Re: Jet America.
I'm not too enthusiastic about the scheduled charter lines---and there are already a couple others (Allegiant, USA 3000, etc.). They only fly a few times each week, and they don't have interline agreements so they won't write your ticket over to anyone else. If something goes wrong with one of their flights, it could be a very long time before you get where you want to be going.
I'd rather spend the extra few bucks a ticket to have more options in the event of scheduling difficulties.
SWA. That is why they have an ousttanding customer satisfaction rate and why they are the only airline pulling a profit.
Not so fast my friend: the most recent quarter was in fact a loss.
http://www.southwest.com/investor_relations/fs_quarterly_earnings.html
(Yes, I know that they lost a lot less than anyone else, but even SWA is not immune.)
To me, the more interesting issue is that the evolution of the airline industry has left SWA in unfamiliar territory. Until now, their brand identity has been primarily as a value-priced carrier. As all the others rush to unbundle services, SWA has resisted the urge, and now they are much less competitive on "base fare" than they used to be. That means they have to either unbundle as well to remain competitive on price (and alienate their long-term flyers), or reposition their brand as a service-oriented carrier rather than a value-oriented one. They're trying to reposition---it will be interesting to see how well they do---remaking your brand idenity is a very hard thing.
You must be logged in to post