Comment by AshleyGrant | Hacker News Reader

Comment by AshleyGrant | Hacker News Reader

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You get what you pay for. If you want to pay absolute bottom-dollar prices, you're going to get absolute bottom-dollar service. If you want to pay more you can and will get more services. I've hung out at an on-board bar on a 777 in the last year on a flight from Australia to the US, but the ticket cost over $8k USD round-trip.

It's possible to have a private shower and bedroom onboard an A380 flight, but you will pay dearly for the privilege.

There's room in the market for both extremes as well as in the middle. I doubt you'll get a buffet service on a round trip ticket that costs <$500 (trans-oceanic, at least) as it likely is not economical to offer that. That being said, there are airlines that are offering improved options even in Economy cabins... they just charge for it. An example is Air New Zealand's "Economy Skycouch" https://www.airnewzealand.com/economy-skycouch

So with the possibility that this design could save on fuel costs, maybe airlines will be able to sell upgraded experiences at prices that are today bare-bones. Time will tell.

The problem is that now there's so much price pressure on the economy seats, they are subsidized by the more expensive options. If you want a first class seat today, that takes 50% more room on the aircraft, you will pay what, 2, 3, 4 times as much money? There's really no middle ground. I'm fine with that, cause I have a family or four, we're all short, and I'm cheap, but I guess that makes me part of the problem. :D

"Take from the rich, give to the poor!"

Although in my experience, many companies that don't care that much about travel expenses pay most of the economy seats. At least on the transatlantic flights I've been on.

Im 6'5" and cant afford 1st class. I am miserable and my knees are jammed against the seat for hours. 1 inch more and I'd be fine.

There has got to be more tiers

There is usually both premium economy and business class between economy and first.

I very rarely see both business and first on a given flight and can’t recall ever seeing it on a narrow body.

Most longer intercontinental flights have both business and first in my experience. But I agree that I don't think I've seen it on a narrow body airplane

Economy, Premimum Economy, Business, First. How many tiers do you want?

He wants to pay 5% more for a couple more inches of leg room.

He said he couldn't afford First. There's literally two other tiers in between that and Economy.

Do any of those tiers allow paying 5% more for a couple of inches of legroom?

For $15-$35 more (usually) there are seats with 6" extra legroom.

Yeah that's just not true at all in the US. Delta's premium economy gives an extra inch or so. Sometimes you can get lucky in finding one of the few seats with no person in front of you. But those go fast, and usually to people who don't even need them(not that there is a problem of need, but as a fellow 6'5er it is a bit annoying). Even so, even on shorter hauls, that kind of upgrade is typically in the 100 dollar range.

Yes. I don't fly too much, and I never saw these upgrades..unless they were quite expensive...and it is per flight, meaning, if there are several layovers, you pay for each plane.

Literally everything you said is false. It's $25-$35 or so in the US for 6"+ extra room. It's never been in the $100+ range in any flight I've ever been on.

I do it all the time.

Can you cite even a single source? I, unfortunately, fly all the time. Chicago to SFO upgrade on United is 129 dollars. And you don't get 6 inches more legroom...

https://gyazo.com/24ccae9fe9c155020b20ea2398ce6cbc

https://gyazo.com/1cfc5e5edb0aa4a9734138fce73c002e

Both American flights I'm taking in the next month. All have increased legroom, it literally says "Up to 6 inches".

Heh, I suppose I should mention these are out of Tulsa... :)

Well, thanks for that. I'll admit I'm a bit surprised, and also spoke too broadly(aka, wrong...perhaps). I'm curious now what airline/route that's for. Even my direct 2 hour flights to DC cost 40 to 50 to upgrade at a minimum, the last one wanted 69 dollars...

Exit row seats?

First class seats take up way more space than 50% more. Look at the seat maps on something like SeatGuru. On width alone they take up over twice the space, and I'd guess depth would be far more.

The ticket price categories are surely determined by what they can sell for (price segmentation) not their cost to provide.

> The problem is that now there's so much price pressure on the economy seats, they are subsidized by the more expensive options.

Are you really suggesting that airlines make a loss on economy seats?

Airlines have been having record profit the last several years, especially in the US. Over the last decade they have figured out how to take back pricing power from the internet and they've gotten better at data anlysis and price discrimination.

> It's possible to have a private shower and bedroom onboard an A380 flight, but you will pay dearly for the privilege.

I wonder if a paid shower pass system would work. You wait your turn, but you get to take a shower, for, say, something like $100. Just seems like it's kept to an all-or-nothing on purpose.

What percentage of fare price is fuel?

From my experience, flying longer connections actually makes the price lower. Significantly. For example 30% longer flight, half the normal price. So nobody really cares about fuel in pricing

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