

Is United Airlines really that bad? (2014) - edward
http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2014/11/passenger-satisfaction

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Someone1234
We did it to ourselves.

People just go to flight aggregator sites, sort by price, glance at time, and
hit book. Then get "surprise" fees at the gate. If these sites showed baggage
fees right on the page (like eBay now shows shipping), or they included seat
pitch and seat width, you might see different consumer behaviour but as it
stands you have one metric to judge a flight: price.

This actually hurts airlines trying to differentiate themselves, as those
differences are only known by visiting their first party website and consuming
their marketing. If you only view them through the lens of a generic flight
aggregator, then you'll never know why their flight is 1.5x as expensive.

Virgin Atlantic is a pretty nice airline. In particular their business class
is fantastic ("Upper Class"), even compared to some airline's first class, and
I even find their economy class less unpleasant than most US-based airlines. I
think European airlines are an interesting mix of "cheap as chips" (e.g.
Easyjet, Ryanair) and old-style comforts (e.g. BA).

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cmarschner
I can't follow the argument - increase competition in an industry that is
already operating at a net loss? This will decrease prices even further.
Instead, the US domestic market is big and closed enough that the government
can set better rules for all players in the system that would benefit
everybody - e.g. mandate that ticket prices are always shown without any
hidden extra costs. If you offer an interchangeable product wirh low entry
barriers in the service industry, those who operate the service will suffer.
Period. That's why all over the world taxis are regulated and artificial
barriers like licenses and standard rates are put in place to keep some profit
in the industry.

