flightspeak

Hey FT'ers,
Happy Wednesday!

We’re doing some world class customer experiences research and were wondering: is it possible for a Ritz-Carlton class / Nordstrom’s / <insert your most amazing customer experience ever spot here> experience in the airline industry?

Customer experiences have remained more or less the same (actually, have progressively worsened based on current trends/feedback) for quite a while. Are there any specific reasons why, despite innovations in technology, materials science, human psychology, etc.?

What do you think FT’er’s? Is this unreasonable to expect? Why? Why not?

Eager to hear your thoughts,

/Leo

alecbarron

Seems like a few airlines already offer this level of service to their First Class passengers. For example, Lufthansa, Etihad, Emirates, etc.

pinniped

That was my first thought. The ground services offered to F pax on some airlines are truly amazing. That still exists. In fact, some premium cabins around the world are genuinely getting better - both in J and F.

It's the other end of the spectrum - flying Y, even with status - that has become a complete Motel 6 / Walmart quality experience. 10 years ago, I might have said "OK, I'll take the Walmart quality because I have a Walmart price." Now fares are high and the service still stinks...on most airlines anyway.

alecbarron

Yep, there is a split that's been going on for a while. "Middle class" is getting squeezed big time in favor of Walmart quality flying and Ritz Carlton quality flying.

TravelerMSY

Ritz-Carlton? I think all the early american furniture you'd have to install on the aircraft would make it way too heavy to fly.

pinniped

Plus it'd leave little room to browse the racks of Nordstrom's clothing...

chelly1540

So would love an airline that resembled the hotels, however had a nasty run in with the customer service people at the ritz rewards desk-anyone else notice they can be snarky at best? Called on a promotion I thought I was to receive and was surprised to see that not one but two reps were nasty to an almost laughable point-supervisor was the worst. Not my normal Ritz experience. I got my promotion credited because I had the right stays and if was registered but was not feeling the love at all--second lady (supervisor who had to take over to make it happen) was the worst and basically hung up on me when it was completed. I worked in customer service I am never mean and wasn't here.

So anyway sorry for the long probably misplaced post-yes the airline would be awesome. As long as their reps from rewards aren't staffing the plane

moondog

Post 2's advice solves your problem.

pinniped

I don't know exactly how Marriott staffs this, but is it possible that the same rewards people handle all of the brands? I mean, it's basically one big program with some different branding if you come in through the Ritz site. Do they have a separate call center that just handles Ritz? (Not that I've ever had any issues with mainline MR staff - they're usually quite good.)

Very different from the properties themselves, where a Ritz staffer and a Fairfield Inn staffer would never work at each other's properties.

flightspeak

Thanks for the feedback guys.
Based on what I'm reading, it seems like price discrimination continues to rule. That being said, (without causing an economics/political firestorm), does that mean the middle class on flights/airline experience is forever stuck with a "WalMart" experience? Are we really stuck with "you get what you pay for?" or is there another possibility? Is there a Target somewhere in the middle? (UK Translation - Marks and Spencer's vs. a Sainsbury's experience)

(Apologies for the department store references for folks outside the US/UK)!

Thanks,

/Leo

pinniped

I don't know about experiments that have taken place in other markets, but whenever someone has tried this in the U.S. in the past 20-25 years, it's had limited success. Midwest Express of the late 1980's through 1990's is probably the best example of an airline that tried for the "middle ground" with a halfway sizable route map, but in the 2000's they backed away from the enhanced service approach, tried to go no-frills, and eventually got bought by Frontier.

I liked Midwest and remember several trips where I consciously paid a little extra to fly them, but my guess is that there just aren't enough people who will do that. Plus, as biz travelers moved en masse from telephone booking for trips to their corporate TA's web booking engine in the late 90's / early 00's, it probably became more difficult for a business traveler to purposely pay a little extra for Midwest when many other options were less money.

Only thing I can think of today that is comparable is Porter (based in downtown Toronto), but I've never flown them.

Steve M

Many efforts have been made to provide better service at a slight premium of price. Time and time again, airline executives have found that they can't get even a $10 premium on fares by offering better service. As others have said, some consumers shop strictly on a whatever's-cheapest basis (unfortunately, many of those are the same that complain about poor service), and many corporate travelers are required to fly on the cheapest available ticket.

Here are some examples: maybe 10 years ago, AA introduced "more room throughout coach" whereby they removed a few rows from all mainline coach cabins in order to increase leg room. Everyone wants more legroom, but few-enough people were willing to choose AA over competitors when the price was even just a few dollars more that they ended up removing the extra space and putting back in those extra rows. Now they have "Main Cabin Extra" where only elite passengers or non-elites that pay a surcharge get the extra room.

Continental held on to higher service standards after most carriers reduced them post-9/11. Specifically, they retained "free meals at mealtime" even in domestic coach for years after all other legacy carriers had eliminated them. They also kept free checked bags after the other legacies started charging for them. But they found that they had no pricing power as a result. Sure, most people will appreciate a free meal served to them, and like not having to pay for baggage, but when the price of the flight is even $10 more on the online booking screen, people ignore that and just book the cheapest.

You can have wide variances in hotel quality and level of service, but it doesn't seem to work out nearly as well for airlines, as you also need a large network and frequent flights in order to provide convenient service.

flightspeak

Thanks for the thoughtful responses guys - very much appreciated.
Have an excellent weekend!

/Leo