Fineprint

What’s wrong with this e-mail? Yes, go ahead, read it here.

The e-mail is misleading. The prices are there, but then it’s does not include a bunch of other charges, that are normally expected when buying a ticket. So it creates a false hope, a false excitement. Not to mention, almost each different destination is only valid for a certain period. So you have to scroll back down, and up, and down, and up, until you get cross-eyed, from matching which is valid, which.

I don’t understand why the airlines are tolerating these kinds of advertising on their prices. If i would be seeing this in the Carbon market, i would have accepted, knowing the kind of business tactics vendors employ there.

But with airlines, it’s just stupid. As a customer, i want the final cost, so i can make better decision. There’s no better way to present it, than showing the actual price. Then do the promotion of your deals, in another way. Say, you should travel to Caticlan, since Boracay, is just 10 mins boat away, and that if you take these deals now, it will be 30% lesser, than you would travel during peak season.

Simple clear, advertising.

Instead of doing the prices, mumbo-jumbo BS, which is insulting your customers. It’s effectively saying, our customers are stupid, and they always fall for our price this shit, crap.

Seriously, if it’s a cheap, hand-me-down shirts, at Carbon, i’d take it. But from an airline, who pride itself, as the pride of the Philippines, the country’s flag ship carrier, then, it’s effectively saying, we’re out of innovation, and we’re too lazy to come up with new products and features, and this is the best we can do to increase our bottom-line. Hide away the real cost, and just show them, hey, it actually only cost 10 pesos to book a ticket, except that, you have to pay 1,500 extra to get a real seat. Since that 10 pesos, is a standing only accommodation. And oh, if you want a pressurized flight, you need to add 500 pesos more, since that base fare, will be open air. But don’t worry, we’ll strap you to a pole, while you doze off from lack of pressure.

Anyway, it’s just insulting, and not a good way to do business. I know, Cebu Pacific and other airlines are probably doing it. But it doesn’t mean, it’s the right away of doing it.