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Give them an inch and they take $773 million

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Re: Give them an inch and they take $773 million

#91

Post by edent »

Nursie wrote: post #72
mrshoe wrote: post #51

In addition to the sketchy mathematical foundation, there's another reason to not draw too many conclusions from this observation: your company, product, and customers are probably quite unlike Southwest Airlines. For starters, airline customers care almost exclusively about price. Joel Spolsky was wise to warn against doing what this article suggests ( http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/09/11.html ): In one of…

>> For starters, airline customers care almost exclusively about price. I wish that wasn't the case. I'd gladly pay an extra £20 on an international flight for decent food, and I regularly do pay an extra £50 or so for more room or an exit row seat. I know there's a market of people like me, for whom business class is way to expensive just to make a few hours a bit more pleasant, but who aren't just counting every pe…

The trick for decent food on airlines is to specify a meal preference. I'm usually say I'm "Asian Vegetarian". On most flights I get a reasonable curry, or something a bit more interesting than the usual slop they hand out.

As a bonus, special meals are usually served first and in some cases are specially prepared.

As it happens, I am a vegetarian, so I don't "miss" the meat - YMMV.

Re: Give them an inch and they take $773 million

#92

Post by kunai »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #81
michaelt wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For most customers, maybe, but I suspect there's a pretty sizable portion of the population (myself included) that will happily pay more for an airline that treats me extraordinarily well, considers my comfort while on board, and gives me reasons to shout their name down the street. I'm not an air travel expert, but as I understand it many airlines offer seats in classes such as 'economy', 'business class' and 'first…

The difference between economy and business class is 3-5X. Its like a completely different world/price level, that those of us stuck in economy can only dream of. To sleep on a 12 hour flight...that would be great!

I don't understand why economy is so berated by passengers. It's fine for me; I'm 5' 11" and I have plenty of legroom and the people I sit with are generally polite and well-groomed. All of the nightmare stories I hear just do not make sense to me. Perhaps it's because I fly internationally; and people are more willing to be neater.

Although, I must say one last thing: do not bring an infant onto the plane. They're messy, hard to deal with, and give everyone a headache in an enclosed area where you can never get any peace.

My parents had the sense to keep me offboard until I was 4. I think all parents should do so.

Re: Give them an inch and they take $773 million

#93

Post by mbesto »

> That means, every year that single inch earns them $773,074,040 of additional revenue. I guess every little bit really does count.

This does not. There are so many intangibles here, that the conclusion drawn is very ill-conceived. Here's a list of things that can affect this number:

1. The amount of customers lost due to restrictive seats

2. The negative PR which will result from the change

3. The impact on flight price that the company may change after said PR

4. Is the data from all of those references accurate?

The list goes on and on...

It's a nice thought, but there's much smarter people with access to more precise information that draw these conclusions within the company. Enterprise businesses aren't as dumb as we all may think they are.

Re: Give them an inch and they take $773 million

#94

Post by tptacek »

tiredofcareer wrote: post #21
patio11 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The prevailing theory among air carriers is that demand for flights is totally exogenous to the industry and allocation of flights between carriers in the industry is, for most customers (e.g. not frequent business travelers, who are price insensitive and care about mileage), dependent pretty much solely on price. Accordingly, minor decreases in comfort which add capacity are pretty much an auto-win. Many people disl…

For most customers, maybe, but I suspect there's a pretty sizable portion of the population (myself included) that will happily pay more for an airline that treats me extraordinarily well, considers my comfort while on board, and gives me reasons to shout their name down the street. For example, Virgin America is one of those airlines for me, and I will happily pay a premium to fly one of their tragically few routes…

That's interesting. I fly first on a bunch of random airlines but most often fly SWA. I've had very few unpleasant SWA experiences, and lots of excellent ones where they bent over backwards to make sure things worked out for me.

On the other hand, almost every other airline I've flown has been nothing but bad experiences: repeated last-moment cancellations, surly staff, lost luggage.

Re: Give them an inch and they take $773 million

#95

Post by tptacek »

kunai wrote: post #92
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference between economy and business class is 3-5X. Its like a completely different world/price level, that those of us stuck in economy can only dream of. To sleep on a 12 hour flight...that would be great!

I don't understand why economy is so berated by passengers. It's fine for me; I'm 5' 11" and I have plenty of legroom and the people I sit with are generally polite and well-groomed. All of the nightmare stories I hear just do not make sense to me. Perhaps it's because I fly internationally; and people are more willing to be neater. Although, I must say one last thing: do not bring an infant onto the plane. They're m…

I agree, and think that when you move cross-country for that new job you got, you should just tell your baby to drive himself and meet you there.

Re: Give them an inch and they take $773 million

#97

Post by xefer »

I don't know the economics of airlines, nor travel that much, but I can't believe there isn't a niche for an airline that features a reasonable amount of legroom at a reasonably higher cost. Something above the "cattle pen with wings" that people seem to have to put up with.

Re: Give them an inch and they take $773 million

#98

Post by Nursie »

edent wrote: post #91
Nursie wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> For starters, airline customers care almost exclusively about price. I wish that wasn't the case. I'd gladly pay an extra £20 on an international flight for decent food, and I regularly do pay an extra £50 or so for more room or an exit row seat. I know there's a market of people like me, for whom business class is way to expensive just to make a few hours a bit more pleasant, but who aren't just counting every pe…

The trick for decent food on airlines is to specify a meal preference. I'm usually say I'm "Asian Vegetarian". On most flights I get a reasonable curry, or something a bit more interesting than the usual slop they hand out. As a bonus, special meals are usually served first and in some cases are specially prepared. As it happens, I am a vegetarian, so I don't "miss" the meat - YMMV.

I'm not going to miss airline meat, certainly!

Vege option may well be a good thing, will try that one in future.

Re: Give them an inch and they take $773 million

#99

Post by greedo »

kunai wrote: post #92
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference between economy and business class is 3-5X. Its like a completely different world/price level, that those of us stuck in economy can only dream of. To sleep on a 12 hour flight...that would be great!

I don't understand why economy is so berated by passengers. It's fine for me; I'm 5' 11" and I have plenty of legroom and the people I sit with are generally polite and well-groomed. All of the nightmare stories I hear just do not make sense to me. Perhaps it's because I fly internationally; and people are more willing to be neater. Although, I must say one last thing: do not bring an infant onto the plane. They're m…

Most people don't have the luxury of leaving their kids at home when they travel, especially if it's not a business trip.

Re: Give them an inch and they take $773 million

#100

Post by philk10 »

lostlogin wrote: post #64
switch007 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those crackpot schemes are just designed to get their brand in the Daily Mail and in turn, for people to talk about Ryanair. (their headquarters are in Ireland, not the UK)

Is it Ryan air that gets all its air hostesses to paint their faces with orangeish makeup? I have a recollection of a collection of air hostesses in skin-colour-inappropriate makeup from a trip a few years back.

If it's orange then it's likely to be EasyJet as everything they do is that colour
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