Originally Posted by
theparrot
..that's less than 50 bucks a ticket on a trans-con! And that's considering 31% increase in the cost of jet fuel. Now granted... as fares go up, some people will elect not to fly. But I can't see that an additional $50 bucks on a cross-country flight is going to scare away that many folks. I think flying is still VERY cheap considering the cost of living has pretty much been marching forward at 3%/year... and people are still paying the same or less to fly that they were 15 or 20 years ago.
Ok beancounters... am I missing something????
If you raise a $250 price by $50, that's a 20% increase, which is significant. To the peolpe who are flying these days, it's a lot of money, especially for a family who buys tickets for the whole family.
When I was in college, the origional Frontier started $29 fares between SLC and DEN on weekends. I was all over those, thought it was great. Then they started raising them a month at a time to $39, then $49, $59, etc. I thought that $ucked, it pi$$ed me off, etc, because I had gotten used to that ridiculously low initial fare. It's all about conditioning, expectations, what you're used to. That's where this whole low ticket price thing has gone wrong. It would be like going to the bus station for a ticket to the next town a 100 miles away and being told, "OK, that'll be $125." "***? $125? Last month it was $75!"
Here's the thing. Everyone...you, me, them, us, whoever, we all want a "good deal" on whatever it is we're trying to get. Car, house, ticket, gas, food. We all do it, look for the lowest price, then think about other considerations. Color, quality, convienence, comfort, etc. Squabbling at yard sales, you want a buck fifty for that lamp? I'll give you a buck. Sold. But it's fun because it doesn't really matter. Contract time at your airline? That matters, and we still want that "good deal" for us. $95 bucks an hour left seat CRJ-900? I want $105. Company stalls, not fun, because it matters. On and on...
