71 replies to this topic

[TNT88]

How come Lufthansa was able to score five stars for service with a highly unionized workforce and expensive labor costs in its home country?

Lufthansa is s***. They also keep losing tons of money every year. The only way the US3 could became 5 star airlines is if they follow the Japanese airlines tactics and goes with heavy-premium class configs on smaller aircraft. Like B787-8 or 787-9 on majority of their routes. So they could increased their prices and generate more profits thus give them the ability to provide better services without losing any profits. Although they would have to cut economy class capacity by at least 50%. Because in no way economy class could make a profit. 

[Avelo]

Lufthansa is s***. They also keep losing tons of money every year. The only way the US3 could became 5 star airlines is if they follow the Japanese airlines tactics and goes with heavy-premium class configs on smaller aircraft. Like B787-8 or 787-9 on majority of their routes. So they could increased their prices and generate more profits thus give them the ability to provide better services without losing any profits. Although they would have to cut economy class capacity by at least 50%. Because in no way economy class could make a profit.

The truth is that 90% of US flyers are not willing to pay premium, so the Japanese way is out of the question. You could just go back to the pre-1978 era when flying was once a more luxurious experience.

[Jamesthomeson]

Would it be possible for US legacy airlines to deliver five-star service?

What would you ask of them? Cheap tickets are the game. They make up with these cost by giving regular service.

And what do you mean five star service? Do you expect Emirates with their pretty colors and a freaking shower?

And seriously what is that about? Who needs to shower during a flight? If you had enough money to pay for a first class ticket with a suite I'm sure you had enough money to afford clean water to wash yourself before a long flight.

[Pasti]

Honestly, it's a lost cause.

 

Trying to make the US legacy carriers the way they once were is like trying to convince a lion to become Christian. All American airlines are privately owned corporations with one thing in mind; profit. We, the consumers, might get mad, but in reality we can only do so much to protest. 

[Avelo]

Honestly, it's a lost cause.

Trying to make the US legacy carriers the way they once were is like trying to convince a lion to become Christian. All American airlines are privately owned corporations with one thing in mind; profit. We, the consumers, might get mad, but in reality we can only do so much to protest.

Do you believe Al Baker's sassy remarks about American Airlines' cabin crew? I'm sure some people do. He's the CEO of Qatar Airways.

[X-Wing @Aliciousness]

Honestly, it's a lost cause.

 

Trying to make the US legacy carriers the way they once were is like trying to convince a lion to become Christian. All American airlines are privately owned corporations with one thing in mind; profit. We, the consumers, might get mad, but in reality we can only do so much to protest. 

 

Consumers aren't even protesting: They eat up cheap fares. The only thing that the vast majority of economy class passengers care about is price, and this has been proven true time and time again. If it wasn't true, airlines that cut economy service would be out of business because no one would fly them. Instead, the US3 are raking in the highest profits in their history, the largest airlines in Europe are Ryanair and Easyjet, and companies like Air Asia, Jetstar, and others are growing astoundingly fast in Asia.

 

 

Do you believe Al Baker's sassy remarks about American Airlines' cabin crew? I'm sure some people do. He's the CEO of Qatar Airways.

 

Al Baker can say whatever he wants, but the fact of the matter is that over the last 2 years American Airlines has earned $10 billion US dollars in profit compared with Qatar earning about $527 million. As such, I think it's quite clear which airline is performing better.

[A220]

Sure the US3 are run by *******s, but so are most airlines globally. Admittedly they don't have really good service, but it is acceptable. The problem with the US3 and US airlines in general is that they are large. Really large. 1000 planes and 90k employees large. And with those numbers you are gonna have several thousand people with entirely different personalities, which translates to some crews being the best there ever was and some others just collecting paychecks. Which happens to many airlines. But when you have such large fleets you have many more passengers, aka more people are gonna observe this phenomenon, and in this day and age, when everything is uploaded or recorded somewhere we hear more and more things about them. Like we hear more of WN's perky and funny FA's, we're gonna hear more stories of people getting thrown off planes, and in the post-Dao era that automatically translates to the airline being at fault, even if it's not actually true. And also the fact that the US airlines, and especially the US3, have so many employees, it's hard to keep consistency on the service, let alone the crew's attitude. Sure, US FA's have been abusing their power all the time post-9/11, but bad service doesn't define them. Delta is keeping 9-abreast 777's, which beats most airlines worldwide, UA has half their Y cabins allocated to a seat with extra legroom at little cost (which is a feature on all US airlines nowadays, which beats what most other airlines do), and AA has been improving quite a bit lately IMO. And in terms of J UA and DL both have very innovative and competitive products. I think the US3 could imrpove as much as the next guy, but they definitely aren't bad.

 

P.S. Never flown on any US airline so this is purely by what I've heard.

[Avelo]

Al Baker can say whatever he wants, but the fact of the matter is that over the last 2 years American Airlines has earned $10 billion US dollars in profit compared with Qatar earning about $527 million. As such, I think it's quite clear which airline is performing better.

If AA is making billions, how about they invest in more premium offerings in all aircraft and cabins across the board, let alone improve their dining options in economy? (Perhaps communism could solve this problem, especially since I proudly support it)

[X-Wing @Aliciousness]

If AA is making billions, how about they invest in more premium offerings in all aircraft and cabins across the board, let alone improve their dining options in economy? (Perhaps communism could solve this problem, especially since I proudly support it)

 

Because customers have show that they do not care about the service levels an airline offers, they will happily book the cheapest possible tickets no matter how little is included in the price.

 

To answer your question, we need to look at why a business exists at all: to achieve the goals of the stakeholders. In the case of a multi-billion dollar public company like American Airlines, that goal is to make a profit. Any CEO who decided to arbitrarily raise costs knowing that doing so would not raise revenues would be voted out faster than you can say Basic Economy.

[Avelo]

Because customers have show that they do not care about the service levels an airline offers, they will happily book the cheapest possible tickets no matter how little is included in the price.

If AA improves their service, that costs more, and any CEO who decided to raise costs without a projected rise in revenue would be voted out faster than you can say Basic Economy.

It seems that I'm pretty much the only one who actually cares about the level of service when traveling

[X-Wing @Aliciousness]

It seems that I'm pretty much the only one who actually cares about the level of service when traveling

 

That's what Premium Economy/Business/First class are for. Economy class is for those who want the cheapest ticket. Anyone who says they care about service while buying the cheapest economy ticket doesn't actually care enough to vote with their wallet, which is the only thing Businesses actually care about.

 

If you want better service, you have to pay for it. If you're flying economy, you aren't paying for better service, and so you don't get it.

[Avelo]

That's what Premium Economy/Business/First class are for. Economy class is for those who want the cheapest ticket. Anyone who says they care about service while buying the cheapest economy ticket doesn't actually care enough to vote with their wallet, which is the only thing Businesses actually care about.

If you want better service, you have to pay for it. If you're flying economy, you aren't paying for better service, and so you don't get it.

No wonder why so many passengers have complained about Dynamic Airways not providing them with meals on flights. And I bet people have only heard of that airline by word of mouth, which is why it's not a very recognized airline in the general sense. It's not even a real airline to begin with, but rather a "public charter service", which I think is basically how they were able to offer dirt-cheap fares with many strings attached.