Comments for The Cranky Flier

Comment on United and Aer Lingus Earn a Cranky Jackass For Plan Which Could See Their Crews Disappear by Kris Ziel

Kris Ziel — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:03:57 +0000

We all see how terrible United is doing since they started this route.

Comment on American’s New Business Plan Looks a Lot Like the Old One But With a Lot More Outsourcing by Justanotherblogger

Justanotherblogger — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:36:17 +0000

Unfortunately, you can’t just look at one route in isolation. Large business clients that fly AA might switch carriers if you decided to cut ORD-PEK.

Comment on Cranky on the Web (January 30 – February 3) by CF

CF — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:32:16 +0000

I agree. It should be all or nothing (and “all” is perfectly fine with me) because when people look at travel, they evaluate prices the same way for flights, hotels, cars, etc. So it’s unfair to include the tax on fares but not on hotels.

And hotels are the worst in my opinion. Resort fees are mandatory fees. If airlines had a resort fee, it would have had to be included in the quoted fare for the last several years. Why do hotels get to skate by?

Comment on Cranky on the Web (January 30 – February 3) by CF

CF — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:29:34 +0000

Yes. For those who haven’t seen it:
http://worldairlinenews.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/united-continental-merger-bloomberg-businessweek-cover-lr.jpg

Comment on American’s New Business Plan Looks a Lot Like the Old One But With a Lot More Outsourcing by CF

CF — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:26:45 +0000

What’s really interesting about that is that the employees have a few seats on the creditor committee. So this proposal from management might very well make them rethink their support for that team versus something else. I just don’t see AA employees mounting a “Keep AA My AA” campaign as the Delta folks did.

Comment on American’s New Business Plan Looks a Lot Like the Old One But With a Lot More Outsourcing by CF

CF — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:23:55 +0000

I tried to talk a little about this above, but there is comparison to the CO/UA and NW/DL mergers. Those were done outside of bankruptcy and were really about gaining scope in the route network, reducing costs, and cutting capacity.

Comment on American’s New Business Plan Looks a Lot Like the Old One But With a Lot More Outsourcing by CF

CF — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:22:36 +0000

I don’t disagree with much of what you say, but I think it’s important to clarify two points.

1) The PBGC will pay full pensions for many people. It wouldn’t be cents on the dollar, though some certainly wont’ get everything.

2) American has recently seriously talked about its international product. The plan for the 777-300ER is great and finally fixes many of the problems. Now, whether or not this expands to the rest of the fleet is unclear.

Comment on American’s New Business Plan Looks a Lot Like the Old One But With a Lot More Outsourcing by CF

CF — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:19:37 +0000

Since I don’t have access to American’s books, I can’t speak to what exactly I’d do. But I did talk about this before when I looked at why I want to see US Airways take over American.

Other airlines have played to their strengths for the most part. American seems to be throwing its efforts at everything, strong or not. As I said in that other post, I would think that American should seriously consider walking away from LA and New York where it’s unlikely to really be a true leader. Chicago is different in that there are fewer competitors, but it is still #2, so it might want to rethink its position there. There is no room in this industry for pride, but I think that and history have probably prevented American from looking at its options from a good place.

US Airways was very smart in this respect. It walked away from where it wasn’t strong and it focused the operation where it was. American should do the same instead of trying to “win” everywhere.

Comment on American’s New Business Plan Looks a Lot Like the Old One But With a Lot More Outsourcing by CF

CF — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:15:07 +0000

The problem with profitability is that it’s hard to truly nail it down. Here’s a brief example to explain what I mean. Let’s say you have a flight from LA to Dallas/Ft Worth. You have a lot of connecting traffic on that flight, so how much do you allocate to the LA-DFW flight versus how much do you allocate to connections? And if you cut that one flight and lose connections, then what does that do to profitability on the other routes? So because it’s a network like that, it’s tough to look at a single route in isolation perfectly.

But the margins in this business are very slim, though been getting better in the last couple years.

Comment on American’s New Business Plan Looks a Lot Like the Old One But With a Lot More Outsourcing by CF

CF — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:12:27 +0000

I thought large props were restricted as well, but maybe someone else can confirm.