USAirways has jumped the shark

[PCL_128]

Are you willing to pay $2 for a beverage as flight crew?

Of course not. That's not what this is about. This is about the paying customers having to pay, not the employees working the flight. If you want to get the bare bones cheapest flight on cheapskateairtravel.com, then you'll get what you pay for. Welcome to deregulated aviation. Ready for regulation again?

 

[Redmeat]

Oh, and as far as being "trapped" in a metal tube with nothing free to drink. What about Amtrak? I haven't ridden them in a while. Don't they charge for everything while you are trapped on there for days? That might be a better comparison to the hotel listed above. Sure, you can take water onboard, but with my idea above, you can do the same on a flight.

If you get the 'Roomette' on Amtrak, you can bring on your own booze and food.

The wife and I did a trip cross country to Cali 2 years ago because I won't go near an airport on my days off if I don't absolutely have to (I don't eat, sleep, and breath aviation like alotta guys do).

The Roomette pax get free brekky and free dinner in the dining car on the two day trip. It wasn't bad and the service puts the airlines to shame (read: no attitude).

 

[BoilerUP]

Of course not. That's not what this is about. This is about the paying customers having to pay, not the employees working the flight.

Does that soda not have the same COST to the company regardless of who consumes it?

How would you justify to a passenger why you get a free drink but they have to open their wallet?

If you want to get the bare bones cheapest flight on cheapskateairtravel.com, then you'll get what you pay for. Welcome to deregulated aviation. Ready for regulation again?

So...by that logic, does a walk-up full Y fare passenger spending $800 for a one-way ticket deserve a complementary beverage?

I agree with you 100% that airlines should raise their fares to cover their costs...but the nickel-and-dime bullsh!t needs to disappear ASAP and get replaced with a fairly priced ticket and a fuel surcharge, just like UPS and FedEx and any taxi company charge.

 

[FR8mastr]

but the nickel-and-dime bullsh!t needs to disappear ASAP and get replaced with a fairly priced ticket and a fuel surcharge, just like UPS and FedEx and any taxi company charge.

I agree as well, if these supposed "leaders" had any clue at all they would follow the lead of successful companies like you listed.

 

[PCL_128]

Does that soda not have the same COST to the company regardless of who consumes it?

How would you justify to a passenger why you get a free drink but they have to open their wallet?

I don't need to justify anything. I'm getting their cheap ass halfway across the country for $99. It's their penny pinching ways that have created this situation. I don't want to hear a single complaint from any of them.

So...by that logic, does a walk-up full Y fare passenger spending $800 for a one-way ticket deserve a complementary beverage?

I'm sure the business and first class passenger will continue to receive free drinks. Want a free drink? Pay a reasonable price for your ticket to get into first class.

I agree with you 100% that airlines should raise their fares to cover their costs

Sorry, but can't happen. Welcome to reality. The fare increases aren't sticking. American tried just last weekend, but other carriers didn't follow suit. You can't be listed as $20 more than the other carriers on Orbitz and still get customers. This is why regulation needs to return.

 

[BoilerUP]

I don't need to justify anything. I'm getting their cheap ass halfway across the country for $99. It's their penny pinching ways that have created this situation. I don't want to hear a single complaint from any of them.

That's a great attitude to have in a service industry...painting every passenger with the same Orlando $69 web special leisure traveler brush.

I'm sure the business and first class passenger will continue to receive free drinks. Want a free drink? Pay a reasonable price for your ticket to get into first class.

$800 for one-way, walk-up Y fare ticket isn't a "reasonable price"???

 

[PCL_128]

That's a great attitude to have in a service industry...painting every passenger with the same Orlando $69 web special leisure traveler brush.

Hey, I treat the passengers with the utmost respect while I'm working. I go out of my way to greet them getting on and off the plane, I try to be in the gate area to answer questions on delays, I bring the kids up for pictures in the cockpit, etc... But that doesn't mean that I don't secretly think that they're a bunch of cheapskates that would kill their own mothers to save 5 cents on a flight from LGA to LAX.

$800 for one-way, walk-up Y fare ticket isn't a "reasonable price"???

That's not an average fare. You've provided a red herring for an example. If most tickets were $800, then we wouldn't be having this conversation, because the airlines would be profitable. USAir can't serve the two coach passengers who paid a reasonable fare a free Coke while making everyone else pay. Want a free drink? Upgrade to first class.

 

[Redmeat]

I don't need to justify anything. I'm getting their cheap ass halfway across the country for $99. It's their penny pinching ways that have created this situation.

Since when is getting the best deal on ANYTHING not a normal pursuance in this country?

I think you quoted the phrase yourself a couple posts back...IT'S WHAT THIS COUNTRY WAS BUILT ON.

Why are the fares $99 bucks? that's not the pax fault, thats some dumb managers twisted thinkings fault.

If the price is $99 bucks or you could volunteer to pay a "fair" price of $499 bucks which would YOU choose?

It ain't the flying publics fault.

 

[PCL_128]

I think you quoted the phrase yourself a couple posts back...IT'S WHAT THIS COUNTRY WAS BUILT ON.

America has always been about the best combination of price and quality. Fare shopping on the net has turned that on its head. No more thoughts of quality. Just a simple list of fares in order of cheapest to most expensive. It's ridiculous.

But since you asked, NO, I don't always go for the cheapest on everything. I refuse to shop at WalMart and haven't even been inside one in years. This obsession with cheap crap is destroying this country. "More lead in that GI Joe, son?"

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

Where have you guys been? Under a rock.... this guy copied SWA overseas and then started down this new path years ago.....

Its the wave of the future..... wave of the future.....wave of the fu(king future..... God save us all......

A radical fix for airlines: Make flying free
Ireland's Ryanair gives away tickets to earn big profits from other aspects of the travel experience.

By Matthew Maier, Business 2.0 Magazine staff writer
March 31, 2006: 11:31 AM EST

(Business 2.0 Magazine) - Michael O'Leary, Chief Executive of Ireland's Ryanair (Research), Europe's most profitable airline, wants to make air travel free. Not free as in free from regulation, but free as in zero cost. By the end of the decade, he promises, "more than half of our passengers will fly free."
The remarkable thing is, few analysts think his prediction is far-fetched: Ryanair already offers free fares to a quarter of its customers.
By a wide margin

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Even without free flights, Ryanair has become one of Europe's most popular carriers. Last year it flew 35 million passengers to more than 100 European destinations, while its customers paid an average fare of just $53. The airline enjoyed revenues of $1.7 billion, up 20 percent over 2004, at a time when most competitors were stuck in a holding pattern.
Even more impressive, Ryanair's $368 million in net earnings gave the airline an industry-leading 22 percent net profit margin. (By comparison, Southwest Airlines's (Research) net margin was 7.2 percent.) "Ryanair has the strongest financials in the European airline industry," says James Parker, an equity analyst with Raymond James.
The secret? Ryanair's austere cost structure almost makes Southwest look profligate. In addition, the Irish airline puts a price on virtually everything except tickets, from baggage check-in to seat-back advertising space. As a result, last year Ryanair collected $265 million--15.6 percent of overall revenues--from sources other than ticket sales.
"We weren't the first to figure this out," O'Leary says. "But we do it better than everybody else."
The similarities to the Southwest model are hardly coincidental. In 1991, when Ryanair was just another struggling European regional carrier, O'Leary went to Dallas to meet Southwest executives and look for lessons he could take back to Ireland. The visit prompted a wholesale reconsideration of how the airline did business.
Following Southwest's lead, Ryanair embraced a single type of aircraft--the venerable Boeing (Research) 737. Likewise, it focused on smaller, secondary airports and began to offer open (unassigned) passenger seating.

You should be ashamed for not posting the other side of Mike O'learly....

Sure he copied SWA, but not the culture side. He treats labor like garbage....

Like this....

Ryanair bans work phone charging
Budget airline Ryanair has banned its staff from charging their phones at work, saying it is an inappropriate use of office time.
An article in the Daily Mirror claimed staff were "furious" about the rule.
Headed "Power Mad", it quoted a worker saying: "The implication is they are accusing people of stealing electricity by charging a mobile phone."
But a Ryanair spokeswoman said no-one had "batted an eyelid" since the rule was introduced about two months ago.

It's not good for people to be charging up their phones in work time
Ryanair spokeswoman

She said the decision to ban the charging of phones was more related to work ethic than cost-cutting - though "obviously there is a small saving".
"It's not good for people to be charging up their phones in work time," the spokeswoman said.
She said contrary to the anonymous complaints reported in the Daily Mirror, the rule did not appear to have caused any unrest. "We've had no reaction whatsoever here at head office - nobody has batted an eyelid."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/business/4467877.stm

Published: 2005/04/21 09:37:18 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

The low cost carrier model of SWA is being copied... but it is really the RyanAir version.. a copy of a copy... the LUV culture is now where to be seen.

If RyanAir doesn't make it s money on ticket sales but rather incedentials like wheelchair needs, then you can see how he values flight crews... very poorly, becuase they don't generate the real revenue...

It is not just flight crews.. it is his customers too...

http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/ryan.htm