• winterayars@sh.itjust.works
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    10 months ago

    “People don’t want to pay what you’re charging so you should drop the price”

    AA: “No”

    Repost to scare an economics 101 class.

      • makunamatata@discuss.tchncs.de
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        10 months ago

        The 16 first class seats will be replaced by 30 economy plus seats, increasing capacity by 14 additional passengers per flight and reducing cost of first class food and equipment to serve. A win-win for company and shareholders but a loss to consumer choice.

      • Crack0n7uesday@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        More like a supply and demand issue I would think, the issue here being there is no demand for first class seating so they are limiting the amount of “supply” of those seats to accommodate for less demand. Some airlines don’t offer first class seating at all, like Southwest.

        • HipHoboHarold@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          It’s less that there’s not a demand so much as supply and demand work together. Not appart. When it comes to accounting, there are different ways to look at different things. The main one is financial accounting. Another one is taxes.

          In the case of this: managerial accounting. Something that a lot of corporations seem to be failing at lately. Managerial accounting is basically finding information to report to the managers. For instance, breaking down the cost of an item to see how much it costs to produce, comparing it to how much it makes, etc.

          One thing they do is figuring out how much to raise the cost of a good/service. It’s a slight gamble in that you can never be 100% sure, but they try to find that sweet spot where they can raise it without scaring away too many people and eventually losing money. In this case, they charge too much. The cost of flying, like everything else, has gone up. And we get worse service while there. So if you’re raising the cost of the different services, and you find that people are now only going with the cheaper option, you have likely started over charging. You need to drop the price of both services.

          For instance, I might be willing to spend an extra $50 for an upgrade. But if you raise the price of the cheap service by $100, now I don’t have the money. Make the gap between the two $100, and now I really don’t have enough.

          Of course, when every company made it a race to riase proces as much as possible, at this point I don’t think many companies have much of a choice. They all kind of fucked everything all at once, including themselves. But they made a profit in the short term, so there’s that.

    • Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca
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      10 months ago

      They could simply be chasing the largest profit.

      If you have 40 first class seats instead of 60 regular seats, why would you drop the price of the first class if you could make more with the 60 regular seats.

  • Daqu@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    Business class costs 5x economy, first class is 10x

    I would have to work months to be more comfortable for a few hours. Nope.

      • chuckleslord@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        No, it’s expensive but not “private plane” expensive. I rode first-class international once because I was recovering from covid and didn’t want to deal with the pain of coach (and the travel company that was responsible for my getting covid was paying some of the bill). I’m also 6’4" and don’t physically fit in coach. So like, yeah, I’m being physically forced out of coach cause it’s too small and I have to pay out the ass to just exist on a plane without physical pain. Must mean I have my own jet, and not that I’m getting fucked.

        • hydration9806@lemmy.ml
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          10 months ago

          From another tall guy, how was it? Obviously not worth the price, but is it absolutely not worth the price or just very not worth the price?

          • chuckleslord@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            It was the most comfortable plane flight in my life. It wasn’t super comfortable, the sleeper pod things are made for smaller people obviously, but there wasn’t pain and there were positions I could move through if one got a little too uncomfy. It was so nice compared to every other flight in my life.

          • 🐍🩶🐢@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            While I am not super tall, I am heavy. The one time I got to fly international first class was the first and only time I could sleep on a plane. I got a nice large bourbon, fluffy comforter, pillow, and burrito-ed myself in that pod. It was utterly glorious. I was glad that I wasn’t paying for it… Was something around 4k for a 5-6 hour flight.

            If the flight is international and sufficiently long, getting better seats is worth it. Better food. Free booze. Lounge access (it depends…). More space. If the price is right, get first.

    • MissJinx@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      The truth is.If you have first class money you have money to get your own plane and go anywhere without babies crying.

      • Bathtubwalrus@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        This isn’t true at all… My wife and I fly first class and are no where near being able to afford flying private 🤣 the no babies part would be fantastic though.

          • Bathtubwalrus@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            It’s ma’am! 🤪 And huge difference, like $1000 for first class domestic, compared to $10,000 per hour for private domestic minimum or memberships that are $100k+ just to join.

      • Daqu@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        I compared AA flights from NYC to Paris on Google flights. Those were the real prices.

  • NotMelon@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Who exactly are they eliminating? Their customers or international first class tickets? Or maybe both?

  • doctorcrimson@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Makes sense, there is no US middle class anymore. The wealthy can just use a private jet while the poor are put on overbooked flights. Wealth disparity is getting worse and not better.

    • HopFlop@discuss.tchncs.de
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      10 months ago

      Middle class? First class tickets were never for the middle class. Maybe it’s just that

      • business class it good enough, even for rich people
      • American Airlines’ first class is so bad that the first class passengers just go to other airlines…
  • aeronmelon@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    People who want to be treated like human beings on an airplane are already not flying American Airlines.

    • pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online
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      10 months ago

      I don’t really care about airlines, but AA is the only airliner that flies out of the local regional airport (only flies to a bigger airport a few hours away), and I’ve never had any issues with them.

      The worst I’ve had was having to listen to a flight attendent talk about God because I was on the last row.

    • TenderfootGungi@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      We usually fly AA on flights to Europe. We live near KC, so our choices are AA or United (IIRC). And we prefer AA’s time schedule. Outside of major cities there is little choice to many destinations.

  • ramble81@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    I’ve flown on AA’s international business and first class. The difference is negligible in terms of the seats and most people in them were complimentary upgrades since they couldn’t fill the seats.

    The bigger differences were on the ground with the dining and check in. So all AA is doing is creating a “Business Plus” category that gets you the first class amenities on the ground and then a business class seat. This lets them put more business class seats on the plane and open things up to a bigger revenue stream.

  • Marcbmann@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I need to fly from NJ to California in a few months. Economy tickets are around $275. I’d like a bit of extra legroom for the long flight, so I check out Economy plus. Economy plus tickets are $800. What in the actual fuck is this? It’s not first class. I get no added benefits other than a few inches of extra leg room.

    • ikidd@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Buy 2 seats, 1 behind the other, for $550 then walk in there with a toolbox and yeet that seat out through the emergency door onto the tarmac. You get more than a few inches and it only cost twice as much.

  • derf82@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Lots of companies are willing to pay for international business class, but not first class. So airlines have responded by making business class nicer and nicer. That, in turn, has made former first class passengers just buy business class because it’s almost as good for cheaper. So people are not buying first class tickets, so might as well eliminate them and add more business.

    Worth noting that domestic first class (which is what they show) is a totally different thing.

  • Subverb@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    They’re right. Few buy First Class tickets because the uptick in comfort and service from Business Class is tiny for the increase in cost. I fly Business but would never pony up for First.

  • taanegl@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I’m guessing that’s because the international flights that Americans use instead are from other countries that does not have first class areas, in that everyone gets the same seating and leg space.

    Such a disgusting socialist ploy. The CIA should coup the pilot and copilot and divvy up the plane in “desirables” and “undesirables”, to then pin them against each other.

    Call operation “Spiraling Eagle”.