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.