Two Black Women vs. One Black Man

[Warspite]

Oh, Warspite is Arkestra.  That's good.

[grumbler]

So you are saying that it is not blindingly obvious that if customers make decisions based solely on price, businesses will focus their attention on giving them the best possible price at the expense of other incentives, and you need "proof" before you will believe such crazy things?

Frankly, if you don't believe me, I don't really care.

I think you are speaking past each other.

You are arguing that American airlines uniquely don't give "food, legroom, and better than surly service" because Americans shop for tickets based on price only.  Garbo is questioning whether the surly service is just a function of the price-shopping for tickets, and asking if European airlines (those whose customers also buy based purely on price) also have surly service.

My experience has been that the only airlines with uniformly surly cabin staff is BA, so I am not convinced that this is an American problem.  I am not claiming, though, that all BA crews are as bad as the two I have encountered in recent years.

[Berkut]

No, I am saying that American airlines do this, not that it is necessarily unique to American airlines. I said American simply because 90% of my experience with airlines has been American. I doubt that it is unique, simply because of the basic concepts involved are not likely to change outside the US, but I don't really know what other variables may come into play outside the US.

And the "surly service" is largely over-played. My experience with the friendliness of airline personel has been largely positive compared to other service industries. And that is not surprising in such a competitive environment. People grumble and whine about not having legroom and snacks, but they will actually avoid airlines where they are treated like crap, simply because they can. While there aren't really any choices anymore in the US when it comes to the desire to get more space and amenities without spending a LOT more money.

I did notice on my last trip that JetBlue had reserved "more legroom" seating that also allowed you to board early, in return for a $20 bump in the price of the ticket. Attempt to increase margins via incremental increase in comfort, rather than the unaffordable (for most people) difference of business/first class. I wonder how that is working for them...

[DGuller]

My guess is that union legacy (combined with the legacy of heavy regulation) in the airlines has more to do with the level of service than country of origin.  Most of the big airlines in US originate from the time when unions had a blank check given by the airlines, and airlines had a blank check given by the government regulation.  That kind of destructive legacy is extremely hard to root out.

[Malthus]

I did notice on my last trip that JetBlue had reserved "more legroom" seating that also allowed you to board early, in return for a $20 bump in the price of the ticket. Attempt to increase margins via incremental increase in comfort, rather than the unaffordable (for most people) difference of business/first class. I wonder how that is working for them...

I regularly pay more for seating in an exit row, for the legroom. Costs more but at 6' it is worth it to me - I get very uncomfortable in regular seating on transatlantic flights.

It's a good compromise between paying something like twice as much for a bump up in seating class, and being painfully cramped.

[DGuller]

People grumble and whine about not having legroom and snacks, but they will actually avoid airlines where they are treated like crap, simply because they can.

Can they, though?  Maybe you have a choice if you fly from New York to Chicago, but I imagine that for most routes, logistical consideration limit your choice quite drastically.  When I had to fly from Newark to Vegas, the choice was between Continental and, nothing else, actually.  Only Continental had a flight that was in any way practical between those two points.

[garbon]

So yeah he's going for self-defense.