الأربعاء، 18 أغسطس 2010

American Airlines announced today that they will be charging between $19 and $39 for better seats. The airline calls it the Express Seats program under its Your Choice give an excuse to charge an arm and a leg for anything that should be included in the fare.

Here are some examples of introductory prices for Express Seats on popular American Airlines routes:

  • $19 for St. Louis to Chicago O'Hare

  • $29 for San Francisco to Dallas/Fort Worth

  • $29 for Boston to Chicago O'Hare

  • $39 for New York JFK to Los Angeles

  • $39 for Chicago O'Hare to Honolulu


Does it really make your trip faster if you sit in the front row? Well, at least American Airlines tries to make you believe that by calling it Express Seats Program. Whether you sit first in the airplane, and risk getting other passengers coffee spilled over your shirt while they hastily enter the plane, or whether you prefer to be a little patient is now a question of money. You pay extra now to get your feet trampled and pushed in the back when the plane has landed. Anyhow, American Airlines tries to sell it like the best thing since the invention of sliced bread:

"Express Seats highlights American's focus on offering customers what they value most," said Virasb Vahidi – Chief Commercial Officer for American Airlines. "This is another great product under the Your Choice program that puts more travel choices in the customer's hands."

It is not understandable, why American Airlines first enters into price wars with the competition and then tries to make the customers more unhappy by introducing extra fees.

The solution to American Airlines's misery: Just deliver excellent service.

While it looks like there is competition, on certain routes there are no other choices. Why not try to please the customer and that way the now pleased customers will swear on "their" airline. All the price and  money related incentives, like miles don't work in the long run. Gimmicks like that looked nice some 20 years ago. But now all the miles programs and the attempts to be the cheapest backfire badly.

Every airline could make huge profits, if run right.

http://aa.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=2994

0 التعليقات:

إرسال تعليق