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At USAirways, "All bets are now off"

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dlredline

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 15, 2003
Posts
310
Hot Flash - December 27, 2004

US Airways - One Small Job Action
And A Giant Leap Toward Obscurity

All bets are now off. At US Airways, the situation is in doubt. Big time.

The employees at US Airways responsible for last weekend's sick-out and job action have achieved an enormous triumph in media attention. Matter of fact, the stories of thousands of travelers ready to go postal due to cancelled flights, long lines, and intentionally screwed up baggage, are all over the place. National TV. Newspapers. No telling, but Rush Limbaugh will probably be covering it.

Dig it, a tsunami just wiped out half of Southeast Asia, and the US Airways meltdown is running a close second as the top news story. Great work guys. Now the whole world knows about the plight of you and your company. You may have just put into motion the solution to all your problems with management. If the consumers respond as we may expect, you won't have management to deal with in a few months. Or a job, either.

Employee Pride Starts With Management & The Airline's Image. This is not to say that at the core, this wasn't a management problem. Aside from massive pay cuts and what appears to be an attitude that most of the airline's problems are due to employee issues, there hasn't been much coming from the top at US Airways.

They've even outdone United's ridiculous "Ted" scheme. (Go there - you may not believe something as cheap and cheesy could come from a professional airline.) It's some idiotic attempt at hip marketing called "Seth."

This "Seth" program makes US Airways look like a pack of amateurs just out of a Third World marketing class. It actually has some creature dressed (if you can call it that) like a punk rocker, complete with a spiked, orange-dyed hairdo and a Zoot Suit. Then they have this ambassador of bad taste run around Florida hyping US Airways in nursing homes (!) and shopping malls. If employees have little respect for management, it's examples of this type of amateur voodoo-marketing that causes it.

When you demand concessions from employees, the first and fundamental quid pro quo is having an aggressive plan to turn the company around. Gofares may sound good, but nobody's going to "go" if they know that employees are so angry at their company that they'll take it out on passengers. And it's pretty hard to get employees fired up when the company's spokesperson is some bozo dressed like a reject from a Halloween party.

But the fat's now in the fire. There are thousands of people who had their children's Christmas ruined - no, turned into a uncomfortable nightmare - because some US Airways employees took the dishonest path of lying about being sick, and others intentionally fouled up their customers' holiday plans. None of these passengers will forget this, and they won't forget US Airways, either. Nor will they fly the airline again.

These employee clowns may have sealed the fate of US Airways. The airline cannot suffer any material reduction in future revenue. But that may be in the cards.

Wonder if they'll make it to February.

© 2004, The Boyd Group/ASRC, Inc. All Rights Reserved
 
nope.... They might not even make it out of 2004.
 
Who exactly is "The Boyd Group"? Is this a respected (I use the that word in the loosest possible sense) media outlet, or are they connected with a certain aviation investment analyst whose name is quoted often in media articles as an industry expert?
 
I won't be surprised if most passengers that where flying Usair during this mess will agian fly on Usair in 6 months if the ticket they want is the cheapest on Usair. Passengers. I believe most leisure travlers look at the cheapest fare and take it!!!!
 
V-1 said:
Who exactly is "The Boyd Group"? Is this a respected (I use the that word in the loosest possible sense) media outlet, or are they connected with a certain aviation investment analyst whose name is quoted often in media articles as an industry expert?
Here's their website if you want to check into them: http://www.aviationplanning.com/
 
dlredline

Were you out in the PHL mess?

I was, all I can say is I feel it was far worse than what anyone is reporting. This was/is very serious and might have been the nail. IMHO.:confused:
 
[QUOTEWhen you demand concessions from employees, the first and fundamental quid pro quo is having an aggressive plan to turn the company around.][/QUOTE]

I think that one sentence about summed it up. The only way employees can be heard is to inconvenience the pax. Then management has to take notice. I think they now have managements, as well as everybody elses, undivided attention.

This should have happened a long time ago to give the execs a taste of what could happen if management continued to run the airline into the ground and blame it on labor costs.
 
The "gold ring" for US Air management was "we need SWA wages". Well, now they are well below SWA wages, and they are still running the airline into the ground.

And as far as passengers go, you take a chance when you buy a ticket on a bankrupt airline. Apparently they were offering the lowest fares, so people bought the tickets for the holidays. But would you but a $100 car knowing that you had to drive cross country in it? If you buy a ticket, or any product for that matter, from a company operating in bankruptcy, you are taking a chance that you will be dissappointed, or worse.
 
Last edited:
atrdriver said:
The "gold ring" for US Air management was "we need SWA wages". Well, now they are well below SWA wages, and they are still running the airline into the ground.

And as far as passengers go, you take a chance when you buy a ticket on a bankrupt airline. Apparently they were offering the lowest fares, so people bought the tickets for the holidays. But would you but a $100 car knowing that you had to drive cross country in it? If you buy a ticket, or any product for that matter, from a company operating in bankrupsy, you are taking a chance that you will be dissappointed, or worse.
For someone waxing poetic about bankruptcy, you would add credibility if you could spell it. Sorry man, that one just jumped out at me.
 
Man, I can just feel the luv around this mtha fuka today!!!
Excuse me......where is you going........PHL!
 
Yeah, but where is Seth? What is that a furloughed F/A working on the side to make some cash?
 
Good Call....LMAO

Hey Tomct,
If everyone on this board had your sense of humor and perspective, the holiday season, no matter what our professional dilemna, would be a little more enjoyable.
 
Good concept --- pisss off the people that pay the bills so we will have less money for salaries and can ask for more cuts. Yep, that's the ticket.
 
I hate to repeat what the previous CEO (Segal?) said but I think it is true. "It is easier to get a job when you already have one." I have interviewed for jobs when I have been both employed and unemployed and even though my furlough wasn't my fault I really felt like I wasn't looked at the same way as when I interviewed while employed. My point is that those employees who called in sick should be doing anything possible to keep the company alive so they can apply elsewhere and have a better shot at getting the next job.
 
Hmmm, Maybe they have the next job and decided to take the hols off before leaving? It ain't pretty over at U, but there you go...
 
As bad as I feel for the passengers this holiday, I feel even worse for the employees at USAirways. The passengers had a few days of inconvenience. The employees have had their entire lives and financial stability turned upside down by poor management. The passengers will get over it and move on. For these Airways employees who have lost their much of their pay, their pensions, benefits and for many even their jobs, it will be a lot harder to move on.
 
Huh?

dlredline said:
Dig it, a tsunami just wiped out half of Southeast Asia, and the US Airways meltdown is running a close second as the top news story. Great work guys.
"Dig it"? Who wrote this? The two jive-talking guys from "Airplane"?
 

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