3 ms·
The real story here is that all of the U.S. airlines are in an embarrassing state, not only financially, but in terms of cultural standing and morale. Flying u
by michaelochurch 14y ago
The real story here is that all of the U.S. airlines are in an embarrassing state, not only financially, but in terms of cultural standing and morale.
Flying used to be glamorous-- 50, even 30, years ago. Now it's just as expensive (except on three or four high-traffic routes over which deregulation actually worked) but it's such a negative experience that no one looks forward to a flight. First class and lounge access are supposed to bring that back, but those fail as well.
The appeal of flying in the old days was that you were guaranteed to be seated next to an interesting person doing something that either was exciting, or seemed it at the time ("international business"). Also, there was serious investment by the airlines into the quality of the experience: pilots actually told you when you flew over the Grand Canyon. That all got cheapened along the way. Also, attempting to create an "interesting people club" out of transportation is doomed to failure. Uninteresting people have money, too, and there's literally no way of keeping MWOCs (Money WithOut Culture) out. Plus, the airlines are constantly going bankrupt and have proletarianized the experience (baggage fees, uncomfortable chairs) to the point where it doesn't feel like a premium product, but they've also had to sell off the premium parts (first-class upgrades) for whatever coin-shavings they can get, to the point that they no longer feel special.
Airlines are desperately trying to revive that brand and allure, but it's gone forever. It's old technology put to a mostly uninspiring use. The flight is something that you learn how to sleep through, not part of the experience.
Before, frequent flyer programs were their attempts to find the interesting people and create something compelling. That might have worked in 1997; but in 2013, this generation's interesting people are in about 15-20 city centers (New York and San Francisco come to mind, but also places like Austin, Seattle, and Chicago) and generally do what they can to be locally self-sufficient (i.e. they don't fly more than a few times per year).
This Klout partnership is the newest attempt to create an "interesting people club" out of the flying experience and, like all others, it will fail.
- drill_sarge 14y ago>interesting people club wtf am I reading?
- michaelochurch 14y agoI'm not saying that I like or even support this. Obviously, the idea that any commercial purchase would take someone into an "interesting people club" is the height of douchery. But appeals to douchery can make highly effective marketing. I am saying that there was a time when air travel (yes, commercial flight, even coach) had an allure. Airlines are desperately trying to revive that experience-- that's what those "exclusive" airport lounges are about-- but they're not able to do it and it's probably not possible at this point.
- anatoly 14y agoHN could use a killfile feature.
- xarien 14y agoYou're completely off base when you assume that prices have remained steady. Are you taking into account that it has not moved despite inflation? Take a look at this following link which shows an aggregation of flight costs. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/02/how-airline-ticket-prices-fell-50-in-30-years-and-why-nobody-noticed/273506/ http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/02/how-airl...
- michaelochurch 14y agoThe old regulatory regime had serious flaws, but I don't think we're comparing apples to apples. Sure, a few flights have become cheaper, if you fly at the right time and play the game properly, and if you're taking high-competition routes. If you're taking low-competition routes, you're getting screwed. It's most likely that the reason for gross fares to decline is that a lot of those routes aren't flown any more, or there's one plane a week. They went from expensive to nonexistent, bringing the average fare down but reducing the quality of service. On the other hand, if you're going from one mid-sized city to another, you're unlikely to get a sub-$300 fare. If you go to Europe in the summer, you might see over $1000. We are far from being able to declare adequacy, much less victory, on the airfare problem. We need some regulation to crack down on seasonal hikes and a lot of the bizarre "custom pricing" nonsense (like differences in fares based on when someone makes the reservation) but probably not as much as there was before 1980.