11–20 of 20 posts
I think airlines should just let you use frequent flyer miles for this. "Watch DirecTV in flight and earn 700 miles instead of 1400 miles." But this, I imagine, would be bad for load factors.
If he went to a travel site and chose the cheapest one, then he already knows why this is a bad idea.
Until that happens, price will be the only criterion, and it will be in the airlines' best interests to make it as low as possible.
I believe this very issue was the reason that American Airlines pulled its fares from Orbitz. AA is trying to escape from the race-to-the-bottom price war and focus on delivering different value offerings to buyers at ticket purchase time.
The only way this works is if I already know about amenities. For example, I know Jet Blue has free TV, even though I've never flown on a Jet Blue flight. But that has more to do with word of mouth marketing than it does funnels or pricing pages.
The problem wasn't the $6 for Direct TV. The problem was that it was presented in such a way that it seemed like a hustle. People would rather do without than think they've been taken advantage of. Just announce the price before passing out the headphones. That's all. Conversion will increase without spending another nickel.
I think you touched on both issues. The $6 after the fact (the fact being I already purchased my ticket) seems like such a petty way to make money. I've been on Continental on longer flights (Houston to Quito) and I've thought to myself "If they raised my ticket by $6, I would be fine, but asking for the money afterwards is so annoying." There's this mental block that I have, and I'm sure others, too, that after I've…
True, but at the same time, there is very little way of distinguishing between features. Policies like extra baggage charges are extremely poorly labelled for most major airlines such that charts like this one (http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/blog/3801089/airline-baggage-...) are not uncommon to make sense of all the different policies. Furthermore, policies like the charge for extra headphones or TVs seem to vary not from airline to airline, but airplane to airplane, depending on the media equipment that the plane is outfitted with.
I think consumers do want those extra perks and would be willing to pay more for them, but simply do not have the means to make sense of the byzantine airfare purchasing 'system' that we have. Hence, consumers go with the lowest price as the one thing of which they can be sure. This is why I think Hipmunk is so important as a startup. It's the first attempt by a flight search engine to rank and display flights not just by price, but also by some of these other features.
As much as I'd like this to happen, I bet they would sell fewer tickets. A certain number of travelers sort ticket results based on price. If they added even just a few dollars to each leg to pay for perks, they would push themselves down on the results page and sell fewer tickets.
A similar approach is being piloted in the UK on certain train lines - on demand media streaming called Volo ( http://www.volo.tv/ ). Its expensive, you have to pay for headphones and their content is mediocre. Train prices have consistently raised from year to year.
"travellers in the FGW entertainment carriage"
"We've also made it easier to pay. No need to login, simply buy your ticket for £1.75 from the ticket office, by telephone or from the comfort of your seat!"
It says you pay £1.75 for a ticket. So this sounds like a way to get a seat if you're on board a busy train even if you've not booked in advance. Last I looked you paid £1 each way for a seat reservation which makes the marginal cost 75p, cheaper than buying a newspaper.
The problem wasn't the $6 for Direct TV. The problem was that it was presented in such a way that it seemed like a hustle. People would rather do without than think they've been taken advantage of. Just announce the price before passing out the headphones. That's all. Conversion will increase without spending another nickel.
Continental could have already tested this, of course. Most people will take free headphones, including those who initially have no intention of paying for TV. Most people will be too embarrassed to ask for headphones when bored during mid flight, especially if they've already refused them and told the air hostess they have absolutely no intention of paying such an outrageous fee. Not telling people the price until t…
The problem wasn't the $6 for Direct TV. The problem was that it was presented in such a way that it seemed like a hustle. People would rather do without than think they've been taken advantage of. Just announce the price before passing out the headphones. That's all. Conversion will increase without spending another nickel.
Continental could have already tested this, of course. Most people will take free headphones, including those who initially have no intention of paying for TV. Most people will be too embarrassed to ask for headphones when bored during mid flight, especially if they've already refused them and told the air hostess they have absolutely no intention of paying such an outrageous fee. Not telling people the price until t…