US Airways and American Airlines to merge
 

http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/Repor...191078301.html

Something that's been simmering on the backburner for a while, but is finally (almost) official. Interesting times ahead.

Not necessarily a good thing, but ironically I'm sort of excited for it... because as my signature might suggest, I am part of a virtual US Airways, which makes for interesting times ahead for us :O:

However I definitely do wish the employees of both airlines a lot of luck in retaining their jobs. The US airline industry really isn't in good health, and this is not a great sign for it either (although an inevitable thing to happen). US Airways may be the strong party in this deal, but it is (was?) a lame duck and would not survive this decade on its own IMO. American is still in some serious financial trouble, and while they'd recover without this merger, it would cost them a lot in the long run. Neither had a very good plan B, so, here we are...

Mile high club?
 

Kewl!

Double up on the lousy service. The passengers will love it...... after we're compared to security screening.

LOL

Its not only in the USA. Recently while flying a Qantas flight to Melbourne, a male attendant barked rather loudly at a pax waiting by the toilet "Are you coming or going?!!"

I work at Cathay Pacific and even in Y class you are treated like a king. However on the downside they mandatorily retire female flight attendants at 40 years old. I guess when you fear for your job the service improves.

Eleven billion dollars is a lot of money honey ... I wish them good luck and good flying weather :yep:

There is probably an optimal number of airlines necessary to bring balance to the industry. I think we still have too many airline companies competing for a finite amount of customers.

Of course we don't want to go to the other extreme and have a virtual monopoly.

Combining American Airlines' crappy schedule with US Airways' crappy inflight service? Sounds like a marriage made in heaven. How can I lose?

Well, hopefully you don't virtually lose your job! :D

How is your Virtual US Airways going to incorporate this?

You can lose if you're me. I lose at everything. :wah:

You're still young. Hope and pray you never lose at as many things as I have. :sunny:

We'll be mimicking the real company and gradually converting to a virtual American, but that will take a while. Our VA also has a strong focus on maintaining a "heritage" schedule, meaning that even once we change the name and become a Virtual American, we'll still have the old US Airways fleet to fly as "heritage routes" for those who want to. So for us, that will be neat! :up:

I've never flown American, but I've flown US Air many times and it's been okay. The US airline industry really does need to find some way to improve service standards. "Good enough so that you won't refuse to fly with them again" is no baseline for service!

That's cool, but, Long-Distance Civilian Flying just isn't for me. I can do short stuff like 30 minutes Maximum. I've done that with some local airports.