Originally Posted by
sigma6
I don't understand why airlines don't target families and their annual summer/winter vacations.
Because giving away free stuff at a time of high demand for the stuff you are selling is sort of the opposite of how you actually run a business profitably.
Summer is a peak time for airline travel. So are Thanksgiving and Christmas. There's
no incentive to make award travel easier during those times; every seat you give away is probably one you could sell.
Originally Posted by
RustyC
This would be quite a reversal from the decades-old situation where the FFP was an effective competitive weapon FOR the legacies against LCCs.
So effective that WN is, what, the fourth largest airline in the USA? B6 and WN managed to become publicly traded companies?
If FFPs were that effective for competition, LCCs would have been strangled in the crib long ago. What they've been is a crutch for airlines to get through recessions when banks front money for miles, but that's not a competitive weapon as much as life support.