Comments on: Tomorrow, I’m Telling Airline Marketing Folks What Customers Want – So What Do You Want?

By: JUAN

JUAN — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 01:53:12 +0000

AA needs to be competitive on pricing with other airlines. They cannot justify a 50% premium over the competition on the same dates-same routes.
I don’t know if its like this to all cities they servel but I just checked out flights to HSV, MSN, MKE, DFW, ORD and SJU and the cost difference was over 40% every time.
Revenue growth is great but customers will notice and change to other airlines.
Tell AA to wake up. Balancing market share and revenue growth is critical.

By: brett@airline tickets for cheap

brett@airline tickets for cheap — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 03:05:51 +0000

I would have to agree with you sally

By: @airline tickets for cheap

@airline tickets for cheap — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 03:04:54 +0000

I have to agree with you sallysue.

By: airline complaints

airline complaints — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 03:51:07 +0000

too bad i did not see this post till now, but if you do get another chance at it, i’d like to amplify the following:

1 – surprised fees
2 – checked baggage fees
3 – ff programs not to expire
4 – more mileage sharing options
5 – better food selection in first class (we pay for it!!!)

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:47:29 +0000

I hate airlines nickel and diming us for everything… Bag fees are a real crock. You are paying enough for the ticket already. Obviously if you travel, you need luggage. Luggage weights went down on many airlines a few years back, so they could charge for overweight luggage easier. Then came the fees. Your not-so-cheap airfare should include two bags just like it used to! By God, it should also include FREE food on flights over 2.5 hours in length. Deregulation worked at the beginning, but now with less competition, it doesn’t work so well. Several times I’ve seen airline employees using their federally-sanctioned power to threaten passengers hampered by airline-caused problems. I saw a gate agent almost break a man’s hand by slamming the door on him about a year ago, then threatening to have him arrested, after trying to board a couple minutes late because of weather delays. I hate government intervention in everything, but they me be the only ones who can stop the abuses.

Flying used to be fun. Now it’s become martyrdom. Airlines have lost their civility.

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:10:53 +0000

1. To be able to use additional miles to pay the copays for miles upgrades instead of cash

2. To allow more transparency in airline data like award and upgrade inventories.

By: myriam

myriam — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:18:03 +0000

I totally agree re: “more reasonable ways to use small amounts of miles”. How about combining that with my earlier idea about having a few “change your ticket for free” passes, and if they want, they can do a “change your ticket for 500 miles” offer? I’d MUCH rather spend a few lousy miles to change a ticket than $100, especially since I can barely use my miles on anything else (which is another problem of course). It’d be better to get a few “no-change-fee” passes for FREE every year, but of course we all know they won’t give anything for free.

How about spending miles for in-flight meals? Spending miles for lounge day-passes? Miles for the E+ seats? All this will reward customer loyalty and make you feel like you’re actually getting something for your efforts, especially since it’s increasingly difficult to actually get flights for all your miles (making the loyalty programs seem increasingly pointless). I love the “mileage debit card” idea.

Lastly — just to be the sole person who disagrees, here : I actually don’t mind the bag fees at ALL. I think they’re a great way to raise money and keep my fares low. I travel about 30,000-35,000 miles a year and rarely, if ever, check a bag; on top of that, I have never — not once — not been able to fit my carry-on onto the plane. Yes, I get a bit tired of the slow people with roller-board bags who refuse to just PICK THEM UP AND WALK FASTER WITH THEM, but otherwise, I’d prefer to have the savings on my ticket and build up those biceps carrying the overnighter around everywhere. The few times I need to check a bag, it’s for a specific reason, and I’m fine with $20 extra bucks here or there.

Don’t mean to be argumentative — to each his own — I only wanted to express a differing opinion on that.

By: nealio

nealio — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 06:34:52 +0000

I fully agree with the statement: Tell the truth. Declare it openly, warts and all. And then deliver on your declarations. And your customers will love you for it (cough) Delta. Stop the slick spin, we’re not dumb.

I also agree with the idea of giving a few “change your ticket for free” passes every year, those same passes could be used for award redeposits or even bag waivers. Give loyal customers some flexability on that.

Finally: Delta: bring back the mile high mojitos. Who decided to ground them just as they are reaching a cult following among elite fliers?

By: Ron

Ron — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 06:03:53 +0000

Cranky, I tried to post a comment on this post last night but it didn’t come through. I think it’s because I included URLs in my post. It would be nice to get a meaningful error message rather than having the comment disappear into thin air…

Can you post a video of your presentation?

A few thoughts, even if they’re late (and with the URLs omitted).

– Better award availability.

– Better award search tools. You can tell how bad award search sucks from the fact that gurus can charge $150 for helping you book an award ticket, but only $30 for helping with a cash ticket :-)

– Reasonable ways to use small amounts of miles, e.g. cash+miles programs that actually deliver value. El-Al does this successfully (only for trips originating in Israel), but with U.S. carriers, the cash+miles offers I’ve seen are no better than straight cash prices.

– No de-promotions: if I signed up for a promotion and then a better one comes along, give me the newer one.

– Better email newsletters. Read Jakob Nielsen’s alertbox post from October 31, 2005 (top hit on Google for “United Airlines deserves to go out of business”, with quotes). And don’t keep asking me to sign up for promotions I’ve already signed up for.

– Actually, don’t require me to sign up for promotions at all. Do you think maybe I don’t want those double miles? Let me know I always get the best deal on earning miles, so I won’t feel compelled to always check your promotions — and those of the competition.

– Reasonably priced day entry to lounges for elites. The $50 price tag is intended to keep the lounges exclusive. Well, if I’m an elite, let me feel like I’m not just anyone. Let me in for $15–20, and I may pay it.

– No IT glitches. And when glitches do happen, have knowledgeable and empowered staff that can take reasonable corrective action. I managed to lose elite status in the middle of a trip, due to a technical problem with the Northwest/Delta account migration; I made a few comments about this on One Mile at a Time, on a post titled “Well done, Delta/Northwest!” from October 2, 2009 (since my last comment the situation has become even more ridiculous).

– For non-urgent problems which don’t require back and forth negotiation or real-time search for availability, let me just send an email and receive a knowledgeable response in a reasonable time frame (24–48 hours).

By: Hugh Jardonn

Hugh Jardonn — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:07:16 +0000

D’oh! I’m too late, but I’d want to stress that checked bag fees need to be eliminated. Airlines must make a profit to stay in business; however I fail to understand the logic of nickel and diming the passenger with extra nuisance fees on top of the airfare. I’ve discussed this with my co-workers, friends, family and business associates, and there is a general consensus among us that airlines should charge one honest fare and eliminate the extra fees. I’m glad that Southwest agrees, and I hope they keep aggressively promoting the “No Hidden Fees” advertising.