An Airline With Something Extra

In the early days of air transportation, people use to get dressed up to fly. It was considered a luxurious experience and passengers dressed accordingly. Ever since that time, flying has become more accessible to more people. It is now an accepted and expected form of travel, just the natural way to get from one place to another. It’s cheap and easy (not as easy as it was before 9/11 of course, but probably cheaper).

As air travel became more commonplace, passengers gradually lost the sense that they needed to dress luxuriously. People no longer felt that flying was only for the sophisticated elite. Suddenly everyone, from business travelers to casual tourists, is flying when they need to get someplace…and they’re often bringing their kids with them.

The idea for this entry came from one of my friends who had recently been seated on a plane next to a coughing child. Children are often hard to deal with on an airplane; they cry and scream and cough and sneeze. It really is overwhelming and hard to accept. And even harder to sit next to for any serious amount of time. So my friend told me that something that should exist is an adults-only airline.

Pretty soon after hearing that idea, I also heard that there is some specific reason why such a thing does not exist. It might have been something to do with discrimination. Regardless, I don’t want to dwell too much on the idea of preventing anyone from flying. I believe air travel should be open to anyone. There should not be arbitrary limits to who may and may not take advantage of this privilege. However, the idea did get me to start thinking about something very closely related to this.

Because flying has become more and more accessible to greater numbers of people, airlines have been forced to compete for business. Of course competition is an idea as old as capitalism and it’s an important part of business. The drawback is that most travelers have become price-buyers, only really interested in finding the lowest fares for their air travel. Airlines combat this with incentive programs that reward regular passengers for their loyalty. These programs are nice but as an admitted price buyer, I know that those loyalty programs don’t really work on me. Rather than remaining loyal to one airline because of the program, I simply join many programs and make sure I appropriately apply for mileage credit from the airline that offered me the cheapest fare.

So the thing that really should exist here is a quality experience. There needs to be an airline that offers something better than a low fare. Many may try to advertise excellent service or more leg-room, but what they need to do is offer something truly unique, something that will be remembered as being a unique part of that airline. Sure, that could include certain flights on which children are forbidden. Maybe it could be a flight on which people must dress nicely instead of in comfortable, pajama-like clothing. Maybe there are themes that could be explored, or exciting giveaways that could take place mid-flight. Surely none of these ideas would resonate with every passenger, but if an airline could come up with just the perfect experience for their passengers, it would put them ahead of the competition. As long as the price is not much more expensive, I believe people would even be willing to pay slightly more for an airline that will provide them with an enjoyable experience.

To be quite honest, all it would take for me is free wine or beer. I remember only two specific airlines that offered complimentary wine or beer on the flight. They were both regional airlines, but if I ever fly to those regions again I will definitely try to use those airlines. Are you a price-buyer? What would get you to pay a little more for an airline? Have you had any airline experiences that would keep you coming back to that airline?


"There's nothing cheap about loyalty." - Up In the Air