2 New DL routes from ATL that Airtran won't do

[General Lee]

Actually it would be fun if AirTran just released a statement that we will start flying that route. Then Delta will throw on an additional 4 round trips a day just like when we announced SFO.

How many flights do you guys have to SFO now? I think you went from two to one daily. I think our strategy worked. But, I'd like to see you add Rio and Moscow.....


Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[fletch717]

How much money did you make last quarter? I think our strategy worked too.

 

[Steeler Fan]

How much money did you make last quarter? I think our strategy worked too.

Wow, I thought I was sarcastic! I knew SOMEBODY was going to say something like that. Nice shot!--General gets an assist!

 

[General Lee]

How much money did you make last quarter? I think our strategy worked too.

Man, that was a tough one, but I have a feeling we'll be saying that to you eventually. You never know..... Enjoy that new CLT hub....


Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[fletch717]

Doubt it, Like Joe L. said two years ago " we set the price in the markets we serve and we make money at those prices." You need to try to intercept the kool-aid truck before it gets through the pearly gates on virginia ave.

 

[On Your Six]

Doubt it, Like Joe L. said two years ago " we set the price in the markets we serve and we make money at those prices." You need to try to intercept the kool-aid truck before it gets through the pearly gates on virginia ave.

Watch out for wounded Indy Air, USAirways and soon-to-be major LCC Virgin America... You never know whether someone else can come in and take some of your market.

 

[General Lee]

Doubt it, Like Joe L. said two years ago " we set the price in the markets we serve and we make money at those prices." You need to try to intercept the kool-aid truck before it gets through the pearly gates on virginia ave.

Being that cocky, I doubt you can get into your cockpit with a head that big. We just trimmed $2.3 Billion a year from our books through labor and lease payment cuts which will help, and have a better product that yours. Our Simplfares will easily compete with your fares, and your frequent flyer program isn't even in the same league as ours. After trimming our costs, we now can compete and should lure many pax away from you, after you lured then from a cost standpoint only. Our loss last year was horrible, but none of that had our current cost cuts in mind. The legacy carriers are trimming their costs and are starting to be able to compete with the LCCs, as your costs rise (Doesn't Joe L. want a 15% pay cut from you guys? Why?). We will have a pay freeze(after the 32% pay cut) for at least 7 years, which is huge for the company. You won't be setting the fares for long there chief..... What did Joe L. say two years ago? Who cares? It really is a new ball game now. He sure has been saying a lot lately in the media about Simplefares, and that shows me something else. Why would a businessman now choose Airtran over Delta when the price is about the same? No reason, unless he would rather go to CLT over Rio de Janero for fun. And, I didn't know Kool-Aid had a truck?


Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[Pimpin']

And you say that Fletch is the cocky one....?

Care to quantify how your product is better than AirTran's?

 

[fletch717]

Delta has matched every fare in every market we serve since 2000, so the simpifare was just media hype to us. As for the better product, I was on a Delta 88 from atl not long ago the Fa's came down the aisle with a cardboard box with water, lemonade, or cranberry juice. On the same route we do a full cart service, every time. We have alot of business travelers, our corporate sales dept is excellent.

As far as pay cuts, the company has NOT asked for a pay cut, to quote TY webb "They start in the basement and we start in the attic, somewhere in the middle we will live."

By the way I know alot more people that need to get to CLT than RIO, but good luck on that.

P.S. congrats on the India route I hope your able to get the smell out of those planes.

 

[General Lee]

And you say that Fletch is the cocky one....?

Care to quantify how your product is better than AirTran's?

You are joking, right? We offer a First Class section with personal TVs (not only Elton John) on some domestic and all INTL flights. We offer good meals in First Class. We offer more space on the widebodies and probably the domestic first class. We have Crown Rooms that Business travellers get to use to help them relax. We offer PERKS. Come on now.


Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[General Lee]

Delta has matched every fare in every market we serve since 2000, so the simpifare was just media hype to us. As for the better product, I was on a Delta 88 from atl not long ago the Fa's came down the aisle with a cardboard box with water, lemonade, or cranberry juice. On the same route we do a full cart service, every time. We have alot of business travelers, our corporate sales dept is excellent.

As far as pay cuts, the company has NOT asked for a pay cut, to quote TY webb "They start in the basement and we start in the attic, somewhere in the middle we will live."

By the way I know alot more people that need to get to CLT than RIO, but good luck on that.

P.S. congrats on the India route I hope your able to get the smell out of those planes.

You obviously don't know what you are talking about. That "cardboard service" was the "fast break" service on very short flights. That is only used when the flight time doesn't allow a full cart service. I am glad your people can do it, they must work out a lot. Good for them. An RJ flight attendant has to serve 50 people by herself with a cart. Does that mean it is better service than Airtran?

You know a lot more people who need to go to CLT than Rio? You do? How many airlines fly from ATL to CLT? How about to Rio? Rio is good because we can carry cargo and no pax and still make a profit. Do you know how many people live in Rio? How many rich people travel to and from Rio? Probably a lot who don't want to go through MIA. And, the girls in Rio are gorgeous. Maybe someday you can try to jumpseat on us down there and meet one.


Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[mad691]

You are joking, right? We offer a First Class section with personal TVs (not only Elton John) on some domestic and all INTL flights. We offer good meals in First Class. We offer more space on the widebodies and probably the domestic first class. We have Crown Rooms that Business travellers get to use to help them relax. We offer PERKS. Come on now.


Bye Bye--General Lee

And you still lost 2.2 billion last quarter and 5 billion since 2000. You may offer a better product but no body is paying for it. Congrats on your new route to China, oh wait a minute AMR and CAL got that one. Good day!

 

[General Lee]

And you still lost 2.2 billion last quarter and 5 billion since 2000. You may offer a better product but no body is paying for it. Congrats on your new route to China, oh wait a minute AMR and CAL got that one. Good day!

You don't understand either. First, most of that loss was a paper loss or write down. But, you already knew that but chose not to include that.

As far as the China route authority, we weren't asking for the 2005 one, but the 2006. I guess there aren't many Chinease in the SE. Well, ok then. We will add other frequencies to other places, like nonstop to Moscow and Rio. All of those will help out our situation since there is no LCC competition and we do carry plenty of cargo. But, you already knew that. We also will be starting new service to Chennai, India---which is a very large high tech city in India. I guess that won't help either, even though we are the only US carrier to go there. Oh well, you know a lot more than I do about this stuff......


Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[Ty Webb]

Oh, boy! A good, old-fashioned flightinfo.com free-for-all! How did I miss this one for three pages? Heh-heh.

I do have to address a few items . . . .

Our Simplfares will easily compete with your fares, and your frequent flyer program isn't even in the same league as ours.

The simplifares aren't going to affect AirTran much. You already match our fares in the markets we serve.

Why would a businessman now choose Airtran over Delta when the price is about the same?

Believe it or not, General, Delta has angered and alienated a certain portion of the traveling public in the past- I hear it all the time from passengers. THose are our best customers (and I am sure you have dissatisfied Airtran pax riding you, too).

You ought to ride on us sometime, General. You will be surprised to find that our product has improved to the point where someone in coach probably gets more service with us. True, we don't have First Class to offer, but our Business Class is easily affordable, and never, ever a gouge.

On our less than one-hour flights (PNS, GPT, etc) the F/A's still do full service, whereas on Delta, they get the "fast-break" and on the RJ's, the same thing, so I think you would have to admit that on short flights, Airtran actually does better cabin service. As a commuter on your airline and mine, I can tell you that I have been surprised to find that our service is hardly inferior, and sometimes is superior . . . . and no one was more surprised by that than me!

Anyway, Delta has a good product, and we will never be Delta. We don't want to be Delta. We want to serve a certain segment of the traveling public, and we can do that and make money at it. If Delta wasn;t so pig-headed about "marketshare" they could basically cede the bottom segment of the market to us, focus on improving their product and put it out there at a price they could make money at, we would all be prosperous.

Geez, what a concept! Instead, Delta has lost billions trying to compete against us, and it really hasn't cramped our style. We went from 60 DC9's serving 24 cities to almost 100 new airplanes serving 45 cities in the space of four years, and have made money doing it.

I think it's time for Delta to focus on being Delta, and start making some money by serving the segment of the population that is willing to pay more for better frequency, wider network and better quality . . . and give it to 'em at a fair price, but one that Delta can make money at.

Yeah, I know, that would make too much sense .

 

[mad691]

You don't understand either. First, most of that loss was a paper loss or write down. But, you already knew that but chose not to include that.

As far as the China route authority, we weren't asking for the 2005 one, but the 2006. I guess there aren't many Chinease in the SE. Well, ok then. We will add other frequencies to other places, like nonstop to Moscow and Rio. All of those will help out our situation since there is no LCC competition and we do carry plenty of cargo. But, you already knew that. We also will be starting new service to Chennai, India---which is a very large high tech city in India. I guess that won't help either, even though we are the only US carrier to go there. Oh well, you know a lot more than I do about this stuff......


Bye Bye--General Lee

Since you employ half your reservation people in India it will be a great place to shuttle employees back and forth. But you already knew that. How many more employeses are you going to outsource? Did you know General the last time Delta made money was during the Clinton administration? Bush is on his second term already. But you know more about this stuff then they do. Just keep outsourcing its the way of the future. Good day.

 

[MedFlyer]

We offer good meals in First Class.

Bye Bye--General Lee

You clearly haven't seen DL's First Class meals lately. Most of them are pretty bad. Even DL management has admitted that the food quality is poor.

DL's Rio service is now in jeopardy since DL has told the DOT they don't have the aircraft available for a June 1st start. They want to delay the start until October. United is, of course, protesting this and making other claims against DL.

The problem for DL is that even if Rio is profitable (which is no guarantee...Rio is primarily a leisure market), those profits won't offset the losses that will now be occuring in CLT. DL flies far more people out of CLT, than they ever will to Rio.

 

[MedFlyer]

If Delta wasn;t so pig-headed about "marketshare" they could basically cede the bottom segment of the market to us, focus on improving their product and put it out there at a price they could make money at, we would all be prosperous.

The problem is that the "bottom segment" of the market is now about 95% of all air passengers.

DL has no choice but to fight with Airtran for those customers. There simply aren't enough high-yield business travelers to keep Delta alive. DL has to find a way to make money off of the leisure traveler while still keeping the business travelers happy. So far, they haven't been able to pull it off.

 

[General Lee]

Since you employ half your reservation people in India it will be a great place to shuttle employees back and forth. But you already knew that. How many more employeses are you going to outsource? Did you know General the last time Delta made money was during the Clinton administration? Bush is on his second term already. But you know more about this stuff then they do. Just keep outsourcing its the way of the future. Good day.

Ha. You are probably correct about that one, and most of them have learned a Brooklyn accent also. They are smart over there.

Yeah, it has been a while since the last profit. But, as of late, we have had a new change of guard----a whole new team dedicated (via their own pay cuts and some options thrown their way at the same time as a carrot) to getting us above water, dropped a money losing RJ hub in DFW that was $ucking profits, established a new LCC in Song that has won awards and is actually doing well according to our CEO in print articles, and cut pay scales and lease rates to the tune of $2.3 billion a year. We are making core changes, and that is important if you want to change your way of thinking domestically. And, we are, and that is not good for the current LCCs. They would rather we stay the same and die----and we won't. We have made huge changes already.

Also, some more cities we have added in the last year, for your information:

1. Buenos Aires
2. Belize City, Belize
3. Berlin (coming back this Summer)
4. St. Lucia
5. Santo Domingo and Santiago in the Dominican Republic
6. Newport News and Gulfport for Mainline ops


But, you already knew that. Yeah, we haven't added any new flights....
And, they are all unprofitable.......


Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[General Lee]

The problem is that the "bottom segment" of the market is now about 95% of all air passengers.

DL has no choice but to fight with Airtran for those customers. There simply aren't enough high-yield business travelers to keep Delta alive. DL has to find a way to make money off of the leisure traveler while still keeping the business travelers happy. So far, they haven't been able to pull it off.

We also cut out $2.3 billion A YEAR in expenses. You left that out of your Analysis. And, our Marketing department figured out that many business travellers in the ATL area alone were going to Airtran for $500 walk ups. Those will come back, and others from other cities will too. The lowest fares were not cut, and less will be offered. That is how you make up the difference.

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[Spooky 1]

General Lee,

Let me tell you something about that airline you work for. Traveled on them just yesterday from SLC to ......, and could not believe the way the trip went. I'll set the scene for you. OAT at SLC about 40F, with nice sunny weather. Most of the folks were dressed warmly as you might expect. Loaded 128 pax into the back of a 737-300 which BTW has cattle car seating that is unmatched anywhere in the US. Did not start the APU until approx 4 minutes prior to pushback in spite of numerous complaints from the pax. WTF, if your going to sell tickets on this airline at least give a little comfort to the experience. Again they did not start the APU after shutdown so all the passengers, especially those in the back got to experience the sauna a second time over. I know you are trying to save fuel, but what ever happened to Safety, Comfort, Schedule? I cannot imagine your airline being in business another year or more. Maybe by that time the US taxpayer will have had enough of this airline BK sh#t and cut your life lines quickly.
Also really enjoyed talking to the Hindu down in lower India about my reservations. I might not like the boarding process at SWA, but at least they have a bonafied res system that have real people that answer your questions.

I won't even bother you with the lousy seating pitch in the 737-300. Can't even open a newspaper. The overhead lights are so dim because of the dirt and filth on the lenses that it's like reading in a closet. The funny thing is that the Captain is standing there in the doorway as the folks deplane with thank you's when in fact nothing he could possibly say could make up for the crappy experience beyond his control other than the APU issue. I guess that the temp in the cockpit was okay for him at least. Clueless to say the least.