Originally Posted by
avidflyer
They can't fill the premium cabin with $7000 customers, that is reality. That is the reason they offer $4000 discount fares and use the remaining seats as a marketing tool for the AL via FF program awards. Turn the question around: Why would DL NOT use the empty seats to as a marketing tool. reduced margins are better than no margins at all.
The $4000 (or $2500 for that matter depending on how smart someone is) I was referring to was someone making PLT but generating little to not profit on deeply discounted, low profit economy tickets versus one passenger not giving a damn about PLT or earning award miles making the airline a $6000 profit on one flight. Which kind of customer should a best customer program try to attract and please? If those customers are less motivated by a FFP, what are they motivated by?
However, to your point, there is also a big difference between a $4000 discount biz fare and giving the seats away as a marketing tool. Turn the question around:
Why would DL not reduce the size of the business cabin if it is found to be structurally too large? Or why not replace it with a denser economy plus seating that is less subject to corporate policy restrictions and has a lower price differential?
It is possible that the most profitable Skymiles customers are those that send DL lots of partner revenue, fly once in a while and either never redeem their miles or do so in a non-savvy way blowing them at high rates with high fees. It is possible that the least profitable Skymiles customers are the ones that frequent this forum and know how to work the program to their advantage. If you were designing a program to contribute to profitability which customer would you go after and which one would you try to frustrate?