Oso planning to go pro
More lies! How are you getting the $2.50 discount "all the time"??
North Central
Chico's would never be involved with Trans-American.
I listed ATAAmerican Trans Air...I took it more than a few times....the bathrooms only allowed one person at a time, which was wise.
But .. while I get jamming as many people in to planes as possible .. I don't get the cutbacks in service, food, etc. -- Or rather, why there isn't a Midwest Express sector.What do warm cookies cost in bulk? Maybe 20 cents? How about wine? Buy the wine in gallons and maybe that's 50 cents a cup. Decent food, wifi .. what are we talking, $10 in cost? The costs of that stuff is figuratively peanuts.If your choice was SW's cattle car for $179, or Midwest Express' premium service at $189 aren't you dropping the extra Hamilton for some cookies and wine and the perception you're travelling a better class?Isn't there a price curve where the premium airline, giving up wifi and baggage revenue, will be so full they beat the cattle car airlines in seats sold/revenue?Why can't there be an Apple iAirline, where people overpay for prestige and minuscule service benefits?
The answer is simple. If it were a matter of providing food service to you alone, OK. But multiply the food service by 44,000 passengers a day at ORD and similar amounts at ATL, LAX, IAH, DFW etc.... Plus all the safe food handling requirements, preparation, storage, spoilage and inspection to ensure that someone did not slip a bomb into a food cart. That isn't cheap.Now add in airline executives who the only thing they know how to do is cut costs (are you listening Jeff Smisek, aka Commander Jeff) and a public that would sell their mothers for five percent off and you end up with what we have today. Coach sets that were built for anorexic midgets, food for sale that would have embarrassed Saga back in the 1970s and baggage fees that encourage people to carry on steamer trunks to avoid paying a $25.00 checked bag fee. Oh, and don't forget that your food and beverage is served by someone who probably has taken a 50% wage cut in the last 10 years and can marginally make it on her salary.Airlines once were classy. I flew a lot in the 1970s, before the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 and it was glorious, especially when I had the fortune of meeting my Dad at ORD for the final leg home. When I am dressed in a suit for work, it still can be as most airline terminals staff and flight attendants will fuss over you. But for the average Jane and Joe, it's awful.
Me sorry, me can now afford ticket on flying metal tube. Me so sad, you feel sad cuz you have to sit next me.
I noticed that the people that are complaining loudest appear to do the vast majority of their air travel on their company's nickel. One of the issues is that for domestic travel, you normally have the choice of either a coach seat or a first class seat that normally costs a multiple of the coach fare. Most companies are going to allow their employees to take first class unless it is a high-level executive (and sometimes, not even then).I am kind of surprised that one of the legacies doesn't make a sincere effort to have a comfortable business class that has a reasonable upcharge from coach (say, 25 - 50% more). I would hope that at least some companies would let their folks fly that class - after all, most of them don't force people to stay at the Motel 6 when they have business travel. But at the moment the only alternative is the airplane version of the Four Seasons. Why couldn't there be a Hilton Garden/Embassy Suites level section?
Sorry dude, you got this one wrong. What I have problems with is crappy service that treats people like cattle and strips away the human dignity we all have. I don't care who I sit next to and trust me, as a Million Mile Flyer on United, I've sat next to just about everybody. I only complain when someone's child practices field goal kicking into the back of my seat!One of the things I abhor is the lack of legroom and seat space on most airlines. The problem is comfort, I'll admit, but I also look at the bogus studies that suggest you can evacuate the coach section of a 777-200, 757-300 or any of the 737 variants in 90 seconds or less. That's the regulation and if an airline can do that with real people (not highly trained and taught airline employees), I'd be shocked. Oh, and by the way, deep vein thrombosis is not imaginary either.
Legacy intercontinental flight already has 3 classes (coach, business, and first). I think that's what they've tried to do domestically with "Economy Plus," which is just basically economy class plus more leg room, but the differentiation isn't enough.I think the biggest barrier is that there not a market to support this. Most companies only pay their employees to fly coach on domestic flights. I don't think any company would be able to justify spending another 25%-50% for a domestic flight. Most intercontinental flights you will get business class covered by your employer.
http://devour.com/video/why-flying-is-so-expensive/
Has anyone actually studied it? Why is a company willing to spend and extra $300/week to put an employee in a mid-range hotel instead of the Red Roof? Would that same company be willing to spend an extra $100-$200 so that they could have a more pleasant flight? Maybe so. I am not sure anyone has given them the option on a wide scale.