shiznit

Customer service, customer service, customer service.... and some more customer service....

However, we need to remember that just because SW is going to be providing the uniforms for the gate and rampers on the south end of C and D, it doesn't mean that the attitudes of the workers wearing those uniforms will change!!!

Bucking Bar

Sailingfun,

You are spot on.

While articles are written about SWA's costs, are those writers sophisticated enough to compare similar operations? Ultra long range flying is a completely different model than shorter range domestic legs where sector costs and per trip costs mean more than CASM.

If we were to compare SWA to say, Comair, would we still enjoy a cost advantage?

PilotFrog

I agree with Shiznit, SW will still have to hire from the available pool in Atlanta. Unless their kool aid is the best in the world, I doubt customer service will improve that much.

forgot to bid

I agree.

But even if SWA has excellent customer service here in ATL and great advertising, that's not a bad thing. It could be the catalyst for a lot of great change here that we would benefit from. Not to mention, "why can't we get their pay?" There are a lot of savvy people at the GO, I just sometimes think there are some relics that like to push back against them and want to just stay comfortable. You can't do that anymore. At some point you've got to fight from the inside out.

Like I posted on the other website about SWA, go look at Chicago-Vegas. SWA tickets are cheaper than ours (connecting) and Uniteds but only by $100ish bucks. Spirit and Allegiant come in at half their price and that's not with more fees pending. Just half. That low hanging fruit SWA used to love is starting to get re-picked off by those two carriers.

I think prices and operations and employee relations in and out of ATL will be a headache. This is ATL, it's in a incompetent county.

forgot to bid

BTW, who was rolling out for takeoff with me at 2am in ATL last night?

Can't wait to have some sort of EFBs that allow us to see radar while flying. A bunch of jets last night diverted into AGS. AGS was in the path of every storm that hit ATL and as one passed ATL it his AGS and once that passed AGS the next one was rolling into ATL.

But the whole time Alabama was in the clear. If only those guys had diverted into MGM, even if they'd been #15 it'd been better than AGS was- last night.

RiddleEagle18

I hope delta offers the airtran rewards customers (read HVC and first class) something like a 2:1 exchange for delta miles. It would probably help secure that customer block.

Maybe put a restriction on those miles that they can only be used on upgrades and not ticket purchases.

groundstop

They need to take care of the former AirTran customers. But we also need to get TV's in 100% of our fleet ASAP. We need to offer stuff SWA can't. We won't be able to match their customer service, but we should be able to offer more amenities.

sailingfun

If you are going to compare how airlines compete on a route for route basis you have to use like aircraft and stage lengths. Your correct that our widebody long haul has lower costs then shorter length flights on narrow body aircraft. That is why we need to compare ourselves to SW with like equipment. It also brings up the RJ issue which have a very high CASM on short flights. We won't compete with SW with RJ's on like routes.
SW costs are going up however Delta's costs are also going up and likely will increase faster then SW's costs. Their pilots and union are not comfortable with their current position at the top of domestic pilot pay scales. That is why they have made no real attempt to improve on 10 year old pay rates. They are not going to push for big raises.
Delta on the other hand I really hope is facing a major increase in pilot costs sometime around lets say 31 DEC 2012.

LeineLodge

I don't remember seeing that on the 320, but that doesn't mean it wasn't installed. Maybe I just never pushed the rudder hard enough

Seriously though, unless you taking off or landing in a crosswind, the airbus is pretty much a feet-on-the floor airplane. It was very rare to need rudder, and that was usually only to correct an out of trim situation.


*Disclaimer - If you're reading this and thinking of bidding either Airbus in Atlanta, disregard. The rudder/tail of the airplane is scary and as FedElta points out, at .15G it will abrupty snap off [*editorial liberty taken when quoting FedElta ]

forgot to bid

So Sailing, could in ATL we see a shift towards mainline aircraft over RJs?

For instance there are some routes we're doing on the 88 lately that we've taken back from the RJs and they aren't necessarily full. Preemptive move away from competing with AAI with RJs so as to not flood the market with seats but establish a high number of seats for a market?