Re: Won't Pay for Perks (was Re: Europeans flying on holiday -hysterical !)

[Rich Lemert]

Pooh Bear wrote:
> ShawnD2112 wrote:
>
>
>>Sorry, nobody, but you're not quite right. People flying in Economy class
>>buy tickets on price and price alone, once the hygience factors like safety
>>and destination are there. In fact, routing and aircraft type are
>>non-issues. People will fly from London to Amsterdam to New York if it's
>>cheaper than a London-NY direct service.
>
>
> I'd have to see a *huge* saving to do that.
>
> Nothing worse than transfers. Never mind the extra flying time - not to mention
> journey time overall.
>

Back when Eastern Airlines was still around, we took advantage of
their "system fares" for a combination college graduation (my wife's) /
honeymoon (both of us) / "yeah, the strike's over" vacation. For one
low price, and with restrictions on stop-overs and plane changes in
a single airport, you could go everywhere in North America that Eastern
went for a month.

We started out New Orleans through Miami to Jamaica for three days.

Next leg was Montego Bay, back through Miami, to Washington National
for a couple of days.

Next leg was DCA to Atlanta to Phoenix to visit a couple of college
friends, again about a three day stay.

Now comes the fun part. True to its name, Eastern had an extensive
route structure in the eastern part of the country. They could also
get you to a few cities on the west coast. They had very few connections
in the west, though, so we had to choose between an inconvenient route
and paying for a different airline. We wound up going from Phoenix, with
a stop in Albuquerque, to Atlanta. Spend 7 hours on lay-over in Atlanta,
then took a non-stop to Seattle with continuing service to Portland.

We try not to do that sort of thing any more.

[Ulf Kutzner]

schrieb:
>
> > You are, I presume, joking, right????????
>
> Not at all - Economics have shown again and again that people are not
> willing to pay for perks on flights.
>
> Here's a quote from a CNN article that references American Airlines
> (American is busily installing more seats in coach class in their
> planes after their "more room in coach" experiment failed to attract
> more passengers):
>
> "Robert Crandall, the crusty former boss at American Airlines, used to
> say that customers always talk in surveys about food and legroom. But
> when it comes to buying tickets, the only thing that ever matters to
> them is price.
>
> In other words, good service is nice but we'll put up with a lot if it
> means a cheaper seat. Americans, as a rule, won't pay more for a
> plusher seat or better food. And U.S. airlines know it."

IIRC, some European airlines re-introduced (better) food on their
flights.

Regards, ULF