Originally Posted by
5khours
PERFECT AIRLINE THINK!!!
This is exactly what is wrong with the airlines, they try to maximize revenue per flight and assume that this has no impact on future passenger behavior or future traffic. IMHO this is completely wrong. I don't know about anyone else but the hassles and insults and wasted time have a big impact on my travel. If travel and booking was easier and predictable, I would fly at least 50% more .... maybe double.
Sad but true. Airlines are out to make money for shareholders. I don't think we can begrudge them that goal. But to be honest, I think many Elites give themselves to much credit for contributing to the bottom line. Clearly only ranking miles is a very bad indicator, so is pure revenue. What really matters is the revenue contribution attributed to specific flight for the benefit of the network. The unanswerable question (at least as we know) is what does matter most to an airlines' bottom line.
Have you ever considered that if a 1K leaves UA for AA that someone else will just as easily fill that spot? People's travel patterns are erratic and cyclical. I may be PrePlat today, but tomorrow I could lose my job or get sick. Do you think UA really cares? How much slack are they going to give me to retain my loyalty?
Originally Posted by
zabes64
Actually that is not true.
Let's use an example of a 16 seat F plane. CO sells 8 Revenue seats prior to the 120h mark, so there are 8 seats left.
They then choose to designate how many of those seats are upgrade seats, so if they decide that the flight has 2 upgrade seats, then they will book to 10 and 6 seats will be open day of the flight for revenue. They will then try and upsell those seats usually before finally upgrading again.
As for UA, UA will upsell those 6 remaining seats until the 4 hour mark before the flight and then finish most of the upgrades.
But to say that if there are 8 Revenue seats left that CO will automatically upgrade 8 people is not true, they base it on how many revenue they think they will sell last minute and also if they don't sell those, I am sure they try and pull upsell revenue on those too, hence the upgrade waitlist during the check-in process.
This is classic Revenue Management and it is not nearly as simple as you imply above. So they forecast for 8 empty F seats, but they are likely to a
also consider late Y or B class demand and preserve those seats for the comp upgrade (as they rightly deserve). If they don't materialize, who cares, they'll EUA all Elites at the 24 hour mark. Once all Plat, Golds and Silvers are accommodated that are already booked, then the offer the buy up at check in to anyone. Joe Schmo hasn't taken anyone's F seat unless you truly are a go show within 24 hours. In that case, blame the demand forecast.
Originally Posted by
RichardInSF
I agree with that. They are doing it because they believe as an oligopolist in a group with fewer and fewer members, their customers will have no choice but to take it.
And of course most of the complaining here is about frequent flier benefits! First of all, who would you expect to be on a website like flyertalk? And second, since frequent fliers keep an airline in business, they are more important than infrequent fliers -- even the ones that game the system probably spend way more money on air tickets than the once-a-year visitors to mom.
But prove that the once a year to mom (and their collective ilk) aren't ultimately just as important as a 1K. They may be discretionary but they still contribute to the bottom line. And they may BOB ($), pay for E+ ($) check a bag ($), get a day pass to the RCC ($), etc. Look at all that add on ancillary revenue that no 1K will ever pay. Multiply that by thousands per day, every day, on every flight. That's likely some serious extra money.
Just a thought.