that are already moving to update their products to the next generation of meals and seating which means US will still be behind. They had the opportunity to leapfrog everyone on TATL service (as they did in the 90's when they launched Envoy) and they missed the opportunity.

As for on-time performance, IMHO, when you're at the bottom of the barrel there's only one direction you can go. On-time performance is not an "enhancement" it's an expectation.

Flying DL, AA and US regularly (with the occasional flight on Airtran, AS and Virgina America) I feel quite comfortable saying that the US product is in the toilet with no signs that it's going to get significantly better anytime soon.

vysean

They did update their *A accrual chart PDF. Can't speak to anything else.