Team U.S. Airways ruined American Airlines. Now the U.S. Airways cancer spreads to yet another legacy.
Tom Horton had put American Airlines on track to become great again. During his tenure, American invested heavily in its fleet, making one of the largest aircraft purchases in history. And of course, American launched its new brand and onboard experience too. But then, team U.S. Airways took over operations of the combined airline and everything went down hill from there. Well, it appears as if the U.S. Airways cancer has now spread to United, too.
U.S. Airways Cancer Spreads to United
When Scott Kirby was scooped up by United, many believed he’d work to implement the same negative changes he made at American. Gary Leff (and originally Brian Sumers) reports that Kirby alluded to this during a recent employee town hall meeting in Cleveland. An employee at the meeting had apparently asked if United could compete with American by offering more room in coach. This, of course, was in reference to American’s upcoming Basic Economy product on the 737 MAX, which will feature only 29 inches of pitch. And of course, Kirby’s answer was no.
Kirby believes that seat pitch has come down because consumers demand it. Consumers, he says, have voted with their wallets buy purchasing cheap fares. And he is somewhat right. The article does cite American’s “more room throughout coach” program, which was a total flop. But Kirby does also state that United needs to be competitive with the likes of Frontier and Southwest. This is preposterous. Clearly Kirby is delusional, as United’s (now systemwide) Basic Economy fare is far more restrictive than even Delta’s. Not to mention the fact that Basic Economy isn’t cheaper than United’s previous version of standard Economy. Rather, United simply changed all former standard Economy fares into Basic Economy. Did consumers really want this? No. The airlines forced it onto us in order to squeeze more revenue out of passengers.
Passengers flying on United’s Basic Economy fare aren’t allowed to bring aboard a full-size carryon. Checked bags are allowed for the normal fee. Delta, on the other hand, does allow full-size carryon’s for Basic Economy passengers. And Southwest still allows its passengers to bring aboard 2 checked bags and a full-size carryon for no additional fee. Oh, and both airlines continue to provide 31 inches of pitch throughout economy too.
U.S. Airways Cancer Spreads Final Thoughts
To be clear, United and Kirby hasn’t committed to reducing pitch in Economy like American. From Kirby’s statements, however, it wouldn’t be surprising if it does happen. Kirby (and Parker) tend to run airlines to maximize short-term profits, while ignoring long-term effects. And how this race to the bottom will affect United and American remains to be seen. But what we can do now, and what many disAAdvantage members have been doing, is to vote with our wallets. There still are great airlines like Alaska and Southwest, that we can support instead of American and United. And if need be, we can even fly Delta to fill-in the gaps. While Sky Pesos are awful, Delta at least knows how to treat its passengers.
Cancer? really? Maybe try to tone-down the hyperbole and use slightly more respectful descriptions, like say, “ULCC-mindset” or something. Don’t trivialise.
If you are a full service airline, offer a full service. If you are a low cost airline, sell as cheapest possible. Focus on your brand. If you want both, establish a sister airline to do it. It seems Asian airlines is much smarter than US in this case… oh dear….
+1
You would think, but US airlines are too cheap start a subsidiary to uphold brand standards. Especially considering that most of the larger airlines actually outsource a good chunk of their flying anyway.
Southwest is not a great airline like alaska.
Yep I agree! Usair totally ruined AA Horton didn’t do anything though except sit in that seat and collect 19mil or more for what 8 months work! And give AA THE UGLIEST PAINT JOB EVER! Arpey was better, Horton just followed what Arpey planned. Except that ugly paint job…usair needs to go and go now!
Cancer? You obviously have no idea what that word means. And if you want to really blame Parker and Kirby, that would technically be America West not USAirways. At least get your facts straight!
You go boy/girl!
Southwest isn’t a good airline at all. They are perhaps the worst airline you can go on. American airlines isn’t that bad of an airline, and United is quite nice.
I can’t say from personal experience, as I’ve never flown them. But a number of my friends like Southwest, and on paper they sound good. And honestly, I don’t have an issue with American’s in-flight service, I have an issue with their management.
You mean the management that has made $7 billion and $5 billion in profit over the last 2 years? You mean the management that has given contract employees raises OUTSIDE of contract negotiations? You mean the management that took America West and US Airways–both on the verge of extinction and leveraged them to form the largest airline in the world?
Is that the management you have an “issue” with?
Your incredible lack of knowledge and personal bias about the industry is showing….
Kirby isn’t as smart as he thinks he is. Cutting your way to profitability isn’t the way to run a business/airline. Now that all the consolidation that can happen has happened, you have to actually run the airline well. That means having very good operational performance, a solid on board product, decent fares, and good employees. It isn’t done by having inflexible policies, employees with no authority to do what’s right, and by trimming your offerings simply because you have competitors who do. Why can’t airlines simply be on time, use well maintained and clean aircraft, have pleasant employees, and do so charging a fair fare. No, they all look for some angle or gimmick when in reality there isn’t one. Just do the right thing and treat customers well. You would be amazed how that can impact your bottom line.
Most definitely not, but it is his style of business. I can’t fathom why United thought it was a good idea to pickup this guy, but they did. This is why, even though I don’t like Sky Pesos and do not fly Delta, I have some respect for that airline. Same for Southwest; never flown them, but my friends tell me about how you don’t get charged for cancellations, changes, or even checked bags!
Wow–you fancy yourself an industry expert but have never been on Southwest? BTW–Southwest is great–until they cancel a flight, or have a computer meltdown. Then their passengers are stuck since they have no reciprocal agreements with any other airlines. If you like traveling by bus, you’ll ❤️ Southwest.
Parker started at AA under Crandall. He later went on to AWA and US Airways. Because of strong union(s) opposition and their recalcitrance it took him 10 years to degrade US Airways into America West, but It only took him three years to do the same at AA mainly due to the lack of any credible union(s) presence.
AA has now become the new American West. The current state of affairs had nothing to do with US Airways but everything to do with the America West Management that unfortunately US Airways inherited and now so has AA. Consumers have the power to rectify this problem and demand more from airlines other than “cheaper airfare”. If consumers are truly willing to pay for a service and comfort – the airlines will offer the product. The consumer’s unrealistic expectation of perks and service combined with airlines still offering the cheapest airfare is an unrealistic and unsustainable expectation in this current market environment.
You are correct, it is America West. However, I don’t think we can lay blame entirely on the consumer. Yes, consumers are unwilling to pay for premiums like American’s failed more room in coach initiative. But today airlines are switching out what was once considered the cheapest fare, standard economy, and replacing it with something far worst… At the same price point. United and American have both been saying that Basic Economy will help them more effectively compete with the likes of Spirit. And while this may be true in some markets, overall prices have remained the same as before on routes that now feature Basic Economy. So in effect, these two airlines are now charging passengers more for less. It’s a nasty, very short-sighted game they’re playing. I’m not saying that we should have 34″-36″ pitch in coach for the price we’ve been paying for standard economy, but airlines shouldn’t be taking the 31″ pitch standard economy, stripping it down to nothing and subtracting 2″ of pitch for the same price either.
American’s failed more room in coach??? What? You need to do a little more studying. Main cabin extra is a big money-maker for AA–so much so they are expanding it on all the domestic narrow-body LUS fleet. Further, they announce this week they will be adding Premium Economy to their 777’s.
From where exactly do you get your information?
More room throughout coach and main cabin extra are two different things. More room throughout coach offered more leg room in all seats by removing rows. It failed and they put the rows back in
I agree 100%
“It only took him three years to do the same at AA mainly due to the lack of any credible union(s) presence.”
Quite literally, I have never seen such a weak union as the flight attendant’s union. The present president is jonesing for a management job, multiple concessions in hand along with a “termination clause”, bypassing the union.
AA was ripe for a clown like Parker. The only thing Parker is good for is a great ROI for “investors”. Not shareholders but actual investors, like Pan Am had before they went under. Like Mitt Romney, his game is to cash out assets, leaving the carrier as a collection of third party vendors. He brought the IT department from America West, reducing operational information to a soggy mess.
The only thing that can save AA is strong unions. Until that happens, AA will flirt with falling off a cliff.
I am a former airline employee / retired . Worked for TWA and AA . Have traveled the world on many different airlines. Stating that Alaska is great is total BS. I booked a flight full fare and had a f ing nightmare with their lies and bullshit. They had a ramp accident at sna ( John Wayne) cancelled the flight , called it an act of God, and tried to make me go to burbank instead of another carrier. Rebooked me the next day out of sna and cancelled again because they still had not fixed the same broke plane. Fing liars, and horrible service
BTW, the name of the company was never U.S. Airways. It was US Airways. And if you didn’t know that, you’re not much of an industry ‘insider’. What a bunch of trivial, speculative bunk…..
I agree 100%