American Mergers: Quality being sacrificed?

Thanks, Ben, for writing this video. What do you think of airline mergers? TWA, Eastern Airlines, US Airways, and America West, all swallowed up into the deep dark depths of the US big three.

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[_C_FL]

Delta bought Pan Am routes, not the airline. Pan Am just disappeared.

[cessnaskylane]

Alaska isn’t anywhere near a low cost, they are a legacy airline

[starPacific]

I remember flying Continental all the time as a kid, I always thought it was a great airline. Since merging with United though, they have only gone downhill. In the past couple of years I've flown on Lufthansa, Swiss, and Alitalia. The service, food, cabin design, basically everything on these European carriers was so much better than what United currently offers that it doesn't even compare

[corradm]

In 2016 I flew with Virgin America from Las Vegas to Boston via LAX and it was amazing, It was like a flight with a premium airline like Lufthansa because the service and the attention to details were unbelieveble. That year I also tried American and it was far from memorable, not like the one with Virgin; It was just a Flight from a city to another one.

[supportmanualflying]

It's incredibly sad for the loss of the quality brands, and the act of resting on laurels, discredit of experience and passion and the love of we all loose

[nabillarif]

With All those mergers, u automatically create an invisible cartel, or a monopoly where service and customer satisfaction usually is not high in the list...

[jacesobey]

DELTA is doing well out of the legacy carriers in the US. when southwest bought air tran they were supposed to get air tran's 717s however the 717s ended up with DELTA as a replacement for their dc 9s. They were the US launch customer for the A350 and A220 and is the only us airline with suites as first class cabins. The longest route served by a US carrier is ATL JNB on DELTA's 777. And they will start a new DTW-HNL route in June on a 767 making it one of the longest domestic flights in the US. Delta Is also taking about expansion plans in India and the Middle East and has continued expansion into their International hubs with new rutes such as MCO-AMS TPA-AMS and MSP-ICN as well as MSP-PVG in 2020.

[ecoRfan]

Yes. One word of proof: Continental. Shareholders matter more to brass than the service product, the customer experience, or the lives of employees.

[cnordegren]

If you think US airlines are bad then fly to south America with a Latin airline. Afterwards you will be very thankful there is competition in the US.

[amayasnep]

The past decade I’ve only flown JetBlue (LAX-JFK) and Southwest (SJC-BUR or LAX) and couldn’t be happier with their service. My family actively avoids flying with any of the big 3 carriers for both price and quality reasons. Hopefully the general trend toward improving passenger experience overall within the industry as of late might rub off on the big three.

[lol-ugry]

UA and Continental were better before merger

[jethropadernos]

Lol that "America West!" though, its very funny xD

[_C_FL]

As a frequent flyer of US airlines over the last 20 years, I can say mergers have only served to benefit the shareholder and hurt the consumer.

However, this began after the airline deregulation of 1978. Way before 1991. I forget the man’s name, but a well known figure in the aviation industry predicted that only a handful of US airlines would remain after this event. 9/11 and the rise of low cost carriers were only final nails in the coffin of decent airline service in the US.

Without subsidization, airlines only remain profitable by carrying the most passengers. This is best done by having the lowest ticket price. Mark this comment, the moment the oil-Barron families stop pumping funds into the ME3 airlines, they will quickly suffer a similar fate.

[yt]

I don't know airline mergers, but Boeing-McDonnell Douglas merger definitely sacrificed quality and innovation.

[intuitivme]

Here again the root source is greed. Customers believe that they can get everything for almost no cost. And it is this mentality that keeps the bad carriers alive.
At the same time carriers want in the first place to satisfy their shareholders. Then they play the game of "we are cheaper and therefore better for you the customer" . So the circle is complete and everyone involved is playing this greed game and complaining. Well at the end everyone gets what he deserves.

[mka]

A few pointers
1. It was Continental that bought United while US Airways bought American Airlines. In other words, only Continental, US Airways, and Delta are the technical survivors.
2. The American Airlines-TWA merger came with VERY BAD TIMING, given the events of 9/11.
3. United Airlines didn't go downhill immediately, it was a change of management in the mid-2010s that started their downfall.

[raptorshootingsystems]

After years of being dedicated to Delta even when it meant not taking a non-stop flight. I started flying Continental and saw how they had transformed their culture and customer service mattered. When I heard of the plans to merge with United, I cringed because my experiences when I flew the old United were dated aircraft and poor attitudes time and time again.

Sadly in the merger, the old United culture infected the new airline and the leadership that transformed continental had retired. Flying the new United became only slightly better than the old sour United.

Today, when I fly domestic, Southwest is my first choice. I know what I am getting, and I won’t be charged fees for every little thing.

[Shadowfax-]

I think people need to realize that you get what you pay for. People like to talk about the “good old days” before a lot of the mergers, but when accounting for inflation, tickets of even mainline carriers today are cheaper than where they used to be.

[skylineXpert]

Most people only care about the price, today. Personally I would chose based on how simple It Is to purchase a ticket and Big 3 IS low on that list.

[davidsilver]

I enjoyed the video and think you are spot on. The greatest shame is United, which was once the best ailine in the USA and is now possibly the worst at customer service. Delta is definitely the best of the three but American is slowly improving. However, I much rather fly Alaska, Jetblue or even Southwest...the flights have much better service and friendly customer service people...United is downright scary sometimes! Of course I live in Hawaii, so fly Hawaiian whenever possible. They make mistakes and their international service needs to improve, but the cabins are nice, the service is always with Aloha and I get to enjoy being in Hawaii just a bit longer. One last thing, for its first few years, Virgin America was fantastic. So sorry it is gone, because Alaska's planes and service are so mundane and sterile in comparison.