US Airways announced that they will stop charging for soda, juice, water and coffee beginning Saturday. The carrier, unlike many rivals, is the first to start charging for these beverages – among those other airlines that had implemented these charges during the summer. US Airways originally implemented this charge as another way to gain revenue, or ancillary revenue, to combat the high fuel costs of the summer; now it seems they’re having a tough time justifying it. You might recall that Dan Webb recently sent out letters / emails to carriers that started charging fees for “extra” items. You can read both parts to that here (part 1) and here (part 2).
“It’s such a minor issue in the grand scheme of things but was having a large impact on the perception of our brand. We just came to the conclusion that it was distracting our passengers from all the other things we were accomplishing, in particular our great on-time performance.” – Andrew Nocella, US Airways Senior Vice President of Marketing and Planning.
My thoughts are… It’s about time! Airlines, at least those based in the U.S., are expected to report nice profits for 2009 – which left some travelers dumbfounded by why they had to pay all these extra fees. Southwest Airlines remained fee-free, or as they put it: low-fares with no strings attached.
Mr. Nocella is correct. Most people that I’ve spoke with associate “fees” with US Airways – they don’t think “on-time.” Just a few days ago, in the Philadelphia Inqurier, I saw a whole-page ad for US Airways promoting their outstanding on-time performance of 2008.
US Airways usually was one of the intial trend setters for the airline industry- at least when it came to fees. However on this fee, no one followed suit, and they’re the “odd kid” in school.
It’s about time, but remember, US Airways, – it’ll just take some time for it to kick in.
Jon, no other US airline charges for non-alcoholic beverages. While other airlines followed US in a lot of their other fees, no one followed US on this, which is probably why they got rid of the fee.
Oups! You’re right!