Less For Them Isn't More For Us
Jul 27, 2001 | 8:30 am
#1
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Join Date: May 1999
Posts: 46,817
Less For Them Isn't More For Us
Less For Them Isn't More For Us
"This has always been the frequent flyer's equivalent of the chicken-or-the-egg riddle: Do airlines give $199 leisure travelers $999 worth of service or do $999 full-fare business travelers receive $199 worth of service?
During the earliest days of deregulation, during the early 1980s, the airlines could straight-facedly claim that $199 leisure travelers received all the perks and benefits accorded to the $999 business traveler.
In recent years, of course, that claim wouldn't pass the laugh test and no airline executive would dare make the suggestion. It is now taken as gospel that everyone gets $199 worth of service and what you pay is between you, your gods, and the yield-management computers.
But now, I believe, we may be entering a dangerous new phase of airline-service philosophy.
I suggest to you today that nobody gets $999 worth of service anymore, business travelers get $199 worth of service, and leisure travelers are beginning to get $99 worth of service.
I refer, of course, to a phalanx of seemingly unrelated moves the airlines have made in recent months to reduce the services provided to our seat mates, the $199 leisure travelers. Despite all the summer fare sales you see advertised, the lowest leisure fares are now available only if you book by computer directly with an airline's proprietary Web site. Northwest doesn't even give frequent-travel miles when leisure travelers buy those lowest-priced fares. United's Economy Plus plan has segregated its coach cabin so that leisure travelers never get a comfortable seat. Almost all the major airlines have upped the service charge to $100 for rewriting most reduced-fare tickets.
To make matters worse, the major airlines have been quietly suggesting that these leisure-fare restrictions are an enhancement of our perks. The limited distribution of cheap seats is only fair given how much more business travelers pay, they say. Northwest says their cyberfares don't deserve mileage. United says leisure travelers must choose between cheap fares and comfortable seats. The airlines are quick to point out that full-fare frequent flyers are not affected by the higher fees slapped on rewritten tickets..."
-Joe B.
biztravel
http://misc.biztravel.com/CPageUtil_...ion=BT3&ssnid=
"This has always been the frequent flyer's equivalent of the chicken-or-the-egg riddle: Do airlines give $199 leisure travelers $999 worth of service or do $999 full-fare business travelers receive $199 worth of service?
During the earliest days of deregulation, during the early 1980s, the airlines could straight-facedly claim that $199 leisure travelers received all the perks and benefits accorded to the $999 business traveler.
In recent years, of course, that claim wouldn't pass the laugh test and no airline executive would dare make the suggestion. It is now taken as gospel that everyone gets $199 worth of service and what you pay is between you, your gods, and the yield-management computers.
But now, I believe, we may be entering a dangerous new phase of airline-service philosophy.
I suggest to you today that nobody gets $999 worth of service anymore, business travelers get $199 worth of service, and leisure travelers are beginning to get $99 worth of service.
I refer, of course, to a phalanx of seemingly unrelated moves the airlines have made in recent months to reduce the services provided to our seat mates, the $199 leisure travelers. Despite all the summer fare sales you see advertised, the lowest leisure fares are now available only if you book by computer directly with an airline's proprietary Web site. Northwest doesn't even give frequent-travel miles when leisure travelers buy those lowest-priced fares. United's Economy Plus plan has segregated its coach cabin so that leisure travelers never get a comfortable seat. Almost all the major airlines have upped the service charge to $100 for rewriting most reduced-fare tickets.
To make matters worse, the major airlines have been quietly suggesting that these leisure-fare restrictions are an enhancement of our perks. The limited distribution of cheap seats is only fair given how much more business travelers pay, they say. Northwest says their cyberfares don't deserve mileage. United says leisure travelers must choose between cheap fares and comfortable seats. The airlines are quick to point out that full-fare frequent flyers are not affected by the higher fees slapped on rewritten tickets..."
-Joe B.
biztravel
http://misc.biztravel.com/CPageUtil_...ion=BT3&ssnid=
