March 22, 1999
ALPA, Intl
Committees
The talks went down to the wire, but a tentative settlement was
reached early Saturday. Russ’ America West flight—from Sacramento to Baltimore
via Phoenix—will go on as scheduled Wednesday. After that trip, however, he’s
not sure when he’ll fly America West again.
“I certainly think I’ll boycott them for a
while,” Russ said Saturday. Even though there was no CHAOS—flight
attendants’ planned series of last-minute walkouts—and no airline shutdown (a
company threat), America West’s high-profile tangle with its flight attendants peeved
plenty of passengers and scared countless others away.
America West has not revealed any financial details of the
impact, but analysts estimate the Tempe-based carrier lost millions as skittish travelers
booked on other airlines or delayed trips. With the settlement in hand, America West now
will try to repair any damage and woo travelers like Russ back. It will have to do double
duty with some customers, as delayed flights were already a big sore spot.
America West was last in on-time performance among major
U.S. airlines last year.
The endearment efforts will likely be strongest in Phoenix,
where the company has been been aggressively courting high-fare-paying business travelers
to boost profits.
America West isn’t providing any details on its
post-settlement marketing plans, but passengers were one of the first things on America
West Chairman William Franke’s mind after he sealed the deal with the Association of
Flight Attendants in Washington, D.C. “We need to focus on the customer and to
improve the customer service,” he said at a news conference.
Other airlines have bounced back from labor troubles with
fare sales, bonus frequent flier miles, fewer fare restrictions and feel-good advertising
campaigns.
A fare sale—the preferred “Let’s make
up” gift for many passengers
— might be a moot point in this case, however.
Southwest Airlines, a key America West competitor, last
week launched another one of its $198 coast-to-coast fare sales. Fares don’t get much
lower than that.
“I don’t know where America West can do any
better than what’s out there right now,” said Tom Parsons, editor of
Bestfares.com, a magazine and Internet site featuring travel bargains and tips. There
might be room for some discounts in cities not served by low-fare king Southwest, such as
Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Newark and Washington, D.C., Parsons said.
America West could add a twist to the Southwest sale and
offer the low fares for travel right away, rather than Southwest’s April 6 start
date, Parsons said. That effectively waives the advance purchase requirement, which makes
last-minute fares the most expensive on the planet.
“That way they can fill up the seats now for the next
two weeks,” he said, adding that Northwest did something similar after a two-week
strike by pilots last summer.
The biggest push likely will be aimed at business
travelers, with bonus frequent flier miles dangled as carrots. Frequent fliers, who
usually travel last minute and pay the highest fares, crave extra miles, as first-class
upgrades and free trips build up faster. After its pilot sickout last month, which
affected 600,000 passengers and will dramatically lower the airline’s first quarter
earnings, American Airlines offered double miles for a limited period of time, Parsons
said.
“The only thing American was really concerned about
was their heavy-duty frequent fliers, their elite class,” he said.
At America West, Alan Richardson of Glendale falls into the
elite class. A regional sales manager for the Micro-Rel division of Medtronic, he travels
every week on the airline, racking up about 100,000 frequent flier miles a year.
The threat of a strike forced him to postpone two trips,
one to Minneapolis, one to Chicago. He wasn’t willing to take a chance on America
West and couldn’t find seats on other carriers. Other employees also had to cancel
trips to Minneapolis, where Medtronic is based.
Despite the inconvenience, Richardson said he’s not
expecting any “We’re sorry” freebies from America West, since a strike was
averted. He’s resuming his America West travels next Monday MGMarch 29 MG with a trip
to Minneapolis.
“No harm, no foul,” he said.
If the airline had done a lockout as threatened, “I
think they would have owed us something.”
Russ isn’t looking for any deals from America West,
either. He just wants some consumer protection clauses added to airline tickets,
protecting travelers in the event of a strike or other work stoppage. The America West
strike, which in the worst case would have disrupted an estimated 100,000 travelers the
first weekend, would have been the second in two months for Russ. Last month, he was
stranded in California due to the American pilots’ sickout. He missed three
appointments in Boston.
“I’m really kind of upset that there have been so
many strikes in the airline industry the past two years,” he said. “We
(travelers) just don’t have any protection, and we’re the ones paying for those
tickets.”
| AmWest to Woo Its Lost Fliers by Dawn Gilbertson, The Arizona Republic |
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| Oregon businessman Barry Russ spent hours on his computer last week, searching online travel agencies for flights to Baltimore. It was part of his contingency plan in case last-minute negotiations between America West Airlines and its flight attendants failed and a long-threatened strike began. |