Originally Posted by Globaliser
But there's one item of behaviour on TomBascom's list which tends to depress the revenue earned by the airline from the passenger, while clearly adding to the airline's operational costs in relation to that passenger as well as the contingent frequent flyer liability costs.
The fact that it doesn't stand out like a sore thumb here demonstrates, if I may say so, my point that this forum is not really a good place to debate this issue. Collectively, our focus is on what we can get out of frequent flyer schemes and we're very good at it. But collectively, we have relatively little real understanding of how airlines work as businesses and of how the schemes relate to the operational business - particularly in numerical and financial terms.
Why don't you simply make your point instead of acting like you understand the airline business and no one else does?
I can see where behavior (3) - taking suboptimal connections - fits some of the criteria. That is, it raises the cost to carry the passenger and his luggage without increasing revenue to the airline. But...the airlines built their convoluted pricing system that way, so I don't have much sympathy. Sometimes they purposefully direct me onto a long routing with their fares when I'd really rather have the nonstop. Airlines that use more fair, logical pricing systems (e.g., WN) leave a much smaller loophole for travelers to exploit by intentionally flying out-of-the-way.