Ancillary Revenues

I was reading a recently published e-book THE ANCILLARY ART Maximizing Airline Ancillary Revenue & Customer Loyalty – Miyuru Sandaruwan which makes interesting reading (click here to download).

When low cost airlines started, they unbundled air fares, they went back to basics and anything else was paid for on demand (food, blankets, newspapers etc..). In the last couple of years legacy airlines started unbundling their air fares, except with a twist, their air fares remained the same, so it was like paying twice for the same thing, with no additional value added.

My pet peeve is Checked Bags. You pay for the bags and you get no guarantees. It took United Airlines 40 minutes to get my checked bag to the baggage claim area in Chicago, considering my flight from Detroit to Chicago was about an hour. Of course my bag was not the only bag in the hold, there were more unpaid for bags in the hold than paid. All these oversize so called carry-ons, ended up in the hold and got delivered at arrival at the door of the aircraft. So on most US carriers you have no baggage allowance when you travel on an aircraft and for sure dishonesty apparently pays.

It appears that the airlines gave up on efficiency and savings and good customer service as a means to improve revenues. Instead they reverted to all these surcharges that amount to paying twice for the same things and the irony in all of this, these ancillary revenues mostly apply to economy class passengers, the mainstay of their traffic, that sustained the airlines as their darlings in Business and First class abandoned them and jumped ship.

Ah well, go figure....

Angels in the Sky

Summer holidays are almost over and by now most of us have flown and came back home. We also swapped our horror and war stories of how terrible the service on board the aircraft was or said our few kind words about how helpful the Cabin Crew/Flight Attendant(s) were.

Well, have you ever wondered why are these young (or in some cases not so young) women and men on board the flight. For most of us, they are here to do the service, and be there for our every little request. Try again, these are highly trained people, they spend five weeks doing initial training in Safety and Security Procedures, First Aid and Fire Fighting among other subject and then have periodic training to stay current.

Their main purpose in life is to make sure that the passengers remain safe and secured and finally well served with a smile.

So next time you travel don't bring on board carry on luggage that weighs more than your checked baggage and expect them to lift it for you (there is a reason why not, if one hurts their back and have to be offloaded passengers may have to be offloaded to stay within the rule of 50 passengers per Cabin Crew/Flight Attendant);

or sneak to the toilet for a cigarette and set smoke alarms or God forbid start a fire;

or horse around and be unruly (trust me they will restrain you)

Try to make their life a little easier and they will do their best to keep you safe and secure and mostly happy.

They are your Angels in the Sky.