New Mid-Day Ticket Option

[flynnibus]

Not sure if you're joking or not but buying an airline ticket is ridiculously easy now. Especially compared to pre internet days.
Heck, you can now set a price alert on your phone and it will notify you when tickets to your destination go on sale.
Again, what's the complication??
You know where you want to fly and when right?

You miss you're consuming a broker service on top of all the madness to give you that simplified interface. And you've become numb to the idea that pricing is completely dynamic and largely unpredictable.. you've just accepted that as the norm because it's what you're used to.

Imagine if everytime you had to goto the grocery store you didn't know if that galloon of milk was going to be $4, or $12 and you wouldn't know unless you took it to the counter, or hired a shopping aide to decode it all for you as you shopped.

 

[starri42]

Remember in this conversation... Disney was always a premium brand that people willingly paid premium prices for.. because they did more than just "tolerate" Disney. When you attack that luxury... your relationship erodes with your customers.

Aren't people still paying premium prices? I mean, look at the proliferation of Club Level bookings, or that $12K VIP tour. Or the Club 33 proliferation. This kind of increased guest stratification isn't unique to Disney (the cruise industry has been hit especially hard by it), and it seems like it's proliferating.

Please don't think I like this practice. I hate it. But it's clearly making a lot of money for everyone doing it.

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

Not sure if you're joking or not but buying an airline ticket is ridiculously easy now.

What class of service are you buying? Basic Economy, Economy, Premium Economy, Business, First? How many bags are you checking? What is your boarding zone? Do you have a restricted or unrestricted fare?

 

[EOD K9]

Posters were previously speaking of a rope drop until noon option and were wondering how it would be enforced. I don’t care if people are in the park past noon, it’s the rides. Would it not be possible for the touch points to lock you out of rides after that time? If TDO let’s you stay in the park and shop and eat, that’s still a win. If they are not in line taking up space I’m good with it.

 

[larryz]

Posters were previously speaking of a rope drop until noon option and were wondering how it would be enforced. I don’t care if people are in the park past noon, it’s the rides. Would it not be possible for the touch points to lock you out of rides after that time? If TDO let’s you stay in the park and shop and eat, that’s still a win. If they are not in line taking up space I’m good with it.

People in the standby line don't visit touch points.

 

[eliza61nyc]

What class of service are you buying? Basic Economy, Economy, Premium Economy, Business, First? How many bags are you checking? What is your boarding zone? Do you have a restricted or unrestricted fare?

Ok 3 clicks on the keyboard... next. Once a person decides on their price point pretty much everything else is decided for them. AND most folks have limited choices based on the airport they are flying out of and the reward program of their credit card. Sorry I'm not believing that buying a plane ticket is suddenly string theory. Price tends to be the overriding decision parameter.

 

[eliza61nyc]

You miss you're consuming a broker service on top of all the madness to give you that simplified interface. And you've become numb to the idea that pricing is completely dynamic and largely unpredictable.. you've just accepted that as the norm because it's what you're used to.

Imagine if everytime you had to goto the grocery store you didn't know if that galloon of milk was going to be $4, or $12 and you wouldn't know unless you took it to the counter, or hired a shopping aide to decode it all for you as you shopped.

but flynn you know before you go to the store. come on, you gotta be kiding me. NO ONE shows up at an airport and just wings it. regardless if there is one broker or 15.

??? It is the norm, you are right I admit most folks don't go all PhD deep on buying a plane ticket. Most folks don't say "gee I wonder how many algorithms are being used to get me this information.... the figure out where they want to go, what airport they are flying out of it and nowadays they pick the one they have a reward card for.

OK sorry I am not buying this premise, my 12 year old niece made her own plane reservations from Philly to Orlando (courtesy of my american airline rewards card) in 10 minutes

it took all of 15 minutes for me to book a trip to Greece in two weeks with connecting flights to Mykonos and Santorini

You are honestly telling me, it confuses you or stresses you out

 

[MrPromey]

People in the standby line don't visit touch points.

And if they did, it would create backups at least as bad as can happen at the entrance to the FastPass line. How do you politely deal with the person who souldn't still be in the park who wants to argue wile blocking the line?

There's a small degree of this today with the parties but at least normal closing time is easily stated and the party bands make clear at a glance who should be there and who shouldn't - no scan needed.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

but flynn you know before you go to the store. come on, you gotta be kiding me. NO ONE shows up at an airport and just wings it. regardless if there is one broker or 15.

??? It is the norm, you are right I admit most folks don't go all PhD deep on buying a plane ticket. Most folks don't say "gee I wonder how many algorithms are being used to get me this information.... the figure out where they want to go, what airport they are flying out of it and nowadays they pick the one they have a reward card for.

OK sorry I am not buying this premise, my 12 year old niece made her own plane reservations from Philly to Orlando (courtesy of my american airline rewards card) in 10 minutes

it took all of 15 minutes for me to book a trip to Greece in two weeks with connecting flights to Mykonos and Santorini

You are honestly telling me, it confuses you or stresses you out

Yes, but if you're like me, you know that flights are where the most price fluctuation occurs, so you are flexible on your travel dates. You have to clear your cookies between every search (a little trick not everyone knows), otherwise prices will continue to rise with each subsequent search, so you also have to have a notepad with you so you can make a note of which days cost how much per flight (and lets not forget that flights back from your destination also vary in price). You have to factor in baggage, etc...and since we only need 2 checked bags for our family of 4, we tend to book 2 sets of 2 tickets so that we're only paying for the luggage we need.

 

[flynnibus]

but flynn you know before you go to the store. come on, you gotta be kiding me. NO ONE shows up at an airport and just wings it. regardless if there is one broker or 15.

You are focused on all the wrong things... It's not 'if someone can do it' or about physical presence or not (the store analogy has nothing to do with being in the store..).. the entire point of the example was the concept of PREDICTABILITY. An important concept people have with pricing, even if you aren't aware of it. Air travel is a great example of lack of predictability and consistency. It used to be a big problem with transparency too.. but that's been beat back by regulation.

You're taking your experience and failing to be able to step outside of it. You already know the system... much like you already know the ins and outs of a Disney ticket. So its easy and straight forward for you.. and if you just close your eyes and go. But there are actually tons of permutations there that complicate matters and make pricing unpredictable, includes many options which may or may not be clear, and makes it difficult to compare things true apple to apple.

You can't ignore that airlines pricing includes many variables such as
- availability based pricing (how full the plane is)
- date based pricing (day of the week)
- lead time (how close you are to the travel date)
- value pricing (desirability of date/time)
- avenue of purchase (who you bought from)
- carrier specific class distinctions (is it economy, is it economy extra, is it economy basic, etc..)
- carrier specific fare classes (is this a full fare ticket, or is it a reduced miles ticket, can it be changed, etc)

Yes, you can just pull up a webpage.. get a price.. and just pay it. But actually knowing what you are getting requires paying attention to multiple details, being able to predict the price ahead of time is a total gamble, and you have very low flexibility without changing your costs. Now start comparing across carriers... and you get lots of other variances too.

Consumers want PREDICTIBLE, JUSTIFIABLE, CLEAR, and SIMPLE pricing they can understand.

It's exactly why people hate buying cars from the traditional car dealer. Their transaction typically has NONE of those elements making the entire thing more difficult, confusing, and reduces consumer confidence in their transaction.

When you develop products and sales strategies (Which I do as part of my real job) - you must be aware of the complexity and permutations you put in front of a customer. "too many choices" is a classic mistake that turns buyers off because their confidence in their choice can be reduced due to confusion.

 

[flynnibus]

Posters were previously speaking of a rope drop until noon option and were wondering how it would be enforced. I don’t care if people are in the park past noon, it’s the rides. Would it not be possible for the touch points to lock you out of rides after that time? If TDO let’s you stay in the park and shop and eat, that’s still a win. If they are not in line taking up space I’m good with it.

The problem is the classic issue of how to mark the select group in a way that is effective... so you don't have to instead mark the larger group and burden them.

If you give them something.. like a wristband.. its easy to remove it.. so you can't use easily removed markings/tokens to identify the lesser class (you do the opposite.. you give it to people to mark MORE benefits.. not less). Just like you can't give bracelets to under age drinkers while of age people have no bracelets. Too easy to defeat.

So you have to have a system that means checking everyone for a entitlement... which is burdensome.

 

[LSLS]

OK sorry I am not buying this premise, my 12 year old niece made her own plane reservations from Philly to Orlando (courtesy of my american airline rewards card) in 10 minutes

it took all of 15 minutes for me to book a trip to Greece in two weeks with connecting flights to Mykonos and Santorini

You are honestly telling me, it confuses you or stresses you out

Sure, but did you need to consider the hours of operation of the airplane, base your ticket considerations on if you can get reservations for dining or when you can book the movies you want to see on that flight, etc.? And it's not entirely one to one as 10 minutes to book one fligh. This is like buying multiple flights with different layovers needed each day. It's complex, especially if you are new and don't know all the intricacies. Is it too complex is a different question, but it's tough to argue this is not complex (especially if you want/need to find ways to keep your expenses down).

 

[MrPromey]

Ok 3 clicks on the keyboard... next. Once a person decides on their price point pretty much everything else is decided for them. AND most folks have limited choices based on the airport they are flying out of and the reward program of their credit card. Sorry I'm not believing that buying a plane ticket is suddenly string theory. Price tends to be the overriding decision parameter.

I admit, I haven't understood why it's "complicated". I'm going to wdw August 27th 2020. I'm staying 8 nights and I like to park hop. so more than likely I will go to undercover tourist and 6 day park hopper pass.
I pick my dates based on when I can get away from work and it's not as crowded NOT by what the ticket price will be. how is it absurdly complicated.

I mean folks know how they like to travel don't they? if your family is one that doesn't like getting up at the crack of dawn for a vacation and prefers getting to the parks late, I would think this is a viable alternative.

... they figure out where they want to go, what airport they are flying out of it and nowadays they pick the one they have a reward card for.

OK sorry I am not buying this premise, my 12 year old niece made her own plane reservations from Philly to Orlando (courtesy of my american airline rewards card) in 10 minutes

it took all of 15 minutes for me to book a trip to Greece in two weeks with connecting flights to Mykonos and Santorini

You are honestly telling me, it confuses you or stresses you out

It sounds from all of your posts like you are in a fairly good financial place in life. That's an awesome place to be.

For many, things aren't quite as simple or as black-and-white as you're trying to characterize them, though.

Many folks do know how they would like to travel but can't afford that.

If someone is having to penny-pinch to make their once-in-a-lifetime trip for their family of four, they lack both the experience and the financial resources to make it as simple and easy as it clearly is for you.

Trust me, the fewer the resources you have, the harder things get, exponentially.

This isn't meant as a slight or an insult to you - much to the contrary, I'm glad you have the resources to plan trips the way you want to and can pass a rewards card onto your neice so she can do the same.

Many people either through poor choices, poor opportunity or just poor circumstance, aren't in the same situation, though. That can include some of us here or people we know.

I know such things aren't your problem but it might be easier to understand why people say things are complicated if you can imagine someone in circumstances different from yours who are trying to navigate a once-in-a-lifetime trip their family has been saving for over half a decade to make.

Just something to consider

 

[starri42]

Consumers want PREDICTIBLE, JUSTIFIABLE, CLEAR, and SIMPLE pricing they can understand.

Experience doesn't always bear that out. About ten years ago, JC Penney tried an approach where they did away with coupons and sales, and just did exactly that. Kept the prices clear and simple.

It failed miserably, in large part because people no longer felt like they were getting a deal.

 

[rkleinlein]

Really? Now we have people saying it’s easy to buy a plane ticket in their attempts to defend Disney? Give me a break.

 

[Ravenclaw78]

Really? Now we have people saying it’s easy to buy a plane ticket in their attempts to defend Disney? Give me a break.

And we have people saying it's hard to buy a plane ticket in their attempts to attack Disney's ticketing strategy. I think both sides of this discussion have gone a bit off the rails...

 

[rkleinlein]

And we have people saying it's hard to buy a plane ticket in their attempts to attack Disney's ticketing strategy. I think both sides of this discussion have gone a bit off the rails...

Disney's "ticketing strategy" now has more choices, prices, options, and add-ons than ever which makes choosing tickets more complicated and time consuming than ever before--if you actually want to get the best deal possible. There's nothing "off the rails" about this observation and I don't see how anybody can argue with it. (Some may like the choices, but that's not what's being questioned.)

Comparisons were made to buying plane tickets because buying plane tickets--if you actually want to get the best deal possible--is complicated and time consuming, and therefore not easy (or pleasant). There's nothing "off the rails" about this observation and I don't see how anybody can argue with it.

Those who say buying plane tickets or Disney tickets is easy because it only takes a few clicks are being disingenuous. They know this conversation is about the process of looking at a myriad of possibilities, comparing apples to oranges, and choosing what they think is the best deal for their family (complicated and time consuming), and not just the final "add to cart" and "purchase tickets" transaction (quick and easy).

 

[drizgirl]

Buying plane tickets and Disney tickets can both be very easy and quick. As long as you have the cash to not care if you get the best deal.

 

[Horizons '83]

For those who don't think buying Disney tickets has gotten absurdly complicated, I point you to this post.

Eh that’s not complicated. It’s math and planning. The hourly breakouts were for this threads purposes but for any on individual.

 

[skyphotographer]

I'm a big believer in, "The more difficult you make it for someone to do something, the less likely they are to do it."