Quoting LAXintl ( Reply 6 ): With airlines often generating single digit percent profit margins, cha

How To Behave On A Plane Cathay posts most profitable week of the year British Airways tests eliminating online check-in Iran air Dubai airport enterprise rent a car uk August freight traffic edges up Air New Zealand plans $100 million 777 upgrade in 201... Thai Airways takes delivery of first A380 "Superjumbo...
Beauty and Awesome Power: The Storm A Murderous Hijacker in Baltimore Are Airlines on the Right Track? Non Stop to Havana: Better To Be Lucky Than Smart Worth the Wait The Shortest Distance Between Two Points is Through E... New Technology Can Dramatically Enhance Security and ... A Forgotten Tragedy enterprise rent a car uk in Iran
Basically, the airline would fill empty seats at a little bit above the break even price (like 20% above). enterprise rent a car uk So far, a terrible idea, since this would completely undermine their regular enterprise rent a car uk market. Now the idea is to fill these seats with people enterprise rent a car uk who don't need to go to the destination, in fact, to make it impossible for them to use this flight in order to get anywhere. By sending them back to the origin on the same aircraft.
Now who in their right mind would pay money to fly a couple of hours, then come back right on the same flight? Well, I guess this site is full of such people, and a good bunch of folks would probably do it for the special event, especially people who usually don't fly a lot and want to experience this.
The customer goes to the airline's web site (let's say Lufthansa) to look at the offers. He finds FRA - DXB - FRA for 150 EUR which is a little more than Lufthansa spends on the extra fuel, food and all. He books the ticket, agreeing that his booking enterprise rent a car uk might be cancelled at the last minute in case LH needs the seat for someone else. He takes that flight and at the destination leaves the plane, stays in the gate area and boards the same aircraft and flies back. He gets no frequent flyer miles, and if he walks away at the destination, LH charges him for the regular one way fare.
But this is very limited market. Aviation is not something out of ordinary anymore - it's just another form of transport. And yes, there are people (me included) that are taking bus or train rides just for fun, but this is bit different enterprise rent a car uk story. You get from A to B and return in far shorter time than say flight from WAW to LHR and back. You have no need to go through maniac designed safety checks (I still can't forget one on LHR - one of the worst experiences of my life). enterprise rent a car uk And you can get in and get out anytime you want - if it starts to be boring, you can simply get off the train (or ZOO, or cinema) and go back home. So yes, it might be good for shorter flights, up to one hour. Above that I highly doubt.
Quoting enterprise rent a car uk LAXintl ( Reply 6 ): With airlines often generating single digit percent profit margins, charging 20% above cost is going to be an extremely high fare. Quoting Birdwatching ( Thread starter ): The price is so low because it is NOT the cost for transporting the passenger, but it is the EXTRA cost compared to flying the empty seat around, plus a little.
Where the whole thing comes crashing down is when the airline sells expensive last minute tickets to business travellers enterprise rent a car uk for the return while the outbound is in the air. Suddenly they have to reaccommodate the 'seat filler' enterprise rent a car uk but all the other flights are full so they're forced to pay for an expensive hotel room. In the end the airline loses money.
So, basically, the "seat fillers" are flying standby....waiting enterprise rent a car uk for an empty seat......which there are very, very few of, nowadays......with so few empty seats available, is there really enough revenue to be had from this scheme, to make it worthwhile?
Quoting unityofsaints ( Reply 11 ): Where the whole thing comes crashing down is when the airline sells expensive last minute tickets to business travellers for the return while the outbound is in the air. Suddenly they have to reaccommodate the 'seat filler' but all the other flights are full so they're forced to pay for an expensive hotel room. In the end the airline loses money.
Well the airline would obviously not take any seat filler passengers on almost-full flights. They would do this on half full flights where it is extremely unlikely that a group of 50+ last minute passengers book a ticket enterprise rent a car uk while the inbound is in the air.
Quoting unityofsaints ( Reply 11 ): Where the whole thing comes crashing down is when the airline sells expensive enterprise rent a car uk last minute tickets to business travellers for the return while the outbound is in the air. Suddenly they have to reaccommodate the 'seat filler' enterprise rent a car uk but all the other flights are full so they're forced to pay for an expensive hotel room. In the end the airline loses money.
This potentially could happen, but that can happen at any discounted fare. This is why there Revenue Management and a forecasting model. The booking curve for a particular market will know if there is a history of very very last minute full fare travelers and thus will not open any seats for that particular fare class or bucket.
It seems youve come up with a novel idea. I am not sure how much demand there is for such a product (it is a product afterall). You have obviously thought through putting fences around enterprise rent a car uk the use of such a fare so it isnt dilutive. In a way it is like Net fares but even more restrictive. Also sometimes enterprise rent a car uk flights dont turn immediately enterprise rent a car uk back to their origin from the destination. Sometimes there might be many hours until the next flight home. This increase the likelihood of dilution.
Quoting Birdwatching ( Reply 13 ): Well the airline would obviously not take any seat filler passengers on almost-full flights. They would do this on half full flights where it is extremely unlikely that a group of 50+ last minute passengers book a ticket while the inbound is in the air.
I'm sure I read about Lufthansa doing something like this years ago. Basically enterprise rent a car uk you could turn up at the airport and there would be a select enterprise rent a car uk number of "spare seats" enterprise rent a car uk and you could buy them for €150 and you flew to the destinations and then flew back 24hrs later. The destination enterprise rent a car uk would depend on what flight had free seats.
Quoting Birdwatching ( Thread starter ): Basically, enterprise rent a car uk the airline would fill empty seats at a little bit above the break even price (like 20% above). So far, a terrible idea, since this would completely undermine their regular market.
As it is, if seats are not filled, yield management will lower the prices of the fare buckets or increase the number of seats in lower priced buckets. That is how load factors are kept at many mainline carriers at over 85%. When you consider that the 85% includes flights at odd hours, off season flights, holiday operations, but does not include non-revs, most flights on most regular days are just about full, with a few seats kept open for last minute (high fare) purchasers.
If these types of fares earned miles, I'd do them as I have done "mileage runs" in the past with nested tickets where I would fly, say, SEA - SFO - ORD - SFO one day and then SFO - ORD - SFO - SEA the next.
Quoting Stitch ( Reply 18 ): If these types of fares earned miles, I'd do them as I have done "mileage runs" in the past with nested tickets where I would fly, say, SEA - SFO - ORD - SFO one day and then SFO - ORD - SFO - SEA the next.
Then no real interest, except to fly something new like the A380, A350 or 787, but that would be a widebody flight and I'm not doing 10 hours in Economy just to turn around and do it back just to say I flew on one. I'll wait until I have a revenue need (which has taken care of the A380 and 787 and will hopefully take care of the A350).
Quoting AADC10 ( Reply 17 ): Yield management already fills seats. Almost every flight has fare buckets that are below cost. Trying to fill the last handful of seats with such a scheme is probably not cost effective.
Offering a nonrev-type product would undermine part of their existing economy enterprise rent a car uk revenue enterprise rent a car uk model. Worse, it could allow business enterprise rent a car uk travelers to hop on at a moment's notice. enterprise rent a car uk Major revenue downside risk. Hard to quantify.
You don't quite tap into the final revenue pool of cheapos who would pay $35 for a standby ticket. This is true. It might seem like there is free money there. But, practically speaking, there is no revenue intact way to reach that market.
After reading all the threads, I really dont see the value of this except for a very few subset of people in A.net, and even then I dont see many of us doing it. I get your idea, but it is just too pointless for anyone to do it.
Quoting seansasLCY ( Reply 16 ): I'm sure I read about Lufthansa doing something like this years ago. Basically you could turn up at the airport and there would be a select number of "spare seats" and you could buy them for €150 and you flew to the destinations and then flew back 24hrs later. The destination would depend on what flight had free seats.
Something like this I can understand, cause there is at least a "point" to go to your destination, be it only for 24 hrs, at least you can do something, say go to a landmark or shop at a place that is special to the destination. Unlike enterprise rent a car uk the OP idea, where you cant get out of the airport.
This is not the 1970s anymore, as much as I hate to admit it, flying is no longer a fun activity. Why would would you want to seat in a 19" wide seat with the stinky head of the person in front of you only mere inches enterprise rent a car uk away, for 3 hours, and then sit at an airport gate and do that all over again? for the fun of it? where is the fun?
At a zoo you get to see exotic animals, at a movie you get to enjoy a movie, and at circus you get entertainment! How would all these be the comparable with seating in a plane for hours on end with nothing to do?
What happens if the guy cant get back cause there is a mechanical or unexpected weather and such? Mind you he is still a paying passenger. Imagine enterprise rent a car uk the press getting hold of it! remember the jetBlue family that got stuck on buddy passes? and according to you, this "status" of passengers will be even lower than buddy passes.
Furthermore, have you thought about the cost for the passengers?