Cranky Flier Podcast #3: Why the Concert Ticket Model Won’t Work for Most Airlines

It’s week three of the podcast. If you’re Cranky Flier Podcast Logo enjoying it, then great. If you’re not, well, I don’t even get the last pin removed from my broken finger until next week. I’m not sure how long until I’m up to full typing strength after that, so hang in there.

This week, instead of an interview or a chat with a co-host, I’m my own guest. Wait, that sounds weird.

Really, it’s just me opining about the concert ticket model. You know, that’s when you click on a seat map, buy a seat, and then it’s yours with which to do what you please. Do you wish airplane tickets worked that way? There are a lot of reasons why they don’t… and can’t.

I tackle those in this week’s 11m30s episode.

The podcast is now live on iTunes and Google Play. Subscribe and leave a review today!

Brett

8 responses to “Cranky Flier Podcast #3: Why the Concert Ticket Model Won’t Work for Most Airlines”

Noah Kimmel

Nov 8, 2016

Interesting idea for a podcast. I’d be curious if people are more interested in discussing news / analysis vs. some of these theory items. Both could be interesting

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1. CF
  
  Nov 8, 2016
  
  Noahkimmel – Well, I’m going to ask for feedback after I’ve tried a few things. So far, the first week saw merely half the listeners of the second week, but that doesn’t necessarily correlate to content. I’ll post and ask for more info, but I also need to figure out a business model. This takes a lot of time to do. (At least it mostly doesn’t require writing.)
  
  Reply
DesertGhost

Nov 8, 2016

I like the podcast idea.

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James

Nov 8, 2016

Good podcast. Keep it up.
Interesting concept you bring up. Never thought about it, but yes it seems very complex to successfully pull off.

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Kilroy

Nov 8, 2016

What would be the harm in allowing tickets to be sold at face value OR LESS, with no change fees required, just a commission taken by the airline?

Agreed that this would work really well with the ULCCs. Now that you mention it, I am surprised that Ryanair and Spirit haven’t found a way to implement this yet.

For the security issue (submitting names to TSA, etc), that can be solved by setting a hard cutoff of no changes or sales within X hours of the flight. Some tickets are alreadysold at the very last minute (<24 hours before the flight), so I imagine it would be doable.

Also, to a certain extent this plays well (and may even compliment) the fare price insurance products that you have covered previously.

Reply
1. CF
  
  Nov 8, 2016
  
  Kilroy – Well Ryanair does have a name change fee, so anyone can do it.
  They just don’t facilitate the process at all. It seems like it would be an opportunity.
  
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2. JOHN JOHNSON
  
  Nov 9, 2016
  
  why would an airline want to compete with people or organizations speculatively buying seats and then putting them on the open market?
  
  Reply
  1. Kilroy
    
    Nov 14, 2016
    
    If the airline can take a cut, why not? Same reason why Amazon has third party sellers on its site.
    
    Look at it this way… If demand is higher than the airline predicts, tickets sell out, and the airline loses some potential revenue. If it allows tickets to be resold on its site and gets a commission, the airline gets some of that lost revenue back.
    
    Reply