Jetblue finally caved...

Cherokee_Cruiser said:
The timing of these jetBlue deferrals? VX's lack of planes in that same timeframe?

#AnotherAirlineMerger

#virginBlue

:D
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But VirginBlue is already taken!

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Wait, they changed their name to Virgin Australia in 2011?

:tinfoil: :tinfoil: :tinfoil: :tinfoil: :tinfoil:
 
Ugh. I hope Virgin America doesn't cave in the first few years after the IPO and turn into just "another airline".

jetBlue has really been pissing me off at work lately, they're going through changes alright. Evident dealing with their ops and management since the CEO change.
 
Derg said:
I think SWA is a stones throw away from doing it themselves. Hundreds of millions of dollars in untapped revenue.

And, after all, we all want restoration or raises, #AMARITE?
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I think the goodwill and word of mouth advertising is worth more than it would bring in revenue wise.

Probably also true for B6 - the northeast is a competitive market, legroom was their major selling point against southernjets...
 
drunkenbeagle said:
I think the goodwill and word of mouth advertising is worth more than it would bring in revenue wise.

Probably also true for B6 - the northeast is a competitive market, legroom was their major selling point against southernjets...
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Yeah, that's what Gary's been saying for years. You're both nuts. :)
 
I think are on a slippery slope moving towards just becoming another airline. People flew them because they weren't like every other airline out there. The more they move away from what made them unique the more people will just go back to shopping by price on the route flown. It's only a matter of time before the wifi isn't free...

They are also delaying the arrival of 18 aircraft.
 
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-southwest-bags-1120-biz-20141119-story.html

Southwest takes Jab at JetBlue

....."Did you hear the news today? Feeling a bit blue, perhaps, at the thought of yet another bag fee out there?" wrote Southwest Chief Revenue Officer Bob Jordan. "Don't fear — Southwest Airlines has your back, and your bag — and you can take great comfort in knowing that bags fly free for all at Southwest.com! Today, we stand alone as the only domestic airline that can say that.........."
 
ATN_Pilot said:
"Today, we stand alone as the only airline passing up $1 billion in revenue...."

The shareholders should have an uprising.
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Maybe. But maybe people fly Southwest because they like avoiding the fees of other airlines. Certainly Spirit's fee for carry on bags means I don't even consider using them for travel. Southwest is gambling that they are making more revenue by appealing to the novice traveller or non-business traveller. If it works? I'm sure they have analysts screaming at them, but its certainly not that simple.
 
Honestly, the reporting on this has been completely lopsided. The take away from the media on investor day was slashing legroom and adding bag fees, which coming from the outlets that report on aviation, shouldn't really surprise me on how wrong they got it.

If they want to tout the slashing of legroom, they should have done it when our first A321 took to the skies. The A320s are getting the SAME SEATS with the SAME PITCH our A321s have had all along. Legroom feels the same because of the seat re-design, but it's about an inch less on paper. So, the media outlets stop reading at "less seat pitch" and get out their torches and pitchforks.

The bag fees are being added to the lower tier of our fare families. The middle tier is exactly the same as what all of our non-refundable tickets are now, and it LOOKS like if you buy a full fare, refundable ticket you get TWO checked bags. We haven't even announced pricing on this or what the bag fee will be, and I'm gonna laugh if the low tier is less than what our current prices are. Not likely, but it'll be funny to watch everyone in the media attempt to backpedal. If you're a family of 4 traveling to Disney, do you REALLY need 4 checked bags? Might actually come out cheaper buying the lower tier fare and then paying to check two bags. I'm also betting that if you're a TrueBlue member, you'll get some kinda deal on checked bags as well. Talking to my buddies still on the ramp at Southwest, those bag fees don't exist because management squeezes the savings out of labor. Those signs they carry on the picket lines that say "Your bags fly free because of us" aren't just for show.

I've seen ONE article mention the free (for customers) wi-fi. It's being "monetized" through the WSJ, Time and Verizon. Which means you'll probably have to watch some ads like you do when the TVs boot up, but after that, surf away.

My take away from the media on this is negativity brings the readers whereas if you present a balanced and accurate report, no one cares.....
 
ATN_Pilot said:
They provide free WiFi? They really need to stop that nonsense. Huge revenue potential there.
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It's free for browsing, then you pay a fee for streaming. We'll see if that sticks in the long run, but for now, as noted in their Investor Day presentation, there is a revenue stream from advertising partners.

I think this is a huge knee-jerk reaction amongst the media and public for something that is evidently not as valuable as people think.The airline will still be unique - customers will still have 1.5 inches + more legroom than any other carrier in coach. Snacks, drinks, etc. will still be free. And a checked bag will be fee if you want to pay a slight premium over the a la carte fare. At this junction, it's very clear on the revenue front that JetBlue is hardly being rewarded for having extra leg room.

The airline needs to evolve, and to be quite clear, it needs to evolve in 2 aspects: 1st, cost containment, 2nd revenue generation. Cost containment is structural, and the fault of management for letting things escalate quicker than anticipated. But the carrier also needs to evolve to remain competitive in the revenue market place. If I recall correctly, almost every domestic carrier has decreased seat pitch in the past 5 years, cramming more seats into the airplane. What doe that mean? That means that when Delta and JetBlue both fly NYC-Florida, and Delta's crammed 12 more seats into their A320, their breakeven fare in the market just encroached upon (and possibly surpassed) JetBlue's. Generally, the public has spoken - the price point will matter more than the legroom.

If people don't like this evolution, I can assure you the alternatives would be much, much worse. If there were no changes made, and you look at JetBlue's valuation prior to rumors floating of these changes back in May, the carrier would have been an exceptionally cheap acquisition target. One of the (if not the) cheapest in the industry, from a stock multiple, as a matter of fact. So, you have to evolve if you want to say on the map. I won't even get into how "every other carrier" has elected to shed costs to remain competitive - we all know how that story goes.
 
Ecl!pse said:
It's free for browsing, then you pay a fee for streaming. We'll see if that sticks in the long run, but for now, as noted in their Investor Day presentation, there is a revenue stream from advertising partners.

I think this is a huge knee-jerk reaction amongst the media and public for something that is evidently not as valuable as people think.The airline will still be unique - customers will still have 1.5 inches + more legroom than any other carrier in coach. Snacks, drinks, etc. will still be free. And a checked bag will be fee if you want to pay a slight premium over the a la carte fare. At this junction, it's very clear on the revenue front that JetBlue is hardly being rewarded for having extra leg room.

The airline needs to evolve, and to be quite clear, it needs to evolve in 2 aspects: 1st, cost containment, 2nd revenue generation. Cost containment is structural, and the fault of management for letting things escalate quicker than anticipated. But the carrier also needs to evolve to remain competitive in the revenue market place. If I recall correctly, almost every domestic carrier has decreased seat pitch in the past 5 years, cramming more seats into the airplane. What doe that mean? That means that when Delta and JetBlue both fly NYC-Florida, and Delta's crammed 12 more seats into their A320, their breakeven fare in the market just encroached upon (and possibly surpassed) JetBlue's. Generally, the public has spoken - the price point will matter more than the legroom.

If people don't like this evolution, I can assure you the alternatives would be much, much worse. If there were no changes made, and you look at JetBlue's valuation prior to rumors floating of these changes back in May, the carrier would have been an exceptionally cheap acquisition target. One of the (if not the) cheapest in the industry, from a stock multiple, as a matter of fact. So, you have to evolve if you want to say on the map. I won't even get into how "every other carrier" has elected to shed costs to remain competitive - we all know how that story goes.
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With our coming CBA, labor costs are going to rise. That's still a few years out, but there's no way management will be able to continue the shell game of raising pay rates, but cutting in other areas.

If they would increase the productivity of the pairings they could save a lot of money by needing fewer pilots. How many pairings have 30 hour overnights?
 
Depends on what you're streaming, I guess. I watched an entire streaming soccer match on the free wi-fi. MOST people will stick with the free option. I mean, there's going to (eventually) be 100+ channels of DirecTV. If you really need to stream something on your device other than something there (or the movies which cost less than the hyper-fast streaming), then I guess sure. SWA charged (I think) $8 for wi-fi last time I was on there, and it wasn't all that hot. Don't get me started on GoGo Inflight. Unless that's had a major overhaul in the past couple of years, I wouldn't pay for that with someone else's money.
 
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