Originally Posted by
EXP100
But those passengers now are what the credit card pitches are aimed at. The thought of free bags, priority boarding (which isn't really much of a "priority") and all the other drivel hawked by flight attendants is appealing to Joe and Mary Six Pack taking the kids to Disney. The road warrior likely has the airline card, or a comparable affinity card, and books flights through corporate travel/corporate portal. Also, are much upscale customers that rarely travel (a doctor for example) that when they do will take a cash upgrade to get out of coach. It's no longer just about getting passengers that fly your airline week in and week out for work.
What we are currently seeing is the push to unbundle and ala carte even more services in the airline industry to maximize profit, what was once included in a ticket (ie. luggage). The next step is to do a reoccurring subscription fee, and this is what we are seeing with credit cards for the not so frequent fliers.....
Unbundling of business class tickets is coming to us soon for the big US3.......
Hypothetically, not far out of reach before Airlines charge a yearly/monthly fee to hold elite status itself (ie....Amazon Prime/Netflix) subscriptions.....that is where I am seeing airlines going next to increase profits without expending much....