Would you pay extra for an aisle seat?

[AWACO]

I just heard on the local news tonight NWA will begin charging passengers a premium to sit in an aisle seat. They said it will only be 15$ but hey it’s a start I guess. Does anyone know the specifics of this?

 

[Airway]

I thought it was for an exit row. Saw tucker carleson praising it on msnbc. He's an as*hole. Pretty soon they're gonna start charging for the padding in your seat. Execs have gotta try something else. This is getting disgusting.

 

[Stifler's Mom]

I prefer the window personally. I can sleep and not be disturbed when somebody in my row gets up, no beverage carts running my feet over or tagging me in the knees, and I won't get bumped into when one of those thin 300 lb. American travellers walks by my seat.

 

[dalegribble]

Sure, pay $15 to have two lard buts climb over me several times a flight. I like to be the jerk that disturbs the others. If they paid more for my being annoying, it makes it all the sweeter for me every time I get up to tinkle.

Note to Airline Execs..........RAISE YOUR TICKET PRICES

 

[BlackPilot628]

That is stupid. I can understand why the airlines just don't raise prices. PERIOD. Make an announcement that you're going to go up $20.00 dollars per ticket. $20.00 extra bucks on everyones ticket will bring the airline world back to a better place. People will never stop flying; the load factors will still be at 89%. People WILL pay. When the gas prices shot up, people didn't stop driving. I always said that I should, but I didn't.

Just raise the damn prices!

 

[IHateMgmt]

That is stupid. I can understand why the airlines just don't raise prices. PERIOD. Make an announcement that you're going to go up $20.00 dollars per ticket. $20.00 extra bucks on everyones ticket will bring the airline world back to a better place. People will never stop flying; the load factors will still be at 89%. People WILL pay. When the gas prices shot up, people didn't stop driving. I always said that I should, but I didn't.

Just raise the dang prices!

I'm all for ticket prices being raised so we can get paid what we're worth, but I'm not so ignorant to think its all that simple. Come on... everything in the airlines is overly complicated. If you ever took an Economics class, you would understand that it is impossible for an airline, or even if every airline (cold day in hell when the airlines all work together) to raise their ticket prices and see no change to ticket sales.

 

[Clyde]

No, I would not pay extra for an aisle seat. In fact, unless the distance is long, I just drive somewhere instead of flying.

 

[another cfii]

I wonder if you jumpseat as OAL, how would they collect the $15 from someone other than NW, 9E, or XJ? Take cold hard cash? Do they take blood? It is getting ridiculous...

 

[silverandsoar]

That is stupid. I can understand why the airlines just don't raise prices. PERIOD. Make an announcement that you're going to go up $20.00 dollars per ticket. $20.00 extra bucks on everyones ticket will bring the airline world back to a better place. People will never stop flying; the load factors will still be at 89%. People WILL pay. When the gas prices shot up, people didn't stop driving. I always said that I should, but I didn't.

Just raise the dang prices!

Really, you can't understand this? You're a pilot and you don't understand competition or supply and demand...I'm shocked.

 

[RP170]

I thought it was for an exit row. Saw tucker carleson praising it on msnbc. He's an as*hole. Pretty soon they're gonna start charging for the padding in your seat. Execs have gotta try something else. This is getting disgusting.

How about ticket prices representative of 2006, not 1980? Look at what has happened to the price of food, clothing, gas, etc, over the years. The only thing that has stayed relatively the same, and even decreased if you include inflation, is airline ticket prices. The only thing that has definitely decreased is airline employee pay!

 

[Peter Brady]

I would not pay one extra cent for an aisle or emergency exit row. Nothing has changed. You can't just suddenly say, "OH YEA, NOW THAT SEAT WILL COST YOU AN EXTRA $10-15." Its kind of like how airline meals used to be free but now are $5-10 a piece. Nothing has really changed. Its the same meal!!!!

I agree with everyone else in that they should just raise fares rather than nickel and dime everyone to death. I think it makes them look bad and very cheap.

 

[moscowcfi]

We're airline pilots. We don't pay for our tickets.

 

[Airway]

How about ticket prices representative of 2006, not 1980? Look at what has happened to the price of food, clothing, gas, etc, over the years. The only thing that has stayed relatively the same, and even decreased if you include inflation, is airline ticket prices. The only thing that has definitely decreased is airline employee pay!

I don't have a problem with raising ticket prices. In fact, I heavily support the notion. I just think it's stupid to start charging for random aspects of a flight. 15 bucks for an exit row? dollar for a pack of peanuts? Sorry to say, but this $$ isn't going to end up in the pilots' pockets.

Too many Americans think air travel is a god given right. And you're absolutely right. Ticket prices have not moved with inflation. They've gone down. 10 years ago, my family still payed 300 bucks to go to Florida from LA. Now, I can do that for half the price on jetblue.

But, you don't fix that by charging for headsets, peanuts, aisle seats, inflight magazines, and reading lights, and a sh*tty box of crackers and cheese as a meal replacement.


Airway

 

[Airway]

We're airline pilots. We don't pay for our tickets.

Just you wait.....

 

[BlackPilot628]

I'm all for ticket prices being raised so we can get paid what we're worth, but I'm not so ignorant to think its all that simple. Come on... everything in the airlines is overly complicated. If you ever took an Economics class, you would understand that it is impossible for an airline, or even if every airline (cold day in hell when the airlines all work together) to raise their ticket prices and see no change to ticket sales.

You may see a change in the sell of tickets to a certain point, but it will only be by those that are your extreme radicals that will boycott the airlines. They had groups that did the same thing when Gas went sky high. There are a lot of people that depend on airline travel. 60% of airline travel today is for business travelers. No matter what the ticket prices may be their company will fork over the money to accommodate their employees. After all of the hype is over, people will continue to fly. It is time for ticket prices to go up.

 

[pilotpapa]

just an observation: In the past, PAX assigned or requesting an exit row seat were required to be physically able and willing to assist others should an emergency occur. Does paying a premium price for this seating release that obligation?? Just sumptin to look at

 

[Stifler's Mom]

just an observation: In the past, PAX assigned or requesting an exit row seat were required to be physically able and willing to assist others should an emergency occur. Does paying a premium price for this seating release that obligation?? Just sumptin to look at

I doubt it. It's a Federal Regulation that you not plug up the emergency exit while trying to egress through it.

 

[IHateMgmt]

You may see a change in the sell of tickets to a certain point, but it will only be by those that are your extreme radicals that will boycott the airlines. They had groups that did the same thing when Gas went sky high.

Nope, you're still not getting it. I don't think that if NW raises their prices $20 there will be a boycott. What will happen is far less dramatic; less people will fly NWA. I'm sorry, but you just can't argue against this point, it's a proven FACT. Economics 101. I don't need to draw you a graph, do I?

There are a lot of people that depend on airline travel. 60% of airline travel today is for business travelers. No matter what the ticket prices may be their company will fork over the money to accommodate their employees. After all of the hype is over, people will continue to fly. It is time for ticket prices to go up.

Assuming 60% of passengers are a truly inelastic demand as you claim, there are still 40% who are not. 40% is a huge number, and could certainly be enough to offset the extra $20 of profit gained by the remaining travelers. Plus, do you really think that the companies will "fork the money over" no matter what the ticket prices are? They don't stay in business because they are financially retarded, they weigh the costs of air travel, just like the weigh the costs of anything else. I hope I'm not just wasting my breath here.

 

[tuna pimp]

That is stupid. I can understand why the airlines just don't raise prices. PERIOD. Make an announcement that you're going to go up $20.00 dollars per ticket. $20.00 extra bucks on everyones ticket will bring the airline world back to a better place. People will never stop flying; the load factors will still be at 89%. People WILL pay. When the gas prices shot up, people didn't stop driving. I always said that I should, but I didn't.

Just raise the dang prices!

Not quite as easy as it looks. But you're on the right track.

Let's say UA comes out and announces they're going to raise the average fare on all it's domestic O&Ds by $10 e/w. They'll announce the fare increase taking place beginning 4 weeks from now and file it in ATPCo. Then they sit back and look at what everybody else does. If the majority, or all carriers match the increase then the fares stick. It simply can not be undertaken or communicated in a deliberate way that could indicate any sort of collusion is taking place - very important. A small carrier might not join the increase but if they only represent a small portion of the overall traffic it won't make a big difference, or the majors will simply keep the fares lower in the O&Ds in which this carrier has a large % of the traffic share. ie: DL not matching an increase on LAX-SFO is not going to be of consiquence because they might only carry 1 or 2% of the total traffic (via SLC). WN not matching UA on LAX-SFO (via OAK/SJC) would matter and cause UA to recind the fare hike LAX-SFO.

Suppose NW decides not to match UA at all (as they often do). Sometimes you'll then see, purely by co-incidence of course, UA announce a fare sale on all it's nonstops and major connecting options in DTW, MSP & MEM for some specified period of time. Essentially the equivalent of an airline flipping another one the bird.

But I understand what you're saying about maybe keeping your fares slightly higher. Now if a carrier keeps his fares slightly higher on an O&D in which they do not dominate the traffic share it is going to hurt them because of how passengers buy tickets nowadays. They'll go to Expedia, pull up fares from point A to point B and sort based on price. You don't want to be at the bottom of the pile on price (or elapsed time for that matter either) because you'll be off the first couple of lines of options on the webpage, or even off the first page altogether. That's a killer.

A carrier can usually exact a modest yield premium when they have the only nonstop service. However you can't get greedy and tip off the competitors that you're making a killing on a specific market with exorbinate fares either.

Major hub and spoke carriers used to be able to get away with really high fares in small cities where they were the only carrier. If you wanted to fly out of, say SAV, you pretty much had to fly DL (+ maybe US via CLT). As such DL had a dominant position on both the local O&D plus the connecting O&Ds. Nowadays DL has FL to compete with on the local, plus the larger connecting destinations FL serves, but also has AA, UA, CO & NW flying RJs into their hubs from SAV. So now some low traffic O&D like SAV-FWA has connecting service not only via ATL but also DTW, MEM, IAD, ORD, EWR, CLE, LGA, etc with the RJ. Multiply that against every single small-medium sized O&D that now has multiple carrier connecting opportunities via all the different hubs up and down the east coast. In this way the RJs have served to decrease average yields in markets which used to be more single (or dual carrier) dominant. Good for the consumer. Bad for airline mgmt pinheads like me.

 

[Cloudroller]

I think the BlackPilot 628 is correct. if everyone was to raise prices 20$ their will not be a large change in load factors. People are not going to start driving. I dont know why prices have not gone up already.

 

[sweptback]

I think the BlackPilot 628 is correct. if everyone was to raise prices 20$ their will not be a large change in load factors. People are not going to start driving. I dont know why prices have not gone up already.

Once again, economics 101. Trust me when I say that the airlines have the fares set (for the most part) at the price that will get them the most revenue. How they manage that revenue, however, is a different story.

Instead of increasing fares, the airlines should reduce capacity. Assuming nobody else jumps in the void created (which of course would never happen), supply goes down and demand goes up. Guess what happens next!

 

[tuna pimp]

I think the BlackPilot 628 is correct. if everyone was to raise prices 20$ their will not be a large change in load factors. People are not going to start driving. I dont know why prices have not gone up already.

You're assuming everybody is going to raise the fares $20. Airlines try to do so ALL THE TIME. Sometimes it works and the fares stick. Oftentimes they don't. SWA just initiated a fare increase late last week. From what I understand it stuck so far:

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060313/air_fares.html?.v=2

 

[RP170]

Once again, economics 101. Trust me when I say that the airlines have the fares set (for the most part) at the price that will get them the most revenue. How they manage that revenue, however, is a different story.

Instead of increasing fares, the airlines should reduce capacity. Assuming nobody else jumps in the void created (which of course would never happen), supply goes down and demand goes up. Guess what happens next!

Reduce capacity? Are you kidding me? Load factors are upwards of 80% on most all carriers which means prices should be higher. How's that for supply and demand Mr. Economics 101? It appears to me you know nothing about economics. If load factors were running around 50-60% on a consistent basis then yes, todays prices would be reasonable.

 

[dalegribble]

Next will be the lav fee.....

That blue juice aint free ya know. $2 to stand $5 to sit

Feel like washing afterwards.....put a quarter in the slot for soap, value pack $4.60 flush, wash and dry your hands afterwords.

Flight attendant flirting fee. $10.

Boarding preference... Want to get on early to make sure you have room for your carryons? The old folks and screaming kids can wait..... Preboarding with guaranteed overhead bin space $20 each.

Any other ideas?

It is getting crazier. Kudos to the airlines that raised their fares though, wasn't much but I hope it sticks and continues.

 

[Wankel7]

I'd pay more for hotter flight attendants...

 

[SiuDude]

from Jay Leno:

$15 for an aisle seat? Didn't that used to be free? What if you want a sober pilot? Is that a 100 bucks now?

 

[IHateMgmt]

If load factors were running around 50-60% on a consistent basis then yes, todays prices would be reasonable.

50-60%? You think that is the load factor airlines earn the most profit? You've got to be kidding me. It's generally excepted that todays airlines care about one thing and that is money. So if they care about money so much, why does the entire industry seem to aim for about 80% LF? You should be able to tell from my name I'm not a big fan of airline mgmt. They're ruthless bastards that are f*cking with a lot of peoples lives, but they're not stupid.

 

[RP170]

50-60%? You think that is the load factor airlines earn the most profit? You've got to be kidding me. It's generally excepted that todays airlines care about one thing and that is money. So if they care about money so much, why does the entire industry seem to aim for about 80% LF? You should be able to tell from my name I'm not a big fan of airline mgmt. They're ruthless bastards that are f*cking with a lot of peoples lives, but they're not stupid.

Nope they aren't stupid at all are they? Look at what's happened to all the legacy carriers and their employees over the past 5 years.

 

[Carl_Spackler]

As someone mentioned earlier, if a fare increase to stick, everyone has to do it. Doesn't happen very often.

Take a one way flight on a 757 with an 86% load factor and an average ticket price of $500. The revenue on this flight (from ticket sales) would be about $80,000. If they raised a ticket price just $3 for that flight and one pax decided to take another airline instead, then the $3 raise in ticket prices for that flight would not even cover the loss of revenue for that one pax that traveled on another airline.

If prices went up $20 then no more than 5 pax could leave to another airline
before the revenue would be the same with the lower ticket prices.

The higher ticket prices are, relative to the competition, the higher the percentage of pax will decide to take another airline for less money.

The lower the load factor or the smaller the plane, this effect increases due to the fact that the loss of revenue would have to be absorbed by fewer passangers in order not to lose revenue.

 

[atrdriver]

As someone mentioned earlier, if a fare increase to stick, everyone has to do it. Doesn't happen very often.

Which kind of shows how smart management types are. It is possible to fill up an airplane and lose money. Whether it is coordinated or not, proces need to go up across the board. Problem is, right now, those smart management types see a fare increase at a competing carrier as a possibility for increased market share, all while losing money to get it. Personally I would rather have 10% market share and make money than hav a 90% market share and be losing my a$$.