I’ve been at a conference for the past few days, sans computer, so light posting. Anyway, I’m flying back from DC tomorrow to LA, with a non-stop flight scheduled for 5:30 PM, because I’d thought I’d have some meetings set up tomorrow, but it turns out that I have no reason to stick around, so I’d like to get out earlier.
So there’s a 7:20 AM flight, which I’ve put myself on standby for. But if I miss it, despite the fact that there are many routes from DCA to LAX all day, I won’t be able to go standby on them, because they aren’t non-stops. If I want to take a different route to LA, I have to pay the difference in ticket price plus a change fee (which is up to a couple hundred bucks).
My question is, what is the thinking behind this policy? An airline seat is a depreciating asset, and to me it would make sense to free to up later in the day by offering someone an earlier ticket, if there’s room on the flight. Why in the world would you care if they flew on the exact route that their original ticket was for, as long as you freed up the seat and didn’t have to bump anyone else?
So, since I’m not going to pay the penalty for changing route, if I miss the flight, I have to wait for the next one (which means I’ll leave my stuff somewhere and do something in town, and come back for my scheduled flight).
I understand why the route matters, because while their may be an open seat from DCA to another stop; there may not be another open seat from there to LAX. Otherwise, I don’t understand why you have to pay more to leave early when a seat is open for stand by. Perhaps because of effort to move bags, but if you have carry on only; then it seems a reasonable thing for the airlines to do.
Well, I wasn’t checking, but they’d know that before they changed the ticket. Yes, I suppose they wouldn’t want to strand someone in between if there was no seat on the connecting flight, but you should still be offered that option at your own risk. At most it would just result in more delay (through Dallas, on the next flight within an hour or two).
Why does the supermarket throw into the garbage the rotisserie chickens they cannot sell? Why don’t they mark them down, or why don’t they offer them to homeless people?
The supermarket is not selling a unit of food calories and a package of food nutrients accompanying that amount of food energy. The supermarket is selling a convenient package of calories, other nutrition and eating satisfaction, one that you can take home and just eat rather than have to take the time and effort to cook the chicken not to mention the cleanup.
The airline is not just selling a service of getting you from point A to point B, they are selling getting you from point A to B on terms you are willing to tolerate, even if offering better terms doesn’t appear to cost them anything. Think of throwing the surplus cooked chickens into the garbage. What separates the market segments is tolerance of inconvenience. For the amount you paid for a ticket, you have to endure the designated measure of inconvenience.
Grocers used to discount vegetables and fruits that were getting old. Now this is rare and instead such foods are given to a food bank. In exchange the grocer gets a tax credit and publicity, which might be worth more than the profit at a discounted price.
Grocers around here tend to sell older carrots, apples and cabbages to horse owners…the boxes are stenciled ‘Not for Human Consumption’.
That’s after they have made their various pre-packaged prepared items…
Both Kroger and Walmart discount yesterdays, sometimes even this mornings Rotisserie Chickens. They box them up and put them in the deli case.
So does Costco: Their chickens, cut in half, for about half price…except you get 2 chickens worth..Quite a deal!
Twenty or so years ago, I had a discussion with a friend about airline tickets. As the day of flight approached, ticket prices kept rising. Her observation was pretty accurate, and caused us both pause. She said “Airline tickets are the only commodity I know of whose price continuously increases right up to the exact moment they become worthless.”
An oddity, indeed.
Not really an oddity when you think about it. Chances are the guy who needs to fly out tonight had a lot fewer options than the guy who bought tickets last month. So it makes perfect economic sense to charge him more.
But not to keep upping the price into the unaffordable range, beyond that of a first-class ticket, hoping to make a killing on that one unsold seat until it goes unsold, bringing in zero revenue.
Except that doesn’t happen too often because they’re usually overbooked, and that’s where standby comes in.
The airlines are the only industry I know of where the executives are constantly asking themselves, “What can we do to piss off our customers today? How can we make our service even worse? At what point will our extra charges and conditions make people decide to drive instead of flying on our airline?”
As for that last one, I was looking to book a flight to Colorado last summer. I looked at the conditions for the ticket and noped out of the transaction. The conditions stated we would be the last to board (so no overhead storage would be available), there would be no assigned seats (guaranteeing us the worst seats on the plane), and that we’d have to pay fees for everything including carry on luggage. I’d rather drive two days each way than put up with that crap, so I did. Way to go, airline executives (I’m looking at you, United).
Growing up on the mean streets of El Paso, in the 70’s, this is what I learned. If they already have your money, they have no reason to accommodate you, unless you want to pay more. With regard to an empty seat being the same as any other empty seat, you are right; except for what I stated before.
If they want to keep me as a customer, they will care. The point is that they will let me go standby on the same route, but not on a different one (even though I’ll spend more time getting home). I think the best explanation is that they can only guarantee me a seat on the first flight, but not connecting, but they should let me make that decision, and take the risk. For instance, I was stuck in El Paso a few years ago, and I finally said, “Look, even though I’m trying to get to LA, and it’s the wrong direction and out of the way, just put me on a flight to Dallas, because once I’m there, I can get to LA easily.” They did.