If you’re an investor, you’re certainly aware of the positive impact that ‘extra’ fees are adding to airlines’ bottom line. Of recent filings for 2012, Delta raised an average of $7.44 per passenger and Spirit Airlines raised an average of $19.99 per passenger. As you can imagine, this has all the airlines scrambling to see how to optimize fare collection, fare creation, and squeeze the customer in any way possible. This equated to $865.9 million in baggage fees for Delta alone in 2012. At a time in history when the Internet, faster communication via smartphones, and businesses of all kinds are optimizing their operations and services, airlines want to stay attached to their flights. consumers with fees for changes in reservations and more. When you look at this realistically, what is the real cost to the airline if, say, someone changes their ticketing two or three weeks before a trip?
This is not a refund. it’s a change Throw in the frequent flyer factor and it’s even more insulting as there’s no reward whatsoever for brand loyalty.
Did you see the story on Bloomberg where customers were possibly being tracked for their use of Bloomberg units and information from this use may have been used as source material for news or other reports derived from this use? A typical subscription to a Bloomberg unit can cost about $1,500 per month or about $20,000 per year per user. It is agreed that the use of the terminal is for your business or for you personally and has nothing to do with Bloomberg potentially analyzing what you are doing for their purposes.
How are these stories related? The system of values, truth and honesty is broken. It would appear every week and in the case of this last week, daily, there is one more example of the total lack of values, truth and honesty.
Now consider the following wholly fictional story about how airlines are secretly discussing how to get more money out of fares. By the way, was it mentioned above why airlines love extra fees? Unlike the ticket for airfare, most of these additional fees are not taxed in the same way that airfare is taxed. In the bowels of the secret boardrooms of airline corporate offices around the world, these are a sampling of the items being reviewed and discussed to generate more fares. You can say you read it here first.
One of my favorite ideas is the total passenger weight concept, they call it TWC. The airlines, the top three, have a similar version of this, they will say this is for the health and good of the passenger, as now they will have an added incentive to lose weight. An approved height, weight, and age chart will be developed. Each passenger will be able to add an extra twenty percent to their weight derived from this table. This weight will be your Allowable Weight Limit or AWL. Now add to this the weight of ALL luggage. This would include hand luggage. For example, if you have one checked bag and two carry-on bags, all three bags will be weighed with you. These bags in total are EYO in airline parlance, it means everything you own. There would be an allocation factor for each bag. Therefore, a checked bag would have an excess of fifty pounds. A carry-on bag would have a thirty pound allowance. The airline adds your weight plus twenty percent, the factors allowed by bag type, and then subtracts it from the actual total weight, at the airport, of YOU and ALL your bags. Now you must pay the excess in weight. A federal grant is being applied for from the US government, as the airlines want to show that this process will improve the general health of the population.
The next idea may be the one that will actually be implemented sooner rather than later.
Airlines want to charge anyone who hasn’t flown a flight in a given year a specific fee. The rate will be determined by where you live, how much you drive or ride, and your age. Here’s the airline’s thinking. People who avoid flying drive or take a bus or train. This flight avoidance is creating excess pollution and traffic jams. If more people flew instead of driving, took the bus or took the train, pollution and traffic jams would be reduced. A federal grant is requested as it would be a program enacted to reduce pollution and therefore would be a ‘green’ initiative. At the time of this writing, the exact fee and how it would be collected are not yet clearly defined. One thing is for sure, it is an annual fee for not taking a flight.
Here is the sad truth. Somewhere, someone started an airline to get customers from point A to point B, safely and on time, and to provide a great experience with excellent customer service. Where was that? This information was discovered through imagination and dreams and is not based on reality, is it?