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On 1/24/2003 4:56:28 PM usfliboi wrote:
Art, I think you are mis informed. From a customers perspective you may indeed percieve certain things that truly just arent there. Usairways as well as others have attempted NUMEROUS times to change the way fares are structured. Unless all goes along with those changes they fail! All you have to do is read the headlines 3 days after a fare sale comes along ! If others dont follow it doesnt go forward.
That's for 21 day, travel-on-a-Tuesday-and-give-up-your-firstborn-child-should-you-make-a-change fares. If the others don't want to "match" a reduction in your "unrestricted" fares, so what...all that means is that when a customer looks at $1,200 versus $600 for a flight, you'll most likely get the business, except for the lucky few who work for companies willing to pay a premium so that their employees can accrue mileage on the carrier of their choice.
Why does Hp and Wn do this and do it well? SIMPLE! In most markets they have very little battle with others. HAVE you ever looked at there fare structure in depth? Ever wonder why there are only a percentage of those low low fares??? If youre gonna use HP or WN as examples, why not ask why do they not have 2 fares one walk up the other advanced??? WHy is it that the advance "cheap fares"are soooo limited? Art its about PROFIT !
WN and HP both lowered their unrestricted fares. Southwests average fare went up. Southwest competes with AA and UAL from MCI to Chicago, THey compete with AA on MCI-STL, they compete with Delta on MCI-Florida. I remember the days before SWA served MCI-STL, The walk up fare on TWA was $500. Today it's less than a hundred bucks. They do have some fares that cannot be used in combination with others. But the bottom line is that the difference between a discount advance purchase fare and the full unrestricted fare isn't all that much. I sent my wife out to SAN to watch the Holiday bowl. Seats out of KC were hard to find, since a lot of K-State fans live here. So I paid full "unrestricted, fully refundable" on the way out, and combined it with an advance fare on the way back. Total fare was under $500 - and that included a leg on the full fare. She would have stayed home if the difference between advance and full fare was $1,200, as it is in many cases. Sure WN limits seats, it's "revenue management", and contrary to popular belief, WN actually does have a revenue management department. The fact that they were able to lower unrestricted fares, yet at the same time increase their average fare paid speaks volumes about the job they are doing.
Do we need to change the fare structure in some ways and tweak it? ABSOULUTLY! Changes have to be made at some point in many areas. its not simple, if it were my friend you would have your own airline. We certainly appreciate your buisness and if you look youll find some attractive fares both on US as well as others. Things take time to change but regardless, unlike your parents and mine, they were not able to fly to the west coast for under one thousand.
What is so difficult about lowering the unrestricted fares and limiting the number of fare buckets? As I said, if the other airlines don't match you, just thank them and welcome the business that your fare structure brings in. Why do airlines insist on appearing as a "low fare leader" by beating the "low fare leaders" on advance purchase tickets, only to fly empty seats that they were hoping to fill with passengers who paid thru the nose for their tickets? A simplified fare structure (and the elimination of the nickle and dime penalties) could do wonders for your bottom line. But managment won't even consider that step until "costs are under control". Do they not realize that costs and revenues work hand in hand? Losing business because your revenue mangement model is stuck in the 90's only means you've got to cut costs even deeper. Tweaking the revenue model together with addressing the cost side might just start stemming the losses.
Apparently most airline managment is incapable of focusing on more than one issue at a time.
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