betsy@dartvax.UUCP (10/03/83)
Now, wait a minute!! The reason that Peoplexpress gives lower salaries to its employees is that they have stock options and thus have a vested interest in its corporate success. Many of us out here work at small computer companies for the same reason, and it's no reflection on our competence. With regard to your travel agent: I can understand why she won't book Peoplexpress flights. It's a real pain to do so, as their eight hundred number is ALWAYS jammed with calls . Furthermore, Peoplexpress is not on any of the standard booking computers and does not have reciprocal seating arrangements with other airlines. All these are good reasons why a travel agent wouldn't care to touch P.E.; too much hassle for the commission. However, it may well be worth the hassle to you; it certainly is to me. Betsy Perry !decvax!dartvax!betsy
condict@csd1.UUCP (Michael Condict) (10/04/83)
I cannot leave this slander unrebutted, since I have a very strong desire to see People Express Airlines (not Peoples or People's) succeed, so I can continue to avail myself of their discount rates, not to mention their extremely convenient boarding and ticketing policies. As someone just pointed out, the lower salaries of their employees, if true, would be due to the fact that People Express is essentially a worker-owned company (see Time Magazine article of a few months back for a blurb on this). Hence, they take part of their income in the form of the increasing value of their share of the company. This is not insubstantial, since People claims to be the fastest growing airline (News flash: Service between Houston/Newark begins Oct. 10 -- $99 peak/$69 off-peak!). As far as any travel agent's opinion goes, I think one would have to be a little naive not to suspect it to be slanted, because of the simple fact that travel agents CANNOT MAKE MONEY FROM PASSENGERS WHO FLY PEOPLE EXPRESS! The reasons are that there is not enough overhead in the ticket price for a large commission and the agents don't have any advantage over you in making a reservation (no computer connection or even a special phone number). Hence it is a lot of work for them and the return doesn't pay for their labor. This irritates the hell out of them, especially as they see more and more people using People. Who can blame them for being a little bitter and spreading vicious rumors, such as implications that People might have inferior pilots or inadequate maintainence (maintainence frequencies and pilot and mechanic qualifications are quite carefully proscribed and enforced by federal and state agencies -- I have not heard of a People Express fatal crash, and such things are always reported nationally). It doesn't matter whether or not your wife's relative would try to pull one over on you -- the point is, how do you know that she hasn't been fed a line of malarkey by other travel agents. My one big complaint about People is just that it is sometimes almost impossible to get them on the phone (you just get a busy signal). I discovered that the trick is to program their number into my speed-dialing service and simply call them every 5 seconds until I get through. This works because the throughput of phone calls to People is so high that there is no point in waiting any length of time when their phone is busy. They must answer dozens of phone calls per minute, the problem is that there are a lot more people than that trying to get through, so your success just depends on your number of calls. I have never had to dial more than twelve times to get an answer (after which you are put on hold for approx. 5 minutes). To close, here are some of the reasons why you SHOULD fly People Express: o Fares are consistently about 1/2 of competing rates when People opens a new route (Example: NY/Wash.: Eastern Shuttle - $55, People - $29; NY/London: British Airways - $300+, People - $149, random charter flights - $180). Eventually, the competitors drop their rates too, which is great fun to see. There is no reason to believe these low fares are achieved at the cost of safety. In fact they are due to: (1) not forcing you to pay for checked baggage unless you actually have some (2) not forcing you to pay for meals/ snacks unless you want some (3) not forcing you to support travel agents (4) not forcing you to pay for a large, highly specialized staff of check-in- counter/ticket-counter/custodial/boarding-pass-taker personnel (5) using Newark airport with its lower fees/tariffs(?) (6) Not going to the expense of a motorized, flexible tunnel that connects to the airplane door -- you actually have to walk 20 yards from the plane to the terminal building (gasp, grunt, groan!) (7) Not participating in the (no doubt very expensive) national airline reservation system, which was developed when airlines did not have to compete, hence had no incentive to make it function cheaply. o You can buy your ticket on the plane, even if you want to charge or write a check. No waiting in ticket line! This is better than Greyhound. I usually show up 15 minutes before my flight, with no problem. Last time I did that at the Greyhound station I got in a slow line and the bus left without me. o People Express is a worker-owned company, which means that ALL the employees care about making you happy so that you will continue to make their business grow, rather than only caring about how to keep their job. This should be encouraged. (An indication of the nature of the company structure is seen from the fact, reported in Time, that the top executives of the company can regularly be found answering the reservation phone and working as flight attendants). Michael Condict ...!cmcl2!csd1!condict New York U. (I have no affiliation with People Express, and they should not be held re- sponsible for any factual errors herein).