Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Los Angeles, CA, USA
Programs: UA 1MM Gold, DL Plat, JetBlue Mosaic, Hilton Gold, Marriott LT Titanium, Hertz PC
Posts: 546
AA, you have it all wrong
I'm really having a hard time with non-LCCs acting like LCCs and going to an "all ala carte" menu for passengers.
You would think that as an airline primarily focused on business travelers, you would want to create value that is both appreciated by the target customer and profitable for the airline.
Couple thoughts:
1) raise airfares across the board. Other carriers are likely to match in this environment, and if they don't, do you really care? You don't want your seats filled by these low revenue customers to begin with, and with capacity so limited anyhow, you'll probably collect enough revenue on those people who have to suck it up and pay an extra $150 on a roundtrip ticket because the cheap seats on carriers x, y, and z are already sold out (and those airlines aren't making money on those low revenue passengers either!).
2) You have so much of your revenue locked up in corporate contracts. That business is protected--so long as you can continue to hold those contracts and corporate travel stays marginally strong.
3) Lots of elite flyers don't check zillions of bags anyway--especially when they travel on business, which accounts for lots of the higher revenue travel. Charge them the higher ticket prices (which are largely absorbed by industry) and then benefit by also knowing that they don't fill up your cargo hold with lots of heavy luggage (typically).
I know that desperate times call for desperate measures, but I think that this full-service airlines (can you even call them that anymore?) are approaching this broader issue from the wrong direction.