Originally Posted by DontCallMeCindy

First of all, airlines are truly just government-sanctioned real estate cartels: at the end of the day there’s only a tiny marginal financial benefit to differentiating on product and experience (which might not justify the investment in providing it). The bulk of demand is truly driven by price & network (availability on a specific date/time/route).

Second of all, today’s consumer has been trained (by multiple industries) to expect a much more granular unbundling of pricing for goods and services—aka they want to pick and choose exactly what they pay and do not pay for.

The ULCCs (and especially the legacies—adapting to the threat of ULCCs) now essentially let the consumer pick and choose from myriad options for everything ranging from WiFi, food, multiple tiers of seat-pitch, etc.. We offer a scattershot, random selection of Mint seats on certain boutiquey routes, “EMS” seats (on some but not all planes/routes), various entertainment quality depending on the config, and a confusing and ever-changing hodge-podge of food for purchase and free snacks (I still can’t wrap my head around what determines what is catered where). Our product and experience and customer service are quite literally all over the freaking place.

We have essentially lost our former competitive advantages on product and experience, by failing to adapt to the consumer’s expectation of control over what they are paying for, and also by failing to provide a consistent set of options/a consistent experience across all fleets, routes, hubs, etc.. There is more commonality of brand identity connecting from a UAL 777 to a United Express RJ than there is buying a ticket on the same route at the same time on JB on different weeks/months! Imagine if every time you walked into a Starbucks, even the same Starbucks, half the menu from the day before wasn’t available!

Our market segmentation is more inefficient than any airline I am aware of, because we effectively force everyone to pay for WiFi (by calling it free), a TV screen (even if they have their own device), and snacks (even if they are on a keto diet), while simultaneously only randomly offering premium seats/fresh food for sale/connecting flights/etc..

Lastly, at the very end of the day, none of the above matters if the customer doesn’t make it within x amount of their arrival time y% of the time they fly on us.

Originally Posted by Bluediver

Id say more over at JetBlue we’ve offered a better product in the past. Comparing directly with the Widget in my opinion only they’ve caught up on their entire offering so here we are at JB struggling because we haven’t changed. They’ve matched, offer the internet, seats, tv, on time service and frequent flights both nonstop and connecting. So we are left with cheaper. One time getting burned by delay and a customer will choose the other guy even for a few more bucks. Why, because they are tired of eating cold ham at grandmas 3 hours after everyone else did because their flight didn’t land ontime and they couldn’t be rebooked on a connecting flight an hour later.

Originally Posted by MainlineFlyer

Our product is still better. Most do not provide the wifi, and no one provides our roominess. You are correct about not being on time and not being able to catch a later flight which is why I think our expansion plans have always failed. We never commit to a city and actually try to make a go of it. It's always one toe in, with limited service and probably half of that is a single redeye. The only city connected is JFK. No room for delays or cancelations, word of mouth is negative and we leave with our tail tucked between our legs.

Originally Posted by Boomer

B6: "You'd like a ticket from Milwaukee to New Orleans? Great! Would you like a hotel room to go with that?"
Customer: "No."
B6: "So you'll be sleeping in the airport?"
Customer: "No, huh, what?"
B6: "That's a two-day flight on JetBlue. You'll be on our 3pm flight from Milwaukee to JFK, and the next day you'll be on our 1pm flight from JFK to New Orleans. We'll offer you a discounted room in JFK for your convenience."
Customer: "I'll need the number for Southwest please."

Originally Posted by Softpayman

Nah I don't think we offer an itinerary like that. Nor should we.....Sounds like a colossal waste for us to connect people from MKE-MSY. Fire up the blow torch and burn the bags of cash.

Originally Posted by Softpayman

Nah I don't think we offer an itinerary like that. Nor should we.....Sounds like a colossal waste for us to connect people from MKE-MSY. Fire up the blow torch and burn the bags of cash.

Originally Posted by MainlineFlyer

B6:"We offer point to point service between cities people want to go, as long as one of those cities is New York."

Originally Posted by Softpayman

Nah I don't think we offer an itinerary like that. Nor should we.....Sounds like a colossal waste for us to connect people from MKE-MSY. Fire up the blow torch and burn the bags of cash.

Originally Posted by Boomer

JetBlue doesn't want that US flying, so we close more Blue Cities and add ten more flights from NYC to the Dominican Republic. And then, to double-down on our "all your eggs in one basket" philosophy, we add 10 more flights from Florida to the Dominican Republic. Because DR is where all the money is.

We better keep it quiet though... because if Southwest, Delta, or United ever figure out that airline money just grows on trees in the DR, then they'll want to swoop in for a piece of the action.

Originally Posted by Boomer

JetBlue doesn't want that US flying, so we close more Blue Cities and add ten more flights from NYC to the Dominican Republic. And then, to double-down on our "all your eggs in one basket" philosophy, we add 10 more flights from Florida to the Dominican Republic. Because DR is where all the money is.

We better keep it quiet though... because if Southwest, Delta, or United ever figure out that airline money just grows on trees in the DR, then they'll want to swoop in for a piece of the action.