The American airline industry must be almost as dumb as the league of American movie theatre owners. (In response to the increasing popularity of TV, the theatre owners made their screens smaller--more TV-like--their theatres less comfortable and still haven't figured out how to give a time-pressed public reserved seats. But, as always, I digress.)
Today in the NYTimes, both on- an off-line there are the usual airline fare ads. Delta's was the worst of a bad lot: "Euralmost There." It shouted.
At a time when planes aren't being inspected, flights are being canceled by the thousand and consumer confidence in the entire industry is down, running a fare ad is like expecting the public to forget rapacious middle-and-lower-middle-class taxation thanks to a paltry "rebate." Among the intelligent, that kind of bait-and-switch would never work.
When advertising tried harder, when airlines sold themselves as brands, not low-cost providers, Pan Am (which was eventually killed by commoditizing itself) ran an ad that said something like, "I've never heard a customer say they fly Pan Am because of their mechanics. But I've heard a lot of pilots say it."
spot on as usual.
ReplyDeleteIn Asia you buy your movie theatre tickets by seat. You can of course buy them online weeks prior if you want to, or you can just go to the movie theater to see if there are seats if you don;t want to plan ahead.
you can phone in, or you czan got ot hte movie therater in adcanc eif youi don't like to book online.
it all works very well.
And Asian airlines are in general wonderful, great service, great food, plenty a drink, mostly on time. Even the domestic flights and short haul flights.
Neither are movie tickets nor air seats more expensive than in the states. Cheaper as a matter of fact.