Reader Suggestion! "Suggestion to Save all of the Airlines"

As always, we are delighted when a reader offers a concrete suggestion as to how to improve the airline mess. Here is a terrific example from Mr. Bob Schaeneman. 

I have a suggestion to save all of our financially strapped airlines. I suggest that they all raise the price of soft drinks and water to $10 each, the price of movies to $25, the price of food to $50 per tray, the price of having a ticket agent wait on them to $100 and the price of their first piece of luggage to $200 (which by the way only encourages people to carry gargantuan bags onto the planes and try to cram them all into the overhead bins; pretty smart, huh?)  They could also put coin slots on the display monitors to check for departures and arrivals, say $1.00 each viewing.  And maybe another fee to use one of the chairs at the terminal gate, say $5.00 per hour?  Then, once they have jacked up the prices of all the incidentals, the ticket itself could actually be given to the customer free of charge!!!  Seems like an idea that might appeal to the airline marketing wizards, doesn't it???  Feel free to pass these suggestions along to all the folks who are so rapidly ruining what little positive image they have left. 

 I can hardly wait for all of the airlines to begin asking the government to bail them out because business has dropped off so much, never realizing that they actually ruined their own companies by “nickel and diming” their customers to death. 

Now seriously, how did it not occur to the airlines to simply raise the price of each ticket $50 or $100 bucks, with an explanation that the increase was for additional fuel charges (which we all could have easily understood and related to), leaving soft drinks, water, baggage and movies free???  Of course, that wouldn’t have contributed to the airlines lousy image, which they seem so skillful at creating.

 

Comments

[auto glass mesa az]

Thanks I totaly agree with you. They just need to be honest and forward instead of giving us the run around and killing us with all the stupid fees.

[GK]

The main problem with the airlines is that they think short term to make quarterly earnings. Typically this means cost cutting and adventurous schemes to charge customers. They fail to do two things. 1) think long term in their strategy, 2) differentiat the product/service they have to offer. You would think with all the brains behind these business, someone would apply an investment in the customer strategy. Nope, they are just going to nickle and dime each other out of existence.