We are not really unbundling airfares at all, are we? Let’s face it, what it boils down to, is increasingly frenetic attempts to milk more money from long suffering cattle class passengers. No, really (say airlines) we are giving people the choice.
Are they? I want to travel; from A to B – but in first class. So, how much has, say, my pushing £10,000 fare across the pond been “unbundled”? I don’t have any bags, so the 3 pc allowance can be discounted – No, it can’t, say the airlines. I don’t want any food, so that can go as well. Erm… No, again, says the airline. I don’t drink… Nope. No allowance for that. Okay – Now, Here’s a real killer – I don’t need the lounges or the shower on arrival or the extra special check-in or the…. No, no, no say the airline. Actually, the same applies in business class and, where appropriate, in Premium Economy.
So, tell me, Why have others got the “choice” whereas I am stuck with having to pay for all this stuff I don’t want or need – Why can’t I get a cheaper first or business class fare? Well, you see, (says Mr Airline) we are basically making you pay something towards that lot down the back so we have to make it worth your while. And as you have clearly more money than sense, Mr My-Company-is-Paying-The Bill, what we are offering does not really cost all that much anyway, as we charge you a going rate….
My point is this. If unbundling is really a concept airlines wish to pursue, then all passengers should have the “right” to have an unbundled fare. Just unbundling the Y cabin, really supports the premise that it is all about trying to claw back some of the money lost, in a despotic attempt to offer fares that are hoplessly out of kilter with legacy airlines air travel costs, rather than deal with the real cost problems inherent in their arcane structures.
There are other issues as well. Unbundling works for low cost carriers because they operate short haul point to point stuff, aimed mainly at leisure travellers and the real budget end of the air travel spectrum. When we move into the medium and long haul arenas, it’s another ball game. Especially when we stray beyond simple there-and-back stuff.
One of the big features of present medium and long haul arrangements is that the rules (perhaps I should say “conventions”) are pretty much universal. So, I can go from Zurich to Riyadh to Dubai to Karachi and back to Zurich in the knowledge that, having bought my ticket and established at my starting point what I am taking with me and what I get is all included, I can be sure that the same conventions will apply throughout my trip. If things get unbundled without taking present conventions in mind, things get a bit tricky. So leg 1: Luggage Okay, but have to pay for food. Leg 2: Food included but have to pay for baggage; Leg 3: No luggage or food included… and so on. We also find another issue: What does my ticket include? Would the ticket selling airline have to tell me what is and what is not included – and would I be able to take it all in without a) having a laughing fit and start shouting “You can’t be serious” down the line – or b) simply give them the address of a good pshyco-analyst? Or do we find ourselves in the same hoplessley banal situation similar to the UK’s railways, whereby if I walk into my local railway station and ask for a ticket from Gerrards Cross to Leeds, I will be told that I can buy a ticket to Marylebone and then would have to buy another ticket at Euston – so, in airline terms, the carrier from Zurich would say “I can sell you a ticket to Riyadh and then you will have to buy another one there”.
It would not take long for anyone to work out what a devastating affect this would have on the practicality of global air travel, not to mention the cost of buying one way, point to point fares.
… just thought I would throw this in!
