3 ms·

From my experience, people in the UK see the charge for a designated seat as scam, they don't understand the budget flight business model. Ryanair (not a UK co

by dazc 9y ago

From my experience, people in the UK see the charge for a designated seat as scam, they don't understand the budget flight business model. Ryanair (not a UK company btw) have been a pioneer in this area with aggressive discounting of basic level airfares but with lots of 'upgrade' options.

mehrdadn 9y ago
> they don't understand the budget flight business model. Does letting you choose your seat increase their costs? If not, then I can see why people see it as a scam.
- nathcun 9y ago
  they may be offsetting a cost elsewhere by doing this. If they wanted to make the same money but allow people to choose their seats they could raise ticket prices for everybody (which wouldn't be fair on those who really don't care about their seat allocation).
  - mehrdadn 9y ago
    Yeah I get what they're doing (and I'm sure other people do too); I'm just saying I see why people feel it's a rip-off nonetheless.
- rusk 9y ago
  No but it's a possible source of additional revenue.
- dazc 9y ago
  The cheapest price tickets are often subsidized by the extra charges that some people are willing to pay. I don't see this as a scam.
- kgwgk 9y ago
  You have the choice between a cheaper (no seat-choosing) flight and a more expensive (seat-choosing) flight. If everyone could choose the price would be somewhere in between and at least some people would be worse off (those who really didn’t care about choosing and would be paying more now and those who would be paying less to choose but now would have less choices).
raverbashing 9y ago
Well, BA charges for a designated seat in business class among other "tricks" they play (like selling a connection that makes you switch between LCY and LHR)
isostatic 9y ago
The UK press has spent decades telling people about "rip off Britain". There are usually plenty of choices for people willing to pay. In transport, you can choose between comfort, speed, time, flexibility, reliability, and a few other factors, and make your choice. London to Manchester options on the train have * Time -- travel by train "offpeak" and save a fortune over peak * Comfort -- travel by train "peak" and have more space. Travel in First Class and have more space. * Speed -- travel by London Midland and Northern rather than Virgin and save a fortune * Flexibility -- book a fixed train and save In addition to the plethora of options on the train there's also * Fly -- can be faster (depends where you're going, but from west London to West Manchester it's faster), can be cheaper, can be more comfortable (you're guarenteed a seat), tends to be pricey if you want an element of flexibility, not as flexible as the train or car * Coach - slower, less comfortable, cheaper * Drive -- very flexible, slower than the train, requires effort, twice the off peak train cost * Taxi -- not that expensive, especially for a few people However people complain that "it's too expensive", despite being able to travel from Manchester right now for £20, or in a couple of hours for £12.
- vertex-four 9y ago
  In practice, however, doing your research is hard - it can take me up to an hour to decide on the best way to travel for a certain event, across multiple booking sites, some of them unknown to the general public (such as TrainSplit). Sometimes it turns out that the best way to travel involves booking three separate journeys, and then I get to worry about delays - nobody will take responsibility for onward travel if you do that, and you may end up stranded in the middle of nowhere. Megabus winds up incredibly pricey - sometimes moreso than the train - on arbitrary days, so I have to keep that in mind. Sometimes flights are actually cheaper than a train, even when booking several weeks in advance, but then there's the worry about public transport at either end properly matching up - and again, a flight delay could cost me the better part of £40 if I booked an advance train ticket rather than a flexible one on the other end. There's also the fact that long-distance travel in the UK is priced significantly better than short-distance travel. There's been times where I've been able to get to London from a small town for cheaper than it'd cost to get to the nearest city. First class on East Coast used to be priced at a rate where it was cheaper to upgrade (and get food and drinks included) than to get food on the go - on local services, there's often no competition aside from a car, so prices even for standard class can be raised almost arbitrarily, especially if there's any tourist traffic on the line. Even for long-distance journeys, pick the wrong date or need to be there for the morning, and my options become far, far more limited, and far, far pricier, since we don't have sufficient capacity for peak dates - we barely have capacity for everyday services on some modes of transport - and we have very few overnight services. Edinburgh to Paris next month - we were stuck with the choices of taking the bus, or flying for 2-3x the price. Train was more expensive than the flight - a remarkably common occurrence, even for travel entirely within the UK. We eventually chose the bus, despite it being a 24 hour journey.

by dazc 9y ago

mehrdadn 9y ago

> they don't understand the budget flight business model. Does letting you choose your seat increase their costs? If not, then I can see why people see it as a scam.

nathcun 9y ago
they may be offsetting a cost elsewhere by doing this. If they wanted to make the same money but allow people to choose their seats they could raise ticket prices for everybody (which wouldn't be fair on those who really don't care about their seat allocation).
- mehrdadn 9y ago
  Yeah I get what they're doing (and I'm sure other people do too); I'm just saying I see why people feel it's a rip-off nonetheless.
rusk 9y ago
No but it's a possible source of additional revenue.
dazc 9y ago
The cheapest price tickets are often subsidized by the extra charges that some people are willing to pay. I don't see this as a scam.
kgwgk 9y ago
You have the choice between a cheaper (no seat-choosing) flight and a more expensive (seat-choosing) flight. If everyone could choose the price would be somewhere in between and at least some people would be worse off (those who really didn’t care about choosing and would be paying more now and those who would be paying less to choose but now would have less choices).

raverbashing 9y ago

Well, BA charges for a designated seat in business class among other "tricks" they play (like selling a connection that makes you switch between LCY and LHR)

isostatic 9y ago

The UK press has spent decades telling people about "rip off Britain". There are usually plenty of choices for people willing to pay. In transport, you can choose between comfort, speed, time, flexibility, reliability, and a few other factors, and make your choice. London to Manchester options on the train have * Time -- travel by train "offpeak" and save a fortune over peak * Comfort -- travel by train "peak" and have more space. Travel in First Class and have more space. * Speed -- travel by London Midland and Northern rather than Virgin and save a fortune * Flexibility -- book a fixed train and save In addition to the plethora of options on the train there's also * Fly -- can be faster (depends where you're going, but from west London to West Manchester it's faster), can be cheaper, can be more comfortable (you're guarenteed a seat), tends to be pricey if you want an element of flexibility, not as flexible as the train or car * Coach - slower, less comfortable, cheaper * Drive -- very flexible, slower than the train, requires effort, twice the off peak train cost * Taxi -- not that expensive, especially for a few people However people complain that "it's too expensive", despite being able to travel from Manchester right now for £20, or in a couple of hours for £12.

vertex-four 9y ago
In practice, however, doing your research is hard - it can take me up to an hour to decide on the best way to travel for a certain event, across multiple booking sites, some of them unknown to the general public (such as TrainSplit). Sometimes it turns out that the best way to travel involves booking three separate journeys, and then I get to worry about delays - nobody will take responsibility for onward travel if you do that, and you may end up stranded in the middle of nowhere. Megabus winds up incredibly pricey - sometimes moreso than the train - on arbitrary days, so I have to keep that in mind. Sometimes flights are actually cheaper than a train, even when booking several weeks in advance, but then there's the worry about public transport at either end properly matching up - and again, a flight delay could cost me the better part of £40 if I booked an advance train ticket rather than a flexible one on the other end. There's also the fact that long-distance travel in the UK is priced significantly better than short-distance travel. There's been times where I've been able to get to London from a small town for cheaper than it'd cost to get to the nearest city. First class on East Coast used to be priced at a rate where it was cheaper to upgrade (and get food and drinks included) than to get food on the go - on local services, there's often no competition aside from a car, so prices even for standard class can be raised almost arbitrarily, especially if there's any tourist traffic on the line. Even for long-distance journeys, pick the wrong date or need to be there for the morning, and my options become far, far more limited, and far, far pricier, since we don't have sufficient capacity for peak dates - we barely have capacity for everyday services on some modes of transport - and we have very few overnight services. Edinburgh to Paris next month - we were stuck with the choices of taking the bus, or flying for 2-3x the price. Train was more expensive than the flight - a remarkably common occurrence, even for travel entirely within the UK. We eventually chose the bus, despite it being a 24 hour journey.