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It turns out that people in general buy airline tickets based almost exclusively on price. Airlines are actually showing very long term thinking given that they

It turns out that people in general buy airline tickets based almost exclusively on price. Airlines are actually showing very long term thinking given that they have very high capital costs and need to make those investments pay off in the very long run. People are rewarded in the long term with profit because they have built a business that their customers want to patronize. Even as a very technically savvy person I am not sure I would stop flying an airline because of this. While I agree these are awful practices would I be willing to do an extra hop with an airline that had better security? Nope. So while I sympathize with the article if Emirates was my main airline I would probably still fly them. It turns out many companies suck at securing their customers data. If that is important to their customers they will be reward/punished accordingly. Ironically this is one of the reasons I prefer to buy things online through Amazon and why I think they have 50% market share. They are a trusted counterparty to my transactions and I would rather buy something through them than a small companies website.

guitarbill 9y ago
> It turns out that people in general buy airline tickets based almost exclusively on price > They are a trusted counterparty This is interesting, and I agree. But while I'm a big fan of quality and think there's many cases where not buying the cheapest is a good more in general, I find it hard to justify with airlines. The quality varies wildly now, and reward programs are getting more and more meaningless - often they're even pointless because you simply can't fly to that airport with a carrier in your airline alliance, or they offer a way more inconvenient flight. Sometimes, business class is only marginally better than economy (same seats, more legroom), but you couldn't tell from the cost. There are only very few airlines where business class is consistent. Why do I need to know what type of plane it is to know what business class seating is going to look like? The difference between business and first class is similarly vague. Sometimes it's worlds apart, others it's a slightly larger screen. So why take the chance for airlines that aren't Singapore/Thai/ANA (to name my favourites)? Just buy the cheapest flight, brave it, and take some unpaid vacation and maybe a massage with the money you saved to make up for the horrible experience. The only constant is flying sucks, and will suck a lot more if you can't avoid the USA. (Although the major US airports are such a shitshow that paying more to arrive/depart at a smaller airport could be worth it time-wise.)

guitarbill 9y ago

> It turns out that people in general buy airline tickets based almost exclusively on price > They are a trusted counterparty This is interesting, and I agree. But while I'm a big fan of quality and think there's many cases where not buying the cheapest is a good more in general, I find it hard to justify with airlines. The quality varies wildly now, and reward programs are getting more and more meaningless - often they're even pointless because you simply can't fly to that airport with a carrier in your airline alliance, or they offer a way more inconvenient flight. Sometimes, business class is only marginally better than economy (same seats, more legroom), but you couldn't tell from the cost. There are only very few airlines where business class is consistent. Why do I need to know what type of plane it is to know what business class seating is going to look like? The difference between business and first class is similarly vague. Sometimes it's worlds apart, others it's a slightly larger screen. So why take the chance for airlines that aren't Singapore/Thai/ANA (to name my favourites)? Just buy the cheapest flight, brave it, and take some unpaid vacation and maybe a massage with the money you saved to make up for the horrible experience. The only constant is flying sucks, and will suck a lot more if you can't avoid the USA. (Although the major US airports are such a shitshow that paying more to arrive/depart at a smaller airport could be worth it time-wise.)