Originally Posted by janeway
What this scenario reminds me of is how some airlines fly with the FC cabin empty (requiring everyone to either pay additional $ to purchase upgrades), while some airlines use the opportunity to upgrade their frequent customers. Which one makes more business sense?
I am not sure those airlines are flying "empty FC cabins", and if there are only a few people in those cabins, at least they've actually paid the full tab to be up there. Putting people into the front cabin for "the helluvit" is a sure way of ending up in Chapter 11. Afterall, this is a habit of US airlines, and virtually all are in our coming out of Chapter 11 since nobody is willing to pay premium fares. Everyone pays the cheapest coach fare and upgrades to premium cabins. Not how a company makes money. And it cheapens the value of the premium cabin, thus making it poor value to anyone foolish enough to actually pay the tab. Carriers that don't upgrade like this -- CX,QF,BA,SQ -- are all making money. You figure it out!