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This probably won't be popular, but frankly if the price was the lowest for where I was heading I'd just take UA. The incident is beyond stupid but also incredi
by muninn_ 9y ago
This probably won't be popular, but frankly if the price was the lowest for where I was heading I'd just take UA. The incident is beyond stupid but also incredibly rare. If it was like a $5 difference or something and the flight was exactly the same in all aspects I guess I'd take another airline, but meh.
- primitivesuave 9y agoI actually agree with you on this, I'm mortified by what they did but that doesn't make me a less rational consumer.
- SomeStupidPoint 9y agoI'd argue that continuing to take the lowest fare when the operator behaves like this is a sign of irrational behavior -- you're ignoring second order effects because they're computationally hard and don't cater to emotive needs like base resource conservation does. So you're mortified, but not enough to jog you out of irrational spending habits.
- bohemianr 9y agoAm I missing something? How is going for the cheapest ticket an "irrational spending habit"?
- SomeStupidPoint 9y agoDid you read the rest of the sentence? There are second order effects that come from the pricing pressure and the way the business operates which have a negative utility spread across the rest of your life. My contention is that the price delta now (what you save) is worth less than the negative value (eg, from societal harm), so the total value difference, when you account for the more subtle effects, is negative. (That is, you'd be better off paying more now and not influencing things that way.) That's computationally hard to account for and doesn't give the emotional high of "fuck yeah, good deal!", so people tend to do the irrational thing that costs them more in the long run but feels good now and they don't have to think too hard about.
- mcphage 9y ago> How is going for the cheapest ticket an "irrational spending habit"? Because there are costs beyond merely the ticket price.
- muninn_ 9y agoThat's because it's a very rare occurrence. Let's say I take 2 flights this year and each time United is $150 cheaper, should I spend $300 more as insurance that Delta (or whoever) won't have this happen to them, or that United will do this exact same kind of thing again? I just don't see it happening or being found in that situation. I think the opposite is actually the irrational choice, because you're not taking the probability of such an event occurring into account. I don't have anything against those who boycott, I applaud them, but it's just not me.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- notacoward 9y agoWhat's irrational is giving incredibly unlikely events a weight equal to very common ones. It's like expecting to win the lottery, only in reverse. Whether the effects are first order, second order, or out of order has no bearing on that.
- woogiewonka 9y agoTotally agree and would act the same. I think all airlines are on their best behavior at this point. I hate to say this, but I've used this incident when dealing with other corporate bullies lately and it seemed to be helping. I.e. I got my way very quickly hehehe.
- dudul 9y agoCan you elaborate a little and roughly describe the circumstances where you've used this incident as leverage?