JetBlue, Frontier, Northwest and United are among the airline leaders in the art of upsell. This practice allows the airlines to keep a low price available in sales channels to entice customers to buy, then they offer upgrades for larger seats, inflight entertainment and food.
Is this new practice of advertising the lowest price and then adding in extras, bait and switch or similar to a GM car salesman adding options to the basic Chevy? What about hidden fees like baggage?
All four airlines are running various forms of upsells. JetBlue, that always had good legroom, now sells an additional four inches of pitch. Frontier sells three levels of service after advertising its lowest-price seats. Northwest, the pioneer with its sales of exit rows and up-front aisle seats, does its upgrades at check-in kiosks. United is beginning to sell upgraded seats right on the plane with their flight attendants carrying portable credit card machines that can sell the better seat even after the flight has taken off.
Though Frontier tried to raise airfares several times by as little as $5, they immediately saw a drop in bookings. Once prices dropped, sales returned to pre-increase levels. The upsell path has been surprisingly effective.
Frontier has been seeking to improve its performance by revenue raising measures for the past 12 months as it aims to exit Chapter 11 this year. Hiking fares was not possible as it “would have bled traffic to Southwest and United”, its main competitors at Denver, says Young. “Over the summer we did strategically try to raise fares on some markets. But the minute we put $5 on the fare we saw demand fall off and the minute we took it off bookings would go back up again,” says Young.
The Frontier solution was to create three different levels of service. Travelers can pay $20 more for its Classic class, offering extras like Frontier’s in-seat TV service and seat assignments, or they can opt for Classic Plus with in-flight food and priority boarding, plus all of the above for $50.
The upsell has been far more successful than the 15-20 percent the airline has expected for offering.
United Airlines is taking the upsell a step further. It is the first airline to equip their flight attendants with credit card scanners and have them upgrade passengers after they have boarded.
Remember the old days when an empty seat was fair game once the aircraft doors were closed? Those days are fading as passengers who choose to move can now be easily charged extra.
There has been some push back from the flight attendant union. However, once the system is in place, I expect point-of-sale upgrades to continue.
There has been a lot of talk in congressional transportation circles about requiring airlines to advertise “inclusive prices” that include basics like luggage, landing fees and taxes. But, these upgrades and the new point-of-sale upsells have not yet been addressed. I expect these programs to continue to expand.
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The only problem with it is that I wasn’t able to buy “economy plus” when I first got my ticket. It is a lot easier to turn in one receipt for a plane ticket rather than a plane ticket receipt and then an upgrade which is another third of the ticket.
Rather than pay anymore than necessary for a ticket, I prefer to have a choice and have no problem with upselling. For some routes I’d rather pay for a larger seat; for others it might not be necessary. But I like to have a choice.
The next time an airline shows that it understands its customer will be the first.
Remember the old days when an empty seat was fair game once the aircraft doors were closed? Those days are fading as passengers who choose to move can now be easily charged extra.
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NOT on my flights, once the door closed and there were seats in first class, there was no way of knowing who was first on the (FF) list and so on. That can of worms stayed closed as far as I was concerned. Freq flyers know better, once on that list, they use the flight attendant to check the status of empty seats up front before push back.
Most of the up-sells are fine by me. I can pick and choose depeniding on length of light and my state of fatigue, etc.
What is NOT alright, is holding back the cost of things that are not optional such as baggage charges, taxes and fees and the complete and final basic roundtrip fare. That needs to be out front and the ONLY price permitted in advertising and on the official website.
The term “lowest” fare should be allowed, by regulation, only if the fare is, in fact, the lowest the airline is officially aware of. If they sell seats on a flight to a bucket shop, the “lowest” label must come off their official site as the airline has surrendered on the price front.
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I’m premier with United and I certainly stick with United because of their policy of stopping people from moving up. I’ve been on flights and enjoyed the perks of an empty middle seat when standard coach was packed. I’d feel cheated if middle-seaters from the back could just move up for 4 more inches of legroom leaving someone in the back with an empty seat that may rarely fly.
As far as Frontier is concerned I think they are doing a great job with their model. It’s very clear and you get what you pay for. If you’re going from Portland to Denver and aren’t checking a bag and are willing to get your seat assignment at the last minute, then the super cheap fare is for.