PineyBob said:
I for one will no longer use the kiosk and one day when the timing is right and I can get someone from CCY on the phone I'll make a point to REFUSE to USE the kiosk. It's NOT in the contract of carriage that I must use a kiosk, so if I get into a real confrontation I probably have grounds for a lawsuit, neverminding the publicity if they refuse to check me in.
I doubt that there's a term in the contract of carriage that guarantees you the services of an agent, either. Clearly, the complete elimination of ticket agents as an option for check-in is poor customer service, just as it would be if your bank eliminated all tellers. And, of course, having the bare minimum complement of agents is a recipe for disaster in the event of irregular operations.
Last time I looked I paid for the ticket and if there is an agent there and I want to use his or her services then I don't want to hear one God Damned word to the contrary. And truth be told I LIKE the kiosks in many cases. But as a customer it is MY CHOICE as to what interface I CHOOSE when I check in, as long as there are options. When I'm pressed for time I print the BP from the office or home. When the lines are long at the airport I use the kiosk, When I've got time on my hands I'll use an actual person. I like the human contact but I'm not a slave about it.
Just as most airlines have moved to assess charges for paper tickets and ticketing at city ticket offices, airport counters, or through reservations, I imagine that you will see a charge in future for using the counter for transactions which the kiosk can handle. Perhaps these fees will be waived for elites or certain fare classes, but I don't doubt that the airlines have already considered it...
If US Airways thinks it can go back to the days of dictating to it's elite or any customer in any fashion then they will fail and deservedly so. One of the primary reasons (after 9/11 & Fuel) the legacy carriers are all in trouble is this non stop notion that the customer is the enemy, that we are sheep to be lead to slaughter at the feet of Yield Management and other price gouging and customer unfriendly policies. Some of us as you noticed are NOT sitting idly by anymore. Some have chosed to fly SWA, Jet Blue and others where the rules & fares are simplier and often though not always cheaper. Enough have made that choice that the legacy carriers no longer have the power to dictate fares. Same with their greedy decision to cut travel agents out of the picture. Now Ma & Pa Kettle just go on-line and price shop. Who is to blame for that? Legacy carrier management and their combined naked greed and disdain for the customer.
The essential problem is that the customers now have perfect pricing information. They can compare different days, airports, and airlines with just the click of a mouse. And for air-only transactions, travel agents have become superfluous for a lot of folks (and the airlines). Unless a travel agent has access to consolidator fares, I myself can often find less expensive flights on my own.
And the availability of perfect pricing information online, coupled with the expansion of the LCC's, has really exposed how grossly out of line legacy carrier pricing had gotten by the use of yield management to squeeze every last penny out of business travelers.
Notice that SWA is the ONLY profitable airline that does NOT share its RES system with Expedia and the others. Ever stop to ponder why that might be?? Even a Travel agent has to call SWA as they are on no ones system. Their true pricing is known but to them. Interesting that they also sell the highest percentage of full fare tickets. Cause & effect? I think so.
A little bit of history is in order here. Back in the early '90s, if memory serves correctly, the network carriers all attempted to make life difficult for Southwest by kicking them off the major CRS's (which they controlled at the time) more or less at the same time. Southwest mobilized to get most of the largest travel agents connected into their internal system quickly and really has never looked back since (aside from brief flirtations with SABRE as that particular company has attempted to win back some business from SWA).
Really, the prime reason that Southwest doesn't use the CRS's is
cost. A booking on SABRE, Worldspan, Galileo, or Amadeus tends to run in the neighborhood of $10-15. When they sell a ticket on southwest.com, the cost is well under a dollar. Through reservations, it's probably closer to $3-5. And, to be honest, the way Southwest displays fares makes it ridiculously easy to find an inexpensive fare (if available) on the days you want to travel.
As JS mentioned, jetBlue also chooses not to use the major CRS's (though they do use BlueSkies as their reservations system). And they did post a profit last quarter to the surprise of most of the analyst community. Again, they avoid the CRS's largely to help keep their costs down. Independence started out with an intent to stay off the CRS's but now, in an about-face, is on most or all of them given the trouble they've been having filling seats.
The reason Southwest sells so many "full-fare" tickets is not that their customers are too stupid to compare fares on the competition. It is that
Southwest prices its full-fare tickets reasonably. The refundable, full fare on Southwest from RDU to PVD is $142. The refundable, full fare on US from RDU to PVD is $527. Southwest's business customers appreciate not being gouged for having to travel on short notice, and they show their appreciation by purchasing full-fare tickets. Just as an aside, WN's least expensive RDU-PVD fare is $90 each way. A lot of folks are happy to pay an extra $50 each way for a fully refundable, changeable ticket. They are not as eager to plunk down $450 each way extra for that flexibility.
