Originally Posted by
pbarnette
I actually disagree, and disagree pretty strongly. I think the issue is that you are ultimately selling transportation. The vast majority of people are buying a ticket to get from one place to another. People simply aren't looking for anything else, so what, exactly are you going to sell them on?
I think you're looking at this from a very narrow perspective. If you follow your argument then everyone would stay in Super8 motels and the 3 & 4 star Hotels would be out of business. Toyota wouldn't have its Lexus brand, and we'd be driving Honda's not Acuras. Kelloggs would no longer exist.
One of the mistakes I think the legacy industry has made which has locked it into what may prove to be a death spiral is to assume people just want the cheapest way from A to B. First, what people are we talking about? There's at least two groups on planes - those travelling for work and those travelling on vacation and/or visting friends and relatives.
I know that for work I want, and will pay for, different things than for leisure. Put simply early morning / late evening departures with impecable time keeping are important. I want to get on the plane in the morning, be offered some kind of breakfast that will keep be going until midday, have power for my PC, space to work and get any checked luggage delivered fast when I arrive. Returning I'm looking for a decent hot meal, a glass of wine and a generally more relaxing trip. But overall I want to arrive ready & refreshed for work and I'm willing to pay quite a premium over typical leisure trips.
For leisure I'm generally more willing to put up with some inconvenience to save money, and I prefer not to have to rush around to make 6 or 7am departures.
Now tell me how CO's coach fits those outlines? How do it's 31" cattle crates deliver me fresh and ready for work? OK, so they have a limited number of First class seats, but the premium on most carriers for a trip like AUS-SJC is far too high to justify. IMO what CO should have done is to offer about 1/3rd of their domestic services as a Business Class with (say) 34" seating, possibly 5 wide, and a real "professional" product. Maybe they should have looked at BA's concept of convertible seating and tried to make something that actually worked.
Then they should have mirrored this with a Premium Economy on long haul.
Then they have the chance to sell up everyone to another class, while offering a differentiated product the "delivers you ready to do business" - a totally different product for which Southwest isn't setting the price. If they got it right it would be aspirational - something you would be telling your neighbours and co-workers "I always fly Continental on business".
Instead of which CO are they're mired in a one size fits all race to the bottom, where the only differentiation they have to offer is flexibility, which they proceed to undermine with same day changes etc. And to add to it all, they undermined the domestic First class by giving it away.