Less Galley Space More Seats

[scorpion]

How about charging what it cost to fly someone from point A to point B with a profit margin thrown in. Buisness 101 period.

 

[goingboeing]

The current airline customer is not paying for soda and pretezels in the cost of their tickets so why continue to provide them for free?

It would be easy to replace the galleys with one,much smaller storage closet for trash and besides,if you stop selling soda and pretezels there will be less trash generated.

We cannot continue to operate the same way we have been for the last 40 years or AA will not survive.The modern airline consumer has the Wal-Mart mentality and is not willing to pay for the extra services.
Hey,I remember when airlines gave passengers free decks of cards with the airline logo on the backs.
People were willing to pay for them in the ticket prices but are not willing anymore to do so.

If the dinosouar mentality deosn't die soon AA will eventually die and go the way of Eastern-Pan Am-Braniff and numerous others.

 

[Furloughd4now]

The problem with not stocking free sodas, etc (or starting to charge for same) is who's gonna go first? The public EXPECTS free non-alcoholic beverages on airplanes just as much as they DON'T expect to get same at the movie theater. The first airline to start charging for sodas, etc. will be savaged in the public opinion for longer than some of us could survive

Allegiant does it and they're profitable. Pax don't like it but buy it!

 

[jimntx]

Allegiant does it and they're profitable. Pax don't like it but buy it!

[post="258736"][/post]​

Here again, though, you run up against the Scylla and Charybdis of customer perception and expectation. A customer boarding an Allegiant/SWA/JetBlue flight has different expectations than that same customer has when he/she boards an AA/DL/UAL flight.

The way out? I don't know. Identifying the problem and devising a solution are two separate activities. And, as a friend of mine says,"If you think my problems are bad, wait until you hear my solutions."

 

[Ken MacTiernan]

Here again, though, you run up against the Scylla and Charybdis of customer perception and expectation. A customer boarding an Allegiant/SWA/JetBlue flight has different expectations than that same customer has when he/she boards an AA/DL/UAL flight.

The way out? I don't know. Identifying the problem and devising a solution are two separate activities. And, as a friend of mine says,"If you think my problems are bad, wait until you hear my solutions."

[post="258759"][/post]​

jim, you are correct in your describing the customers perception/expectations. But the airlines themselves are the ones that create the perception/expectations for their product. Look at Southwest Airlines' promotions as an example. Their commercials are humorous and make the point of you get to where you are going for "peanuts". Now look at AA, Delta, NWA or UAL's ad campaigns. The rub here is that the "big guys" want to act like the LCCs but can't.

The "big guys" claim they have to compete with the LCCs so labor has to take a pay cut. The big guys are comparing apples & oranges. If one of the majors removes a galley and one aft lav. wait for the pundits to start their keyboards. Personally I don't use an aircraft's lav. if I don't have to. And I eat before flying.

Personally, I don't think any of the "big guys" have a solution.

 

[mweiss]

I hear passengers (and fellow f/as) trivialize the cost of sodas/chips/paper towels/whatever.  These same people will complain long and hard for what they have to pay for their personal supplies of these things at Krogers or Food Lion.  The cost is trivial as long as I'm not the one bearing that cost.

In fairness, the apparent hypocracy isn't as bad as it seems at first. AA is paying much closer to wholesale for these items, while the Kroger shopper is paying retail. The costs are different.

I've often wondered who will be the first to copy Ryanair over here--I'll bet someone will, and soon.

Someone probably will, but I doubt that it'll be successful for anything beyond about a two-hour flight. The US has some pretty long-haul routes, and the lack of creature comforts would kill repeat customers on those routes.

How about charging what it cost to fly someone from point A to point B with a profit margin thrown in. Buisness 101 period.

Business 201 would tell you that you can only apply this approach if

• your costs match that of your competitors, and
• your competitors use roughly the same pricing model.

You see this in the grocery business to a large extent, as well as in retail gasoline sales. You won't see it in airlines for a while, because your costs are vastly different.

Incidentally, it's starting to break down in the grocery business, too. Why? Because Wal-Mart has lower costs than Kroger.

Cost-plus pricing, while simple, is rarely successful.

Hey,I remember when airlines gave passengers free decks of cards with the airline logo on the backs.

Apparently WN still does it. What does that tell you?

 

[jimntx]

In fairness, the apparent hypocracy isn't as bad as it seems at first. AA is paying much closer to wholesale for these items, while the Kroger shopper is paying retail. The costs are different.

[post="258861"][/post]​

Oh yes, the hypocrisy (note spelling, Michael ) is as bad as it seems because when I say that people (passengers and f/as) trivialize the cost of these things I mean to the point that one would think that these things are free to AA, not just lower cost.

You just don't know how often I hear, "It's only a bottle of water/can of soda/linen napkin/blanket/whatever" as the person is trying to carry it off the plane--particularly the blankets.

 

[mweiss]

OK, Jim, you nailed me on the spelling. After typing "democracy" so often, I find myself going "cracy" quite often.

Which leads me to wonder...is "hypocracy" insufficient government?

 

[jimntx]

OK, Jim, you nailed me on the spelling. After typing "democracy" so often, I find myself going "cracy" quite often.

Which leads me to wonder...is "hypocracy" insufficient government?

[post="258891"][/post]​

As an English major at the undergraduate level, you know I had to gig you on spelling!

Perhaps hypocracy could also be lack of voter participation in a democracy.

 

[eolesen]

Crandall once joked about replacing FA's with Coke machines... maybe we should revisit that idea? They'd fit in the galley space.

 

[Buck]

Crandall once joked about replacing FA's with Coke machines... maybe we should revisit that idea? They'd fit in the galley space.

[post="258980"][/post]​

A Coke machine weighs more than Flight Attendants.

 

[aafsc]

A Coke machine weighs more than Flight Attendants.

[post="259000"][/post]​

And they can't prevent someone from trying to set off explosives in his shoe.

 

[usairbear]

A Coke machine weighs more than MOST flight attendants!

 

[Buck]

A Coke machine weighs more than MOST flight attendants!

[post="259114"][/post]​

I started to say most, but as I am an employee of AA I would not want to do that.

 

[JS]

The cost of buying yourself beverages or snacks or blankets, etc., to bring on the plane is not the problem. The problem is the logistics of carrying all that stuff on yourself.

In a movie theater, even on a bus, it's just a lot easier to bring your own supplies. With the Terrorism Support Agency making things difficult, along with aircraft cabins that are more cramped than a bus, it's just not realistic to expect passengers to be able to bring everything they need for a long-ish flight.

On a short-haul flight (same flight times as intra-Europe), OK, it's no big deal to cater nothing. But not on a transcon flight.