Pretty much what air travel was like in the '70s and even '80s. Food (sometimes even good) very little bumping, and actual service. I suppose it cost more, but I don’t remember being particularly shocked by prices back then. I did a lot of flying in the early '80s for work, and actually enjoyed it. Not any more.
That is a good idea but it would lead to some extreme and potentially dangerous behavior. If passengers felt compelled to hit the gym and train every day a few months before the trip then that would be what we call a win - win. The people become more healthy and they save on their plane fare. But, lets not kid ourselves. What would happen instead would be an explosion of bulimia, even weirder fad diets than we have now, intentional dehydration, and possibly even self amputation.
The airline industry has some of the most fickle customers there are when it comes to price. Half the people would volunteer to sit on a stranger’s lap if it saved them $10 off the price of a competing ticket. You have to be careful what incentives you give because you might end up with a bunch of passengers that fasted for a week, shaved their head, and didn’t wear any underwear so that they could weigh in at a lower rate.
Here is a story from Marketplace on this - sorry audio, no transcript yet. It is an interview with Howard Putnam, former CEO of Southwest. He thinks that the other traditional airlines will match this, but that it is a mistake, and that they should just bit the bullet, raise fares, and not try to nickel and dime people.
90% of my flying is on American between Raleigh NC and Chicago IL, and it always seemed that in either direction when I was sitting near the back I was in the first or second boarding group (after First Class and Platinum Club members, of course) and when I was sitting near the front I was in one of the last boarding groups. Maybe they use different boarding plans on different flights.
In today’s paper there was an article about American’s new policies, with a sidebar article about the fact that they were considering cutting flights from RDU. Among the cuts being considered were some of the multiple daily flights to Chicago and Detroit. I hope they don’t decide to cut the flights I’m already booked for, since that would screw up my travel plans.
I suspect you are right, I had not considered how actual people would act, ie. not in their enlightened self-interest. Considering how expensive a plane ticket is, and how rarely most people fly, you’d think that less than 1% of the price wouldn’t matter. Who am I kidding, I’d be the one getting sat upon. Although, if a restaurant knocked 10 bucks off my bill to share a table with strangers, I’d do it.
I think we’ve flown our last with American anyway. Of the four aircraft we flew on (two out, two back – we always have to go through Dallas) during this last trip, three were delayed because of various problems. United, which is the big dog in Denver, has direct flights to RDU. They cost more, but I’m willing to pay it for a direct flight.
