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While the Northwest-Delta merger wasn't perfect, it seemed like the new company genuinely did their research, tried to take the best best practices from both sides, and made good progress on creating a corporate culture of 'We're all Delta now.' Meanwhile United Continental got bogged down in turf wars between pre-merger United and pre-merger Continental factions even as the new company tried to cut costs in the consolidation to the detriment of passengers. As of mid-2016 at least, the airline could not mix pm-United and pm-Continental flight attendants on the same flight, something that is going to play havoc with scheduling and continue to egg on the factions.
Post-merger American seems have watched and learned from both of those previous mergers.
I'll agree with this mostly. I think if anybody got burned by the DL/NW merger it was probably the ex-NW flight attendants that gave up concessions in a vote that ultimately led to unification of the two subsidiaries. Granted, Northwest's flight attendant morale at the time of the merger was known to be pretty dismal anyway.
American did take note of what worked and what didn't for both mergers and is a cash cow as a result. Despite all that, they are poorly ranked operationally and on a customer service level.
United and Continental was a total disaster with Smisek being forced to resign - He's on the same level as a Frank Lorenzo type.. They were not profitable until recently and still can't compete operationally or financially with Delta. Sad thing is work groups technically won't be merged until 2018.
Charging to use the overbin as well as for one's first piece of checked-in baggage is absolutely ridiculous as far as I am concerned.
I think the whole fee is basically....you can fly with a book bag, but if you want to use the overhead bin, there will be a fee. At that point, im sure they might as well just buy a regular economy ticket.
If United prices these basic economy with no baggage right, they can take alot of business from Frontier and Spirit, because the seats on Frontier & Spirit SUCK.
AA just sent me an email announcing this same class of service
I received that email, too. And though the email didn't say anything about overhead bins, "1 item that fits under the seat (no access to overhead bins)" is literally the first restriction you see when you click on the email link to learn more. So now we know: American's version of Basic Economy is going to be just like United's. Delta's is the outlier.
I received that email, too. And though the email didn't say anything about overhead bins, "1 item that fits under the seat (no access to overhead bins)" is literally the first restriction you see when you click on the email link to learn more. So now we know: American's version of Basic Economy is going to be just like United's. Delta's is the outlier.
Delta already has basic economy as well. It closely matches the others.
They don't specifically state no use of overhead bins but by the time they board basic economy last there are no overhead bins available, so it's the same thing in reality.
Delta already has basic economy as well. It closely matches the others.
They don't specifically state no use of overhead bins but by the time they board basic economy last there are no overhead bins available, so it's the same thing in reality.
Almost the same, but not quite. I suspect the Basic Economy flyers on Delta (because carryons aren't specifically prohibited, as they are on United and American) don't have to pay a fee to gate check them when they board and discover all the overhead bins are full and there's no room for their carryon. This makes Delta's version of Basic Economy marginally better than United's and American's. (But only marginally, as no one generally wants to gate check a carryon, since that defeats its purpose.)
Almost the same, but not quite. I suspect the Basic Economy flyers on Delta (because carryons aren't specifically prohibited, as they are on United and American) don't have to pay a fee to gate check them when they board and discover all the overhead bins are full and there's no room for their carryon. This makes Delta's version of Basic Economy marginally better than United's and American's. (But only marginally, as no one generally wants to gate check a carryon, since that defeats its purpose.)
Whoa no carry ons in Basic Economy? If that's the case, flying United is just as bad as flying Spirit
This a trend for the majors to really try to compete with the bottom feeders such as a Frontier, Allegiant, and Spirit. I see no harm in it, you get what you pay for. My beef with United is operationally they are still lagging entirely compared to Delta and financially to American.
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