Why the RJDC is sooo nervous

[General Lee]

Drunkirishman,


I think the longest MD-88 route is ATL-TUS, and there are only two of those a day. If you were in First Class, you wouldn't have those concerns. The First Class Cabin is great on the MD-88, and that is what businessmen want--the CHOICE.


RJflyer,

That is not really the case---you need to re-read the article. It is all right there in front of you--the businessmen and their complaints. Those are the people that really are wanted, since they buy last minute fares that are more expensive. Grandma may not care, but rich Grandpa does!


Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[chperplt]

If passengers will always go out of their way to avoid an RJ, why is it that all the frequency flights we do are always full? JFK-CVG is always above 90% loads when their are plenty of 757s and 767s flying that route.

The few times I've had to DH on mainline out of JFK, the flights are never close to being full. I would think that those 300+ RJ seats per day on that route would go empty while the bigger equipment fills up... Not the case though.. Why is that?

 

[FN FAL]

For those of you who want to complain about rj's not being the right equipment for a route I would remind you that the customers can vote with their feet. It seems as though they are still flying with DL. Until that changes, there is no legitimacy to the rj being too small.

I don't vote with my feet, I vote with my wallet. As long as NWA competes in price with regional jets for MKE to RIC, I'll spend my money on NWA to ride in the DC-9 over an RJ anyday...even if it means doing a change in DET.

 

[chperplt]

It is all right there in front of you--the businessmen and their complaints. Those are the people that really are wanted, since they buy last minute fares that are more expensive. Grandma may not care, but rich Grandpa does

That's the thought process that's going to kill you. The last minute business traveler is GONE. You can thank high speed internet with video conferencing for that.

You need to cater to Grandma now.. Your first class fares aren't going to provide for you any longer.

 

[PBRstreetgang]

General,
I predicited a while ago that managment was not be happy until regional and mainline payscales were the same. Well.... it looks like your pay is moving closer to my end of the scale than my pay moving closer to your end of the scale. When your pay is close enough to mine, managment will not only allow you to fly RJs, but will likely require it, but only after gutting your work rule's to match our's. You seem to take any opportunity to swing at the RJ/regional community without realizing you are the reason that the "problem" is there. Wake up, how much more evidence do you need to convince you.
Support your fellow pilot, drag them up the pay scale and remove any incentive for managment to send your flying to the lowest bidder instead of the most appropriate airframe.
Go ahead swing away, and keep swinging with that old blindfold in place.
PBR

 

[General Lee]

Chperplt,


I have flown those flight to JFK from CVG, and mainly they are positioning flights that will continue on to Greece, Turkey, etc.. and those flights are full out of JFK. It's great when you ask the stews for water and they give you a bottle of Greek water straight from Athens---it tastes goooooood.

Delta often flies those planes from Europe to JFK and onto LAX or SFO, and they then return thru CVG and back to JFK and beyond. It's all goooood. The passengers also get to sample the great 767ER Business Elite Class---with the huge First Class seats.


Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[Thedude]

Whould all this be going on if we all still flew turbo props? People HATED the Brasilia, but it was a connecting airplane. It never tried to be anything but that. Just because the RJ can go 3-4 hrs doesn't mean it should. I fly it and I wouldn't want to sit in the back of that thing that long. I flew the Brasilia before that and watched people's faces when they got on. Longing to be on one of those "jets". Now I'm on the RJ and have seen people look at the RJ the same way.
Its all about the preception that people have. They would rather be on a 30 year old 737 than a 2 year old RJ. They don't know the difference. They see small and think its bad.
That e170/190 will kick some ass. Doesn't look small to the pax.

Look mommie....there is another one that has seen the light and understands. The e170/190 ...or which ever one that Jet Blue is getting is about 3 ft shorter than the A320. Kinda looks like a 737 that was left in the dryer a little to long.

 

[wms]

Quote:
Originally Posted by shamrock
Why do people soooo want to blame the DFW closure on the RJ?

Because they don't want to accept the fact that mainline failed in DFW which is the real reason DFW is closing.

100% correct (Delta failed in DFW, thus the closure of the hub) . Delta failed inpart to a flawed strategy on the deployment of the RJ. Delta wanted to see how far they could go with the RJ and used DFW as a test bed, it failed.

From the notice given to us at DFW in the closure statement:

DFW has always lost money for DAL. DAL lost 900 million dollars in DFW since 2001. From the beginning of 2001 to APR 2003 it was primarily a ML operation losing money. In April 2003 DAL shifted it to an RJ operation to try to save it and it still lost money.

The reasons given for the loss is that DAL could not gain enough market share, or operate with a low enough cost structure to compete against AA. Whether the operation was ML or RJ made no difference, DAL could not compete in DFW against AA.

So we can stop pointing fingers and do away with the mine is better than yours rhetoric.

 

[GogglesPisano]

I had a guy the other day who walked down the jetway, saw the size of the RJ, said "no way!" and turned around and got off.

I'm more than a little nervous that my airline (FlyI) is staking it's short-term future on these microjets with their CASM. I don't enjoy flying them. I bid the first Airbus FO class I could hold. I thank God I have the option to do that -- I consider it a stroke of dumb luck that is worth any loss of job security that comes with my airline's transformation.

The RJ cockpits are ergonomic, though.

 

[Heavy Set]

I had a guy the other day who walked down the jetway, saw the size of the RJ, said "no way!" and turned around and got off.

I'm more than a little nervous that my airline (FlyI) is staking it's short-term future on these microjets with their CASM. I don't enjoy flying them. I bid the first Airbus FO class I could hold. I thank God I have the option to do that -- I consider it a stroke of dumb luck that is worth any loss of job security that comes with my airline's transformation.

The RJ cockpits are ergonomic, though.

I appreciate your candor. Most RJ pilots wouldn't admit what you said. I, too, have seen a number of passengers blanche when they boarded an RJ - especially the ERJ because of its very narrow cabin. Let's just admit that many passengers have a fear of small airplanes regardless of whether they are jets or props - small is the operative word. When passengers have a choice of SWA 737s, AirTran 717s or even upcoming JetBlue E190s, I think they might choose the larger aircraft if they know any better...

And I think the airlines are recognizing this too and the emphasis on 50-seat RJs is declining - even Grinstein has talked about his dislike for RJs and their discomfort for passengers on longer trips.