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The conventional wisdom on this is that historically, any attempt by airlines to differentiate their economy class product on any dimension other than price has

by splonk 9y ago

The conventional wisdom on this is that historically, any attempt by airlines to differentiate their economy class product on any dimension other than price has failed. There's always a vocal subset of people complaining, but when push comes to shove, the large majority of customers will pick the flight with the lowest price. Arguably we will eventually reach some level of service that is so unbelievably crappy that people will be willing to pay more to avoid it, but the success of the low cost carriers suggests to me that we're not there yet.

Jedd 9y ago
You're likely right - I've heard this observation before as well, though while I'm not especially wealthy, I'm happy to pay a slight premium for more comfort. Most of the people I know are in a similar situation. Clearly a lot of people either are willing to race to the bottom, or just aren't informed about the options -- which comes back to the earlier point, which is the information around seat size differentiation isn't being propagated, and/or there isn't much differentiation. It'd be an interesting experiment for airlines to kit out planes to include a range of economy seat sizes, with minor price differences. Claims that this would be overly complex are discounted by observing there's a half dozen variations of ticket classes already, including sub-categories of economy. Matching seat sizes to people's heights would be the pinnacle of social planning -- as a 188cm tall person, walking past exit row seats occupied by people whose legs don't touch the floor rankles every time.
prostoalex 9y ago
JetBlue immediately comes to mind as offering large number of DirecTV channels and Southwest heavily advertises two free bags, so it seems like marketing campaigns based on things other than price work, just take a while to instill.
- hkmurakami 9y ago
  2 free bags is a proxy for money (usually $40-50 per checked bag), but your observation about inflight entertainment is interesting. Virgin absolutely has an image edge because of their reputation for service. My Canadian friends hate Air Canada's reliability apparently, but it's such an upgrade vs the US majors for me that I go out of my way to choose Air Canada when I'm making a trip up North. Hopefully these things will start to matter more...

by splonk 9y ago

Jedd 9y ago

You're likely right - I've heard this observation before as well, though while I'm not especially wealthy, I'm happy to pay a slight premium for more comfort. Most of the people I know are in a similar situation. Clearly a lot of people either are willing to race to the bottom, or just aren't informed about the options -- which comes back to the earlier point, which is the information around seat size differentiation isn't being propagated, and/or there isn't much differentiation. It'd be an interesting experiment for airlines to kit out planes to include a range of economy seat sizes, with minor price differences. Claims that this would be overly complex are discounted by observing there's a half dozen variations of ticket classes already, including sub-categories of economy. Matching seat sizes to people's heights would be the pinnacle of social planning -- as a 188cm tall person, walking past exit row seats occupied by people whose legs don't touch the floor rankles every time.

prostoalex 9y ago

JetBlue immediately comes to mind as offering large number of DirecTV channels and Southwest heavily advertises two free bags, so it seems like marketing campaigns based on things other than price work, just take a while to instill.

hkmurakami 9y ago
2 free bags is a proxy for money (usually $40-50 per checked bag), but your observation about inflight entertainment is interesting. Virgin absolutely has an image edge because of their reputation for service. My Canadian friends hate Air Canada's reliability apparently, but it's such an upgrade vs the US majors for me that I go out of my way to choose Air Canada when I'm making a trip up North. Hopefully these things will start to matter more...