Originally Posted by
canadiancow
High-status (i.e. high-spend) individuals booking last minute (i.e. expensive) tickets can only be hurt by this. On the outbound of the current trip I'm on, I had to change the flights within 72 hours of departure. That would eliminate my ability to pre-order. From what I know of most of my high-status high-fare friends, this is pretty common.
That's not even figuring in scenarios like:
"Hi Mr. Kennedy, this is the Toronto concierge. We noticed your inbound is delayed, so we've rebooked your connection to the next flight."
"No thanks, I can make it. Please put me back."
"Oh okay."
And there goes my meal selection.
You can't please everyone. Remember --- there were likely tons of SEs before who don't spend high that gamed the system (and still do) which is why you have revenue requirements for SE.
I'm pretty sure the bigger concern with booking last minute isn't what food you're getting, it's that you have a seat. Do you really think 75% of pax will pre-book their food? This is obviously a trial to get datapoints and see how well this works and whether to look at rolling it out to other flights.
As a non-SE that books Rev J, I'm all for this. My full fare J is not worth less than your full fare J flight. Revenue is revenue no matter how you look at it. Knowing I'm more likely to get my choice in advance I will book in advance which ultimately helps the airline plan.
I'd like to see the datapoints on how much of last minute flights now are from SE's vs everyone else. With higher loads and all of the flight issues I'm hearing enough stories about non-SE's paying full fare to get where they need to go so I doubt that it's just high status folks paying for last minute.