American to charge for FIRST checked bag.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

One would assume they'll still offer water for free. Flights usually have plenty of non-bottled water in pitchers to serve.

Good point. Bet it tastes gawd-awful too.

[Stan4dSteph]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

One would assume they'll still offer water for free. Flights usually have plenty of non-bottled water in pitchers to serve.

Not on some of the low-cost Euro carriers.

Also, your $2 in the aiport will usually buy you a larger bottle than what you will get for $2 on the plane. I'm sure they're using this as a way to reduce weight also. They can figure a certain % of passengers won't buy drinks, so they can eliminate having excess that no one will use.

[BarTopDancer]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

At $2.00 for a bottle of water, the chances are that it will still be cheaper to purchase on the plane than to buy from the post-security store.

Not thus far. $2 for a bigger bottle of water or $2.50 - $3 for a small bottle.

[innerSpaceman]

Oh, I was just joining in the facitiousness about those guaranteed-to-itch-you blankets and car-headrest-sized pillows.

But seeing as it's been monkey-see monkey-do in the airline industry for decades, couldn't American have just done without the month's bump in revenue for checked baggage?

[Ghoulish Delight]

Remember, it's not about revenue from the a-la-cart stuff, it's about making sure they're selling tickets. If they didn't do it, someone else would have, lowering their listed ticket price, cutting into American's (and everyone else's) ticket sales.

They all want that kind of advantage. Baring that, they at least want a level playing field. When they're all including basically the same stuff in the ticket price, they can play with a flight here and a flight there to knock a few bucks off and bump ticket sales by being on the top of that "lowest first" price sort. But if one airline figures out a way to knock $15 off each and every ticket, all of the other's are kinda screwed so they have to follow suit.

[innerSpaceman]

I think you missed my point, Kevy. If Southwest charges for drinks and brings their fare down to $69, and American charges for drinks and brings their fare down to $69 and every airline does the same ... where's the "published ticket price" advantage in charging for drinks? And moreover, why bother for the few weeks that charging for drinks is going to give you that purely temporary advantage in published ticket prices?

Seems to me that re-vamping the policy for the few weeks it provides an advantage costs more than the money earned during that few weeks of advantage.


Nickel meet Dime.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

I think you missed my point, Kevy. If Southwest charges for drinks and brings their fare down to $69, and American charges for drinks and brings their fare down to $69 and every airline does the same ... where's the "published ticket price" advantage in charging for drinks? And moreover, why bother for the few weeks that charging for drinks is going to give you that purely temporary advantage in published ticket prices?

Like I said, because if you don't someone else will. It sucks, but it's the reality of any competitive, low-margin market. Once someone smells an advantage, you've got 3 options: Let them take the advantage and get left in the dust, figure out a different way to compete with that advantage, or jump on board to nullify the advantage. But once the barn door's open, there's no going back.

[innerSpaceman]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

because if you don't someone else will.

Why?


Besides panic, that is?


If you know that "someone else will" three days after you do, what's the incentive to the the first someone that will???






American's advantage is over. Why did they bother?

Every airline knows that the minute they pull a stunt like this, all other airlines will be forced to follow. So why bother in the first place?


I don't agree with the assumption that "if you don't do it, someone else will." There's simply no sound business reason for this decision.

[Not Afraid]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

There's simply no sound business reason for this decision.

Airlines are in the profit business as opposed to the goodwill business. They need to make money in a competitive environment. Which is why this is a sound business decision for thier bottom line.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

If you know that "someone else will" three days after you do, what's the incentive to the the first someone that will???

American's advantage is over. Why did they bother?

Every airline knows that the minute they pull a stunt like this, all other airlines will be forced to follow. So why bother in the first place?

I believe ultimately that this will have less impact than an announcement that "American Airlines raised their prices today." Silly, but I believe it to be true.