A traditional view is that airline travel is a commodity but that is changing, writes Tom Bacon

Currently, most travel sites – both airline sites and OTA’s - are designed around listing the departure times and base fares by flight for a requested departure date – certainly important in most travel decisions. Most sites also allow travellers to screen flights by nonstop versus connection.

• Enter your departure date => The site returns alternatives by time of day, also displaying the base fare; alternatively, the site will show flights in order of base fare
• Select ‘nonstop preferred’ => Only non-stop flights, with their departure times and fares, will be displayed.

Of course, if the airline product is homogenous, there is little need for more than fare, departure time and potentially nonstop/connect. Many customers still view airlines as commodity products and the travel sites meet their needs satisfactorily. 

Hipmunk, of course, has further refined ‘nonstop/connect’ by its calculation of an ‘agony’ index to measure elapsed time and visually displays the ‘pain’ of certain connections versus nonstop flights.

But there are actually, increasingly, other dimensions of travel planning that extend beyond these conventional criteria. Unfortunately, none of these have been easily accessible to travellers planning trips.  Some of these are available on other sites; some of these take even more work to assess. Here are some examples of the fourth (and higher) dimensions of travel planning:

4.1. Product differences

Spirit Airlines now has the smallest pitch among US airlines while jetBlue boasts 1 inch more pitch in Economy than its larger competitors. Other product features that differ across airlines include advanced seat assignments, snacks, and onboard video. In a commodity world, why pay an extra $5-$10? On the other hand, for a much better travel experience, why not?

4.2. Total cost, including ancillary

Southwest Airlines includes a free bag and free ticket changes in its base fare while most US airlines charge extra for these features. For a customer who values these features, the base fare is misleading since he may incur $25 for a checked bag and a hefty $200 change fee. Although most airlines charge for both bags and changes, these fees can still differ somewhat across airlines.

4.3.  Future fares – do I need to book today to get the lowest fare?

Most travel planning requires anticipation of future fares. Customers must compare their fear of a fare increase against the relative certainty of their preferred trip. Should they wait until their plans are firmer?  Will the last departure of the day get any cheaper if they hold off? Airlines have, in their advanced purchase pricing rules and within their RM systems, a forecast for the fare by day up until the day of departure.  Although these can and will change based on actual demand, this information could help us all plan more intelligently.

4.4.  More fulsome screening across dates

As an option, many sites offer a calendar of the lowest fares. However, the lowest fare every day is often associated with an undesirable flight (for example, Spirit’s bare bones product or jetBlue’s red-eye). For me, the calendar feature is of limited use unless I can easily see if American’s flight with an 8 am. departure time has cheaper alternatives sometime in the next month.

Conclusion

Yes, these other factors in travel planning makes the process much more complex; it’s easier to focus on just the two or three factors displayed on most travel sites (base fare, departure time, and nonstop/connect). Relying on just a few factors conforms to the traditional view of airline travel as a commodity. However, as airlines begin to differentiate themselves on product and on ancillary service fees, as ancillary fees become a more important part of the travel decision, as fare changes increasingly deviate from simple advanced purchase patterns, and as travel flexibility is defined more narrowly than ‘is there a lower fare ever available?’ we need more information – a ‘fourth dimension’ - at our fingertips

Tom Bacon is a regular columnist for EyeforTravel and a 25-year airline veteran and industry consultant in revenue optimisation. Email Tom or or visit his website