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And presumably they wouldn't need to charge anything like that to make it more comfortable, even taking out a few rows would make a big difference. Having done

by aidos 13y ago

And presumably they wouldn't need to charge anything like that to make it more comfortable, even taking out a few rows would make a big difference. Having done a couple of 12 hour stretches while holding a small child in my lap, I'd definitely agree with you on making it more comfortable :)

JoeAltmaier 13y ago
This gets tried every couple of years. Trouble is, almost everybody buys the cheapest ticket. ANd taking rows out cuts directly into the bottom line -6 or 12 fewer passengers cuts profit instantly. So it never lasts. You can't fill up a plane this way, and that's the only thing that matters.
- ronaldx 13y ago
  The last intercontinental flight I took, a weighty 6ft6 guy had bought the cheapest seat and expected to get an automatic upgrade on the plane. It's not an exaggeration to say that he literally didn't fit into his seat. Indeed, he got the upgrade: the premium economy section was otherwise empty. Otherwise, the situation would have been beyond unpleasant for everyone around him. The cheapest seats are so small that they need to have at least a few with more space for this type of case. If they can sell them to comfort-sensitive people for a higher price, even better.
- bentcorner 13y ago
  They need to implement two things: 1.) Flexible seating in aircraft so that each seat can be adjusted forward/backwards between flights by flight attendants. Doing this by seat might be awkward for people sitting next to each other, so maybe do it by row. 2.) Bidding-style airline tickets. How much would you pay for the minimum amount of room? How much would you pay to get the maximum amount of room? How much would you pay to be allowed to recline the seat? How much would you pay to prevent the guy in front of you from reclining the seat? These sound like terrible ideas, but in the airline spirit of dynamic pricing I think it fits.
- potatolicious 13y ago
  > "Trouble is, almost everybody buys the cheapest ticket." Ding ding ding! That's the trouble: we've gotten people in a state where they're sensitive to the very last dollar in price. People will actually pick the worse ticket just to save $5. I used to work at an online retailer where part of our job was to market environmentally-friendly, recyclable, easy-to-open (read: no clamshell, no thick plastic) packaging to customers. We did some research into the price premium people are willing to pay for the lack of hassle. The answer was close to zero. This is a classic race to the bottom, I have no ideas on how to fix it.
  - jerf 13y ago
    It's hard to even define what a fix looks like. If a customer verbally claims to want feature X, but it turns out they're willing to pay $0 for it and no more... do they really want feature X? This is a richer question than it may first appear.
    - ForHackernews 13y ago
      There are plenty of things people want, but don't want to pay for. To take a very prominent and obvious example, most people want to have sex, but the amount most people are willing to straight up pay for sex is around $0. Regarding airlines, I think the issue is one of temporal duration. I'm willing to suck it up for one (or two) 8 hour flights. It's uncomfortable, but whatever, it's over. I'm not going to pay an extra $100 to spare myself some temporary discomfort. If, on the other hand, airlines offered some kind of subscription service (a la Amazon Prime) where I could pay $200/year to spare myself all future discomfort by getting a "free" upgrade to economy-plus on any flights I take, then I might be interested.
      - jerf 13y ago
        "To take a very prominent and obvious example, most people want to have sex, but the amount most people are willing to straight up pay for sex is around $0." That's a bad example. There's ways to "pay" for sex other than just handing cash directly to the "other participant". In fact, most sex probably is not "free", if analyzed sufficiently carefully. Even if we count the monetary value of time at zero.
- saryant 13y ago
  While true for the majority of passengers, United has at least hinted that their Economy Plus seating is incredibly profitable, both through ancillary revenue and as a loyalty incentive (United's frequent flyers get extra legroom seating for free). Given that Continental's management decided to keep E+ when they effectively took over United, my guess is the numbers were convincing enough that E+ was worth the loss in total seats.

by aidos 13y ago

JoeAltmaier 13y ago

This gets tried every couple of years. Trouble is, almost everybody buys the cheapest ticket. ANd taking rows out cuts directly into the bottom line -6 or 12 fewer passengers cuts profit instantly. So it never lasts. You can't fill up a plane this way, and that's the only thing that matters.

ronaldx 13y ago
The last intercontinental flight I took, a weighty 6ft6 guy had bought the cheapest seat and expected to get an automatic upgrade on the plane. It's not an exaggeration to say that he literally didn't fit into his seat. Indeed, he got the upgrade: the premium economy section was otherwise empty. Otherwise, the situation would have been beyond unpleasant for everyone around him. The cheapest seats are so small that they need to have at least a few with more space for this type of case. If they can sell them to comfort-sensitive people for a higher price, even better.
bentcorner 13y ago
They need to implement two things: 1.) Flexible seating in aircraft so that each seat can be adjusted forward/backwards between flights by flight attendants. Doing this by seat might be awkward for people sitting next to each other, so maybe do it by row. 2.) Bidding-style airline tickets. How much would you pay for the minimum amount of room? How much would you pay to get the maximum amount of room? How much would you pay to be allowed to recline the seat? How much would you pay to prevent the guy in front of you from reclining the seat? These sound like terrible ideas, but in the airline spirit of dynamic pricing I think it fits.
potatolicious 13y ago
> "Trouble is, almost everybody buys the cheapest ticket." Ding ding ding! That's the trouble: we've gotten people in a state where they're sensitive to the very last dollar in price. People will actually pick the worse ticket just to save $5. I used to work at an online retailer where part of our job was to market environmentally-friendly, recyclable, easy-to-open (read: no clamshell, no thick plastic) packaging to customers. We did some research into the price premium people are willing to pay for the lack of hassle. The answer was close to zero. This is a classic race to the bottom, I have no ideas on how to fix it.
- jerf 13y ago
  It's hard to even define what a fix looks like. If a customer verbally claims to want feature X, but it turns out they're willing to pay $0 for it and no more... do they really want feature X? This is a richer question than it may first appear.
  - ForHackernews 13y ago
    There are plenty of things people want, but don't want to pay for. To take a very prominent and obvious example, most people want to have sex, but the amount most people are willing to straight up pay for sex is around $0. Regarding airlines, I think the issue is one of temporal duration. I'm willing to suck it up for one (or two) 8 hour flights. It's uncomfortable, but whatever, it's over. I'm not going to pay an extra $100 to spare myself some temporary discomfort. If, on the other hand, airlines offered some kind of subscription service (a la Amazon Prime) where I could pay $200/year to spare myself all future discomfort by getting a "free" upgrade to economy-plus on any flights I take, then I might be interested.
    - jerf 13y ago
      "To take a very prominent and obvious example, most people want to have sex, but the amount most people are willing to straight up pay for sex is around $0." That's a bad example. There's ways to "pay" for sex other than just handing cash directly to the "other participant". In fact, most sex probably is not "free", if analyzed sufficiently carefully. Even if we count the monetary value of time at zero.
saryant 13y ago
While true for the majority of passengers, United has at least hinted that their Economy Plus seating is incredibly profitable, both through ancillary revenue and as a loyalty incentive (United's frequent flyers get extra legroom seating for free). Given that Continental's management decided to keep E+ when they effectively took over United, my guess is the numbers were convincing enough that E+ was worth the loss in total seats.