Flyers pay attention to prices, expect bags to arrive with them

The cost of a ticket is among the top reasons business flyers choose airlines.

And they’d like their baggage to arrive with them and have a comfortable seat, according to a recent nationwide survey of frequent business flyers by Airline Quality Rating co-authors Dean Headley of Wichita State University and Brent Bowen of the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

A group of 500 frequent flyers were surveyed during March on their attitudes, opinions and behaviors relative to air travel before and after the events of 9-11.

When asked to rate the importance of various airline performance areas, frequent flyers responded the most important were baggage arriving with them, width of seat, safety record of airline, competitive ticket prices, and on-time arrival of flight.

The five least important areas were online check-in, availability of upgradeable seats, electronic ticketing, size of aircraft, and type of aircraft.

The most important reasons cited for choosing a particular airline were price of ticket, airline goes where the flyer needs to go, safety record of airline, frequent flyer program considerations, and security procedures of the airline.

Regarding the level of concern when flying by these frequent flyers, the researchers found an 80 percent increase in concern after 9-11 events. Even with this increased level of concern, only 16 percent of the sample had not booked a flight due to their concern for flying.

Almost half (49 percent) said they had experienced a situation that warranted a complaint to be registered with an airline. Only 35 percent of the sample had actually filed a complaint. The methods most commonly used to make a complaint were verbally to any available airline personnel, in writing to the offending airline, and by telephone to the offending airline. Of those who filed complaints, 11 percent never heard from the airline.

The way baggage is handled by the frequent flyer changed somewhat after the terrorist attacks. Whether flying for business or pleasure, a shift to checking all baggage rather than carrying all baggage was noted by frequent flyers after the attacks. The volume of travelers who combine carry-on and checked baggage stayed the same for both the business and pleasure traveler.

Reasons given for why the choice is made to carry on or check baggage were noted as the value of contents and/or bag, timing of connection, size of the bags, number of bags, and airline policy regarding carry-on bags. Security considerations were some of the least important considerations noted.

Some business travel (20 percent) and pleasure travel (15 percent) plans were canceled after 9-11. Canceled business trips averaged 2.4 trips and pleasure trips canceled averaged 1.4 trips. In both cases, about half the canceled trips were accomplished using other travel means.

The most common method used for booking travel for this group was the travel agent (26 percent), followed closely by using an airline’s online service (25 percent). Calling airlines reservations directly (19 percent), using an employer travel agent (15 percent), and using a general online service (13 percent) were the other most common methods used to book travel.

Fifty-eight percent of business travelers and 68 percent of pleasure travelers never upgrade their seats. The pleasure traveler (40 percent) is more apt to use a discount ticket than a business traveler (25 percent).

When asked to rate what commercial airlines as a group need to focus on to improve the travel experience, the top five areas cited were better information about cancellations/delays, more consistent fares, reduced delays, smooth and efficient check-in, and timely baggage delivery.