Not to sound like a whiner here but anyone else find the three back-to-back commercials (on jets that can show them) that start blaring three seconds after gear retraction extremely tacky and annoying?

Nothing like a quiet, slow late afternoon taxi to the runway ending with loud car commercials waking any customer up who was napping. :confused:

Let me answer your hypothetical question:

• Delta can do that
• Delta is doing it now
• Delta is doing it for less...

And since a picture is worth a thousand words:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25953519/VAALASKAvsDAL.png

Cheers
George

This is the is the future
 

Forget the Airline’s Name; It’s All About Alliances
By JOE SHARKEY
Published: December 5, 2011

ABOUT 18 months ago, G. Bruce Hedlund, a captain with American Airlines, looked out the window of his 757 as it rolled toward a taxiway at Kennedy Airport and spotted what he considered the future of commercial aviation.
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Chris Gash

“Passing in front of us was one of our 767s, but it didn’t say American Airlines,” Mr. Hedlund said. “Instead it had ‘Oneworld’ painted on it, in great big letters all the way down the side of the airplane,” a reference to the global Oneworld alliance that American and 11 other airlines from around the world are part of.

“I said to my young co-pilot, ‘There’s the war you’re going to fight.’ Then he looks at me and says, ‘Well, at least it says AA in little letters on the tail.’ ”

Mr. Hedlund, who retired from American Airlines on Sept. 1 after 27 years as a pilot, told me he regarded the fact that he was seeing more airplanes with alliance logos on their sides as a billboard message about where air travel was headed.

More and more, major airline strategies are predicated on revenue and market growth from code-sharing arrangements, in which a passenger who books a ticket on one airline will sometimes find at least one leg of the flight flown by another airline.

Oneworld is one of the three big alliances, along with Star and SkyTeam, that together number more than 50 world airlines. Alliances share codes but their members work much more closely on routes, schedules and marketing.

These days, frequent international business travelers are fluent in the language of the alliances. Many today are booking international flights by choice of alliance, rather than strictly by airline because of convenience and because alliance members now recognize the elite status of partner airlines’ passengers.

Alliances became popular starting in the 1990s as a way for airlines to expand international connections to destinations served by other airlines. The idea, the airlines said, was to create a more seamless network for passengers, while sharing revenue.

In recent years, as Mr. Hedlund noticed, those partnerships have become more intensely branded by alliance, rather than just by individual airline. Today, alliances not only share revenue, routes and marketing, but also jointly recognize a passenger’s frequent flier status.

Some critics say that the alliances have allowed some airlines to dodge international antitrust regulations and effectively merge on major routes. But it’s clear that alliances’ domination of the international travel market is growing.

Or as Michael Boyd, of the consulting firm Boyd Group International, put it: “In 10 years, it might not make much difference whether it’s United or American flying the airplane. It will be competition among Star, Oneworld and SkyTeam.”

The industry has a term for this trend — “metal neutral” — which Mr. Hedlund said means that “we don’t care who you fly on,” as long as it’s a partner that shares revenue, even one that operates the entire trip itself.

“In their mind, that’s pure profit,” he said. “You don’t have to pay for the crew, the gas — nothing.”

American, as we know, entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week. There has been a lot of speculation about how that might affect its strategy. But one obvious fact is that the bankruptcy filing will allow American to cut labor costs as it reorganizes.

Besides alliance membership, American has special partnership arrangements with foreign carriers like British Airways to operate some flights jointly on lucrative trans-Atlantic routes. Other major domestic carriers have similar arrangements, in which they receive antitrust exemptions for specific route partnerships with foreign competitors. This trend also is growing.

Two years ago, American described the Oneworld alliance, as well as the growing number of code-share arrangements that it has with other airlines for domestic flights, as the “cornerstone” of its strategy. That strategy, American said, was to “reallocate flying within American’s domestic network, from unprofitable routes to the airline’s primary markets.” The idea was to attract more high-revenue passengers, the airline said, to provide connections to and from the nation’s major business-travel markets, which of course are also gateways to the world’s major business travel cities on the most revenue-rich international routes.

Mr. Boyd said he didn’t believe the bankruptcy filing would affect the airline’s strategy of focusing on the core of the higher-yield business-travel market, while de-emphasizing service in smaller markets that can’t provide the desired revenue.

But Mr. Hedlund said he saw one potentially troublesome effect of a bankruptcy aimed at further reducing labor costs.

“For passengers,” he said, “nothing will change other than a potential deterioration of the already mediocre level of service provided by employees who have been beaten down for so long that it is hard for them to come to work with a positive outlook.”

The open time was nil tomorrow for 88B in ATL so I got short call since I am junior and RAW of 0. 3 trips popped up later and were assigned to more senior guys on the list with RAW of 0 since I was already assigned short call. Oh well its the couch for me too

I like flying the couch. It is just like being a 777 pilot on reserve :D

The honey do list has increased to include a remodel of our 2000 sq ft basement.

Looking at the "Ductless Heating and cooling systems." I have never worked with or installed them, so if any of you have any pros or cons, chime in!

Spot on,

Cabotage is one of the few remaining shelters from alliance takeover of legacy flying...
Here's my wish list going forward:

• Drastic reduction of domestic code
• Production balance for all non-Delta flying
• Annual remedies for non-compliance in PWA
• All Codeshare, JV and DCI capacity growth tied to mainline capacity growth.

Cheers
George

Well, we know where the moderators stand.
Mention "DPA" in this thread = kick in the jimmy; however, college football, remodeling, ductless heating and cooling systems, and pretty much everything else is acceptable. :cool:

Are you guys bucking for ALPA Rep/Company Managment positions?

Occupy,

We kind of have already had this discussion. The DPA vs. ALPA discussions become unbelievably heated. None of those other topics bring out the vitriol ===> (Except, surprisingly Tim Tebow.) I refuse to participate in them, and I like fights. :)

The DPA vs. ALPA discussions also completely take over the entire thread. I'm glad they've been pushed over there.

I don't think anyone is bucking for anything over here. Except, maybe an insult free zone.

Spot on, Newk.


-80 (DPA member and supporter)

Occupy - You've been on here for one whole month. Wow:rolleyes: This thread stays civil and for the most part fun, because the DPA/ALPA stuff goes to its rightful spot in the DPA thread. If you lurked for any length of time prior to signing up you'd realize that having the DPA thread in the Major's section is a privilege. It should be in the dedicated Union section. Fortunately the moderators allow it to stay in the majors section, right next to the latest and greatest thread. You should be thanking the moderators instead of chastising them.