Originally Posted by
caphis
It used to be that TSA would frown upon this, just due to the potential use of broken glass as a weapon. Now, I'm not so sure.
This hasn't been an issue for at least a couple of years. I've had real glass in F on CO and many other carriers since early 2006 and probably longer. I actually don't remember glassware ever going away, though knives did briefly. Now the only flights that I think bar real knives are the UK ones (though that may have changed as well), but CO has had real flatware for years.
Originally Posted by
pueywei
Did anyone get an email invitation for a survey comissioned by JetBlue? From the questions, it seems like they are at least playing with the idea of monetizing the extra 4" of seat pitch by offering upgrades at check-in, or paying extra for aisle/window and front of plane seats. They were also questions about how limited or full internet access on flights. Another question was about how comfortable I was for paying for curbside check-in, priority baggage drop off, and priority boarding.
It is interesting to see JetBlue trying to actually derive incremental value from their perceived advantages in the marketplace. Having the extra legroom is great for the consumer, but if you can't get extra money from it then the end result is a net negative. If JetBlue started just charging more for the flights themselves they'd sell fewer seats because the majority of passengers are price sensitive more than anything else. But if you can increemntally charge after the base fare you stand a chance of actually getting some of that revenue much more than if you have more expensive tickets. The trend towards Buy on Board for food on all the legacies, save CO, is proof of this. I'm pretty sure that AA already charges for curb-side bag drop. NW charges for aisle seats and exit rows. VS charges for exit rows. Some of these are waived for elites (NW charges are) and some are not (I don't think that the AA or VS ones are). It is very hard to start charging for things that used to be free and not pi$$ your customers off. I'm not sure that JetBlue will be successful, but I do understand their need to try. They're experiencing a liquidity issue right now, and they're doing anything they can to find cash.
There are a couple posts on the View from the Wing blog (one of the two official FlyerTalk blogs)
here and
here about the unbundling of "other" services from the base ticket price and I blogged about it a bit
here.
The one thing on the list that JetBlue can do for free and engender a lot of customer goodwill is the dedicated lanes for baggage drop. CO does this at their hubs and they are very efficient. Fewer agents are required to handle these passengers and they can go much more quickly than folks trying to do all the "other" check-in tasks. It may only make sense at JFK and the focus cities based on the volume, but that is the one thing I can see working, and it should be free as it actually should reduce costs for JetBlue, which is about as good as increasing revenue.