Yes ...in a way...I do work for 'pissant' airline (althought is has many many good qualities, pricing is not one of them. )

Two examples: ...a pax has her mom in the hospital (suddenly) and must go to STL ...my work computer says the best immediate fare is $1049 .... so we tell her to check online where it is $310. This lady is over a barrel so to speak...she does not have time to check OAL's.. or even change terminals...she has to get there!

However...after seeing other's fare, and our wide pricing model, $740 difference, will she ever fly us again?

A price should be a price...if the Airlines want to supply/demand price...then they should set 'x' number of seats aside at a price, then 'y' number seats aside ..and it should/could be first come first serve... a huge discrepency like that should not be available from a single company. Sure, run out of a class, or the majority of a class of seats, raise the price...no problem ....but if you offer it on Expedia at one price, the company's website at another...and yet a third price at the ticket counter or on a phone reservation...THIS CREATES NEGATIVE GOOD WILL with the discerning customer, it is just plain bad business ...imho


Also, my company offers a fare between two cities ...call them X and Y for $239. However, if the same pax wants to go from X to Z, w/a connect in Y, it's $129 (like this for 3 cities) ... this is not only bizzare pricing...but BS to the pax that feels he/she is getting ripped off, again, negative goodwill ... translating to less revenue and less repeat business.


I know we are in a business that has evolved to the way things work now are considered "the Natural Order of things!" .... if it works, why mess w/it? I am not naive ...and while I do have the experience and education to run a 25-50 million dollar company, I wouldn't pretend for a second to be able to positively affect our industry, or such sizeable companies, (nor want to try)

I know at my station (and this would apply to about 50-60 more like mine just w/my company) I could increase wealth maximization through dozens of both quantitative and qualitative means ...resulting in millions of dollars of net profit.

The point here is one of those means would be customer satisfation and retention...instead of the increasing occurance of seeing my company book/ticket just one connect from my station (because it is the only way out) and then seeing the pax book two additional connects to get to their destination on OAL's, even though we fly there

(often that is the case because of lower prices on OAL's, as well as customer dissatifaction, both avoidable and undesirable!)

I'd be curious...If you had to pay for it, how many here would travel w/their company?

No reflection on the quality of my company, but I simply would not based on price (I know for a fact I could find lower fares, both through reservations and online w/OAL's, finding the pricing intregrety I am asking for is another story!)