17 responses to “Cranky on the Web – An Interview with Me, Hunting for Low Fares, Atlanta’s Silly Name Issue, More”

1. 

   ASimPerson

   Jun 13, 2015

   Since my last two places of residence have been Atlanta and San Jose, CA the airport name thing really hits home. No one outside airport property ever calls them “Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport” or “Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport”. It’s just “Atlanta” or “San Jose”.

   Reply
   1. 

      southbay flier

      Jun 13, 2015

      Yep. I never call my home airport “Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport.” It’s either
      San Jose or SJC. Just like I don’t call CLE Hopkins, BWI Thurgood Marshall, DCA Reagan (it’s still National or DCA to me), or ATL Hartsfield nor Hartsfield-Jackson.

      Reply
2. 

   Len

   Jun 13, 2015

   Agreed on the silliness of the name issue. San Jose? Baltimore?
   DCA? No wonder more people just refer to airports using their FAA code. Political bodies love to do things that seem like they are important, but really are not. Why bother confronting serious racial issues in your city when you can just rename the airport and say “look how progressive we are, our airport is named after a _____ person.”
   Had Dr. King been an activist of this generation, every airport in the nation would be named after him. And we’d all be corrected by massive ad campaigns when we said “King” instead of “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. International Airport at ____ Field” or whatever other tongue-numbing name the politicos came up with.

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3. 

   David SF eastbay

   Jun 13, 2015

   The Frontier boarding pass time actually makes sense and you now wonder why this hasn’t been done in the past by everyone.

   Reply
   1. 

      Oliver

      Jun 13, 2015

      If memory serves right, BA shows when boarding ends and when the flight is scheduled to depart. They don’t say when boarding starts.

      Reply
4. 

   Frank of America

   Jun 13, 2015

   Listened to WBUR show about finding low fares online. What a whiner Tom Ashbrook is! Jesting of course but still. :-)

   I appreciated your comments about how there is no other industry where people expect complete price transparency. It’s true. Finding the best price on any other service or durable good is a process that people expect, why not an airline ticket? I would love to have one place to find the best price but alas it isn’t so.

   One commenter said the industry is not (as it used to be) a public utility. People forget that the airlines were regulated during the “good ‘ol days.” Government set the fares so that the carriers could make money with 50% load factors. I’ve been flying internationally since the 50s and remember wearing a tie (as a little kid!) to get on a plane. Dad wore a suit and mom was dressed with heels and hose. I started in the industry in the early 80s just before de-regulation really set in and remember the least expensive fare LAX-JFK was $600RT all in. That’s $600 in 1983 dollars or $1425 in 2015 dollars. A quick check on Google Flights shows today’s RT fare to be $481! Reverse the calculation and the fare is $202 in 1983 dollars. Flying has never been cheaper. Yes fees increase the cost and planes are uncomfortably full but that’s a result of de-regulation. Chances are the loudest complaints come from folks who are most vociferously anti-regulation. That’s the “free market” folks! The genie is out of the lamp and its not going back. If one want’s luxury one has to pay for it. Pay for the enhanced economy seating or pony up the dough for a business class ticket.

   One person on the show mentioned rapacious profits? Margins in the airline industry are not fat. UA show a 5.79% profit margin. AA is 7.85%. Rapcious? I think not. I’d rather be flying on a plane with well paid and rested crew on an airline that’s making a decent profit.

   The airlines are responsible for the perception that the web is the best place to get a ticket. Back in the 90s they started undercutting travel agents by putting distressed inventory on the web. That just caused a race to the bottom a race which they are desperately trying to end now. It caused people go down the street to save $5 – and why not? Despite all the marketing and efforts to differentiate products standard coach airline seats are pretty much a commodity. Generally speaking the price differential between the web and travel agents no longer exists but because airlines stopped paying upfront commissions (many agencies make commissions on the back end) to agents, agents need to charge something to stay in business. Pay for service – unbundling. Just like the airlines. Just like everything else.

   Reply
   1. 

      CF

      Jun 13, 2015

      Frank of America – It’s true. Of course it would be nice if you could always just go to one place for everything and find the lowest price. But that’s not how it works in most industries. It’s strange that people think airlines should be forced to do it when you don’t hear them saying the same thing about other industries. It would be nice, of course, but that’s a business decision.

      As for profits, on the other hand, people do this with a lot of industries. It sounds crazy high when you say a $5 billion profit. But when you look at the percentages, it puts things in perspective. But people would rather say the airlines are stealing their money and making crazy profit. They don’t do this for EVERY industry though. Look at Apple. That company is making something like a 40 percent margin. Now THAT’S a crazy high margin.

      Reply
      1. 

         Frank of America

         Jun 13, 2015

         Actually Apple’s profit is 22.5% but still, that’s much higher than the airlines. Amex isn’t too far behind at 18.6%. MasterCard on the other hand is nearly 40%.

         Point is plenty of other industries are more profitable and we don’t have the press screaming their pricing isn’t transparent enough.

         Reply
         1. 

            Jim

            Jun 14, 2015

            I think the reason for that is because Apple and MasterCard have products that people like to use and enjoy using. Also, they are constantly innovating and improving their products, without necessarily raising the prices. The airlines, on the other hand, are slowly making their product worse and worse. People buy an iPhone because they enjoy using one, but they buy plane tickets because they need to get somewhere and there is no other choice.

            Reply
         2. 

            CF

            Jun 14, 2015

            Frank- Yeah, I was looking at gross margin for Apple, which is around 40 percent. Either way, the company is doing quite well for itself.

            Reply
5. 

   David SF eastbay

   Jun 13, 2015

   What’s funny about airport names, is many are not even located in the city they are called by. And no one has ever asked to fly to Bob Hope or John Wayne airports. Even when I lived in Orange County California I can tell you everyone called SNA Orange County airport. No one said Santa Ana’s John Wayne Airport – Orange County.

   Didn’t that Atlanta name thing come up at the same time they started talking about using a second local airport for passenger airlines that I believe DL is against?

   Reply
   1. 

      CF

      Jun 13, 2015

      What I’ve found is that if you live in a city, you’re more likely to call the airport something else. For example, I’ve heard people here in Southern California call it John Wayne (though never Bob Hope). I’ve heard people in San Diego call it Lindbergh. And yes, in Atlanta, I’ve heard people call it Hartsfield. But for those who don’t live in the city, it’s always the city name unless there are multiple airports. That’s the only reason you hear JFK, O’Hare, Dulles, etc. But you can always guarantee that people aren’t going to call it by multiple names. Even at National airport (anyone who lived in the DC area before the name change will always call it National), nobody calls it Reagan National. They might call it Reagan. But not Reagan National.

      The fact that Atlanta is wasting money on this is insane. it’s not going to change anything.

      Reply
      1. 

         Jim

         Jun 14, 2015

         It’s not insane. It’s a calculated political move designed to satisfy a certain constituency of voters. It has nothing to do with air travel.

         Reply
         1. 

            Scott

            Jun 14, 2015

            You’re absolutely right!!!

            Reply
6. 

   SDFDuck

   Jun 13, 2015

   The only airports that I can think of in a city that only has one predominant airport where people refer to the name attached to the airport are Boston Logan and Lambert St. Louis. In most cases it’s just easier to say the three-letter code than the full airport’s name.

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7. 

   Scott

   Jun 14, 2015

   Couldn’t agree more with CF about the waste of $$ regarding the bane at ATL! This is OBVIOUSLY coming from a group with too much time on their hands and a desire to throw money at something that is NOT an issue!

   Reply
   1. 

      Grichard

      Jun 14, 2015

      You probably meant to type “the name at ATL”, but honestly, I think your version is more accurate.

      Reply

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