Originally Posted by
danielonn
Serve complimentary alcohol on US flag carriers. I wish this economy picks up and airlines will give a complimentary hot meal, hot towel and alcohol in Y Class. On international and domestic flights this would be cool. A friend flew United going to Europe and Lufthansa on the return. By far Lufthansa was the winner.
I agree with the sentiment, but the market has repeatedly spoken on this issue: it generally won't pay extra for free food and booze in coach. If Airline A costs $200 and includes food/drink and Airline B costs $190 with no inflight service at all, the market overwhelmingly books Airline B.
In a way, I wish it wasn't so...I wish "premium service" airlines could survive and find a way to offer their product at the right price. A U.S. domestic example - Midwest Express - sort of made it work for 15 years or so but I'm not sure they were ever that profitable. And I can't recall actually consciously paying $20-30 extra to fly them because of the food/bev. I either saw them forced to exactly match another carrier (in which I happily flew them, but wonder if they made money) or I saw them charging double or triple the fare, in which case I didn't. They never found a way (that I saw) to always slot themselves a few bucks above their competitor...presumably because they figured out that the market generally doesn't buy that way. Sadly, the premium service died in the early 00's and the whole airline ended up getting bought by Frontier a few years later.
On boarding the flights have the e-reader(Public Transit fare gate style boarding gates like they have at FRA.) You put in your boarding pass on the scanner and the gate opens when its your turn. If it detects your in the wrong group it won't let you in.
Another nice idea...but from the airlines' POV it sounds like a capital expenditure to solve a problem that really isn't there. The GA's can manually gain enough control of the herd of boarders that they can get the plane loaded and sent on its way. We FT'ers like to grump about gate lice but it's not really affecting the airline's bottom line. Even if there's a gate/route with abnormally high boarding problems that lead to slower aircraft turns, I think they'd probably just implement stronger manual solutions. (More aggressive GA's, better corrals for boarding groups, etc.)
On arrival from an international flight have more ground staff meeting the flight. One desk should be for those with tight connections. Have the onward boarding pass ready to go at the gate. Instill a special Fastrak line at Customs/Passport Control for those with tight connections.
Agreed: someone from the airline who can answer questions is a great idea. I've had problems in the past where the airline employees for Flight 1 don't really know the processes or procedures for the Flight 2 airline. Therefore, if it's a flight where many pax from Flight 1 are connecting to the same Flight 2 (or Airline 2), having one of
their people at the arrival gate would be helpful.
Usually not a problem in the big European hubs because U.S.-to-European carrier usually interlines the bags well and has clear directions of where to go upon arrival. I flew Austrian connecting to Egyptair once and the arrival process was disorganized and messy. Having an Egyptair agent to assist people would have been helpful...especially because many of the people on the flight were connecting, and ALL were connecting on Egyptair.
The airlines should provide tags at checkin for carry on bags that says"Cabin Luggage" along with the row number. If the carry on is not tagged they cannot be allowed through security. If the passenger has more than the allotment they are SOL and have to check it in or consolidate it.
In the U.S., it wouldn't work because the TSA wouldn't look at the tags - and frankly, with there nearly always being a nonzero wait to get through a checkpoint, I don't think I want them to.
Plus I'm not sure how it'd work with mobile boarding passes. Sounds like you'd need to flip through screens on your phone and wouldn't have anything to actually attach to your bag. Even with traditional paper BP's...I'd just have more pieces of paper in my hand, as I'm unlikely to have any way to tape something to my bag. (I think of the return segment of a trip...checking in at a hotel kiosk...)