What is under the cover of a low fare - an All-Exclusive experience in the air

Dear reader,

In 1987 you could go buy a Tube TV for €400 and you can still get one in 2009 for th same price, now it is flat, digital and with a lot of new features included, so product innovation companies have brought you more for less. In 1987 you could also fly to a round trip between Europe and the US for €400 which you still can do today, but what are the new way of flying all about.

After having completed my virgin flight with a so so called "Low cost airline" you realize that the innovation with low advertized prices has very little to do with product innovvation, and is just about new Business models, i.e. not elimination of cost but shifting of cost from the airline to the traveller. So it did not take long to figure out that the real proposition is an an"All-Exclusive experience"

1st RULE- EXPECT SURCHARGES TO DOMINATE THE PRICE OF THE FLIGHT

An All-Excluisve Airline are elaborating with a large set of "Business model innovations" such as

1. Just advertize a one way flight prices - who want to go back home ....

2. Exclude the airport taxes- who would consider that a compulsory cost ....

3. Free web check-in -but just one way, paying for the return web check-in seem logical ....

4. Pay for luggage - both ways so it does not look that pricey!

5. Reduce the luggage weight limits - so that you can maintain a €10 per kilo one way upside, since the extra luggage kilos is negligable in comaprison with the take-off weight this cost is pure margin.

6. Priorityboarding without pre-defined seating - an option made available to all passengers on a flight. Value creation taken to a new level!!!

7. Meals - Why was food on flights ever included to keep stewards & stewardesses busy

8. Lottery tickets - in case you missed to hand in the Lotto coupon

9. Charge heavily for any potential travel mishaps - Failure to check-in o-line, checking hand luggage weight at the gate instead of at check-in where you could move the stuff to your checked bag.

At my virgin trip the supplementary charges were equal to 838%, no meals, no mishaps & web cehck-in as suggested. Clearly the system is by created one-up-manship lawyers with the primary policy being "Don not screw us sometime, we screw you everytime"

2nd RULE - THE FLIGHT IS THE SHORTEST PORTION OF A PAN-EUROPEAN TRIP

All Exlusive Airlines consider a time to be a natural resource that the traveller have an immense and limitless supply of:

1. Fly from airports as far away from society as possible - typically re-badged with a new "marketable" city name

2. Especially airports with poor or non existing local transport options - expect diesel buses

3. And just to make sure, selected far-away fairports at both ends of the trip

4. Web check-in must be done at least 4hours ahead of the trip - living in the digital age

3rd rule - PEOPLE SHORT OF CASH ARE LIKELY TO HAVE SHORTER LEGS

Clearly some kind of management consultant has been doing a good work on identifying what is the kind of comfort that you should focus on eliminating to ensure that the bus experience is brought on to the airbus are:

1. Extra short spacing between chairs - The natural bilogical correlation that people that pay less have shorter legs.

2. Non-reclinable seats - Now all rows have the comfort of the row in front of the toilet ...

3. No pre-defined seating - Why not upselling window and aisle seats at a premium. Missed value creation opprtunity!

4th RULE - CONNECTION OF BUSES AT BOTH ENDS

All exlusive airlines seem to be airbus wanna-bees that connect Buses an Boeings

1. They just fly direct - Good as long as they make the right city choiches

2. They can not connect - not even selling tickets between to Boeings

3. They just fly once - so forget about any recovery operations such as picking the next flight

5th RULE - A FEW THINGS TO THEIR CREDIT

1. Use new planes - You can fly anything as long as you prefere a 737-800

2. Stick to the time tables - seem to have plenty of padding in the schedule and no risk of time slot issues at the rural airports as the root cause of the accuracy

3. Claim to not apply overbookings - must have been missed by the policy lawyer

4. No bathroom charges - missed value creation opprtunity.

Upcoming story

So what about Vintage Airlines that have managed circumvent the All Exclusive experiences and instead to introduced 20 booking classes (almost using the whole alphabet A, C, D, J, Z, Y, S, B, M, H, Q, E, V, W, U, K, L, T, G, O) advertised as 3 types of seat/service level classes. Now which one is Plain Old Coach....

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