HansGolden

True. However, at this point it's a volume consideration. Would there be enough volume for separate fora? As Nick noted, there's mass confusion about where to post re: LCCs which is demonstrated by how widely scattered the posts are. Until we fix the clarity problem, we won't have a good idea on volume because lack of clarity suppresses posts. My first instinct was to start with them lumped together and then if volume vastly exceeds current levels, it's easy to separate them. Though, on second thought, it's actually easier to combine fora than separate them. It's just CW on TB/TBT is that it's a dreadful sin to create a forum without "enough" traffic. I was bowing to that CW, but I'm no fan of it.

MSPeconomist

I'm not so sure this is totally true. There are common fees to avoid. I could envision some tips common to travel on all budget/low cost carriers such as how to minimize the weight of bags. If we have separate fora for each of them, it will potentially add a lot of fora, many with little traffic.

I would have suggested having regional budget/low cost airline fora, but a few of them (Norwegian?) are trying to expand beyond their own regions. If this continues--and if it works for some of them this time around--it could lead to confusion about which carrier belongs where, so I'm inclined at the time to favor a single forum for budget airlines and LCCs in the airlines/FF programs section of FT.

kipper

What about just 1 forum for LCCs? I realize there's a thought that they should go into Budget Travel, but why not their own LCC forum?

nsx

I'm persuadable on a single LCC forum. One question not yet asked is whether a newbie to FT will know what LCC means or that discussion regarding a specific airline (Spirit, EasyJet, etc.) is to be found in a forum labeled LCC. In other words, what is the best way to help people find the right forum if not by carrier name?

I sure wish vBulletin could support duplicate entries, e.g. the list of Airline forums could include the following entries:

EasyJet: contained in LCC forum
RyanAir: contained in LCC forum
Spirit Air: contained in LCC forum

where all 3 links would take you to the same LCC forum.

SkiAdcock

There is discussion re: either having a stand-alone LCC forum or - if the airline forums get renamed (see other thread) - potentially having them in the 'other airlines' category according to regions, as some will go to the region where they reside to look for threads/answers. We've had input re: that from someone involved in one of the regional airline forums.

Cheers.

MSPeconomist

Huh? I said that I tend to favor a single forum for low cost and budget carriers. It should be listed under airline programs (not where Budget Travel is). However, any LCC or budget airline such as Southwest that currently has its own forum would presumably keep its own forum and not be moved into the one new one that's being proposed.

tcook052

If we're reorganizing FT to make it more intuitive isn't leaving LCC's out of the proposed one single LCC forum somewhat counterintuitive?

SkiAdcock

We're still considering what would be included. But I look at this more as the "Ultra Low Cost Carriers" type of forum (those that are really cheap, add fees for pretty much breathing, don't have a FF program &/or one so miniscule to barely qualify).

Cheers.

MSPeconomist

I guess I view the situation as similar to the "other" regional carriers fora. If a carrier already has a successful forum, most of those who post there would be annoyed to have their own forum gobbled up by a new or more general forum.

kipper

You mentioned discussion about regional forums (or fora, depending on your side of the debate regarding that), and I indicated that a single forum for all LCCs seems to make sense to me.

MSPeconomist

I mentioned the regional fora approach because it logically should be considered, but I clearly said that I tended to favor one new forum. The status quo defenders seem to say that all LLC/budget airline threads should be moved to budget travel (which doesn't make sense to me, despite that forum's description, because it's not located with airlines on FT), but another way to stick close to the status quo would be to have LCC/budget airlines in the regional airline fora, possibly separated into a sub forum in each of the regional airline fora (including Russia/CIS I suppose).

At this stage, I think alternatives should be mentioned. That is not the same as stating that I am advocating for the alternative of putting the LCCs/budget airlines into the regional fora, but I'm willing to consider arguments for this approach.

HansGolden

I don't think anyone is advocating for merging WN into a new general LCC forum.

MSPeconomist

I don't think there's much support for that, although one could read tcook052's post above that way or could take it to mean the current Budget Travel forum.

nsx

WN's fares have not been substantially lower than other majors since about 2007. VX or B6 leads WN on prices most of the time.

SkiAdcock

Just as an fyi to those who were interested in this topic, there's a motion/vote going on re: adding 4 budget airlines forums to FT. If you have input, posting here would be a good thing to do:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/talkb...ne-forums.html

Cheers.