Originally Posted by
gglave
I do think the competing airlines could help themselves if there was some mechanism for a passenger to ask the airline to price-match. i.e. If I can fly from A to B for $X on Airline Q, but I'd rather fly Airline P becuse I'm "Never Flying Q again!" there should be some mechanism to request that Q match P's price.
Interesting concept. Do you think that the staff at your typical India Call Center are going to be able to handle that?
Everytime I've done a price-match at a retail store, the store has to confirm the price via an ad, phone call, etc. Can you imagine trying to have a Airline P CSR confirm your price on airline Q? All so that Airline P can lose $ matching? It's lose-lose in the airlines mind, minus giving customers one more warm-fuzzy about their airline. They aren't in the warm fuzzy business anymore as shown by their continual devaluing of FF miles, programs, etc.
The walmart thing is spot on.