Originally Posted by TMOliver
As for the CC miles and other "vendor gimmicks", the same marketing maxim applies. Why see miles used on flights with high revenue and in struggles for few available seats? Very honestly, if I wanted to go to Vienna, AA could get me there far more cheaply getting me from DFW to any NYC airport, forcing me to cross town on my own, and by "purchasing" a seat from Malev to Budapest, a route and destination with fewer folks clamoring to go. FFers here will quickly tell me how to get from Buda to Vienna.
FTers can figure this out for ourselves, but the airlines need to come up with a way to help encourage that sort of innovative thinking with the rest of the "unwashed masses."
The question is how to do that in a sufficiently proactive way as to help the customer with their planning of the trip. Something like the award search for availability between airports automatically, or with a prominant "switch" labeled "alternate routing search" that a customer can click on when availability doesn't exist in their preferred date. (Remember that lots of time-share/vacation club deals are weekend-to-weekend, so lots of people don't want to be that flexible in their time, as in arrive and leave mid-week. Recognize that and work with it to make life easier for the customer, and the customer will preferentially come to they who make their life easier.
Steve