What would you be willing to pay airlines more for?

[Mattg]

Airlines are always looking for ways to increase ancillary revenue by selling more products or finding value-adds that they can monetise.

At the risk of giving airlines good ideas, I'm interested to ask what products or services airlines are not currently offering, but that you would be willing to pay extra for if they did?

For example, I'd probably be willing to pay a bit more for a better meal in economy class - a bit like Lufthansa and Austrian used to offer. Those meals were very good and worth the extra price IMHO.

I'm not sure how I feel about Condor selling reserved overhead locker space, but that could put some people at ease who are worried about not having anywhere to store their bag if they board last.

I think it would also be cool if more airlines would sell a whole row of economy seats, like Air New Zealand and Air Astana do.

What are your ideas?

 

[henrus]

Qantas group specific, on Qantas a product offering that’s an add on to your flight that increases points earned (United does this with their program). For example a Sydney to Melbourne flight earns 800 points but for say $10-20 you can double the earning.

I’m also always surprised that Jetstar doesn’t offer any form of paid priority boarding and or check in. On other low cost carriers around the world plenty of people pay for this service. Jetstar Asia operated flights does have some form of priority boarding which is rows 1, 11 and 12 (the exit rows) but this is only done so there is enough baggage space for all bags to go in the overhead.

 

[tdimdad]

Decent legroom & recline in Y + better meals in Y.

Medium and long-haul on most airlines in Y is a cramped affair. One way to do this would be to split the Y cabins and fares into two groups: half of the cabin is cramped seating and half is spaced out better (which we should call normal). The fares follow this: sale & saver fares entitle for a seat in the dense section and flex fares or an extra fee buys you a normal seat. From the fare availability viewpoint, it would need the airline to control the fare buckets to match the availability of seats in each section.

$10 extra for a nice meal would be a winner for me, as well.

 

[CaptJCool]

@Mattg
Please don’t gift them ideas
Next thing you know there’ll be a carbon tax for the supply of fresh air
Or toilet vouchers
Or BYO toilet paper
BYO corkage
BYO device - credit where it’s due but that cops an individuality tax for playing your own music or movie choices $70
Or a premium Seat belt offering - you want a fancy dancy buckle $130 more but look at that Instagram reel
How about toe crushing ?
Soon you’ll be charged to walk on with a pair of shoes. Of course a heftier price for RMs or Doc
Martens

Perhaps a bad taste clothing tax
And definitely $299 more if wearing a kilt !
Larger seat recline perfect for $50
And $95 if reveling in meal service
Come to think of it there should be a single traveller surcharge
A fee for late arrival
A ban on compensation for late departures
Blimey flight attendants could sell an in flight lottery
How about flogging off Aussie artworks delivered direct to your seat.
Could charge more for zany earrings
A tasteless food surcharge
The sky’s the limit on what could be separately charged to the customer
Purchase a guaranteed personalised compliment announcement from the captain $47
A happy birthday sticker adorns your traytable $99
Wait you want to use the IFE $8 there
Tray table surely knot $20
Straws come at $3
Take home souvenir Cloth napkins at $6 or wooden forks at $2
Lemonade is the new profit centre
Tik-tok
Now as for business customers
Well where do I start ?

 

[Sprucegoose]

And definitely $299 more if wearing a kilt !

Would that be a cleaning fee?

 

[Duffa]

Decent legroom & recline in Y + better meals in Y.

Medium and long-haul on most airlines in Y is a cramped affair. One way to do this would be to split the Y cabins and fares into two groups: half of the cabin is cramped seating and half is spaced out better (which we should call normal). The fares follow this: sale & saver fares entitle for a seat in the dense section and flex fares or an extra fee buys you a normal seat. From the fare availability viewpoint, it would need the airline to control the fare buckets to match the availability of seats in each section.

$10 extra for a nice meal would be a winner for me, as well.

Haven't you just described premium economy???

 

[CaptJCool]

Would that be a cleaning fee?

YES
haggis spills for sure …

 

[Sprucegoose]

YES
haggis spills for sure …

Unstable substances at altitude.

 

[Forg]

It would water-down the appeal for F & high-status customers, but I reckon there'd be a few J passengers who'd be happy to pay a reasonable amount extra for F lounge access. Take-up of that option would depend on departure location though, eg. pointless paying for it if leaving from an airport where there is no reasonable F option (eg. QF departing AKL).

 

[Bundy Bear]

Extra legroom on mid to long haul
A330 and above
The first 2 / 3 rows of economy, I guess Qantas have started it with the A220 but expand to A330s especially as they aren’t going to add PE on those aircraft, some of us are tall and need some space which I am happy to pay for, but not fake Jetstar upfront row 2 stuff.

 

[CaptJCool]

It would water-down the appeal for F & high-status customers, but I reckon there'd be a few J passengers who'd be happy to pay a reasonable amount extra for F lounge access.

And would they be willing on top of the entry fee, pay for champagne by the glass and food by the plate ?

 

[henrus]

And would they be willing on top of the entry fee, pay for champagne by the glass and food by the plate ?

Air France does this well. For passengers who have flown F once in the last 12 months and are flying on a route that doesn’t have F, they sell F ground service (F check in and lounge) for 650 Euro (that’s about au$1000).

 

[Himeno]

I'd like airlines to be able to get the basic requirements of running an airline right before trying to weasel more money out of people.

 

[exceladdict]

Access to the premium call centre?

 

[Mattg]

Access to the premium call centre?

That is actually something I might consider paying for if I needed to call Qantas about something more complex, because I value my time.

On the other hand, I don't feel that I should have to as a Platinum member. And I don't think Qantas would offer this anyway because it would be an implicit admission that their outsourced call centres don't provide the same standard of service.

 

[p--and--t]

if more airlines would sell a whole row of economy seats

THIS!!!!!!

 

[tdimdad]

Haven't you just described premium economy???

No, this was for Y+. PE is separate.

In Y+, I'd happily take e.g. 34" pitch, reasonable width and more generous recline on an economy seat to start with. PE seat has other bells and whistles I could go without. To think of, JL and NH more or less have this plus the Y meals are a step up from e.g. QF.

 

[CaptJCool]

I think right of aisle seats should pay more than left of aisle
Since In the past left handed people suffered badly at the hands of right minded folk
Come to think of it
Red haired blueys ought be eligible for a 30% discount

That said
The older you are the more you pay
If you’ve ever seen a JQ passenger boarding you know that’s already happening

 

[Forg]

No, this was for Y+. PE is separate.

In Y+, I'd happily take e.g. 34" pitch, reasonable width and more generous recline on an economy seat to start with. PE seat has other bells and whistles I could go without. To think of, JL and NH more or less have this plus the Y meals are a step up from e.g. QF.

Premium Economy really doesn't get you much more than a bit more space except in rare circumstances, I mean sometimes you might be fed food-court slop in a slightly nicer looking container but it's still food-court slop ... and it's the bit more pitch that allows more recline (the current seats have a recline limit solely due to pitch).

 

[fly2earth]

Premium Economy really doesn't get you much more than a bit more space except in rare circumstances, I mean sometimes you might be fed food-court slop in a slightly nicer looking container but it's still food-court slop ... and it's the bit more pitch that allows more recline (the current seats have a recline limit solely due to pitch).

Same sentiment as me but this is surprisingly the minority opinion (I forgot where but a lot of people @a_large_majority have mentioned how so worth it premium economy is and how everything is upgraded food space priority).