Originally Posted by
fatmike69
I beg to differ. If Priceline presented a consumer with two identical flights on airline A and B (who's safety track records are on par), where A's ticket costs $10 more than B's, but A's pilots are better paid and rested, I can almost guaruntee that most, if not all, would go with airline B. Heck, I had a pax once who lived in San Francisco, purchase a ticket to Boston via OAK-LAX-BOS, instead of SFO direct BOS. OAK flight went out late, misconnected, and then screamed bloody murder. I asked why they didn't buy the direct ticket, and the response was they saved 5 DOLLARS by connecting out of Oakland. They probably spent 10 dollars more on gas to save 5 on the airline ticket. And then much more than that on a hotel for the night because of the misconnect. Point being, I think people could give a rat's ass about anything else but the price of their airline ticket.
I think the difference between your scenario above and FlightCheck's post is that the Priceline offer would include a disclaimer that "Airline B's pilot are not well rested and have been flying at maximum duty hours for a few days now"
In your scenario above - I would ASSUME that both airline's pilots are well rested, well trained, and BOTH airlines will safely transport me from point A to B.
Maybe with the disclaimer attached a consumer might then pay the extra $5-10 for Airline A's flight.
USMCFLYR