Originally posted by Babu:
I GUESS GORDON ISN'T DOING ANYTHING JUST YET...
The New York Times, February 28, 2000
"Mr. Bethune, of Continental, concurred with the strategy of trying to reduce the number of low-fare passengers. He noted that such travelers tend to file more lost-luggage complaints than first-class travelers, who can carry on more and whose checked luggage is often treated more carefully. "
I guess not -- he also called AA and United "mediocre airlines" in that article. That thing about lost luggage though is pretty dubious though - I would suspect that the reason people file more lost luggage complaints isn't that they are paying a cheaper fare, but that the airline is (duh!) losing their bags. You could fill up coach with only full fare paying passengers, and I suspect the ratio of lost luggage complaints would be the same. Attracting more high fare (coach) passengers could very well work with AA's approach, but until the airlines put "priority" tags on all suitcases, I'm not sure why complaints from Bethune about low fare passengers and lost luggage is relevant.
Besides, if AA does offer fewer seats at the cheapest fares, as seems possible, then that should solve the problems raised by CO. (Assuming causation b/w cheap fare and lost bag).