Comment by yongjik | Hacker News Reader

Comment by yongjik | Hacker News Reader

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> Air travel seems like this as most airlines and manufacturers seem to bend over backwards for their wealthy and high margin passengers and basically treat economy class as ...

You got it backwards. If economy passengers preferred better services to cheaper fare, they would have chosen airlines with better services, and airlines would have to adapt accordingly, offering better and more expensive services.

They can't, because when it comes to their wallets, passengers don't actually prefer that, whatever they say online.

Business/first class passengers are a minority group who say "Fuck it, I have money, I want to be treated like I have money." So of course airlines offer them better service - at a much higher price.

    > Business/first class passengers are a minority group who say "Fuck it, I have money, I want to be treated like I have money."

I'm pretty sure that that majority of people flying in business class are paid for by their employer. First class is another story: It is people not quite rich enough for private jets, but want to sleep on their flight. Hardly any business pays for first class tickets. However, many regular business travellers can accrue enough miles to get periodic upgrades.

> If economy passengers preferred better services to cheaper fare, they would have chosen airlines with better services

It's not quite that simple. Unless you fly a lot, it's hard to know about service differences between two airlines -- which has better air quality, more efficient disembarking, fewer recitals of the credit card pitch, etc. Passengers have to make their choices based on the subset of their preferences that they can actually compare, which is a pretty small subset.

Not that price isn't very important! But if I make my decision based on just (schedule, price, luggage policy, seat pitch, seat location), it's because that's all the info I've got.

There is also the airline brand as an information. Some are explicitly branded as low-cost/low-comfort other not.

Some of us are saying "Fuck it. I have money and want to fit in my seat"

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