Originally Posted by
KenJohn
It not commerical suicide if
1) the expect other airlines to follow (ie leader of the pack)
2) they can keep their prices below non-US airlines
3) customers are really that price sensitive to marginal fare differences and many are
4) customers do is complain about how lousy the free hot meals anyway (judging by some of the postings we have seen from time to time) where special meals have not been loaded
At the risk of being accused of being pedantic, there never has, and never will be "free" food - it's food you've already paid for which is included in the ticket price. There are a few of us who will remember, and one or two will have survived trips on People Express who always used to charge for the snacks they offered on TATL service. Is this just a great big circle and will this apparently unstoppable move to seperate pricing for everything from baggage to fuel to food and booze actually swing around when the carriers realize they need to offer service to distinguish themselves from the next anonymous, commodity carrier.
The curious thing to me is UA seems to be preserving 100% FF miles while at the same time claiming they need to cut food because customers are totally fickle and extremely price sensitive; there's clearly something 'off' in that argument because loyalty schemes have no role if the customer is trully 100% driven by price, so I'm surprised UA haven't moved to a BA-style earning scheme.