Originally Posted by
Aaron01
Well, tickets don't have to be printed at home, one can use a mobile boarding pass or get one printed by the ticket agent.
Nevertheless, the added costs, if there even are any, incurred by the passenger are so minimal when factoring in the various savings that personal computing brings it's not even worth mentioning in the discussion.
That's all fine, but it would be wrong to say that because someone is booking directly through the airline's website versus through a travel agent they're receiving an inferior product. Or that the airline is charging more to make up for any lost fees.
If we are to adjust our calculations of the fares for the cost of a PC and printing paper (see above), then surely we would have to adjust for the time lost by going to a travel agent, gas money, parking, etc...
Time savings alone, by being able to book tickets at any time without taking time out of your working day, would be a huge factor.
I think we're talking on two completely different wavelengths here.
The cost analysis I posted in my last post was not meant to discuss the actual costs incurred by us
passengers. Of course those are fairly minimal. However, the
airlines have saved a LOT of money by being able to reduce staffing and automate a lot of functions they formerly had to hire people to handle. That accounts for a good amount of the reason that fares are able to be lower these days. The cut in on-board services and more people per square foot on-board accounts for much of the other part.
Originally Posted by
Aaron01
Even if adjusted for inflation airline fares have held constant, or gone up slightly over the past 30 years the passenger has gained given the massive improvements in air travel. The planes are faster, safer, more efficient and allow one to be more productive than ever before.
I think many people who were around in those days would dispute that passengers have gained massive improvements. Yes, wifi allows us to be more productive, and AVOD IFE is a nice way to pass the time, but in almost every other category, air travel today is much more of a mass transit experience than it was in previous decades. And the fact that planes are more efficient is something that benefits the airline far more than passengers. I care about fuel efficiency only to the extent that it allows my ticket prices to be lowered.
Originally Posted by
Aaron01
There was no implied attitude on my part, the problem with reading text is that inflection is up to the reader
Apologies for misreading your intended tone.