When I travel on Southwest, I put myself in a Southwest frame of mind. I sit on the floor in line to make sure I'm an "A", I laugh at the corny jokes and I know I'm not getting much of a choice of anything. I do this because that's the Southwest way: no-one's getting any special treatment, everyone's in the same boat (/plane).
So, this new "business select" fare which gives business travelers paying for the more expensive "last-minute" fares the benefit of automatic "A" stature and a free drink is treading on vary dangerous ground. Southwest insists that it's not becoming a two-class airline like everyone else. I'm not so sure.
Friday, November 9, 2007
A Southwest frame of mind
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2 comments:
Couldn't help but comment... you inspired me to write a post about Southwest's preboarding policy changes that recently made the news. I wrote a post about it here: http://blog.thegeneralist.net/
Curious what you think of the all-business-class airlines, too. I think the luxury craze is going to come to a screeching halt when the economy starts to slow undeniably early next year, but I think there's a market for a 737 full of $1500 business class seats where there isn't one for the handful of $10,000 tickets and a cabin full of free riders.
I'm not sure about all-business class airlines. I've not flown on one so far and, actually, since we don't get to fly business class on domestic flights for work, I'm not likely to. (I'm way too cheap/poor to pay more than coach on my own dime.)
So I guess my question would be whether there's enough of a market to support a lot of players in this space. A nice niche but one that's difficult to defend if everyone jumps in.
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