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Calculated misery: why airlines want you to be uncomfortable
- soliton4 3y agothis content is not available in my region. what a joke
- croisillon 3y agosame
- speed_spread 3y agothey want you to be uncomfortable.
- mnky9800n 3y agoThey might as well be honest and say they want to sell your data but gdpr won't let them
- mettamage 3y agoCan someone summarize the article or something?
- canarypilot 3y agoKnowing that group N passengers may be forced to check their bags, the pricing to put yourself in group N - 1 is your “calculated misery”. Repeat across other airline convenience fees like seating.
- hoppyhoppy2 3y agohttps://archive.ph/sabDi https://archive.ph/sabDi
- rolisz 3y agoIt's probably also a calculated misery: why newspapers don't want you to read their articles
- Tommstein 3y agoDid your region pass laws to the effect of "foreign companies, do all this stuff to give our people special treatment or you can't serve them," only for Surprised Pikachu to make an appearance when many companies have said "OK, we'll go with option two, you're not as special and important as you think"? Laws have consequences.
- samuli 3y agoDon't know the OP's region, but my region, Europe passed a consumer protection law, that says basically that we must be able to opt out of tracking and automated profiling, if we choose so, without disruption to the service. Laws have consequences, but without consumer protection laws, the consumers are be walked over by the corporations every time, everywhere.
- petermcneeley 3y agoThis does not merely apply to Airlines. Spotify inserts annoying pay for Spotify ads that are almost purposely indented to make the listener uncomfortable.
- Podgajski 3y agoHow does one avoid this outcome under capitalism?
- bitxbitxbitcoin 3y agoWalk away from Omelas.
- thriftwy 3y agoTo where? Do you really strive for the Soviet air travel experience where people often had to sleep in the airports on their bags? That was due to over-demand of tickets at the existing price point. Communist air travel have been tried, so it's not like you can pass your random dreams as it.
- Podgajski 3y agoI’ve slept on my bags in airports plenty of times in the United States. But it’s crazy that you’re complaining about such a low price that so many more people can travel more freely that they’re willing to be uncomfortable to save money when currently private ownership is making us uncomfortable during the traveling and before traveling as well. When capitalists limit the supply that increases prices and increases profits. When socialist lower prices that increases the supply and decreases of prices because there’s no need for profit.
- Podgajski 3y ago[flagged]
- thriftwy 3y agoMany capitalistic countries do not have that. Everywhere I flew the order of boarding was "whatever". This was even when flying out of USA on non-US airlines. Failing that - regulation.
- dmarchand90 3y agoYes they used to be luxurious, because they all used to cost more than first class prices. You can still fly the 1960s, actually much better, if you want to pay like the 1960s https://brilliantio.com/how-much-were-plane-tickets-in-the-1960s/ https://brilliantio.com/how-much-were-plane-tickets-in-the-1...
- smallnix 3y agohttps://archive.ph/sabDi https://archive.ph/sabDi
- Kim_Bruning 3y agoThis archive link throws me into a captcha loop on both firefox and chromium, including in private mode.
- tromp 3y agoHow about https://boskyd.online/2023/10/21/calculated-misery-heres-why-airlines-want-you-to-be-uncomfortable/ https://boskyd.online/2023/10/21/calculated-misery-heres-why... ?
- salawat 3y ago>The idea was first distilled in this way back in 2014 by Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu for the New Yorker. >“Here’s the thing: in order for fees to work, there needs be something worth paying to avoid. That necessitates, at some level, a strategy that can be described as “calculated misery.” Basic service, without fees, must be sufficiently degraded in order to make people want to pay to escape it,” Wu writes. “And that’s where the suffering begins.” >Wu explains that under calculated misery, services or features that were once expected (think of leg room) are made worsened (leg room is reduced as rows are moved closer together). Want a little more leg room? You’ll likely need to upgrade your airfare to business or first class or even ordinary coach seats with added leg room. Business in a nutshell.
- ghayes 3y agoI’m not sure I agree with the premise. Given the examples in the article, seat space is not limited just to upsell customers. Smaller seats means more fares. Similarly, priority boarding became a thing when airlines started charging $40 for checked bags, and thus overhead space became a coveted commodity. There is surely a sweet spot, however, where upselling is valuable (that is, the marginal price of an upgrade is a lot higher than the marginal cost for the airline).
- Simulacra 3y agoRelated: The Gentlemans Rant on flying https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BNxbc1o2KLU https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BNxbc1o2KLU
- politelemon 3y agoI can't help but wonder what's next, and in what ways they will attempt to squeeze passengers more. Charging more for window/aisle, starting to play adverts over the speakers.
- Tommstein 3y ago> Charging more for window/aisle, starting to play adverts over the speakers. They already do sometimes, when they have the flight attendants pimp their credit cards.