Airline Overcapacity Warning

[AA717driver]

smelljet--The one point I kind of disagree with is that joe six-pack won't spend the bucks to go to W.W. My wife worked at a bank in a small Midwestern town for several years. People would come in just before Spring Break and gut their savings account--just cash it all out. Why? They're going to Vegas/W.W./a cruise. And they'd do it every year. (This happened from the early 90's on. Low fares, IMO, weren't a factor.)

Never underestimate the public's propensity to blow their saving on crap. TC

 

[smellthejeta]

smelljet--The one point I kind of disagree with is that joe six-pack won't spend the bucks to go to W.W. My wife worked at a bank in a small Midwestern town for several years. People would come in just before Spring Break and gut their savings account--just cash it all out. Why? They're going to Vegas/W.W./a cruise. And they'd do it every year. (This happened from the early 90's on. Low fares, IMO, weren't a factor.)

Never underestimate the public's propensity to blow their saving on crap. TC

In my first post on this thread, I think I mentioned that if fares went significantly up, most discretionary/leisure travellers would only travel once or twice a year (okay three -- turkey day or xmas, and summer vacation). I think your spring break example fits the bill perfectly. That person is also me -- at $350 a ticket (or less!) I get on an airplane once or twice a month. If those same tickets ran me $600+ which they should if I had to pay CASM costs for my transcon tickets, then I'd probably be on a plane three or four times per year. The airline actually gets more money out of me this way.