• Title Image

    The Aviation Advocacy Blog

    A cornucopia of news, opinion, views, facts and quirky bits that need to be talked about. Join our community and join in the conversation on all matters aviation. The blog includes our weekly round-up of the bits of European aviation you may otherwise have missed – That Was The Week That Was

Search

Categories

Month of Issue

Archive for October, 2015

Are airlines actively trying to ruin your life?

Written by Aviation Advocacy on . Posted in Airlines, Competition

An article in the New Yorker last year alleged that airlines have adopted a strategy of ‘calculated misery’ in order to encourage customers to pay extra fees. The argument is that the basic service provided is designed to be so degrading that passengers are willing to pay extra for services such as priority boarding and premium seating just to avoid the discomfort of an economy service. It is certainly true that there is a growing trend towards ‘unbundled’ airfares. Historically, a standard airfare included a choice of seats, a meal on-board and an allowance for checked-in luggage. Now, many airlines offer a basic ticket that excludes many of these services with the option for passengers to purchase add-ons to improve the comfort of their journey. In 2014 alone, global airline ancillary revenues were reported to be over $38 billion. This has two aspects that are curious.

Previous Posts

Subscribe to receive notifications of new posts

[contact-form-7 404 "Not Found"]

Categories

Archive

Links

Feed

RSS