4 ms·

I don't think that's quite right. Until recently, every passenger on the flight had to subsidize your desire to sit next to your child. Now, they don't. It's

I don't think that's quite right. Until recently, every passenger on the flight had to subsidize your desire to sit next to your child. Now, they don't. It's a loss for you but a win for fairness in general. Also, there's always Southwest, right?

amatecha 3y ago
subsidize ? it doesn't cost the airline anything to seat the tickets of a singular order together.
- jrockway 3y ago
  It doesn't cost anything to write a computer program, yet we still charge for that service. Travelers seem to buy flights in one way; sort by price ascending and pick the first result. To be in that first position, you have to figure out what you can "unbundle" from the cost of transport. Things you can unbundle include food, checked bags, and now picking the seat you want. Some people are super price sensitive and will gladly save $50 to sit in a middle seat. So everyone's happy, right? The option to choose a seat in advance is still available, but now there is the option to NOT choose a seat and save $50. The airlines are masters of figuring out what price you're willing to pay.
  - ceejayoz 3y ago
    > It doesn't cost anything to write a computer program, yet we still charge for that service. We largely don't go "it'll be $5000 for your website, but $7000 if you want me to write it without XSS vulnerabilities" though.
    - boring_twenties 3y ago
      Not a great comparison since every website needs to be vulnerability free, but not every passenger needs or wants to pick their own seat.
      - jrockway 3y ago
        I think a good comparison would be a website + hosting. Traditionally, many "agency" type business have designed a website and then hosted it. "Unbundling" would be turning over the source code and letting the customer find hosting at the right price. (At my last job, we did have an agency make our website, and then we hosted it along with the rest of our infrastructure. Incremental hosting cost for us? $0, since we just ran it alongside our internal admin tools, which we were already hosting.)

amatecha 3y ago

subsidize ? it doesn't cost the airline anything to seat the tickets of a singular order together.

jrockway 3y ago
It doesn't cost anything to write a computer program, yet we still charge for that service. Travelers seem to buy flights in one way; sort by price ascending and pick the first result. To be in that first position, you have to figure out what you can "unbundle" from the cost of transport. Things you can unbundle include food, checked bags, and now picking the seat you want. Some people are super price sensitive and will gladly save $50 to sit in a middle seat. So everyone's happy, right? The option to choose a seat in advance is still available, but now there is the option to NOT choose a seat and save $50. The airlines are masters of figuring out what price you're willing to pay.
- ceejayoz 3y ago
  > It doesn't cost anything to write a computer program, yet we still charge for that service. We largely don't go "it'll be $5000 for your website, but $7000 if you want me to write it without XSS vulnerabilities" though.
  - boring_twenties 3y ago
    Not a great comparison since every website needs to be vulnerability free, but not every passenger needs or wants to pick their own seat.
    - jrockway 3y ago
      I think a good comparison would be a website + hosting. Traditionally, many "agency" type business have designed a website and then hosted it. "Unbundling" would be turning over the source code and letting the customer find hosting at the right price. (At my last job, we did have an agency make our website, and then we hosted it along with the rest of our infrastructure. Incremental hosting cost for us? $0, since we just ran it alongside our internal admin tools, which we were already hosting.)