Originally Posted by
slowplay
If management could raise prices $8 per ticket today, why wouldn't they do it?
They would. In a heartbeat. Not to line our pockets, but to line theirs.
The fact that they haven't means the competitive market we operate in can't support the increase (obviously unless the majority of carriers/asm's increase as well). We don't live in a vacuum.
Your math may or may not be correct, I don't know. But your logic is fallacious. I want more probably more than you do, as I have a shorter time left here. Your "just raise fares" argument doesn't hold water.
They don't need to raise the
Base Fare. That, of course would put them on the last page of the all important online fare search websites.
One option is too raise the fees that are collected at then point of purchase much like tax and facility fees.
Knowing that you enjoy pass travel benefits and most likely don't purchase airline tickets, recall the last rental car, hotel room or cruise purchase you made. They all have added on fees for such things as energy consumption, stadiums, facility fees, docking and port charges, & etc.
Why not a modest fee to supplement pilot wages. A fee that is per passenger and less than what they spend per day parking their car at the airport. A fee that is less than what they will spend in line at Starbucks when they transition the terminal. (The hardest part of that is giving it a name that is benign and p.c. I say leave that to the corporate comm. and marketing folks.)
We are living in the 21st century in a connected world that has dramatically reshaped all sorts of business and economics over the past 20 years. We have been deregulated now since the 1970's. Why then do we still cling to the same pay models that were formed when airline travel started?
We need to change and adapt as well.
ALPA could go along way in restoring confidence in themselves if they could solve this problem and offer a solution. I am sure their competion will also be looking at this.