Window seat ... at a price.
Discuss Window seat ... at a price, on the Travel News forum of FrequentFlyer.com.au, the home of frequent flyers.
Welcome to Australia's leading independent Frequent Flyers resource! We hope you find the information useful and decide to join our online community. Its free to join, simply click on the register link. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
Australian travellers could soon pay more for the comfort of sitting in aisle or window seats on low-cost airlines, an industry expert predicts.
Flight Centre marketing general manager Colin Bowman said Australian carriers would soon follow the lead of their American low-cost counterparts and charge less for middle seats.
"We will be going, in the near future, to be deciding which seat we want to buy," Mr Bowman told a Queensland Tourism Industry Council breakfast in Brisbane.
Member of: QC life,AA Explat.,HH diamond,SPG plat,Iprefer
Posts: 1,074
Re: Window seat ... at a price
They will charge less for middle seats?
my guess is that middle seats will be the current price and more desirable seats will be a surcharge.but then again I am a cynic.
They will charge less for middle seats?
my guess is that middle seats will be the current price and more desirable seats will be a surcharge.but then again I am a cynic.
I think most of us would agree the middle seat is the worst choice. I would pay more to avoid it. Would I prefer not to pay - yes.
Wonder how this will play out. Whether it will be confined to DJ, JQ & TT, whether it won't happen at all (unlikely) or will QF also enter the fray? I suspect the latter may be problematic given the preference given to higher tiers, but who knows!
Our company gets extra discount LH J class fares ex Europe but they are likley to be not the best seats. Some corp deal. So some top tier airlines may already do it even if in a limited way.
Thats what i am told anyway.
E
I would expect that there are all sorts of surcharges being thought about in boardrooms around the world at the moment. It would be quite interesting to sit in a brainstorming session to see what sort of ideas for fees get thrown up. Of course, many of these would never see the light of day...
__________________ Air: QFF Gold Hotel: PC Plat, Hyatt GP: Plat, HH: Silver Car: Avis preferred
On the Road to LTS: 98.1%
Sponsored Links
Registered Users have the option of
removing this and all other advertisements.
More
While I don't have info from the airlines themselves, i'd think this is very likely, though i'd suggest it's something that will for now remain confined to the LCC's (DJ, 1* etc).
They're in a very precarious position at the moment, they can't raise their fare too much but at the same time, world oil prices are making their businesses alot less attractive than they might have been 12-24 months ago.
I think this will only be the start of extra revenue generation by LCC's
I actually can't understand why DJ won't offer a paid upgrade to Y+ at checkin in order to A. raise extra revenue & B. not fly with an empty 3 rows.
I think the next few months will certainly be interested times in the LCC business.
"We will be going, in the near future, to be deciding which seat we want to buy," Mr Bowman told a Queensland Tourism Industry Council breakfast in Brisbane.
If this guy is the head of marketing at Flight Centre... he is extremely out of touch!
Tiger, a pretty major interstate domestic jet airline, ALREADY charges extra if you want to select a seat. Their system is far more effective than just charging for window/aisle/exit/bulk-head, as it also guarantees that passengers on the same itinerary will be seated together.
By default, on a TT service, if you don't pay for "seat selector" and end up on a full flight, you are likely be issued a middle seat at check-in.
This guy really has no idea about the Australian airline industry today!
This guy really has no idea about the Australian airline industry today!
I think that's pretty harsh, if you knew how little Tiger and agents have to do with each other, you'd understand.
I wouldn't expect someone at FC to know what TT is doing because quite frankly as an agent be it them or I, we couldn't give a **** how they run their business because FC and most agencies do all they can not to sell them.
I don't think an airline like TT really matters all that much, they're just a tiny blip on a large radar, and its what QF, DJ and JQ do that someone like him is really concerned with.
If this guy is the head of marketing at Flight Centre... he is extremely out of touch!
Tiger, a pretty major interstate domestic jet airline, ALREADY charges extra if you want to select a seat. Their system is far more effective than just charging for window/aisle/exit/bulk-head, as it also guarantees that passengers on the same itinerary will be seated together.
By default, on a TT service, if you don't pay for "seat selector" and end up on a full flight, you are likely be issued a middle seat at check-in.
This guy really has no idea about the Australian airline industry today!
I would imagine that if TT were to take this a step further to incorporate the idea of charging for windows or aisle seats, then their seat selector would come up with different prices based on which seat you select (window, centre or aisle could all have different pre-select surcharges)
__________________ Air: QFF Gold Hotel: PC Plat, Hyatt GP: Plat, HH: Silver Car: Avis preferred
On the Road to LTS: 98.1%
Linear Mode
