航空公司定价战略失策

    很难再找到像航空旅行这样的服务了。它本身令人着迷，但包装和呈现却很拙劣。虽然航空公司能够为我们提供飞翔于蓝天之上的梦幻服务，但我们还是会心生厌恶，其中一部分原因在于，他们把消费者搞得糊里糊涂。最令人感到不快的是，航空公司往往故弄玄虚，让掏钱购买服务的乘客们一头雾水。

    燃油成本在可预见的未来依然很高，而航空燃油是航空公司最大的一块费用支出。为了提高利润率，航空公司必须从乘客身上挤压出更多的利润。最近，航空公司已经开始采取行动。他们为经济舱乘客提供最低廉的机票，但开始对其他服务收费。这些乘客早已经习惯了享受免费机上餐饮、免费选择逃生门旁宽敞的座位，航空公司的做法让他们大为恼火。

    普华永道咨询公司（PwC Consulting）全球实践主管保罗•阿利桑德罗表示，航空公司并不一定非得这么做。正相反，如果执行得当的话（执行相当关键），很多航空公司目前的这套做法也能让乘客的飞行旅程变得更愉悦。

    秘诀就在于二等舱。通常，最大规模的航空公司也被称为主流航空公司，他们赚取利润的对象是飞行次数最频繁的乘客。他们大多通过积分奖励计划来积累消费者的购买力。为了吸引其他乘客，航空公司还玩起了价格游戏，将原本包含在票价中的服务分拆出来，从而使得广告中打出的机票价格降了下来。

    但有迹象表明，以高明的方式为价格敏感型消费者提供服务可能比仅仅关注精英会员更好。

    二等舱很有价值。美国经济分析局（the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis）经济学家亚当•夏皮罗表示，低成本航空公司在机票需求下降时往往表现更好。（说明，这只是他个人的观点，并不代表经济分析局。）

    夏皮罗说，在经济萧条期，主流航空公司最昂贵的票价会大幅下跌，而低成本航空公司在高端客户销售方面却并没有大幅下降。夏皮罗表示：“很多低成本航空公司的销售重点并非那些支付意愿强烈的客户，所以他们应对萧条期的准备更为充分。”

    换句话说，在精英会员退出情况发生时，低成本航空公司并不会面临相同的问题。因为他们的飞机上坐的都是二等舱乘客（乘客所期望的也是二等舱服务）。这些航空公司努力创造新的经济舱体验，而且有些做法似乎已经开始奏效。比如，跟其他航空公司相比，美国西南航空公司（Southwest Airlines）提供登机优先权服务比较晚，现在公司提供“晨鸟”自动验票登机服务，单程10美元。这项服务在2011年第四季度创造了3,600万美元的收入，比去年同期增长700万美元。

    主流航空公司，包括联合航空公司（United Airlines）、德尔塔航空公司（Delta Airlines）和美国航空公司（American Airlines），都不约而同地尝试通过对附加服务进行收费来分化二等舱客户，但他们的实际做法却非常拙劣。他们现在让消费者自主选择选择更大的腿部空间、舱内娱乐、餐饮服务以及行李超重权，给人的印象就是增加额外费用。

    It's hard to think of a more amazing product with poorer presentation than air travel. Despite the fact that airlines provide an incredible service (they let us fly, in the air), we love to hate on them, in part because they confuse customers. Most unpleasant of all is how airlines obfuscate what, exactly, their customers are purchasing.

    The cost of fuel will be high for the foreseeable future, and jet fuel is the airlines' greatest expense. To boost profit margins, companies will need to squeeze more money from passengers. Recently, carriers have tried to do this by offering economy passengers the lowest possible prices on flights and charging fees for other services. That strategy has ticked off fliers unused to paying for services such as meals or exit row seats.

    But it doesn't have to be this way, says Paul D'Alessandro, a global practice leader at PwC. On the contrary, if executed correctly -- and that's a big if -- the strategy that many airlines are already pursuing could make flying more pleasant.

    The key is in the coach cabin. Traditionally, the largest companies, also known as legacy carriers, have sought profit by going hard after their most frequent fliers, mostly with rewards programs, to hoard their purchasing power. To attract all other passengers, airlines have played the price game, often de-bundling services that were previously included in the ticket price, pushing the advertised fares down.

    But there's evidence that offering services in an intelligent way to cost-conscious customers might be a better strategy than focusing almost exclusively on elite fliers.

    Coach fliers are valuable. Airlines who bill themselves as low-cost carriers tend to do better when the demand for tickets decreases, says Adam Shapiro, an economist with the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. (His opinions are his own, not the Bureau's.)

    During a bust, Shapiro says, the price of legacy carriers' most expensive tickets fall dramatically, whereas low-cost carriers don't experience the same drop in top-paying customers. "A lot of the low cost carriers weren't really selling to these high-willingness-to-pay consumers," Shapiro says, "so they're perhaps more prepared for a bust."

    In other words, low-cost carriers don't face the same problem when elite flyers drop out because they are always flying with a plane full of coach cabin passengers (with coach expectations). Some of these airlines' efforts to create different economy-class experiences seem to have worked. For example, Southwest Airlines (LUV), which is relatively new to priority boarding, now offers an "EarlyBird" automatic check-in option for $10, each way. That program specifically generated $36 million in revenue during the fourth quarter of 2011, $7 million more than the previous year.

    Legacy airlines -- including United (UAL), Delta (DAL) and American Airlines -- have similarly tried to break up their coach fliers by charging for additional services, but they've done it in a pretty clunky way. The way they are currently offering customers the ability to choose extra legroom, in-flight entertainment, meal service, and charging baggage surcharges simply comes across as tacking on extra fees.