3 ms·

Yeah airline travelers are price conscious and it is a race to the bottom. If they offer some crazy sale or cheaper fares people will book it. Just look at Fron

Yeah airline travelers are price conscious and it is a race to the bottom. If they offer some crazy sale or cheaper fares people will book it. Just look at Frontier/Spirit. They consistently get horrible reviews but people deal with it for a $50 flight.

tshaddox 4y ago
People often try to say “airline travelers are price conscious” as if there are several options in the same price range and travelers will accept any reduction of quality or service to save a nickel (I’m not claiming you’re suggesting this). But in my experience with US domestic flights the options are basically one “cheap” decently tolerable itinerary, a few slightly cheaper itineraries that are like twice as long in total duration, and then a couple of slightly better itineraries with better amenities that literally cost like twice as much or more. I just laugh at the upset attempts when you go to check in online: “get priority boarding and 2 inches of legroom for only an extra 50% on top of the ticket price.” I really don’t see much evidence that there was actually a race to the bottom. And I certainly won’t blame consumer preferences when I don’t see any options for slightly better service for slightly more money.
- sokoloff 4y ago
  That depends on your city pair. Boston to Las Vegas, Orlando, or San Francisco, I’ve got a wide variety of choices, 2-4 carriers flying more than that non-stops per day. Flying from Des Moines to Presque Isle, Maine, I have only a bunch of 2 and 3 stops on United.
  - mauvehaus 4y ago
    Boston is such a weird airport I'm not sure it's worth bringing up except as perhaps an exception that proves the rule. BOS has the "advantage" of serving a fairly large population while also not being big enough to be a real hub for anyone[0], while being simultaneously big enough to have service from nearly everyone. Unlike a lot of airports smaller or serving fewer people than BOS (and some of comparable size), you can get from BOS to a whole mess of hubs. A few select routes (BOS to SFO as noted) are incredibly well-served because of the volume of lucrative business travel between the two and the fact that a whole mess of airlines already serve both airports. [0] No, JetBlue doesn't count. Boston is as much a hub for them as CLE[1] was for Continental. I.e. a second class hub at best. [1] CLE by comparison only really serves Cleveland. Columbus, Dayton, Cinci, Indy, Pittsburgh and probably a few others from a similar radius BOS draws from all have decent(ish) airports. All of those have basically the same problem as CLE or are worse in some way. I've flown through or into and out of all of them.
    - selimthegrim 4y ago
      CVG is still a Delta hub

tshaddox 4y ago

People often try to say “airline travelers are price conscious” as if there are several options in the same price range and travelers will accept any reduction of quality or service to save a nickel (I’m not claiming you’re suggesting this). But in my experience with US domestic flights the options are basically one “cheap” decently tolerable itinerary, a few slightly cheaper itineraries that are like twice as long in total duration, and then a couple of slightly better itineraries with better amenities that literally cost like twice as much or more. I just laugh at the upset attempts when you go to check in online: “get priority boarding and 2 inches of legroom for only an extra 50% on top of the ticket price.” I really don’t see much evidence that there was actually a race to the bottom. And I certainly won’t blame consumer preferences when I don’t see any options for slightly better service for slightly more money.

sokoloff 4y ago
That depends on your city pair. Boston to Las Vegas, Orlando, or San Francisco, I’ve got a wide variety of choices, 2-4 carriers flying more than that non-stops per day. Flying from Des Moines to Presque Isle, Maine, I have only a bunch of 2 and 3 stops on United.
- mauvehaus 4y ago
  Boston is such a weird airport I'm not sure it's worth bringing up except as perhaps an exception that proves the rule. BOS has the "advantage" of serving a fairly large population while also not being big enough to be a real hub for anyone[0], while being simultaneously big enough to have service from nearly everyone. Unlike a lot of airports smaller or serving fewer people than BOS (and some of comparable size), you can get from BOS to a whole mess of hubs. A few select routes (BOS to SFO as noted) are incredibly well-served because of the volume of lucrative business travel between the two and the fact that a whole mess of airlines already serve both airports. [0] No, JetBlue doesn't count. Boston is as much a hub for them as CLE[1] was for Continental. I.e. a second class hub at best. [1] CLE by comparison only really serves Cleveland. Columbus, Dayton, Cinci, Indy, Pittsburgh and probably a few others from a similar radius BOS draws from all have decent(ish) airports. All of those have basically the same problem as CLE or are worse in some way. I've flown through or into and out of all of them.
  - selimthegrim 4y ago
    CVG is still a Delta hub