z987k
Well-Known Member
I'd agree with this. I'm not sure who I hate to be on more, AA or UAL. Probably UAL because they can't be on time for anything in the world AND their product sucks. Barring a seat in business, I'd much rather be on JetBlue or Virgin. Their product is better. They just don't have the route structure. I won't touch Spirit with a 20ft pole.Serious question, did you guys think that just because we aren't at the commuters anymore we were home free? Did you think there was no more bidding for RFP's going on?
There still is, except it's being done by passengers and not the regional "partners".
When you look at all these surveys done, about who people like to fly on, AA is near the bottom. So is UAL. In 2014's global ranking, only one US carrier was top 50 and it was Delta, at 49. AA was 89. Eagle was ranked higher!!
Domestically, no one actually wants to fly on AA. Most actually want to fly on jetBlue, SWA,or Virgin. JetBlue showed +14% increase in passenger traffic in Nov, we showed +4%. People want to fly jetBlue. Because they have a known product, of good quality. Nobody wants to fly AA. I'm sorry but we suck. Our product is piss poor. We have no moat. We blend in with all the rest where people search and rank by price only, and that forces us to compete with ULCC's while our cost structure is that of a network carrier. Spirit's ASM costs are less than half of ours.
We have no consistent product. Despite what Parker said about Delta buying the 717's it was a move by Delta to control their brand. Parker is JV, he has no clue about this stuff. This is one of the main reasons Delta can command a +15% premium on their seats. Delta mostly attributes this to their corporate clientele and their reliability, which they can control more readily the more flying their actually do.
UAL has some issues. They have an amazing network but no one home at the helm. I like AA more than I like UAL.
The US airline industry is like the cell phone industry. It's completely saturated and companies are only gaining customers by churning.
I'm a big fan of Alaska and Delta's product. Now if only Delta would let me do ticket changes like Alaska does.