Given the incredible level of vitriol on this forum I'd normally stay out but Brucelee asked the question. Tell me why AC is headed back to the CCA yard.
Reason #1 – It is all about the customers. When you are no longer the monopoly that you always have being you need to change your ways or you die.
A few weeks back I flew JFK/SLC - rt. purchased the ticket 2 weeks before and paid $330 al in. If I had done it a few weeks earlier it would have being $220. The day before I looked to add my son, price would have being 460. Flight was totally full. Depending on when you bought that is a seat mile cost of 5-13 cents. Average say 9.
We landed 20 minutes early and waited on the ramp for our gate. We walked off the plane at the planned arrival time. Three days later I get an email apologizing for the delay???? And telling me they had deposited a $25 credit in my FF account. Good for one year on any Jet blue flight.
Compare this to the “New Air Canada” as described in this forum
http://www.pprune.com/forums/showthr...hreadid=202246
My father had a very similar experience a few years back and it is just plain old arrogance to the customer. “We’ve got you, or rather we’ve got your money, and we are going to bend you over the table because you have no choice”
So given a choice – who are you going to fly? Jet Blue can fill its planes and make money at reasonable fairs and provide a real top-notch product and service that makes loyal customers. AC just gave at least one customer a really good reason to look elsewhere. (Read the thread carefully – the AC counter staff basically called the man a liar on two counts. Wow where do you get these people)
The problem of legacy airlines is not legacy costs. It is the legacy thinking deeply embedded in the DNA of the management and the employees. Very few legacy airlines have being able to survive real competition. They simple cannot see the customer as anything but captive and they will always behave that way unless something forces them to change. This ‘you have no choice’ attitude works it way down to all levels of employees.
AC has the same management that put you in the soup. What has changed? How much is Uncle Miltie making off with out of his “visionary “ restructuring? Read the threads on this forum. AC has not solved its labor problems; it has stashed them in the closet. It used CCA to cover up bad decisions and beat the crap out of the work force. The tables will turn and the employees are just waiting to get their kick at the cat. Revenge is best eaten cold so it may be a few years but it will come and it will be vicious.
All AC needs to return to the good ole days is get that pesky competition out of the way. The attacks on Westjet are no different from all the ALPA boys calling SWA pilot’s low paid scabs for years.
In the past the legacy carriers have used a combination of regulatory agencies, captive markets, predatory pricing, airport slots and technical skills to maintain the monopolies. All of these elements are disappearing.
Funny thing is the chairman of JetBlue is an ex travel agent and is paid a minimal 500k per year and he has a lot of real money tied up in shares. Not a single option, real shares, real money and no golden parachute. He has already started and sold one airline and this one is only making money every quarter. They have 100 planes plus on order and eventually they will wander North.
I see nothing that tells me AC has changed. And don’t count on the overseas traffic to save your bacon. Every flight out means one of those low cost off shore Boeing operators coming the other way. The have identical costs to you for planes, fuel, nav and landing fees. The only edge they have is the labour costs and customer service.
The world has changed and flying and plane and operating a successful airline are no longer the domain of the elite few. Check out Jet Airways. When they start flying to North America that is where my business goes.
Reason # 2 = Anyone so stupid as to invest in America West or USAIR really has it coming. Got 4000 million, invest it in your own operation.
AC has the technical skills to run a 1st class operation. It is the management I really doubt and I’ve yet to see anything to convince me it has changed.