Originally Posted by
Often1
A rookie error to conflate "passenger" with "customer". Certainly there are HVC leisure and self-paid business passengers out there. But, the bulk of the revenue comes from corporate customers who are not likely to be moved much by a hot towel with a higher thread count or whatever it is/
I would assert that yours is the rookie error in not understanding the concept of service design and how much truly understanding your customer, passenger, whatever you want to call them, can impact overall organizational profitability. Businesses that care about their employees do actually listen to which airlines their employees do and do not like and this CAN factor into which airlines a company contracts with (as can a multitude of other factors). In other instances, like my firm, we contract with more than one airline for discounts but are certainly not required to fly them if fares are within a certain range.
As for the comment about selections based on a hot towel and thread counts, I think that is minimizing what customers, passengers, whatever you prefer to call them, value. No, I will not select an airline based on a hot towel, but I will choose an airline if I believe their hard product enables me to get a better few hours of sleep when flying overseas when I need to hit the ground running. This is why I will NEVER fly BA in biz with their 2-3-2 with alternating front and rear-facing seats...no matter how much less expensive their fares are. Some people will and do fly them, I will not.