Very interesting. Those are considered insulting, yet when the left slams people for listening to the likes of Limbaugh and O'reilly relentlessly, that's OK.. Gotta love the double standard.

My father was a small businessman in a rural Kentucky town. He ran the local 5 and dime. It was THE place to go when you need everyday staples... box fans in the summer... some basic clothing items... toothpaste.. he even had sleds set back for the once every 3 year snow we got there. Then a small business called Walmart came to town and put my dad out of business. twice. My father "deserved" a lot more than he walked away with too.. but it is a big cold world out there. He NEVER saw $70k/year. EVER. I'm not throwing rocks at your mother or any teacher for that matter, but they have been the beneficiary of an entitlement program for years, and those bills are coming due. And before you start with that "you have benefitted from public education, so shouldn't you be willing to put back into that system?" stuff, I'll have you know that since I have no kids, I have paid for many children who aren't mine to benefit from that free education, so spare me. Personally, from what I have seen lately, I am not getting anywhere near my money's worth either. Spelling, grammar... the three Rs... pitifully inadequate IMO. But I guess as long as little Jimmy tries, he "deserves" a trophy too.

Freeze the pensions... dump the future contributions.. start a 401k. done.

Not the entire story though... when someone buys a ticket on SWA, they expect nothing other than point A to point B. No food... no service.. nothing.... and SWA delivers on that promise. good for them. When someone buys a ticket on DAL, they expect a choice of chicken or filet mignon, and is ****ed when they don't get it. Or numerous other similar things. What I wonder is how many people go to the SWA website to buy one of those cheapie tickets, and when they see there are no more to be had say "oh well, they are THE lowfare airline so I guess this is the best I can do.", and buy the ticket anyway. Meanwhile, they miss a better fare on another airline simply because they are too lazy to go anywhere else to shop. DO a little comparison shopping of your own if you don't believe me. DAL will meet or beat SWA on the vast majority of common routes. But it's brilliant marketing on SWA's part no doubt, and my point is that they have managed the public's expectations magnificently.... don't expect anything, you won't be disappointed... how could they not be number one?

Okay, DAL is rated #1 among airlines.

Scored as a #1 for Quality of Management

Scored as a #7 for products and services

Do these scores seem to conflict a bit ?.....doesn't management decide on outsourcing ?? :confused:

What's the conflict? If the poll is accurate, it would seem that the travelling public doesn't care as much about flying on Barbie jets or foreign carriers as we all want to think....

First Class Seating
 

I think Delta's first class ranks much higher than Southwest's...Oh, that's right, I forgot! :D

Here's a concise list of Delta's recent accolades:

Delta Air Lines Newsroom - Press Kit

Delta's focus is the business traveler, while Southwest's is the general public, as seen in this video:

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

Hey T,
If DAL is scored #7 for products and services, it seems to me that John Q Public very much cares about being stuck on a Barbie Jet.....hence my comment about conflicting scores....what am I missing ?

Regards...

Yeah I see what you are saying.. maybe it's how the poll is weighted. Personally I couldn't care less about those things. Like Moody's wrt corporations, a lot of times it's about how much money makes it to the pollsters...

T,

What does that say about our marketing? Why not a marketing blitz challenging SWA's supposed fare advantage?

I agree that a lot of people are indeed lazy, but It appears they just think SWA is cheaper and searching DAL and others airlines would be a waste of time. If SWA is not cheaper but the general public assumes that they are, then not only is that brilliant marketing on SWA's part, but extremely poor marketing on DAL's part.

Scoop

Ts,

I'm sure this discussion is well underway in PM world, which is welcome by almost everyone. So, I will just say this:

When I brought up the point of the teachers salary, it wasn't to complain about the low salaries themselves (Ok. Maybe it was a little. :) ) But, mainly it was to point out that teachers and the people who know them find it offensive when someone says they make too much or are overpaid. The first sentence of that paragraph leads to where I was going.

If someone told you that you were overpaid, how would you feel?

(And I hope I can say this without upsetting you. But, we have had some discussions privately, so I know where you are coming from and I think you understand where I am coming from.)

If someone told you that your father was overpaid, how would you feel?

It's just not a good thing to say. It's not very objective either. Mainly, because the people who say it, normally don't know what pilots, teachers, or small businessmen do.

As far as the double standard of Rush and O'Riley? I wasn't asked to apply a standard. Buzz asked me to point out his name-calling. That's all I did.

I agree with you, but apparently our management doesn't seem to think of SWA as being a significant threat to us. It certainly seems that if we went after them heads up with that kind of marketing campaign, we could kick 'em in the onions. Witness how we have basically sent them packing from SLC. I hope they (management) are right.