Why don't airlines offer a season pass?

[sciencewhiz]

$1500 is far to little. That doesn't even cover 1 full priced ticket most places.

 

[DingDingDao]

Cathay Pacific used to have something like that in Asia. It consisted of a round-trip ticket from the U.S. to Hong Kong or Japan, and then unlimited flights within Asia for 30 days for $1000. It was a great way for tourists to see a lot more of Asia than they normally would--China, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, etc. etc.

 

[dman]

You could probably get them to do this if it was on a 'semi-standby' basis and you agreed to be bumped up to 'x' hours per flight with a maximum of 'y' bumps before you are guaranteed a seat. Something like that, basically you'd be paying for priority access to unfilled seats. Knowing how the airlines work, I would never pay for that, but, for the right price I imagine others would. Hard to make travel plans that way, and figuring rental/etc at other end I can't imagine it working out well as a profitable option for passengers but, the airlines could limit their exposure and maybe fill up some empty flights that way.

To me it seems like a bad idea. The reason trains and busses do it is because most folks choose not to travel via those options and they are trying to pull in folks from the Airlines/Auto crowd. People fly because they need to get somewhere quick or fast, not because it's cheap. I assume people take buses or trains because they can't afford another option or don't like to drive. I can't think of any other reasons to take one.

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
so greyhound buses are " lucrative" ?

you ever take greyhound? They are always full and tehy always over book.

 

[Hammer]

a season pass on standby might work, but you'll never see anything guaranteed.

 

[Uppsala9496]

It's cheap enough as it is. For work, I just had a flight booked for January 20 going from Chicago to Ft. Lauderdale. Total price....$116.90.
Come on. $117 for a flight. I can burn through that much cash in one night going out.

 

[ABitTooSpicy]

Originally posted by: jjones

Originally posted by: Brutuskend
On the first day of college, the Dean addressed the students, pointing out some of the rules:

"The female dormitory will be out-of-bounds for all male students, and the male dormitory to the female students. Anybody caught breaking this rule will be fined $20 the first time."
He continued, "Anybody caught breaking this rule the second time will be fined $60. Being caught a third time will cost you a fine of $180. Are there any questions?"

At this point, a male student in the crowd inquired: "How much for a season pass?"

:beer:

hahaha... brutuskend is the winnar!

 

[gutharius]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

It gave him the privilege of flying first class without reservations, and if the flight was full he could come on and pick which person he wanted to evict from their seat.

Utter nonsense. I know you're just relaying what you heard, but that is quite untrue.

Originally posted by: SearchMaster
[edit]Here's an article where he mentions it briefly: "I ended up making about $2.2 million. I bought a lifetime pass on American Airlines and I just started traveling," says Cuban. Also apparently I remembered or heard wrong - they were $125K each.

Owned???

 

[neonerd]

not worth it for them

 

[gsellis]

Originally posted by: gutharius

Originally posted by: Skoorb

It gave him the privilege of flying first class without reservations, and if the flight was full he could come on and pick which person he wanted to evict from their seat.

Utter nonsense. I know you're just relaying what you heard, but that is quite untrue.

Originally posted by: SearchMaster
[edit]Here's an article where he mentions it briefly: "I ended up making about $2.2 million. I bought a lifetime pass on American Airlines and I just started traveling," says Cuban. Also apparently I remembered or heard wrong - they were $125K each.

Owned???

I don't think so. I have never heard of a lifetime pass that you could buy. I do know that some airlines have given such privileges out though to some folks. Maybe AA did sell them, but I don't know of any others. $125k would be too cheap for that.