Denver Post

Meetted

Discussions/Speculation Referenced in Denver Post

I'm attending a briefing today on the LCC. I have to agree with all the speculation about the new name. "Ted" seems to be it. I'd be willing to bet on it!!

Ted. At first I thought it was stupid, but after a while it kind of grows on you.

What amazes me most is that this is coming from UAL. This is a company that did away with "Fly the Friendly Skies" for "Rising". The creativity displayed on the meetted.com website is mind boggling. Maybe I haven't been giving them enough credit.

Nova, did you find out anything of interest at the LCC briefing?

I don't think walking around the back at ORD will be very popular in the winter!

TedSucks.com is still available. SWAsucks.com goes to their website.

I'm with 737nCH11. At first I was distinctly underwhelmed, but it does grow on you. Plus, unlike Song, there in an easily discernible relation to the parent comapny name. What I am impressed with is the "guerilla" marketing campign. It is seems to be working quite well, and more than that, it shows a creativity that was previously unheard of at Ted's pop. It is nice to see some new thinking going on. I want a -TED sticker for my car.

What does this mean?

It's kind of ironic but about 9 months or so ago when the LCC talk started there was a joke going around among employees as to what it would be named. The joke went like this:

Have you heard what the low cost carrier is gonna be called?

No, what?

Ted

Huh?

Ted, cause it's not gonna include U n' I

If that is true, that is funny (although in a really sad sense)

OK, here's what I got out of the LCO briefing. The company will have to tell us the new name by November 18. This is the date the LCO opens for sale. The fares will be extremely low and changeable. The LCO will fly DEN to RNO, LAS, ONT, PHX, MCO, TPA and MSY to start. There is one more city, which I can't remember right now. LCO will inaugurate its first flight on FEB 12, 2004. LCO will have its own website (www.flyted.com??? This site is not operational which leads be to believe the new name is TED). There will be new livery of 737's and will be one cabin only. There will be economy plus seating also and customers will be offered the opportunity to buy their way into economy plus at the ATO's. Pass travel and EMP20's also available. The LCO will have its own route structure and also feed into the mainline. LCO will have its own phone number, but will feed into North America reservations.

If TED is the new name, I agree with the clever marketing campaign going on right now. I agree that TED grows on you. At first I thought it was silly, but it does grow on you and I really like it now. TED is cute! TED is fun!! With cute lettering, TED will be a knock-out in marketing. Some fun sayings are "I have a date with TED to go to LAS" or "TED will be arriving at 2 pm. today" or "I have to pick-up Amy at the airport who is arriving with TED". Lot's you can do with TED.

Nova,

I believe that employees would really get into this TED thing if management would give them free reign. It would be a change of pace and would relieve some of the stuffiness associated with mainline.

"How sad it will be when Ted is Dead". Yes.........I guess your right.......that was fun!

Or, "How funny it will be when TED rips you a new wazoo!"

I like what United is doing with the promotion effort. This type of effort generates questions and discussions from the public on what TED is and this will cause it to become more well known when the offical announcement is made. Well done United for this part now the real question on everyone minds is will this so called 'LCC' be successful remains to be answered.

Perhaps bit off topic here; but, does anyone really know anything about this "MDA" which appears to be sometime referred as "MAA", and sometime referred to as "MidAtlantic"?

Is this outfit just another young whipper snapper coming out of a cocoon? How qualified will its crews be? Who will be insuring that the aircraft are properly maintained (and cleaned)? What sort of customer support may be expected from such an outfit? What sort of ground support may be expected? Among many more questions that may be asked.

I feel there will be no such questions about TED.

You guys are delirious. I mean, do they actually drug test you or not? You don’t see the ramifications do you? You are creating a company within a company. From maintenance viewpoint at a minimum you’ll need some line maintenance. Maybe, just maybe, a little more in the way of checks, possibly even “c” checks. Just like the Shuttle, didn’t really matter what was painted on them, we still worked them the same way. But what happens if TED does do well but United continues to struggle? At some point people (F/A’s and pilots, management, etc) are going to affiliate themselves with TED. This is going to get messy and complicated. United lays off because they suck, but now people bump into TED because we’re all the same yet you had nothing to do with TED and just knocked out a person that made TED successful? As for the public, people want simplicity. “I want to go from here to here, do I call TED, and do I call United? but it doesn’t matter because TED is part of United but I need to go to TED’s website to get what I want but TED doesn’t do that or go where I want to go so I need to go back to the United website to get to where I wanted to go…..sort of, right?, screw all this, lets go check SWA first.” You can’t fix what you already have so lets start something else; it’s bound to be successful. The people at United are its strength….ya…we were so good we found a way to go BK, amazing.

Ronin,

To be successful in business you have to take risks. This is the first innovative thing from UAL in years. The previous Shuttle was nothing more than mainline with some fresh paint. I say we cut them some slack and see where this thing goes. You might just be surprised.

There is another danger to this 'irreverent' marketing approach, at least for an airline, that hasn't yet been mentioned: Ten years ago there was another new entrant that also had a casual, lighthearted approach to their advertising and corporate image. Even had a cute cartoon jet on the side of their airplanes.
But after Mothers' Day, 1996, it didn't seem so "cute" any more.
Just something to consider...

It also had a horrible safety record, and cut corners for the sake of making a quick buck.

And flew jets too old for even TURKEY!! (not one of the youngest fleets in the majors)

Hey, I love innovation. You people know this is junk. YOU KNOW THIS...but you hope and pray that just somehow you can last a little longer. That somehow the bad will all go away and things will get better (and yes, all storms will pass). But do you really want United to succeed? Not Starfish or TED or my personal favorite...Cheap Trick. Then stop bullsh*ting yourselves with this charade. United does need innovation, it does need a huge facelift. If you want UNITED to survive then this is where your effort lies. You want to offer multiple products...fine. You want a new look and atmoshere with your business...great. Do what you need to do to accomplish this. Or gut this huge pig and start a "new" airline. You cannot have it both ways folks.

You're right this is off topic on UA. Perhaps you'd do better checking the US board and do a search for MDA/MAA. With all the time you spend on the US board fighting with CHIP, I find it hard to believe you dont know "who" this new airline is and have NEVER seen it mentioned there before.
Nice try though.....

tadjr,

You miss the point. Some refer to it as "Brand Recognition".

Perhaps more importantly, "Brand Recognition" by the paying customer.

Um, no I dont think I did. If you've been following the MDA/MAA threads the plane is supposed to say USAirways on the side. It wont be MAA/MDA/Midatlantic. There wont be a midatlantic.com website, it will be USAirways. The distinction appears to only be for CCY to be able to pay "those guys" a different scale. Other than that, there wont be "another brand" to have to recognize.

" There wont be a midatlantic.com website "

That is not what "whois" indicates.

Ted Blows

In a perfect world, when the management team came out of their "brainstorm meeting" and declared that we were going to start ANOTHER airline and call it Ted, they would have been told to spend the rest of the day cleaning out their desks and pick up their final paycheck on the way out the door.

But this is United, where management has become the core thing. In maintenance it's no longer about maintaining aircraft, it's all about ADMINISTERING the maintenance of aircraft. Ted is just another layer to justify the thousands of management people we have on the payroll - one manager for every ten employees by recent count. As to responsibility and accountability - HA, HA what a joke! For example, we were recently told that United pays $16 a piece for one inch micarta scrapers. Management sees this as a problem - not because some managemant bozo is paying $16 a piece for one inch micarta scrapers but because we, the mechanics, are using them. The managers all have cellphones, pagers, laptops and all kinds of fancy assed "communications" tools but do you think a mechanic could find a working drop light so he can get into a dark E&E compartment and change the ships battery?

Somethings very wrong here and Ted ain't gonna fix any of it.

Exactly....nobody wants to hear, speak, or see the truth. The "towers" are still everywhere. But ssshhhhhh......somebody might here you

Not to argue that they weren't indeed an accident waiting to happen, but until said day in May '96 they technically had a PERFECT safety record.
But, as Air Florida also learned a decade earlier, when you're a new kid on the block in this business one major screwup can do you in.

ValuJet hadn't killed anybody up to that point, but there were several indications that they were headed down that path. Remember the DC-9 which blew an engine on takeoff from ATL? The debris from the exploding engine severed a fuel line which started a major fire above the cabin of the aircraft. Luckily, the crew managed to get the plane on the ground and get everyone off before it was completely consumed on the runway. The FAA eventually cited ValuJet for trying to scrimp by using some third-world outfit to do engine overhauls. I worked in ATL during the ValuJet years, and this is one of several incidents that raised my eyebrows. Even before the Everglades crash I wouldn't let my family fly on them.

A little off topic, but let's put the record straight.

When I hear "Ted" I think, Special Ed, which is where the United guy who came up with this got his schooling.

Maybe they can get a deal on all them Metro Jets sitting down in Marana.

HP,

Well.....An A-319 is considered a short bus.

One thing that's still unclear to me: Will "Ted" actually be the title emblazoned (billboard-style, most likely) on the fuselage of the unfortunate 737s utilized by the new LCC, or will "Ted" merely be a marketing concept, i.e., "Hi, I'm hip young cutting-edge metrosexual Ted from [insert actual LCC name here] by United, and I'm here to tell you about an entirely new, hip, cutting-edge discount airline". Accompanied by annoying hand-held camera shots...
Anyone have the answer?

Aside to HP Early: Speaking of Marana, have you heard about the dispute between Evergreen and Pinal County over their operation of the Air Park. Lead story in today's AZ Daily Star business section, and interesting reading...

Well if "TED" is to be emblazoned on the sides of the aircraft it might make sense. All they need to do is get some big square grey decals and cover up the "UNI"
Then, when Ted's dead they can just peel em off again.

They say they're going after the "young hip skier type" Are they even aware that none of the "young hip skier types" have jobs? I guess not.

I really love how they claim that this Ted marketing thing is SO exciting because it's like a mystery that people get to solve themselves. Sorry guys but you spilled the beans on the first day, what mystery? (other than why on earth are you doing this)

Finally, TED just kind of leaves you hanging and thinking - Ted what?

Kazinski?
Bundy?

Ted Allegis. Dontcha feel the excitement!!

Ted Kennedy? Hey, "informed sources" say he's the cash cow. Democratic National Convention! hmmmmm

Fly



informed sources: description used by people who have wild imaginations but try to sound intelligent to encourage people to believe their nonsence.

From Boyd's 'Aviation Planning':

"From The Better-Get-A-New-Ad-Agency-Department, Phase II: United is covering the Denver market with teaser ads about "Ted" - its new low-fare airline-within-an-airline. Apparently, "Ted" is derived from the last three letters of "United." Others opine that the letters "T-E-D" stand for "They're Extremely Desperate."

The Ted website is a perfect example of what happens when an ad agency is let out of its cage unsupervised. A quirky, jumbled, and confused mosaic of pictures and things like: A video store. Three guys apparently one beer over the line at a Broncos game, wearing nothing but barrels and cowboy hats. References to "denim." A salute to macaroni & cheese. A clerk at a cigarette counter, replete with an advertisement for Camels in the background. (Nice image for the kids, eh?) The whole thing looks like it's aimed at cornering the lucrative trailer park market.

More Questions About TED: Regardless of advertising, key questions remain blissfully unanswered about Ted. (Or Starfish, Blowfish, or whatever this thing is going to be called.) Question one: how can Ted get lower costs when every major factor in the expense mix is reportedly the same as mainline? Fast turns? Not likely if the traffic depends on more than just Denver O&D. More seats? That doesn't make flying the plane any cheaper, in fact, it could deter premium passengers entirely. Question two: what's the effect of inter-mingling different products to the same customers, at the same connecting hub? For example, the Premier Executive passenger from Seattle connecting at Denver on his way to Phoenix. SEA-DEN, he gets mainline, upgraded to first class. Then his connecting flight to PHX plunges him into the murky denim-Marlboro-beer-and-potato-chip world of "Ted." It doesn't seem to make sense, and it's all painfully similar to the United Shuttle fiasco. Some folks in the media are asking the same questions of United and getting no answers, either. (We covered this a couple of weeks ago. Click Here.)

American's CEO last week again made the observation that an LCC sub-fleet of 25 or 50 airplanes cannot do much to change the fortunes of a carrier operating over 700 aircraft. But then again, he could be wrong. After all, United is paying its outside advisors plenty - according to the Denver Post, one advisor is billing his time at over $1,100 per hour - so maybe there's something we're all missing. And maybe it's just United's senior management missing good sense. One has to wonder how much money and energy is being diverted from turning around United's mainline operations just to start a funky 40-airplane non-low-cost LCC.

But the whole idea behind the Ted advertising is to "create a buzz." That may be prophetic. "Buzz" was the name of KLM's LCC.

It failed miserably."

Good luck to the people of UniTED. I hope your new venture will be a success. I'm a bit wary of the in your face forced hipness of the advertising but hopefully it will work for you. No doubt the days of Rosenthal china and silver trays is long gone.

Read from another board:

Seems like the "Meet Ted" references have been popping up around Denver and on baner ads www.rockymountainnews.com

meet TED

And analysis from Andersjt on Airliners:

My guesses on the "clues" - not in any particular order:

Here's to Denim - reference to new crew uniforms

Mogul Runs and Knee Deep Powder - your choice for leisure travel to ski destinations

Sushi, Glazed Donuts (Krispy Kreme), and Mac and Cheese - new in-flight menu offerings?

Lyrics to your own "Songs" - not sure what this is, but it has to mean something is offered that you cannot get with Song.

Here's to Friends (Friendly Skies/Friendships) that answer the phone at 3:00 AM - 24 hour call centers in addition to web site booking.

Vegas with 2 best friends - companion fares built into fare structures

Movies with orangutans - San Diego??

Get into the car and drive until you're lost - most "fly/drive" fare/package offerings.

Know you're neighbors names - whereas Song is hard to tie into Delta, they want us to know that "TED" is a part of United.

Fresh Flowers on Sale - reference to last minute sale fares, rather than having advance purchase requirements.

Next time you shovel the sidewalk, do the entire block - enough of winter, its time to get away to a warm weather destination.

I think I missed a couple, but if you want to read in the clues, TED may be what is coming from UniTED.

Thanks for the words of support.

As a former TWA employee, I'd also like to extend my sympathy to all of my former co-workers. I still get a warm fuzzy whenever I see the TWA logo.

Thanks again, and best regards...

MGA, I read the article, interesting.... Trevor Van Horn was one of the old founders of AWA back in 83, he was gone by the time I was there. Evergreen is not the same airport as Marana?

I went to the one off the I10 back in the early 80's to watch some friends skydive, very little security, lots of 707's and DC-8's everywhere from all over the world parked.

As for "Ted", this thing is so freaking stupid, I'm sure the boys at Frontier are having a field day with "Special Ted"

Thanks so much for your kind words 76. You sound like a class act. United is lucky to have you on board. Take care!

Ditto to that, TWA always treated me great as a non-rev, and I rue the day they went away.

I have my TWA Connie Super G sitting on my desk right now...

Great to hear you were treated well on our flights...I always tried to treat non revs like royalty...I think that was pretty much across the board. Thanks for letting me post on your board...I'm kind of airlineless right now...lol

Yep, that's the one. Same airport.
Originally the Marana Army Air Field back in WWII, official name Pinal Air Park (it's just north of the Pima/Pinal county line), commonly known simply as "Marana".
Evergreen runs the airfield (and airliner storage), except for the Army Nat'l Guard (helicopter) part at the north end.
As the story says, Evergreen ain't too happy about Pinal County wanting to open it up to general aviation (and those pesky spotters!) in order to get FAA funds for infrastructure maintenance and upgrades.

Sorry 'bout the off topic...

The new Ted paint job is on the Skynet website. I think it's kinda hokey, but It will probably grow on me like the name did.

Really? What's it look like?!!!

Cool! I need to learn how to do that.

On second thought, i'm not sure if it's been "officially" released, so I'll nix it for now

Its official. Check out the link below. Also today's announcement on the newsreal on Skynet is official. Sales open November 18. First flight February 12. Ted's a Cutie!! In fact, Ted's a Hottie!!

Subject: Meet Ted New Low-Fare Service Expands United Brand Portfolio


Meet Ted!

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/031112/cgw029_1.html