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By: 28th April 2006 at 13:28 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-This is one apsect that makes things like capacity available, catering, etc. difficult for an airline. On the up side they can charge more for flexible tickets.
What a lot of business people with flexible tickets do is book a flight planned around the latest they are likely to finish their working day. Invariably they are able to finish early, so they try their luck on earlier flights (either checked-in straight away if seats are available, or on standby if they are not), safe in the knowledge that if all else fails they still have a reservation on the later flight they originally booked on.
On key business routes around the UK and Europe, the passenger loads on flights departing around 1600 are generally higher than booked, whilst those departing around 1800 are generally lower.
1L.
By: 29th April 2006 at 09:40 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-This is one apsect that makes things like capacity available, catering, etc. difficult for an airline.
Standby on earlier flight sounds a relatively cheap way of providing flexibility. At the point of transaction, everyone wins. The passenger gets transported; the airline gets rid of a seat about to fly empty by exchanging it for a seat on a later flight, whereby they gain some time to try and sell the seat, or else decrease catering or crew needed for the later flight. And if the earlier flight is sold out, or so many people want to standby on earlier flight that not all can be accommodated, they can fly as booked and neither the passenger nor the airline is any worse off than if the airline had declined to allow standby.
But I presume that flexibility should always cost to provide and there would be a catch somewhere. Or not? One thing I see is that there would be high demand to book the later flights, as they provide the flexibility...
By: 29th April 2006 at 10:20 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-Just re-reading my post, one thing that I didn't make very clear is that 'standing by' isn't in itself how the airlines want to provide flexibility. It's just an extra thing that some airlines allow passengers to do as a way of increasing flexibility over and above ticket flexibility.
Standby on earlier flight sounds a relatively cheap way of providing flexibility.
You are right that it is a relatively cheap way of doing this, but there are some cost implications. For example an airline cannot reduce the order of catering from it's supplier at short notice without paying for it anyway. The 'difficulty' I referred to was really just in the sense of getting the catering, crewing levels, etc., right when the passengers loads go up or down within minutes of departure.
1L.
By: 29th April 2006 at 11:28 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-Just re-reading my post, one thing that I didn't make very clear is that 'standing by' isn't in itself how the airlines want to provide flexibility. It's just an extra thing that some airlines allow passengers to do as a way of increasing flexibility over and above ticket flexibility.
Then how do the airlines want to provide flexibility?
You are right that it is a relatively cheap way of doing this, but there are some cost implications. For example an airline cannot reduce the order of catering from it's supplier at short notice without paying for it anyway. The 'difficulty' I referred to was really just in the sense of getting the catering, crewing levels, etc., right when the passengers loads go up or down within minutes of departure.
I understand that with standby to the earlier flight, the passenger loads within minutes of departure can only go up - not down - and they cannot go higher than the amount of seats.
The passenger loads of a flight can go down only until the previous flight has left...
By: 29th April 2006 at 22:04 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
-Then how do the airlines want to provide flexibility?
By allowing passengers to change their bookings in advance rather than by turning up for a different flight, and by being flexible with capacity to ensure seats are available rather than having passengers on standby.
The passenger loads of a flight can go down only until the previous flight has left...
That's true, but don't forget that shorthaul flights are usually round trip catered from base, and on a high frequency route it is quite likely that by the time a passenger turns up for the earlier flight, the later flight will already have left base, naturally making it too late to change catering figures or crewing levels.
Don't over analyse what I am saying, these sort of things aren't a disaster for the airlines as they are very good at pre-empting such changes, and they allow for them in catering figures and so on. It's just a good example of how getting such things right can be a challenge.
1L
Posts: 1,101
By: chornedsnorkack - 28th April 2006 at 12:50
Airlines commonly let people ticketed on their flight travel on standby basis that is if there are available flights, on earlier flights.
Does it mean that a lot of tickets are bought on late flights which the buyers do not plan on taking because they plan on travelling earlier on standby basis?