Originally Posted by ContinentalFan
I am not sure how widespread this shift in loyalty would be. OnePass, in fact any FF program, makes customers "sticky." For those that select an itinerary solely on price, well, they were never loyal in the first place!
True enough, but then again you and I both know that CO is on the brink of losing many of its most loyal customers already because the value equation with OnePass has plummeted so dramatically in the past 24 months.
In any case, it's going to take a lot more in Houston to see a major defection to B6 than 3 E-190's per day to JFK. In New York, on the other hand, I think there have already been significant defections.
I just flew back from Houston to LGA this morning and struck up a conversation with a family of New Yorkers who were in Houston to attend a wedding. The head of the family described himself as a thoroughly disgruntled CO flyer who is now flying B6 as much as possible.
We were all flying ATA because the fares on CO EWR-IAH were so astronomical. This fellow also tried to book some reward seats on CO and there was zero availability according to him (easily believable in my opinion).
I certainly wouldn't pan AA for charging $250--it's not really a big fare in the first place! A company will charge what the market will bear. If I follow the reasoning, then if WN arrives into the market and drops the fare to $49, that wouldn't make JetBlue evil! Companies charge what the market can bear. If JetBlue can run things profitably at $129, good for the company!
Perhaps not, but I think the point is that carriers like B6 and WN are really the olny players in this industry providing any substantial competition, as the legacies have hunkered down in their respective turfs.
Obviously AA can charge as much as it can get away with as long as there is essentially no competition. But the competition that WN and now increasingly B6 are providing has been a huge catalyst in getting these traditional airlines to lower their fares.
It's not a matter of evil, but it is making the product a heck of a lot more affordable, and wasn't that the whole point of deregulation in the first place?