That extends far beyond frontier. Society in general is losing its ability to be decent.

 

I'm ready Arty!

Agreed.

 

I'm a bit confused. For a company trying to go public and maximize on an IPO, there doesn't seem to be much logic in their part. Pilot labor relation issues, long tarmac delays, bottom on performance ranking. Are they trying to sabotage their own IPO?

 

They may be trying to sabotage our attempts to get mediation. But more likely they're just tripping over pounds to save pennies.

 

The pilot group doesn't need to do anything to sabotage their operations. This management group is taking care of it for us. I know I shouldn't be, but I'm a little surprised that heads aren't rolling.

 

Just my opinion but I don't think there is any way they are doing any of this on purpose. Way - way - way too much money at stake. The costliness of these problems far outweigh any gains they could achieve by playing games.

I can't imagine how the value of the IPO has not already been seriously impacted! Think about it. The last 2 years the singular focus has been on getting the numbers in line, and now this massive effort has been utterly undone in one summer.

Good thing I don't put much value in my own analysis, or I'd probably be extremely worried.

 

I think I understand your thought process, Sulk. The problem is that you assume they are planning an IPO sometime in the near future.

I'm in the minority who thinks that the sale / merger / IPO / whatever is a long way off. They are printing cash with the operation running as badly as it is.

BB came into RGS (for probably his last time signing up for that abuse), and told the pilots that we aren't interested in being in the top 50% of the DOT metrics or at the bottom of passenger complaints. If we are scoring that high or treating passengers too well, we're spending too much money for the desired result - maximum profit. They don't care what the passengers call your mom as long as they fork over $65 for a carry-on at the gate.

They want the operation to be just good enough to keep making money and attracting passengers who insult flight crew. If super low CASM EX-fuel (thanks in part to an employee doing the job of 1.5 employees) allows F9 to beat up on other airlines when fuel costs inevitably climb again - mission accomplished.

If a TA passed by 75/25 they obviously gave labor too much money. Their target is 50.00001% in favor. As long as there's a bunch of black ink at the bottom of the page at the end of the quarter, BB will gladly let passengers be as PO'd as they like. All the better if he can blame SwissPort, software developers, bad w/x in HNL or past management for the problems he's going to have fixed "soon".

This scheme has served ULCC management quite well for a while now. Read this, (written in 2007 after the ULCC model was put into place in 2006 at Spirit) and tell me that management cares how passengers are treated. Spirit CEO: "We owe him nothing" | Budget Travel's Blog | Travel Deals, Travel Tips, Travel Advice, Vacation Ideas
Obviously, the backlash lasted until the next fare war, and did zero harm to the bottom line.

 

Very interesting. I'm inclined to believe your theory has merit, as it's the only one that logically accounts for every point of bewilderment.

Hey at least we know now that they know what they're doing.

Thanks for explaining is such detail.

Wx in HNL -

 

How disheartening. I just don't know what's worse- her actions or her inevitable return the next time she heads to Vegas.
I've been fortunate to avoid these types of encounters, but it's just a matter of time.
Had a three hour delay recently and one passenger approached us to say 'thank you' repeatedly for getting him to the destination. That was certainly a nice touch to the end of the work day.

 

I'll agree with F9 to a certain extent. They'll happily take 10-15 minute delays. But 1 hour plus. No way. That leads to canceled flights and tons of mis-connects. I personally acars'd we weren't doing the return redeye after we left the originating city 3 hours late. The return leg was canceled and the 5 of us ended up in $350 hotel rooms. This crap costs lots of money.
And to be fair, EVERY business is in business to maximize their profits. There are only a handful of companies in the country who are known for very good customer service.