Re: If you can't find a seat, have a refund.
- From: Phil Richards <philrichards1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 19:26:38 +0100
allan tracy wrote:
> Tradditionally, scheduled air fares have always been cheaper the later
> one purchased a ticket i.e. the closer the airline came to flying an
> empty seat.
Possibly, though I think you'll find fares leap up in price as the last few
seats get taken. In other words the same as the low cost airlines.
> Low cost airline tickets and nowadays train tickets get more expensive
> the nearer the date of travel but why?
To encourage early booking and to a certain extent to build up a picture of
demand. Airlines will vary their pricing according to how their flights are
filling up much more carefully than the railways. The likes of Ryanair will
have "seat sales" and cheap seats available quite close to departure time
if there is plenty of spare capacity.
The problem the railways have is they don't open up ticket
sales/reservations very far in advance (two, may be three months) whilst
the airlines will take booking 6 or more months ahead.
> This only makes sense if you are tailoring your service frequency to
> ticket demand. I presume this is what low cost airlines do, canceling
> flights that are undersold.
I think you'll find the low cost airlines cancel very few services through
low demand on a route that generally loads well. Yes, they will have the
odd flight that fills poorly, however that is offset by numerous flights
that load to full capacity.
> I have even seen examples of a whole route being pulled, when demand has
> been low, even if tickets have already been sold.
Airlines have to look at the profitability of a route bearing in mind it is
traffic just from point A to point B. ISTR Ryanair will axe a route if they
can't achieve less than 80% loadings. In principle there is nothing wrong
in that, may be they do have to cancel all services because the route isn't
doing well. However they will refund your monies in full, the same if, for
example, you book a holiday which gets cancelled if there are not enough
bookings.
> But the railway can't do this, the train is a scheduled service and
> will run regardless of the number of tickets sold. So why are train
> tickets not marketed the scheduled airline way with last minute
> bargains if the seats are still empty and full price if you book in
> advance with a guarenteed seat?
Railways do this, French Railways (SNCF) have last minute deals on their
TGV services using eTickets - something that most of the UK TOCs seem to be
scared of. However they too like British TOCs believe (correctly) that
those willing to book *and* pay early should benefit from lower fares.
Often you have to commit yourself to the train you book on as refund and
change conditions are very (or completely) inflexible.
There is nothing to stop the UK TOCs selling last minute deals on half
empty trains, though they would have to be quota controlled with seat
reservations. However most (including myself) believe the best way to run a
railway is not force people to book seat, still being able give those the
option of turning up and not being turned away.
--
Phil Richards
London, UK
Home Page: http://www.philrichards1.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
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