Kudos, LCC! USAirways Dead Last in Fortune's "Most Admired Companies"
 

On all criteria, US ranks 12 out of 12.
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortu...ustries/2.html

I'm surprised they're on the list at all. I would put F9, AS, or HA above US.

While I won't dispute US overall ranking, the methodology seems very dodgy.

Basically each company is graded on 9 factors (okay, good so far).

US is 12th... all 12s.
UA is 11th... all 11s except for one 10.
AA is 10th... all 10s except for one 8 and one 7.
JAL is 9th... all 9s except for three 8s.
CO is 1st... all 1s.

The others are similar (though some have a bit more variability) but didn't want to type them all out.

Even if CO is the "most admired airline", they are seriously 1st in every category? Such uniform rankings across all categories seems very suspicious.

But the banner ad says that "on time" says it all...:confused:

Teznor..Have you taken a Continental flight recently?..CO has excellent customer service with free hot meals in coach and allways free beverages..and free pretzels/nuts..movies and audio and free pillows and blankets and now installing DIRECTV even in coach..what is US doing?..Think about it..These are just some of the reasons why CO is most admired..dont forget CO allways has free WIFI and free cocktails in the President`s Club..its just a different travel experience..:D

US being last in every single category seems compelling proof to me that the methodology is perfect. US is the worst in every single possible regard.

I know. The free hot meals and beverages and free pretzels is what makes me want to take an airline. Oh my...

I still dont get it. Who cares about all these free drinks and nuts. Why does that make them the most admired airline?

Take a flight on CO and you will understand.

Exactly right....I agree, well said, +1 and all that stuff.

Fly them in F on a transcon one way, fly US back the other...THEN tell me what you think as well...and for grins and giggles...try the same experiment across the pond...

Wait, don't do that....you'll want to punch someone after you spent that kind of money on Envoy....never mind that part....

It's been a while since I've been on CO (since my work travel for the past few years has consisted of CLT-DCA... every week), but I don't doubt they are #1.

What I do doubt is that they are #1 in every single category, and the #2 airline isn't the best at a single thing. You don't think it seems suspect that the #1 airline is the best at every single thing? In most rankings of this nature that certainly would not be true.

All I'm saying is the low variability when comparing category rankings to overall ranking seems very odd.

Considering that the data was generated by a survey, purely asking the respondents' opinion of a company, I'm not surprised that the ranking are pretty uniform across categories. Most people just think about a company as a whole and responses to individual qualities about that company would tend to cluster around that overarching opinion.


Not only were they last in airlines, they managed to make the list of 10 worst in the world, across all industries, in 7 of 9 categories. If my quick read is correct, only Circuit City managed to top that statistic. That ties USAirways with McClatchy Newspapers and Dillard's department store as the second least admired company in the world, across 64 indistries and 689 companies.

And with Circuit City's liquidation earlier this year (too late to take them out of the survey), I guess US can now claim "We're Number 1" in two areas.

I have to agree with you here. We have lowered the bar so low that new FF's actually think we are good. We were like CAL is today 20 years ago and CAL was like todays US Airways 20 years ago. Wow!

US Airways performance speaks for itself.

When a Company's actions speak for themselves no need for me to interrupt.

OK, let's not exaggerate. What CO serves is a 'snack' at best - on recent flights of 3.5hrs they handed out a bone-dry sandwich (literally a bun, a leaf of lettuce, and a piece of chicken), and a bite-size piece of chocolate. Hardly a meal...

Add: Oh, and the planes were old-generation 737's, with no IFE of any sort.

That is SO accurate flight62. SO accurate.

I absolutely remember a day, well in fact, when I wouldn't step foot on a CO airplane unless it was cheap and/or there was no other way. (Sound familiar?)

It took CO dumping Robert Ferguson and bringing in Gordon Bethune to "fix" things.

Interestingly, even after Bethune was hired, I had been jammed so hard and so often by CO, I was reluctant to fly them...that and I was probably the biggest cheerleader in the history of modern aviation for US Air/US Airways. The product was THE BEST, hands down. Envoy across the pond was better than BA even!

Then I was in a bookstore and saw Bethune's book, 'Worst to First." I love aviation, so I bought the book, read it and thought, "I should try them again."

But still, I was loyal to US...until Christmas of 2005 when the new company started kicking me in the grapes...the first kick in the low hanging fruit came the week before Christmas, 2005...and the kicking kept happening...March 2006, one product degredation after another...

The culmination of the destruction of the brand for me was the Envoy debalcle, where I bought 12 tix and the airplane was just horriffic. And the solution at Team Sand Flea was to offer me a $300 voucher as an apology.

Finito...

Finally, June of 2007, I made the jump...and there ya go.

But you're right...the two airlines have swapped places...it's odd.

And meanwhile, Team Sand Flea looks as unorganized as an "Iraq At War" news conference....take miles away one day, bring them back, remove inflight beverages and servce, put it back...

I heard someone ask Team Sand Flea..."do you people actually think this stuff all the way through?"

LOL

Hmmmmm....makes one wonder....

Here's to hoping "Robert Ferguson" is kicked out the door in Tempe and "Gordon Bethune" walks in and restores the greatness of what was, the greatest airline to operate in the US.