Air Canada agents reveal overselling practices

Post by elyobo » Mon, Feb 11, 2019, 8:35 AM UTC

tomhoward wrote: post #37

elyobo wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed - I still use it (among others) more or less any time I'm looking for flights. It was tomhoward's cofounder Fenn Bailey that also first introduced me to "microcaching" with nginx via some blog post many years back, a trick which has been of much use over the years.

Awesome, great to hear! That micro-caching trick was so cool. It wasn't actually for Adioso, but for the Falls Festival, a huge New Years Eve outdoor music festival here in Australia. The coolest application we heard about for that technique was when Google did a doodle for Robert Moog's 78th Birthday [1], and the Moog company's humble little website got hammered. [1] https://www.google.com/doodles/robert-moogs-78th-…

Post by dominicr » Mon, Feb 11, 2019, 8:42 AM UTC

lisper wrote: post #52

tomhoward wrote: post #24

It's been discussed on HN before [1], but it's worth mentioning in this thread that there's a YC-backed company – Volantio – working to solve this specific problem. Most airlines' position is that they have to oversell flights, otherwise planes will fly with empty seats unnecessarily. But from passengers' point of view, there aren't always enough people who'll voluntarily accept an offer to transfer to a different fl…

> Most airlines' position is that they have to oversell flights, otherwise planes will fly with empty seats unnecessarily. With most fares nowadays being non-refundable, why should the airlines care whether the seat is empty or not? It's paid for. If it's empty, that's a bonus because they save a little bit of fuel, time at the gate, and the passengers adjacent to the empty seat have a better experience. Empty seats…

Post by lisper » Mon, Feb 11, 2019, 8:50 AM UTC

dominicr wrote: post #63

lisper wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most airlines' position is that they have to oversell flights, otherwise planes will fly with empty seats unnecessarily. With most fares nowadays being non-refundable, why should the airlines care whether the seat is empty or not? It's paid for. If it's empty, that's a bonus because they save a little bit of fuel, time at the gate, and the passengers adjacent to the empty seat have a better experience. Empty seats…

Because if a seat is sold twice but only used one that's more profit than if every seat is only sold once. Most businesses maximise profits, not passenger experience (and those that work on passenger experience do so because they've decided that's their way to increase profits and they'll do so in a cost effective way). Airlines say that this means all the seats on a flight can be a bit cheaper as the cost of operati…

Post by FearNotDaniel » Mon, Feb 11, 2019, 9:05 AM UTC

Post by tomhoward » Mon, Feb 11, 2019, 9:30 AM UTC

lisper wrote: post #65

dominicr wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because if a seat is sold twice but only used one that's more profit than if every seat is only sold once. Most businesses maximise profits, not passenger experience (and those that work on passenger experience do so because they've decided that's their way to increase profits and they'll do so in a cost effective way). Airlines say that this means all the seats on a flight can be a bit cheaper as the cost of operati…

> Because if a seat is sold twice but only used one that's more profit than if every seat is only sold once. Well, yeah, but that badly misses the point. Selling any product twice is more profitable than selling it only once, all else being equal. But in most industries, selling the same product twice is considered unacceptable. In fact, it would be considered fraud. The story that the airlines tell to make people th…