Tango-Bravo
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- Aug 29, 2002
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[blockquote]
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On 10/14/2002 2:00:31 PM apofurlough wrote:
Maybe we should just go back to the simpler way of life we enjoyed before deregulation? I am sure a lot of you remember - F first class Y coach class and B 7 day advance purchase Sat overnight no fees no restrictions. Sure sounds simpler to me and as I remember it was much simpler to deal with. But then charge reasonable prices for the 3 tiers. This makes life much easier for travelers and MUCH MUCH easier on employees. What do we need 50 fares in a market for anyway? A reasonable discount off a sensible business fare for the leisure traveler who can afford to stay over the Sat night. And the business man is happy with the sensible Y fare. Sounds like a win win to me. Only ones unhappy with it would be the people who sit in the back making up the rules and restrictions that complicate and upset both traveling public and employees alike. They would give up their job security. [img src='http://www.usaviation.com/idealbb/images/smilies/3.gif'] [img src='http://www.usaviation.com/idealbb/images/smilies/16.gif']
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[/blockquote]
Believe it or not, even in the 1950s-60s when regulation was in full force and one would have been considered mentally challenged to even suggest the possibility of airline deregulation, there were peak and off-peak fares, family-plan discounts, night coach, and other pricing incentives to improve load factors on flights operating during lightly traveled days and times.
Even so, the pricing structure remained very simple, straightforward, and above all, equitable (my preferred terminology for [i]fair to all concerned[/i]). It was comprised of no more than 3-4 price tiers in coach and the differential between highest and lowest fares came nowhere near the obscenity of what the Cartel airlines are foolish enough to think they can continue to impose on their customers -- in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary dating back to sometime between 2Q 2000 and 1Q 2001 (BTW, that was [i]before[/i] 9/11/01).
From the 1950s through the mid-1980s, the [i]lowest[/i] fare in coach was typically 40% less than the [i]highest[/i] coach fare. By 2000, when the pricing shenanigans of the Cartel began to collapse under their own weight and complexity (to say nothing of the system's in-your-face arrogance that was sure to stir a backlash) the [i]average[/i] business traveler on the full-service majors was paying 491% (ie 4.91 times) more than the [i]average[/i] leisure passengers on the same flights. And it was not an aberration for a business traveler to be paying as much as 1,000% more than the pax sitting next to him/her on the same flight.
The yield-management system used by Southwest is very similar to the 3-4 tier system used successfully by the majors before and after deregulation. Above all, with Southwest's pricing model, it is well nigh unheard of for someone traveling on an unrestricted fare to pay more than 1.5 to 1.8 times more than pax on the same flight who paid the least. Southwest has been the only major U.S. airline to post profits in good times and bad, they have the happiest employees, the fewest complaints about their service, and the happiest shareholders. Other than that, as some would have us beleive, they don't know how to run an airline.
All of which is to say, a straightforward, understandable, and above all, equitable fare structure is a sound plan. Pricing models which depend on gouging a relative few to subsidize the many is a foolish plan that is sure to explode in the faces of any airlines stupid enough to put such absurdity into practice -- the predictable consequences of such folly have come home to roost for the full-service majors. And yes, I agree 110% with the opinion that yield-management at the full-service majors has become a self-serving, self-perpetuating (and totally dysfuctional) tail that upper management is foolish enough to allow to continue to wag the dog.
That the full-service majors persist in their pricing follies proves only to serve how inattentive or stupid or arrogant -- or all of the above -- their upper managements really are. Without meaningful pricing reform, there will be no meaningful recovery for the Cartel.
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On 10/14/2002 2:00:31 PM apofurlough wrote:
Maybe we should just go back to the simpler way of life we enjoyed before deregulation? I am sure a lot of you remember - F first class Y coach class and B 7 day advance purchase Sat overnight no fees no restrictions. Sure sounds simpler to me and as I remember it was much simpler to deal with. But then charge reasonable prices for the 3 tiers. This makes life much easier for travelers and MUCH MUCH easier on employees. What do we need 50 fares in a market for anyway? A reasonable discount off a sensible business fare for the leisure traveler who can afford to stay over the Sat night. And the business man is happy with the sensible Y fare. Sounds like a win win to me. Only ones unhappy with it would be the people who sit in the back making up the rules and restrictions that complicate and upset both traveling public and employees alike. They would give up their job security. [img src='http://www.usaviation.com/idealbb/images/smilies/3.gif'] [img src='http://www.usaviation.com/idealbb/images/smilies/16.gif']
----------------
[/blockquote]
Believe it or not, even in the 1950s-60s when regulation was in full force and one would have been considered mentally challenged to even suggest the possibility of airline deregulation, there were peak and off-peak fares, family-plan discounts, night coach, and other pricing incentives to improve load factors on flights operating during lightly traveled days and times.
Even so, the pricing structure remained very simple, straightforward, and above all, equitable (my preferred terminology for [i]fair to all concerned[/i]). It was comprised of no more than 3-4 price tiers in coach and the differential between highest and lowest fares came nowhere near the obscenity of what the Cartel airlines are foolish enough to think they can continue to impose on their customers -- in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary dating back to sometime between 2Q 2000 and 1Q 2001 (BTW, that was [i]before[/i] 9/11/01).
From the 1950s through the mid-1980s, the [i]lowest[/i] fare in coach was typically 40% less than the [i]highest[/i] coach fare. By 2000, when the pricing shenanigans of the Cartel began to collapse under their own weight and complexity (to say nothing of the system's in-your-face arrogance that was sure to stir a backlash) the [i]average[/i] business traveler on the full-service majors was paying 491% (ie 4.91 times) more than the [i]average[/i] leisure passengers on the same flights. And it was not an aberration for a business traveler to be paying as much as 1,000% more than the pax sitting next to him/her on the same flight.
The yield-management system used by Southwest is very similar to the 3-4 tier system used successfully by the majors before and after deregulation. Above all, with Southwest's pricing model, it is well nigh unheard of for someone traveling on an unrestricted fare to pay more than 1.5 to 1.8 times more than pax on the same flight who paid the least. Southwest has been the only major U.S. airline to post profits in good times and bad, they have the happiest employees, the fewest complaints about their service, and the happiest shareholders. Other than that, as some would have us beleive, they don't know how to run an airline.
All of which is to say, a straightforward, understandable, and above all, equitable fare structure is a sound plan. Pricing models which depend on gouging a relative few to subsidize the many is a foolish plan that is sure to explode in the faces of any airlines stupid enough to put such absurdity into practice -- the predictable consequences of such folly have come home to roost for the full-service majors. And yes, I agree 110% with the opinion that yield-management at the full-service majors has become a self-serving, self-perpetuating (and totally dysfuctional) tail that upper management is foolish enough to allow to continue to wag the dog.
That the full-service majors persist in their pricing follies proves only to serve how inattentive or stupid or arrogant -- or all of the above -- their upper managements really are. Without meaningful pricing reform, there will be no meaningful recovery for the Cartel.
03 PM Slam&Click wrote:[BR][BR] This board has deteriorated into the P*ss, Whine & Moan Club. I dislike the rules & regs. that the majors have instituted. I agree that it is chasing away the customers. I dislike the attitudes of the employees that have been posting with few exceptions. I no longer work for US, and given the employee/customer exchanges and sentiments expressed here -- I'm glad that I don't.[BR][BR]I'd rather drive. [BR][BR]----------------[/BLOCKQUOTE]I think that there certainly are some malcontents in the employee ranks - just as there are malcontent passengers.[BR][BR]Unfortunately, the malcontent passengers are part of what keeps US afloat. 
