"Newps" wrote in message
...

Look at Southwest. They are doing it right.


I agree, but the problem is that Southwest cannot serve the whole country
and sustain its business model. They exist by operating direct service on a
very narrow range of routes. This is why you do not see SWA flying in and
out of BOS, LGA, or any number of other extremely high-volume airports.

All the people really want
is a seat at the cheapest possible rate. We don't need your fancy clubs
and we certainly don't care about boarding the plane 5 minutes before
everybody else.

Well, I used to fly upwards of 100,000 miles a year, rarely going two weeks
without at least one trip. When you do that you get to spend a lot of time
waiting for missed connections and weather delays, and the clubs really do
help. It's one thing to put up with the cattle call a few times a year but
every week? You'd go mad.

Likewise, the early boarding offers one key benefit: guaranteed overhead
luggage bin space. This meant (a) I could save time by carrying all my
luggage and (b) still be comfortable by not having to put a bag under the
seat. Like I said, when you do it constantly, it really adds up.

With times being tough the past few years, companies were free to force
their traveling employees to eat a lot of s--t and fly only the cheapest
available fares. As conditions improve this will change. Good employees will
demand better accomodations or they will quit. This is why I think Airtran
has been very smart to offer Business Class seating at reasonable prices. I
used to run a team of consultants and was always willing to spend a little
more to make the trip easier on them. As for the client, I would explain
that they were paying $1800 a day for the consultant's time, so they ought
to be willing to spend a few hundred more to make sure that nice fellow
showed up refreshed and ready to work, not chewed up and spit out.

IMHO we need to weed the 6 majors (UA, US, AA, DL, NW, CO) down to three or
four, probably by allowing some of the mergers that would have been
unthinkable previously. UA, US, and DL are all sick men and I expect them to
look nothing like they do today within a few years. I do not expect US to
survive at all and do not understand how UA has managed to avoid going back
into bankruptcy.

-cwk.