Comments on: Why Did US Airways End Charges for Soda and Water? To Enhance Its Rep

By: Bill C.

Bill C. — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 22:11:19 +0000

My wife and I flew U.S. Airways from Phoenix to Ixtapa and back on Feb.,1st and 10th. I refused to buy a beer for 7 bucks!! Outrageous!! The funny thing is, I never saw anyone else buy one either!! So, where does ANy profit for them come from??? It doesn’t!!! The Brain Surgeon running this airline,obviously has never heard that old saying,” Pigs get FAT, HOGS get slaughtered”!! I’m sure glad this marketing genius,does not work for me!! $4.00 Beer will sell!! $7.00 Beer will sit in the plane and go skunky!! PS. I know how to resolve the mis directed baggage too!! Then you will really start making some $$$$$!!!

By: JC

JC — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 05:17:35 +0000

Hey–I’m a flight attendant for guess-which-airline… and I just wanted to say–

Cranky, that billboard is funny as hell.

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:55:36 +0000

As a business consultant I always look at these types of decisions.

People often don’t think things through. Will a couple of buck charge for water or soda make up for the bad press and resentment from the customer? I think not. And their change in policy proves it.

By: axelsarki

axelsarki — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 03:25:58 +0000

Quite frankly, the guy that thought about charging for water should be shot.

By: Artie

Artie — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:11:14 +0000

Oliver (the other one) –

My nose is fine, thank you very much; but your eyes might need a fine tune ;)

I said I would NOT spend significantly more money to save on drinks. Unless you count the $25 difference in fare I paid a significant difference, in which case, ya, regardless of economic times, I’m guilty of valuing my drink THAT much – lol :)

I suppose I should have noted earlier that I have loyalty to AA for the miles and I have loyalty to VA for the oh so cool Red system that makes ordering anything tres cool!

By: Shannon G

Shannon G — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:23:20 +0000

Bottom line: Follow the leader didn’t work like it does with fares…

I flew US last week PHX-SEA-PHX. I saw quite a few pax handing over the cash or plastic, myself included. On the return flight I bought a snack box(pretty good assortment of treats for $5) and asked for ice only which the yhad no problem with giving us free. I bought a few bottles of soda in the airport so it wasn’t as bad as the $2 each for a can.

By: jonathan reed

jonathan reed — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:11:46 +0000

From visiting flyertalk.com, I think US has gotten the reputation of being the cheapest major airline. Fly first class, but forget meal choice if you aren’t in the first couple of rows. Pay for water. These things add up and create an airline that frequent flyers love to hate. Frequent flyers are usually flying on business and paying more for their tickets. If you hate US you may have many opportunities to get your business to put you on a different airline. The leisure traveller may be more rationale about not avoiding US because of one charge or another, but the business traveller often finds travelling a pain and it is psychologically less stressful to find an airline to hate than a boss to hate.

By: Oliver (the other one)

Oliver (the other one) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:52:12 +0000

Artie, how’s your nose doing? ;-)

Spending significantly more money on a ticket to save a few bucks on a drink doesn’t seem, wise “in these tough economic times” (I really love how this fits into pretty much every argument these days).

I booked a trip from SFO-PHX last year. Outbound on US, return on UA/TED. Both flights were fine. I brought my own water bought at the airport (which turned out to be more expensive than US’ water, but I was drinking some before the flight). And on the return I got a free cup of diet coke from Uncle Ted (remember, they don’t give you cans). I picked the US outbound flight (even though I am a UA 1) because it was at a more convenient time, for the same price as TED.

I guess I am with Nicholas on this issue.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 06:07:11 +0000

US Airways would have to do a lot more than just tout their on-time performance and free drinks to make me a passenger.

By: Artie

Artie — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 02:32:05 +0000

I wanted to state that when it comes to drinks making a difference in consumer behavior, at least for this consumer, yes it does!

That said, let’s be sensible. If the price difference is significant (for me that is over $50), then drinks won’t matter. But the last several flights I bought cross-country were under $50 difference in price between US Airways and the airlines I actually did buy the ticket from: American and Virgin America.

All else being equal (because it was, including having good flight times that worked for me), I actually DID choose AA and VA over US even though US was a bit cheaper…simply because of the drink policy! Had US announced this earlier, I would have booked with them.

Yes, I recognize this is only anecdotal evidence and I certainly don’t know what the numbers say about whether they lost traffic. But I tend to believe that there must be others out there who acted similarly; how I am treated in the sky makes a difference to me.