You are at netAirspace : Forum : Air and Space Forums : Civil Aviation

As prices rise across the globe, many Americans are looking to save money where they can, including travel. Yet the most recent slate of earnings reports from major US airlines indicates consumers aren't necessarily opting for budget airlines amid an inflation economy. During Q3 2023, low-cost airlines saw sluggish sales – while their legacy counterparts watched revenues spike.

"If you don't cater to premium, if you can't bank on loyalty and if you don't fly internationally, this year's third quarter is likely to disappoint," Jamie Baker, a JPMorgan Chase analyst, wrote in an August report.

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20 ... t-airlines

Southwest lost 30% of net income relative to the same quarter last year, while Delta gained 30%.

Among other reasons given: The people squeezed most by inflation are the LCC customers, and the "revenge travel" post-pandemic bounce is heavily skewed towards international travel not covered by the LCCs' largely domestic networks.

The article suggests that LCCs can fight back by introducing loyalty programmes and the like, narrowing the gap from the other direction than the legacies' bag fees, etc.

Way too early to be talking about the death of the LCC, and their mere presence keeps the rest honest (as ULCCs do to LCCs), but loyalty programmes don't come for free. Do you eventually reach a point where the legacies and LCCs are indistinguishable? If so, what then?

They all suck. Unless someone is paying your travel in J, status is something that is hard to achieve. I've flown some LCC, WN specifically, and don't care for it. I'd rather resign myself to Y in a Legacy carrier.

I don't fly enough (sadly) to take advantage of loyalty programs. When I do fly, it's based largely on schedule and price. WN has been good to me in this regard. I've gotten good service on both.

Looks like my first post-pandemic trip will be in December. Since it's just a short hop down to ABQ, I compared the usual suspects: WN and UA. F9 dropped the route...again. Even when they operated the route, the schedule was either horrible or not even available.

WN and UA fares in Economy were comparable and, had I not discovered unused travel funds on UA (that expire at the end of DEC), I would have gone with WN. I snagged a seat (both ways) in First for about the same as Business Select on WN.

I've been oneworld's b!tch for many years, and since Norwegian gave up on domestic routes at the beginning of Covid it's not like I even have a choice. Going to drop two tiers at the end of January, losing lounge access and various other niceties, but still worth it for the fast-track security.

Even on a 50-minute HEL-OUL, Norwegian's 738s are miserable. The prices, on the rare occasions I've bothered to look, are often comparable to or worse than Finnair's. Can't even pay to skip the queue at security. There's just nothing there for me.

If I lived in Tampere or Rovaniemi and had a direct Ryanair to Stansted... maybe. Maybe. Definitely not getting an A350 business class seat for 10000 otherwise-useless points on that though.

The LCCs are garbage. WN, F9, NK all suck. Suck hard. WN has lost their ass over antiquated software/hardware. Oh, and the Pilots are ready to walk any day now. F9 has their occasional lucky day, but they can't manage to be on time to save their ass. And they're trying to be a hybrid airline that isn't going to work. NK, well . . . . I have ZERO experience with them - all except for the one that caught fire in CMH enroute to MCO with my in-laws on board.

Compared to legacy carriers. . . . well, all the airlines in the US are going to hell, as far as airside. Ground, Cabin, Meals, Seats (style, pitch, age), IFE (not on AA), so they all be considered school buses.

No secret here, unless you've been under a frickin' rock forever, I don't fly Y. And I will tell you the F seats on all the DOMESTIC legacy carriers are crap. Same stuff, different day. Their meals (calling them that is an affront to McDonalds or Arby's really) are disastrous.

Let's start a thread on the crappiest airports in the US. . . . I'll start with MCO.

Meh. WN is not that much of an LCC these days, and if you go with no expectations, you won't REALLY be disappointed.

Personally, I think WN is actually very good at what they do. Far better than either F9 or NK.

Having just flown KOA - LIM - KOA on UA, I can tell you that legacy carriers aren't all that great, but UA is at least trying to improve the experience down the back in the cheap seats. I was lucky enough that 3 of my 6 flights had their new seatback IFE installed, and it's a nice system that provides power at every seat instead of the idiotic two shared outlets between 3 seats.

By comparison, my 5 internal flights within Peru on Latam did have a little better basic service in Economy with more generous snacks and beverages than UA offers in coach.

I'm sick of LCC's to the point that I chose United and Delta to fly me to and from AUS to see the eclipse in early April 2024. Somehow, I scored nice flights for a total of $350. WN, F9, and NK weren't even close to offering a fair eclipse fare.