If three million people buy air tickets every day , month in and month out .

and the airline people know what it costs to fly these people around .

why wouldn't the airlines be charging customers twice as much to ship half as many people , to cut expenses by half ?

instead of making 90 flights per day , you make 45 flights and bring in the same amount of money ?

They have a lot of money tied up in equipment, gates, staff, etc. That could be adjusted over time, but the overhead would be a killer in the short term.

Also, airline customers are extremely price sensitive to the exclusion of just about every other factor in their airline choice. If most airlines decided to raise ticket prices from $500 to $1000 and fly half as many, all it would take is one to offer flights for $900 and they'd own the market. The downward slide would continue until you were back to where we are now.

I would gladly pay twice as much on every flight to have a flying experience that does not resemble riding a peso bus in a third world country.

I'd gladly pay twice as much to eliminate some of the people I get to enjoy the travel experience with these days. uncoth, inconsiderate slobs

Ah crap, bad idea!

That would allow even more time for TSA to screw us over!

Boo Hiss!

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
I would gladly pay twice as much on every flight to have a flying experience that does not resemble riding a peso bus in a third world country.

In all likelyhood, I will never fly again, and this ^^^ is part of the reason.

The other part is spelled Tee Ess Aye.

quote:

why wouldn't the airlines be charging customers twice as much to ship half as many people , to cut expenses by half ?

They would if they could get away with it.

COMPETITION

The last few flights I've taken, I was offered very reasonable upgrades to first class at the boarding pass kiosk. You often don't have to pay twice as much-80 bucks sometimes does it.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
I would gladly pay twice as much on every flight to have a flying experience that does not resemble riding a peso bus in a third world country.

Bus riders in the sky!

That's like saying Apple should halve production of iPhones and sell half as much. Problem is competition and existing fixed costs.

First, other airline competition would take all the business and drive anyone who raises prices too much out of business in a very short time. The post 9/11 blackout on all flights put most of the majors in bankruptcy in a few days. Any collusion between airlines on an overall price increase and reduction in service is highly illegal under antitrust laws.

Then there are the fixed costs that would eat them alive before they could reduce them (airplane depreciation, inventory carrying of spare parts, airport access fees, etc.).

For most of the past 8 years, I travel business class internationally, and get upgraded to first on domestic flights for free. Keeps most but not all of the riff-raff out. Now economy domestic flights in China or India, no comparison to any complaints on domestic flights in USA...

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
I would gladly pay twice as much on every flight to have a flying experience that does not resemble riding a peso bus in a third world country.

I usually buy my plane tickets about 4-6 weeks in advance and it comes out to just a little over twice the price of coach to fly first class on my yearly trips to Texas. So, you can do this.

There is no first class on the puddle jumper from the Yoop to Civilization. Its just no class at all.

quote:

Originally posted by Paten:

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
I would gladly pay twice as much on every flight to have a flying experience that does not resemble riding a peso bus in a third world country.

I usually buy my plane tickets about 4-6 weeks in advance and it comes out to just a little over twice the price of coach to fly first class on my yearly trips to Texas. So, you can do this.

Excellent. Now if we could arrange to have first class on separate planes and terminals I would be all in.

quote:

Originally posted by nasig:

quote:

Originally posted by Paten:

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
I would gladly pay twice as much on every flight to have a flying experience that does not resemble riding a peso bus in a third world country.

I usually buy my plane tickets about 4-6 weeks in advance and it comes out to just a little over twice the price of coach to fly first class on my yearly trips to Texas. So, you can do this.

Excellent. Now if we could arrange to have first class on separate planes and terminals I would be all in.

Honestly, between Global Entry (includes PreCheck), and CLEAR, I seldom have to interact with TSA anymore. Throw in first class tickets and I can mostly ignore the rabble, too. It’s expensive, but still cheaper than chartered flights.

Very low stress compared to flying sardine class with no security bypasses.

-Rob

Shipping half as many people isn’t going to cut your expenses in half. The expenses for your planes whether lease expense or capital depreciation expense will continue every month regardless of how many passengers you've flown. You’re also going to have problems if you try to cut your staffing in half.

So the profit maximization strategy is to keep the planes in the air continuously with all seats occupied. They have computer programs calculating how much to charge for the next ticket bought based on how full the plane is and how long until take off.

Economies of scale, costs less per passenger to fly the 900 people than it does the 450. But there may be something to your idea of being able to charge more to improve the flying experience.

Alaska Airlines for example has Club 49 which is available only to Alaska residents. There's all kinds of benefits to it, free bag check, discounts on air freight, etc. Alaska may not always be the cheapest, but we fly them for the miles and the perks. One of my coworkers just used his miles to fly out to Adak Island for a caribou hunt and used his freight benefits to fly it back in coolers.

Check out this video on what goes in to the cost of a typical airline ticket:

The plane tickets are ridiculously CHEAP a lot of times. It's all of the taxes that make them ridiculously expensive.

I flew from Nassau to Fort Lauderdale on the 22nd, total ticket price $199.63= airline fare $74, taxes $125.63

While we seek clarity in air travel costs, someone explain how it is cost effective to fly my ass hundreds of miles in the opposite direction of my destination then back again.