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We sat down again with US Airways Senior Vice President of Marketing and Planning to talk about what’s new at the airline and dig for speculative answers to what things might look like once their merger with American Airlines is complete.
Included in our interview are questions from modhop readers from our media day “Pregame” and the modhop Facebook page.
Here’s a transcript of the full interview:
Jake Redman: Let’s start with the present and how the airline has come along in the last year. I see the in flight wifi installation has moved along really nicely and it is coming to completion. Are you happy with how it has come along and it’s customer use is it above what you had expected?
Andrew Nocella: It’s below what I had expected. It is you know in certain flights it is very high and you can see in certain cities it is very high such as San Francisco and Seattle would be our highest probably usage rate and on long haul flights it is very high. Many of our short haul flights our take rates are lower than we would have otherwise expected.
JR: So is it still higher on like the 321’s?
AN: It’s much higher on the 321 which tend to fly long haul.
JR: Those longer distances…
AN: So we are working with Go-Go and you know experimenting with pricing and making sure that the balance is correct and over time I fully expect it to grow and we have concluded that it is a minimum ingredient here on the domestic environment for services of what our customers want. We are now trying to understand what to do internationally. The technology is different and it is more expensive so we would like to put the technology on the aircraft internationally that has a price point that works for what our customers want to pay and that’s really the dilemma as to why we haven’t done it just yet. The price points seem awfully high to me and we are trying to make sure that we can wait until technology allows us to do it in a cost efficient manner.
JR: Right so on those shorter flights you are talking about toying with maybe smaller prices for a shorter maybe a limited amount of time on line?
AN: Yeah and all of the above. I think that the pricing of Go-Go Internet Services is kind of like the airline pricing from twenty five years ago before Riveting Management Systems came into be so they are learning how to revenue manage Go-Go in a way that is profitable for both Go-Go and the airline and boost usage rates over time whether it be a monthly subscription, pay by the megabyte or pay by the flight long haul versus short haul flights. There is a lot of opportunity but I think Go-Go in many ways is still in its infancy and there is a lot to come.
JR: Okay this is a user question. Dave asks the biggest benefit of being a non chairman US lead is the unlimited upgrades. What is the current thinking on the status of this perk and the combined advantage program and then my more over arching question is how do you think that the two loyalty programs match up today.
AN: You know when you look at loyalty programs across all of the airlines we don’t match up item for item you know we don’t try to be perfectly honest with you. We offer a total package and there are certain things that consumers would find better on us and certain things that maybe they would find worse. We want the overall product of all of those criteria to be something that is better at least in our minds. So at this point in regards to American we have a team that is doing a gap analysis so we are going to figure out all of the differences. Clearly the unlimited upgrades on US Airways versus the certificates or stickers I think that there used to be before stickers on American which you would buy or earn to get upgraded to two very different philosophies. You know our expectation and our communication and our flyers would say what are the most important things that they value is getting upgraded into first class and we will thoroughly consider that and try to find the right policy for the new airline but the decision has not been made yet.
JR: I would imagine that there are still many business as usual decisions being made right now along side with the transition to the new American what thought or consideration to otherwise little things like the coffee you serve on board or the amenity kits are put into combining with the new American?
AN: I didn’t want to order too many amenity kits I will say that but beyond that actually very little. I mean we are running I think a very successful business today financially and operationally from a marketing perspective we are really pleased with our results and we have the team focused on continuing to deliver our stand alone results indefinitely as we go through the merger integration process because we don’t want to stand down in any way and stop delivering what our customers have come to expect so we are working very hard to make sure that the integration process runs in parallel but does not distract us from running a great airline.
JR: Okay that’s good. Another user question this is from E. C. Gladstone and I like this question it comes at a time when people have a lot of questions regarding cutbacks and government personnel how involved are the airlines in making the security experience safe but pleasant? I don’t know that it is ever pleasant.
AN: You know I think that we…I don’t know how to exactly how to answer that it is definitely not my expertise other than I am a pre check member and I think pre check is great. I think anybody that is eligible for it shoudl get in it. it would make their experience a lot better and also alleviate the pressure on the other lines at the airport because the pre check lines actually are not full enough right now. We need to get them better utilized to make the efficiency at the airport better but I think that the government actually has been doing a great job with the program. I applaud them greatly and I would suggest to anybody that can get in the program to do so along with the global entry program too.
JR: Yeah.
AN: Coming back into the country and just going to the kiosk and wisping right through. People are working hard to make the experience better and that is why the activities over the last few days with air traffic controllers is just so disappointing. You know we are disappointed to see particularly on our short haul flights those type of long delays for an hour long flight so we need to get that issue resolved as quickly as possible. I think that the security changes and pre check are brilliant and well accepted.
JR: From what we learned today the choice seats option has been a positive one for the airline and I asked you last year whether US Airways would ever consider a larger more leg room option like American’s main cabin extra. What are your thoughts on it today and what do you think makes sense for the combined airline?
AN: So I don’t think we have a final answer for what makes sense for the combined airline. American is definitely going forward with their cabin extra product. We are now using this opportunity to understand the economics of it in a very serious way so that process is ongoing and you know American has actually started to implement it so we can actually see the economic impact of that and we are going to use that analysis to model what it would be like on the US Airway system with actual real data and come up with the right answer. It is not something that I can say that we are going to do or not do but it is something that we are studying very carefully and obviously needs careful attention as we integrate the two companies.
JR: Another thing that we touched on last year is US Airways reachability using social media. What progress has been made in using social media and new technology like apps to help customers?
AN: Yeah you know this is one of the things that I always feel like we are behind. I don’t know who is first but I always feel like we are behind them and it is something that we would like to overcome. It becomes even more complicated with a merger because particularly if our app is not going to be the one to survive should we invest millions of dollars in our app today knowing that we are going to turn it off in a few months or a year whatever it may be. So we have mixed thoughts on this other than we are striving to catch up and we have an app in beta test right now it’s on my iphone and there are still a few issues with it which is why it is not out there for the flying public. Our mobile website was completed I think about nine months ago now and I think it’s great. It is just as good as anyone else or better so we are you know doing our best to catch up but it is something that I think that we struggle with a bit and now the merger makes it even more complicated as we look to figure out what will be the surviving app. You know it is likely to be the American Airlines app you know which is excellent and we will have to figure out when we make the transition when we continue to or stop investing in our own products along those lines so that we can put all of our attention to the integration. So the world just got a little bit more complicated on that front.
JR: What about things like Twitter and Facebook and things like that? Do you have a team in place to look at them?
AN: We have teams in place both in corp com and res so that can follow and monitor what is going on and respond as quickly as we need to. I’m not sure that we are the most effective in the business at it just yet but you know we are learning every day and I think that we are pretty responsive.
Speaker 3: Yeah we don’t have a twenty four/seven response and I think that is something that we would eventually like to get to. But you know it is kind of like our reservations agents monitor twitter on a kind of eight to five Monday through Friday you know and we would like to expand that a little bit more.
JR: To get it to be a little bit more around the clock kind of thing.
Speaker 3: Right.
AN: And yeah when you are American Airlines you are global in every time zone and things like that have to change in terms of mentality.
JR: And another one from Andy are they planning to continue to offer vegetarian selections on their standard envoy menu and might they offer a vegetarian choice or variant for domestic first class meals?
AN: Well I’m pretty sure because our head of corp com is a vegetarian so we definitely offer vegetarian meals otherwise I would hear about it everyday domestically and I am confident that we also offer them in envoy as well. It is important to us to be able to provide those choices so domestically there is generally a protein offer in like a beef or chicken and then there is a pasta offering and in fact this afternoon, the food may be down there but the vegetarian option was actually shown on display down there. You know I kind of like protein better than vegetarian for the most part but you know vegetarian is something that we are compelled to do. And oh by the way I have been saying lunch is a vegetarian meal for me and so far you know this year most of my lunches have…
JR: All been vegetarian really?
AN: There is a great vegetarian place right in our office and it is actually pretty good food.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
AN: Yeah.
Speaker 3: That’s a bonus.
AN: I was surprised.
JR: Well I think that they put a lot of dedication into the stuff that they make because they are making it especially for…
My only other question is are you a Cowboys fan yet?
AN: So I grew up in Washington.
JR: So are you a Redskins fan?
AN: You know I haven’t lived in Washington for quite some time but you know as a teenager you know you rooted for the one team and that was the Redskins so at the end of the day deep down I would be a Redskins fan. It has been hard to be a Cardinals fan as you can imagine.
JR: Oh yeah, yeah.
AN: So I don’t think that I’m going to be able to make the conversion to be a Cowboys fan.
JR: Well the Redskins are in a hub so…
AN: Yeah so I appreciate the Redskins and I know that the quarterback is going to make wonderful things happen. The Cowboys that is a question for our president you know he grew up in Dallas, Texas and he is a die hard Cowboys fan and he has been quite upset over the last few years so you will have to talk to Scott about that.
Modhop Host & Founder Jake Redman brings years of global exploration and travel tips to the podcast and our videos at Modhop. Jake is also a Producer and Host for SiriusXM.
It’s hardly a “leak” but the modhop camera phone caught this info-mercial about new products and services coming to US Airways. New amenity kits and more! We’re live at US […]
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