Passenger preferences

Hi,

I have two questions concerning the ORS and the flight bookings.

Do passengers who plan to fly first class, fly business if there is no first class available ? And do passengers who plan to fly business, fly economy if there is no business class available ? Do they upgrade to first class ? Or do they just stay at home ?

And secondly, if competing airlines have a rating of 100, their flights are listed chronologically. Am I correct when I assume that in such a case passengers book the next available flight and that lowering your prices won’t get you any extra passengers ?

Thanks,

Jan

There is a given number of PAX for all three classes in AS. They will only book a flight if it offers class they are assigned to.

Sorry, not sure about the second question.

It’s possible that lower prices though increase your booking, for example because of PAX not staying at your hub.

Hm… in that case passengers would base their decision for a direct flight on the final rating, and base their decision for a combined flight on the price instead of the combined rating.

But then again, I don’t know how two ratings are combined. So what you say is possible

Jan

It’s entirely possible that your flight, with a rating of 100, can be part of a longer itinerary. In that case, unless you interline with your direct competitor that also has a rating-100 flight on the same leg, you can attract passengers your competitor cannot, or not in the same way as you do.

Thanks for the answers, guys.

I now know that X passengers are assigned to each class, and that they don’t upgrade or downgrade.

But I still don’t know if it helps to lower prices when every airline on a certain route has a rating of 100 :)

I know that seating, pricing, on-board service and whatever influence the ORS rating. But what if everybody has the same rating ? Are we at that moment all equal, or does the system go back to one of the component factors (like price) to decide which airline gets the booking ?

Jan

Passengers assigned to e.g. "First" will book legs in "Business" or even "Economy", if this alternative is rated higher than ground transport - at least as far as I know [I stand to be corrected].

Example: On Tempelhof, go to the ORS, type “BCD” (Bacolod) to “HKG” (Hongkong), select “First Class” and “in 48 hours” . Take a look at the connections :) .

Thanks Plotz. I checked your example and passengers indeed downgrade if no first class is available.

One question still remains: does price make a difference if all operators on a given route have a score of 100/99. But as nobody seems to know, I shall try to figure that out by trial and error.

Jan

i can not answer this 100% for sure, but in my opinion

the price is one factor of the score and if you have reached already the maximum score it will make no sense - for this single route

same as a part of a connection with other flights you may not have the maximum score, it makes only sense to reduce the price

on a segment which has not the maximum score

and all over all, nobody exept the proggers (may be) know, how many percent the price is as part of the score

may be you have not the maximum score, but internal for the price part you have, then it all so makes no sence to reduce

then you have change sth other for the maximum

but a great part here is only speculation :rolleyes:

Thanks, and your answer makes sense. I was thinking along the same lines.

So it should be safe to raise my prices. As long as my rating stays at 100, it should not matter that I am twice as expensive as the competition… I hope ;)

Jan

I would like to know one more thing about the pax in different classes… If my first & business is the same price (or first is lower) and I have business running full since the first booking but first remains sparsely booked… why don’t the business class folks just go for the first class?? I have converted a lot of these aircrafts to econ & business only and they run full so there are plenty of business pax, that’s not the problem…

Hi Ivan,

is it possible that your first class had a low rating on the ORS ? That might explain the empty seats. And I don’t know if passengers want an upgrade, not even if you sell your first class seats cheaper than business. I guess it all depends on the ORS rating.

Jan

Two airlines serve one route. Airline 1 offers better service to a higher price. Airline 2 offers worse service to a cheaper price. Both airlines have the same price performance rating. Wich one do pax prefer?

Direct passengers only care about the direct rating so if they have the same direct rating then both. If we are talking connections it can be very different.

Direct passengers only care about the direct rating so if they have the same direct rating then both. If we are talking connections it can be very different.

Connection passengers care about more than just the rating?

Connection passengers care about more than just the rating?

Total travel time.

Total travel time.

I thought total travel time influenced the ORS?

Total travel time.

Ain't that reflected on the ORS final rating?

Ain't that reflected on the ORS final rating?

For direct flights, yes. A 787 on JFK LAX will reach 100 and 737 only 99 as direct rating. For connections a rating of all individual flights and total time factor are combined for a final connection rating, with a peak on a certain value which you can find out by trial and error.