User Profile
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nsx |
| 10-year Companion Pass holder and moderator of the Southwest and Rapid Rewards forum at flyertalk.com.
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News
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Out of Lemons? Make Limonade. Or a Vodka Tonic. |
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Bring back Diet Dr. Pepper, please! Or you could switch the Coke Zero to Cherry Coke Zero for a decent facsimile.
Who remembers when we served margaritas onboard? Sounds good, but few people ordered them at the time, so we removed from the menu and have since added products like Monster Energy Drink and Coke Zero. |
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September 11 |
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When management at my company sent everyone home from work, I spent the entire afternoon watching the news and booking $29 fares online for my travel over the next several months. I wasn't going to let terrorists keep me down. Literally.
When flights resumed on September 14, I was on one of them.The passengers were few in number that day, but we would have been more than a match for any terrorists.
nsx at flyertalk.com's Southwest forum
Like December 7 and November 22, for most Americans of a certain age, today’s date still sends a shiver down the spine and causes the breath to quicken. For those of us in the airline industry, our lives will never be the same, even eight years later. I don’t know about my Coworkers, but I replay those events in my mind even today. From the sheer horror of the day; to the incredible |
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EarlyBird Check-in: A Convenient Way to Travel |
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To those who believe that Southwest should just raise fares by $5, rather than offering automatic check-in for $10, let's look at this from the standpoint of customer value.
A $5 price increase costs everyone the same amount of money and does not change the perceived value of the product. Sales will decrease a little bit according to the rule of supply and demand.
Some customers find online check-in easy and convenient. Perhaps they work at a computer or have a mobile device, so that they are rarely away from the computer at the 24-hour mark. Some customers don't really care what seat they get, especially for short flights. The $10 optional fee (yes, I'm not afraid to use the F-word here) allows customers in these categories to keep paying the same price, whereas the $5 price increase would cost them $5.
Some customers are picky about the seat they get and competitive about getting a low boarding pass number. These people will be happy to pay the $10 fee, because it delivers more than $10 of value to them.
The customers who value the feature pay for it without burdening the customers who don't. That's efficient pricing, delivering more value per dollar on average to customers with diverse preferences. Southwest began as "one size fits all", but it need not remain that way.
The preceding logic applies somewhat to baggage fees, but the analogy is not precise. Checked baggage is more a necessity than a preference. Everyone I know already prefers to avoid checking bags if at all possible. It takes extra time and effort to check the bag and to retrieve it. Therefore a baggage fee would merely add a financial penalty to the time penalty. No customer value is created by baggage fees.
nsx at flyertalk.com's Southwest forum
Once again, Southwest Airlines is introducing a new product to make traveling a little easier for our Customers. Many of you have told us how important it is to get an early boarding position so you can find that coveted seat without having to watch the clock for your 24-hour window to check in. Today, I am excited to introduce EarlyBird Check-in - one more way Southwest is providing conv |
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EarlyBird Check-in: A Convenient Way to Travel |
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This is getting back to the old debate between open seating and assigned seating. If you buy your tickets way in advance and don't change them, assigned seating is clearly superior for you. If you buy less than a week before travel, you will do MUCH better with open seating.
As another poster said, you simply can't get a assigned seats together for a family unless you book pretty far ahead. You have to go to the gate early and try for the seats that were held back for airport assignment.
Each system has its strengths and weaknesses, and no system is superior to the others in every respect. I have a feeling that Southwest's system with EarlyBird will work out just fine, and that a year from now it will be seen as a non-issue. Just as look at how the furor over mid-boarding for families settled down once people had a chance to experience it and realize that their fears were inflated.
nsx at flyertalk.com's Southwest forum
Once again, Southwest Airlines is introducing a new product to make traveling a little easier for our Customers. Many of you have told us how important it is to get an early boarding position so you can find that coveted seat without having to watch the clock for your 24-hour window to check in. Today, I am excited to introduce EarlyBird Check-in - one more way Southwest is providing conv |
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EarlyBird Check-in: A Convenient Way to Travel |
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sandy, EarlyBird customers will almost never have a chance to try to save the exit row. Business Select customers or A-listers will take those seats virtually every time.
I'm hoping that Flight Attendants will keep seat saving to a minimum and prohibit it anywhere near the front of the plane.
nsx at flyertalk.com's Southwest forum
Once again, Southwest Airlines is introducing a new product to make traveling a little easier for our Customers. Many of you have told us how important it is to get an early boarding position so you can find that coveted seat without having to watch the clock for your 24-hour window to check in. Today, I am excited to introduce EarlyBird Check-in - one more way Southwest is providing conv |
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