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People are generally willing to go through a lot to get a lower price. I fly Southwest, which guarantees no seats, but offers free changes. A car rental usual
by Digory 5y ago
People are generally willing to go through a lot to get a lower price.
I fly Southwest, which guarantees no seats, but offers free changes.
A car rental usually comes with a flight, and the flights aren’t 100% reliable. The airlines don’t bear the cost of being late. If they’re delayed a day or a half day, people would seethe at the “sunk” costs of paying for the “missed” time.
They’d rather be charged for actual time used than get a guarantee for a particular car at a particular time.
- kortilla 5y ago> I fly Southwest, which guarantees no seats, but offers free changes. I think you mean it doesn’t guarantee specific seats. It still absolutely has to guarantee you a seat on the plane or suffer the same penalty as any other airline for overbooking. They are not exempt from that requirement.
- stjohnswarts 5y agoYeah but all airlines overbook and they're pretty good at it, but sometimes there aren't enough seats, but it's certainly no a Southwest only thing. I've always done just fine with them.
- Digory 5y agoRight, just pointing out that people ITT seem to think there's a bigger market for reserving a particular (car/seat), with the buyer bearing the costs for changes. Southwest is the opposite of that, as are most of the rental car companies. That's how the 'full service' airlines reserved seats, but there isn't a lot of extra profit in it. People want cheap and flexible transportation more than they want a particular seat or car.