On the transatlantic side, let's not forget Pan Am's Rainbow coach service as a first nail in the coffin of the steamship operators. Re nonskeds, I can recall flying in a V-46 (correct) from Miami to Cincinatti in early 1950. No recollection of which carrier.
Daniel Solon On Wed, Jun 10, 2026 at 9:24 PM Alan Bender via Mifnet < [email protected]> wrote: >  > The onset of air travel democratization can arguably be linked to the > very first “coach” or “economy” service by a certificated air carrier, > which was Capital Airlines’ “Nighthawk” service between Chicago and New > York in 1948. Up until > then all U.S. air scheduled service was given the moniker “first class” as > air fares were based on rail first class or rail Pullman fares. Coach > offerings by the scheduled airlines grew exponentially after that. By the > mid-1950s the majority of airline passengers flying within the United > States were flying coach, proving > how immensely popular “affordable” air service had become…and so quickly. > > To be entirely fair, the early postwar “Nonskeds” (Nonscheduled Carriers) > deserve much of the credit as they offered unscheduled “air coach” > service between major U.S. cities as early as 1945. Skirting C.A.B. > regulations, some of the Nonskeds offered de facto scheduled service > utilizing various marketing and operating schemes. > A few of the Nonskeds became relatively large before being shut down by > the > feds. for flagrantly violating C.A.B. > regulations. > > So the Nonskeds basically invented air coach, skimming off the cream of > the major scheduled airlines in some of the biggest domestic airline > markets. > The C.A.B. soon permitted the > big boys to offer air coach (though initially with significant > restrictions) to vigorously compete with the “renegade” Nonskeds. > > And so the democratization of > air travel had began…at least in > my opinion… > > Alan Bender > > On Jun 10, 2026, at 9:36 AM, Michael Derchin via Mifnet < > [email protected]> wrote: > I > >  > > I was working for Bob Crandall at American Airlines when he headed the > Marketing Department. It was 1976 – the bicentennial. Who is more American > than American Airlines? This was the period called de facto deregulation > when the Civil Aeronautics Board permitted the airlines to experiment with > price elasticity of demand. We came up with the first Super Saver fares > that we named Revolutionary Fares around a year-long bicentennial > promotion. It was a great success. The price sensitive leisure travelers > could fly on American Airline with all its frills and not on bare-bones > charter carriers to get bargain fares. The unintended consequence was it > upset our bread-and-butter business traveler who enjoyed having an empty > seat next to him and room do his work. Fast forward to 1981 and American > Airlines introduced the first mileage-based frequent flyer program > AAdvantage to get back in the good graces of the business customer. The > rest is history. Today, the airlines make more money selling miles to banks > and other partners than flying customers. Hope you enjoyed me walking down > memory lane with you. > > Mike Derchin > > > > *From:* Kathryn Creedy via Mifnet <[email protected]> > *Sent:* Wednesday, June 10, 2026 8:50 AM > *To:* [email protected] > *Cc:* Scott Gibson <[email protected]>; Kathryn Creedy < > [email protected]> > *Subject:* [Mifnet 🛰 76370] Re: Dynamic pricing democratized air travel? > > > > Scott, that is so interesting. Thank you very much. I've loved all the > responses. Cheers -- Kathryn > > > > On Wed, Jun 10, 2026 at 8:32 AM Scott Gibson via Mifnet < > [email protected]> wrote: > > I agree that it depends on the definition of dynamic pricing. The big > consumer value came from deregulation and the ability to compete based on > price (which also derivers more total industry revenue). Telling was the > first “biG’ pricing g move which was the “Super Saver” launched by American > Aiurlines in 1976. That $231 (midweek) roundtrip coast to coast fare was a > 45% reduction from the CAB set price. BTW, that is $1352 today. Not > surprisingly, demand exploded and airline profitability (by filling seats > that would otherwise go unsold driving incremental re3venue) improved. In > essence, this was already dynamic pricing (defining it was adjusting the > fare by demand) as it was the Tuesday and Wednesday (the slower travel > days) price with a higher weekend level. Over the 50 days since then, the > industry has managed to fill more seats (qa c0ombination of pricing, better > seat management tools allowing higher load factor realization plus aligning > capacity offered with demand but based on a cost-revenue trade-off). > Creating price points and rules to segment consumers by ability to > pay/value of the seat from a consumer perspective along with revenue > management (predicting demand by fare category, overbooking levels and O&D > pricing being just some of the tools) that have developed all of which to a > degree are designed to apply dynamic pricing (adjusting price in real time > based on demand). The development of RM tools upped the game and as > technology further advances, fryer gains (from an airline revenue > generation) appear. But, this has been incremental over decades and as a > concept, dynamic pricing is not new at all. In my early days at New York > Air under the pricing freedom provided by deregulation, our price levels > varied greatly to try to fill every seat at the highest price possible too > make money. In the Washington National-Boston market, I recall that our one > way fares ranged from $29 (most available on. Saturdays) to $189 (most > seats on Friday, Sunday afternoon-evening and Monday morning sold at this > price). No RM system existed. So, this was humans setting the number of > seats by price point as the schedule loaded and then managing the seats in > real time based on what we saw from a bookings perspective. The > introduction of RM systems. (Especially PROS) upped the game in perms of > predicting demand and thus either releasing low fare seats or removing them > based on an expectation that the seat could be later sold at a higher price > fare). This is tough to do with just humans but systems allowed both > prediction b y flight (ie day of week, time of days, time of year, etc) and > then adjusting in real time based on actual demand versus the prediction. > In my mind, this is dynamic pricing but this in the last element in the > overall revenue generation )and profitability) equation. The first is > creating a schedule that offers a flight that aligns capacity with demand > (revenue not volume) and then pricing it correctly try and lastly managing > the inventory (how many seats offered on each flight at the various price > points with rules that try to separate consumer demand segments to best > capture the consumer value for the airline). While I haven’t seen any > analysis in decades as to the airline earnings value equation, my memory is > that the schedule (and that capacity-demand alignment) created over 80% of > the value, pricing another 10% and the “RM” process (which is what allows > dynamic pricing() was less than 5% (other factors being brand, loyalty, > product). > > > > Scott Gibson > > > > On Jun 9, 2026, at 10:23 AM, Rudolf Zivcic via Mifnet < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > > It kinda depends what is understood by "dynamic pricing" - currently it is > almost assumed to be real-time adjustable and also continuous - all the > fancy stuff of the day (and yes, ideally with AI in the background :)) > > But actually, anything else than flat price can be seen as dynamic price - > and certain changes (dynamics) can happen based on time to > departure/occupancy of the aircraft (load factor), day of week, season etc > etc... > > > > To confirm what George posted - Deregulation and new entrant price > competition lowered fares - that is actually a start of dynamic pricing (eg > offering tickets at multiple price points, with their availability/price > levels depending on departure dates/DOW/competitor landscape etc...) > > > > On the JumboJet - yes - with more capacity offered, there was a need to > introduce discounted fare products, as filling the whole plane with only > full-fares was (is) not possible under normal market conditions (and > demand). > > > > So all in all, everyone is right :) > > > > My 2 cents, Rudo Zivcic > > > > > > On Tue, Jun 9, 2026 at 4:18 PM George Hamlin via Mifnet < > [email protected]> wrote: > > Deregulation and new entrant price competition lowered fares decades > before dynamic pricing came into play. > > > > On Jun 9, 2026 7:14 AM, Kathryn Creedy via Mifnet <[email protected]> > wrote: > > I'm reading a WaPo article on dynamic pricing at the grocery store and > stumbled over this: > > John Zhang, a professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s > Wharton School, said dynamic pricing helped democratize air travel by > making it more affordable, > > > > Gee I thought it was the jumbo jet. What's your take? > > > > Cheers -- Kathryn > > -- > > > > > > > > Kathryn Creedy > PHONE # 321 405 4395 > > US-Eastern Time Zone > > *Visit me on LinkedIn <https://www.linkedin.com/in/kbcreedy/> * > > > > > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Revised: 20250507 > > You are receiving The Mifnet because you requested to join this list. > > The Mifnet is largely a labor of love, however the infrastructure isn't > exactly cost-free. 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