You’ve probably seen the funny social media sensation videos where people put their foot under the scale when their luggage is being weighed at the airport. Nice one, slick!
While these videos are amusing and obviously not very indicative of most experiences in travel, the broader “travel tips” content is indicative of a real world shift being fueled by social media, that’s apparently hitting airline bottom lines. I’m here for it.
For real? Yes, for real. Earnings reports are in and ultra-low-cost carriers are seeing a bloodbath in losses and much is being attributed to passengers buying fewer extras, or “ancillaries” in the airline industry — aka those pesky extra purchases.
I can’t help but think social media might be doing something valuable, for once?
Savviness Is Crushing Airline Products
One of my very favorite internet reads is The Airline Observer by my friend Brian Sumers. Brian recently covered the devastation that is Spirit Airlines earnings this quarter — they didn’t, they lost over $190m — and what their new CEO attributes the madness to.
In his remarks, a lack of ancillary sales was a standout answer. This means people were buying the right product for them and or working harder not to buy extras. That’s bad news for airlines and great news for consumers getting away on the cheap.
So what’s changed? I’d argue people are slowly getting better at travel, through a slow trickle of tips on social and mass media.
For low cost carriers, it’s been fair to say that bait and switch or “gotcha” has been part of their commercial strategy.
Regular baggage allowance changes, new fees for assigning seats and other features created a natural cycle of people needing to pay up for something they did not think they needed when they initially purchased. Weighing carry on’s is a classic example of how petty airlines will get with this.
But travel hacks have gone pop, long gone from the days of people reading niche travel and points blogs like mine, and are totally mainstream now.
TikTok is rife with (mostly) idiotic travel tips but also the occasional goldmine. Above all, it’s got people thinking a bit more about their journey or how to beat the game before they travel. Horror stories also spread like wildfire.
If someone gets caught out by a sneaky airline trick, you can bet their entire friend network is going to hear about it. That might be enough of a catalyst for someone to try to learn from it.
People Are Starting To Think About Travel
If I’ve observed anything in air travel in my lifetime, it’s that most people put absolutely no thought or strategy into anything from booking to security to boarding.
It’s like the one time in people’s lives they do absolutely no research. No better example than the security line, where people have had typically 15 minutes to think about what they might need to take out to expedite things, and then do none of those things.
Finally, I feel like that’s kinda changing as the mediums for sharing savvier travel become pop culture and quickly digestible.
A “how to maximize the Spirit carry on allowance” TikTok or Instagram reel can probably convey enough information in under one minute to keep thousands of people from getting caught out and needing to buy something extra to travel.
Pushing Prices To Legacy Carries
An interesting space to watch in the world of airlines is the space legacy airlines pretend they don’t want, but create products to cater to. It’s the space at the top of the discount low cost carrier fares, but lower than their ideal premium leisure customer.
As some of these ultra-low cost experiences have simply become untenable, or the social media perception is that they ARE untenable for most people, even somewhat price conscious travelers will naturally gravitate to more “all-inclusive” pricing, or to airlines where there’s a simplicity for the money they’re spending.
In short, the basic economy experience on Delta for $15 bucks more than Spirit might feel like a first class upgrade to a large segment of customers who previously identified with Spirit’s eye catching fares.
Embracing The Role
It’s been fascinating to see brands like Ryanair try to embrace their fee charging villain status on social media as well. I actually think their willful choice to shame some of the idiotic passenger complaints has lead many people to try and understand how not to be that person, or what that person did wrong.
Ryanair’s ability to win may be broader than some other airlines who rely so much on ancillaries. Ryanair obviously does too, but operational efficiency and other sales and marketing channels seem to be significant. For Spirit and others, it may not be quite the same.
At the very least, social media is entertaining but the brand impacts may be far from trivial.
