Alpie,
I agree with a lot of what you say, in concept. I do have some questions though. You seem to base your comments on what you define as "bad service" and you focus on ASA. Is it just ASA or is the problem systemic?
I work for another carrier that is now owned by Delta, i.e., Comair. I can't really pick on ASA, simply because I haven't flown on ASA that much. The few times that I have did not involve PNS so I know nothing about that station, in terms of what ASA does or doesn't do there. I know a little about what Comair does there, or perhaps I should say "did" there in the past.
On my limited times on ASA, it has always involved ATL as a change over point. I would have to agree that service is atrocious there. One problem that seems self-evident to me is insufficient gate space. However, there is (IMO) a different problem also and it's a people problem. I think every airline in Atlanta has a "people problem" when it comes to customer service, but ASA does seem to have more than it's share.
Before Comair was purchased by Delta we, the employees, had great pride in our Company and our jobs. Yes, there were problems and disagreements with management but candidly, they were seldom reflected in customer service. Today, as a subsidiary of Delta, we do lots of things that frankly would never have been tolerated when we were simply Comair. I don't see the change in ownership as being a positive thing, when it comes to customer service. Many Comair people have lost the feeling, the motivation and the loyalty that we had for our Company. We changed from being somebody in our own little world, to being nobody (and treated as such) in Delta's big world. IMO, service has suffered significantly as a consequence. Just my opinion.
I admit to prejudice and it is difficult to judge others and natural to prefer your own. Nevertheless, I do think it is fair to say that before it was acquired by Delta, Comair could rightfully claim that the service and treatment provided to our customers was equal to any, including Delta mainline. Our goal was never to be "equal", but always a little better and we achieved that. Of course we didn't have "first class" amenities and never would have. However, we were there when we were supposed to be more than 98% of the time. We left when we were supposed to leave. We didn't lose peoples baggage nearly as often as mother Delta, or for that matter anyone else does.
Our flight attendants always managed to smile even in the worst of circumstances and treated our passengers with "kid gloves". Our ramp people worked for peanuts, but they had the same attitude that SWA ramp people have and went out of their way to do their part and make things work. Our pilots were proud of their Company and its progress. They were also proud of its potential and, for the most part, wanted to be a part of that and participate in our own future. We were happy to be "building" from nothing "The Best Little Airline in America". We didn't make the "big bucks" of the major airlines and we knew we never would. Just like SWA pilots know that they will always fly only 737s (or whatever takes their place in the future), we were not (again in the majority) pining over somebody else's airplanes or jobs. Our focus was in the success of our own Company. Many of us, self included, made more money in our Company's stock than we were paid to fly (something that is always overlooked). Most of that died on the day we were acquired.
It was great to be "a part of something" and we were happy with being a gold fish in our little pond. Circumstance beyond the control of either our management or our people caused us to lose our airline. We were not "accepted" by our new masters and, as pilots, we soon discovered that our imagined "brothers" were in fact our enemies, who looked down on us and basically hated our guts. They didn't hesitate to tell us at every opportunity. In other words, our entrepernurial spirit and sense of belonging to something worth while, was summarily squashed. If that has translated into inferior service, is it any wonder?
When you remove a diamond from is carefully crafted mount of solid gold and place it in a poorly designed brass setting, it is still a diamond, but few can tell it from a zircon. Dump in a sack full of zircons and brass rings and before too long, you won't be able to identify it without scientific analysis.
We went from having a carefully orchestrated business plan that filled our airplanes with happy customers that kept coming back, to a system of organized chaos, run by people that don't understand the segment of the business that we are in and, in the main, resent our very presence and what do you get?
Comair now serves Atlanta, something that we didn't do before. What we provide out of ATL is not much better than what ASA provides. There are no Comair people there, except those on board the aircraft. The ramp people are lethargic, the CSAs are surly and unfriendly, etc., etc. We can get an airplane to ATL on time or even early, but to get it out of ATL seems to be a near impossibility. I have no doubt whatever that if the old Comair mangement was running that show, we would either fix those problems or stop serving Atlanta. It disrupts a big percentage of our downline operation and is nothing short of a disaster. Our current management doesn't seem to know or, if they know, doesn't seem to care.
Delta management may be great at running a global airline, but they know little about running an efficient small airline and, it shows.
I hate to dwell on "the past", but I don't know another way to address the questions you have raised. Yesterday, we often had problems at stations where we had to buy our handling and customer service from "other airlines" (among them Delta). When those problems were not quickly resolved, we put our own people in the station and eliminated the problem. Service was our only business and our management knew that the welfare of our Company depended on it. So did every employee, with rare exception. We had the same kind of motivation that SWA people seem to have and it worked. We built the most profitable airline in the country. That is now "history".
When we were forced to "sell" our Company, our CEO told me (personally) that things would never be the same. We would continue to grow, but the product we proudly provided would be lost in the process. He wasn't wrong.
We experienced a pilot strike that lasted way too long. Our "new owners" forced that strike to occur and made it last far longer than it should have. They "saved" 50 million dollars by not giving in to what they called our "unreasonable demands". They threw away 700 million dollars (their number) of the shareholder's money to do it. We got little and they lost much. Most importantly, they lost the loyalty of the employees, not just the pilots either. They call it a victory. I call it stupidity.
What the pilots sought they had already been seeking for two years before Comair was acquired. Nothing was changed or "bumped up" because of the Delta purchase. I can't prove it, but I firmly believe that if Delta had NOT purchased the Company, we may still have had a strike, but it certainly would not have become a war and would never have lasted for the time that it did. Comair itself could never have absorbed a $700 million strike and Comair management nor Comair pilots would never have caused one. Our management was not going to destroy the Company over a dispute with its pilots. The pilots would never have destroyed Comair over a dispute with management. We both knew that. Delta's management didn't care what happened to Comair or to Comair's pilots. Comair's pilots didn't care what happened to Delta, and there you have it.
Bad service is the product of bad management and employees that "don't care". The atmosphere is controlled by management. People, i.e., employees, will do anything for a Company that cares about them. They will "give" far more than they get. The SWA model seems to recognize that fact. The Comair model recognized it too. The Delta model once did, but apparently it doesn't any more. It certainly never did with respect to the former employees of Comair, who in fact are now Delta employees, not recognized as such. The "Delta Family" was executed by Delta management. Sometimes you can lose a lot more money by trying to make unwise economies at the expense of product quality. In the old fashioned world we called it "penny wise and pound foolish."
Perhaps the same is true of ASA employees. I don't really know enough about ASA so I can't criticize them directly. I hope I'm wrong in our case as well as in their case. Sadly I doubt it.
The airline business is a service business. You are correct when you infer that the only thing we have to sell is "good service". That's the product. We have the tools (good airplanes and good people) but we don't have the motivation any more. The restaurant business is also a service business. You can buy the best raw materials and have a nice facility, but if the cook is lousy and the waiters don't care, it won't be long before your "restaurant" becomes just another MacDonald's. Most people know that MacDonald's is not a "restaurant", it's a fast food joint, with bad food and no "service", but it's cheap. Is that what Delta management wants?
Cheap tickets are NOT the answer. We have to be better than Brand X. We are not any more. I think you've touched a nerve with your post. I don't pretend to know how to run an airline, but I can sure see when things are going the way they should.
Southwest is somewhat of a rarity. Seldom does a successful mom-and-pop operation become a bemoth without losing the touch that makes it special. SWA seems to have done it. I wonder why?
!). So far, our company has not cut back on travel and we still have the autonomy to choose our schedule as well as the carrier. We're probably not the norm though. 
At first, all of us were getting these audio tapes each month, full of tips on how to improve our customer awareness. My favorite one was a tape about self-esteem. (You'll make your customers happier if you feel good about yourself, etc.) Among other things, the tape suggested we could all improve our self image by "taking chances."
