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American Morning
Minding Your Business: Morning After United Airlines
Aired December 10, 2002 - 07:42 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: It is the morning after United Airlines, and Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business."
Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: I am. I like that red a lot, Daryn, you know that?
KAGAN: You do? Thank you. It's a little festive.
SERWER: Bill, do you like that?
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, absolutely.
SERWER: It really is quite festive.
KAGAN: I dress to impress my men.
SERWER: Yes, there you go, we like that. So, the markets were down...
KAGAN: Some days it works.
SERWER: ... Daryn, I want to jump into that quickly.
KAGAN: OK.
SERWER: Sorry to interrupt.
(CROSSTALK)
SERWER: The Dow was down 172 points -- there you go. Not a good day. That's about 2 percent on the Dow, 4 percent down on the Nasdaq. And I was saying how I didn't believe in the rally that we were having the past couple of months. I'm sorry to be a killjoy, but maybe we're starting to back and fill on this a little bit.
Tech stocks were down, IBM was down. United Airlines, the stock itself didn't move, but collateral damage, more people were worrying about this bank has a loan and this bank has a loan and that kind of thing, so just weakness across the board.
Volume was kind of light, though, and so the market goes down -- tend to go down on that kind of situation.
KAGAN: Speaking of United Airlines, they might not have enough money to run their company, but apparently they have money to take out a full-page ad...
SERWER: Yes.
KAGAN: ... in national newspapers.
SERWER: This is really interesting. It's a full-page ad, a campaign in papers across the country, right here, let me hold it up over here. Is that right? OK, now, the interesting thing there is you can see the top, you can't really read it, but see where it says "Chapter 11," and then they crossed it out....
KAGAN: See, I thought you had done that.
SERWER: ... "Chapter 1." I thought Jack Cafferty crossed it out. See, it's -- OK. So, what it is, is they're in Chapter 11, which is bankruptcy, they crossed it out, "Chapter 1," it's a new beginning. There is one thing we all feel very strongly about at United, our future, it's a hard time for us. That doesn't mean we don't have any less conviction in our ability to overcome the situation, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
KAGAN: Basically, we're going to keep flying, is what they're trying to say.
SERWER: We're going to keep flying, that's right. So, it's kind of an interesting thing. But you need these kinds of PR campaigns, because people are scared about, you know, making reservations, about changes. And the company is very strongly saying there aren't going to be any changes, but when you start to drill down, it really looks like there will be some changes with regard to this airline.
Let's take a look here. Analysts are saying you can really expect them to cut up to 13 percent of their flights over the next couple of months, also smaller planes. Basically, every way they can to cut costs, fewer seats to overseas flights, and then the red carpet lounges, which you might want to wear that jacket to, red carpet lounge. Do you spend any time in those lounges, those frequent flyer...
KAGAN: Well, actually, Bill and I trend to frequent a different airline.
SERWER: Oh, is that right?
KAGAN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) here in Atlanta, you have to fly Delta.
SERWER: Delta.
KAGAN: You have to fly Delta, and that's the Crown Room.
SERWER: Right. That's right. Well, we're a United company, as I've mentioned, the magazine company. And of the big three, it happens to be my favorite, you know, Delta, American, United, but we're going to see if the company is going to stick with them.
KAGAN: We will see. When you live in Atlanta, you're kind of... SERWER: There is no other way to go. I know that. You are a Delta person.
KAGAN: You are a Delta girl, there is no way around it, absolutely.
Andy, thank you very much.
SERWER: OK.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired December 10, 2002 - 07:42 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: It is the morning after United Airlines, and Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business."
Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: I am. I like that red a lot, Daryn, you know that?
KAGAN: You do? Thank you. It's a little festive.
SERWER: Bill, do you like that?
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, absolutely.
SERWER: It really is quite festive.
KAGAN: I dress to impress my men.
SERWER: Yes, there you go, we like that. So, the markets were down...
KAGAN: Some days it works.
SERWER: ... Daryn, I want to jump into that quickly.
KAGAN: OK.
SERWER: Sorry to interrupt.
(CROSSTALK)
SERWER: The Dow was down 172 points -- there you go. Not a good day. That's about 2 percent on the Dow, 4 percent down on the Nasdaq. And I was saying how I didn't believe in the rally that we were having the past couple of months. I'm sorry to be a killjoy, but maybe we're starting to back and fill on this a little bit.
Tech stocks were down, IBM was down. United Airlines, the stock itself didn't move, but collateral damage, more people were worrying about this bank has a loan and this bank has a loan and that kind of thing, so just weakness across the board.
Volume was kind of light, though, and so the market goes down -- tend to go down on that kind of situation.
KAGAN: Speaking of United Airlines, they might not have enough money to run their company, but apparently they have money to take out a full-page ad...
SERWER: Yes.
KAGAN: ... in national newspapers.
SERWER: This is really interesting. It's a full-page ad, a campaign in papers across the country, right here, let me hold it up over here. Is that right? OK, now, the interesting thing there is you can see the top, you can't really read it, but see where it says "Chapter 11," and then they crossed it out....
KAGAN: See, I thought you had done that.
SERWER: ... "Chapter 1." I thought Jack Cafferty crossed it out. See, it's -- OK. So, what it is, is they're in Chapter 11, which is bankruptcy, they crossed it out, "Chapter 1," it's a new beginning. There is one thing we all feel very strongly about at United, our future, it's a hard time for us. That doesn't mean we don't have any less conviction in our ability to overcome the situation, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
KAGAN: Basically, we're going to keep flying, is what they're trying to say.
SERWER: We're going to keep flying, that's right. So, it's kind of an interesting thing. But you need these kinds of PR campaigns, because people are scared about, you know, making reservations, about changes. And the company is very strongly saying there aren't going to be any changes, but when you start to drill down, it really looks like there will be some changes with regard to this airline.
Let's take a look here. Analysts are saying you can really expect them to cut up to 13 percent of their flights over the next couple of months, also smaller planes. Basically, every way they can to cut costs, fewer seats to overseas flights, and then the red carpet lounges, which you might want to wear that jacket to, red carpet lounge. Do you spend any time in those lounges, those frequent flyer...
KAGAN: Well, actually, Bill and I trend to frequent a different airline.
SERWER: Oh, is that right?
KAGAN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) here in Atlanta, you have to fly Delta.
SERWER: Delta.
KAGAN: You have to fly Delta, and that's the Crown Room.
SERWER: Right. That's right. Well, we're a United company, as I've mentioned, the magazine company. And of the big three, it happens to be my favorite, you know, Delta, American, United, but we're going to see if the company is going to stick with them.
KAGAN: We will see. When you live in Atlanta, you're kind of... SERWER: There is no other way to go. I know that. You are a Delta person.
KAGAN: You are a Delta girl, there is no way around it, absolutely.
Andy, thank you very much.
SERWER: OK.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
