Is it time for a more 'premium service'?

Firstly this isn't specifically about any airline, but I was on an EasyJet flight recently and thought this would be an interesting subject to gain opinion. Compared with our friends in the states the 'perks' you get in European travel seem fairly limited. A few examples. No free soft drinks. All bags paid for, no IFE. I guess I'm talking more about the LCC but think this is fair of BA now they offer no luggage fares. This came about as myself, my wife and a significant number of other passenger all had to have our hand baggage checked as there was no room. So here's the question, should we expect more? No luggage charge, a free coke and the option of IFE these are pretty much offered by most American carriers. Southwest offers 2 free bags for example. Interested in your thoughts.

You get what you pay for. The American market is totally different to the European one.


You are in effect paying for the 'free' baggage allowance, coke and IFE etc even if you don't use them.

If on e.g. BA on some routes you don't need a checked bag then you pay less. If you do then you pay more for your ticket. Same with the LCCs as well. But at least on BA you get 23KG in hand baggage!

The LCCs are very good at saying 'low price' which is 100% true but the moment you want a bag or select your seat then they start charging. At the end of the day you could end up paying more on an LCC than on a 'proper' airline.

Next month I'm paying less than £40 to fly to DUB on Ryanair. If I wanted to select a seat and take a checked bag it would have almost doubled the cost. One-way on I think city flyer that does include a baggage allowance was about £80. I don't need a bag on this trip so Ryan Air makes sense for this trip.

[mitchja]

I don't think the American market is actually much different is it?

Pretty much all US airlines charge for baggage now, certainly on domestic flights, unless you are flying in First. VX, UA and AS certainly charge for bags now in Y that I have flown on. Bags where $25 each to check-in.

Same with drinks and food too. I got a small water or juice on a domestic AS flight in Y, but if you wanted anything more, you had to pay for it.

OK some of them do at least offer free seat selection, but even then, charges are starting to creep in for seats near the front for example on some of the US carriers.

Going to have to agree with mitchja on this.
Most US domestic airlines will charge you for most items. I really don't think a small plastic cup of coffee or a soda a premium service.
SouthWest is one of the only airlines I know that gives free baggage and I think their destinations are limited.
Sure, you get free bags if you have status or want to get a credit card aligned to your airline.
As stated before, I think the domestic markets are very similar in offerings, I would even go as far to say that you may get more from BA domestic that any internal fight in the US for the basic flyer and a lot of internal US flights are the same as flying to Europe.

I think that people often confuse traveling with holidays.
The LCC have made travel cheaper, they have enhanced holidays.
Think of a coach, what service does one receive? Think of a train, what service does one receive? THINK of the time required
Flying wins hands down.. normally. Just treat the few hours in the air as time spend reading,learning,sleeping or just relaxing
And its now alot cheaper than it used to be.

I was thinking about something similar earlier & was going to post about it.

I think American Reward programs look after their customers better than we do in UK/Europe.

I was thinking that if V oversold a flight & they had to upgrade, would they give it V-Flyer members, who have shown loyalty to collect miles, etc. - or would they give it new flyers (virgin virgins) to try & entice them to fly with them again.

My guess would be, an american company would reward the loyalty, where over here it seems to go the way of entice new business, rather than keep existing business. Think of BT, Sky or Virgin who you have your TV/Broadband package with & how all the best deals are for new customers & long serving customers have to threaten to leave before they get given some good offer. Same with your mobile phone contract, Utilities, etc.

I fly LCC a lot because we're slightly limited on flight options here in Gib, and the one gripe with LCC and the baggage thing is that everyone inevitably tries to force their worldly belongings into the maximum allowable sized carry-on bag which then causes carnage on boarding and disembarking.

I don't think I've ever heard an Easyjet flight leave without announcements asking for passengers to put their bag in the hold FOC because of lack of room in the cabin.

I think with the way the market is these days people don't even want perks, everyone just wants to pay as little as possible for everything.

I fly LCC a lot because we're slightly limited on flight options here in Gib, and the one gripe with LCC and the baggage thing is that everyone inevitably tries to force their worldly belongings into the maximum allowable sized carry-on bag which then causes carnage on boarding and disembarking.

I don't think I've ever heard an Easyjet flight leave without announcements asking for passengers to put their bag in the hold FOC because of lack of room in the cabin.

I think with the way the market is these days people don't even want perks, everyone just wants to pay as little as possible for everything.

but this is where LCC have to design their planes better for carry on luggage (make the overhead lockers a bit bigger) & be more strict about size & shape.

I have witnessed with RyanAir people being pulled over with oversize baggage, yet then leaving other people on with cases just as big or bigger. Its quite random & has no inconsistency, so you would feel quite unlucky if your stopped, as it allows another 20 or so people to board - while the person with an oversized bag is sorted out to go check the baggage.
One person had a hardshell case, it was clearly oversized & was in the shape of a shell. This bag probably took up as much room as 2 bags if they was the usual shape & within dimension.
Oh & stop letting people put their coats in them lockers as well!

I was thinking that if V oversold a flight & they had to upgrade, would they give it V-Flyer members, who have shown loyalty to collect miles, etc. - or would they give it new flyers (virgin virgins) to try & entice them to fly with them again.

My guess would be, an american company would reward the loyalty, where over here it seems to go the way of entice new business, rather than keep existing business. Think of BT, Sky or Virgin who you have your TV/Broadband package with & how all the best deals are for new customers & long serving customers have to threaten to leave before they get given some good offer. Same with your mobile phone contract, Utilities, etc.

I can see what you are saying about BT, SKY etc as they work on what they call churn. I would hope (and pray) that VS would always put a regular flyer first, why would they not and how would they pick this "person" go thru the flight manifest and just make sure they didn't pick someone that had a FC Au number???

The LCCs are very good at saying 'low price' which is 100% true but the moment you want a bag or select your seat then they start charging. At the end of the day you could end up paying more on an LCC than on a 'proper' airline.

Actually, no its not 100% true. I keep saying this.

Its around 60% true. If you are ok flying at 6am on a Sunday morning, or 2pm midweek. But if you are booking a Friday evening, Sunday evening or Monday morning flight, and not two months before, then you'll pay through the nose for that.

I rarely ever got a BHX to HAJ (Hannover) flight on flybe for less than 150 euros one way, no seat booked, no luggage in the hold. At one night before a German holiday, the one way ticket price was 400 euros.

We seem to buy into this term "low cost carrier". It's a low cost offpeak carrier, and often they've suited the likes of us who are not particularly travelling at peak times for positioning flights. Ryanair seems a bit better for some (Dublin is well served for instance, giving reasonable low fares).However, if I was looking for a Alicante flight near christmas pretty much every "low cost carrier" from five separate airports are 300 pounds plus.

I agree smid. I usually pay under £100 return to get back to Birmingham or Manchester on Monarch, but one time I tried to see if it was feasible at short notice and it was £349 just for the flight to the UK!

It's the same with BA, a non-checked luggage fare to Heathrow is only £53 each way if you book in advance, but get closer to the time and it'll be ten times that.

I dare say that very few tickets are priced at those sort of levels, but there will always be occasions where someone needs to travel and has no choice.

My guess would be, an american company would reward the loyalty, where over here it seems to go the way of entice new business, rather than keep existing business.

The problem with the US model is that encourages frequent flyers to not buy premium tickets, in anticipation of being first in line for the upgrade.

The problem with the US model is that encourages frequent flyers to not buy premium tickets, in anticipation of being first in line for the upgrade.

There will always be those who get angry about not being upgraded and will eventually stop risking it, and those who really don't care either way.