Travelers who are still complaining about the May Day holiday instead of the real holiday are facing another frustrating thing on the way to the airport - they bought their tickets early, but they were wronged. If you bought a ticket a month or half a month ago, you can save half of the money if you buy it one or two days before May Day. If it is a domestic flight, it can be as much as two or three thousand, or as little as a few hundred yuan, and it will slip out of the travel expenses before leaving home.
A few days ago, I checked the May Day period between Beijing and Kunming round-trip air tickets to more than 3,000 yuan, the day before May Day to check only 1,600 yuan, the price completely back to the weekday round-trip price, although the round-trip to Chengdu is more than weekdays, but it is only half of the ticket price a few days ago. A student who traveled from Jinan to Lijiang bought a ticket from Jinan to Lijiang on April 7, and the one-way price was about 2,200 yuan, and when he opened the ticket website before May Day, the same flight cost only 770 yuan. There are Chongqing people who want to travel, book a ticket half a month in advance, 1500 yuan for the outbound journey and 1400 yuan for the return trip.
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According to the data monitoring of Feichangzhun, in the week approaching May Day, the average price of domestic air tickets excluding tax was 852 yuan, down 22% month-on-month and 1.13% year-on-year. This corroborates the speculation of some netizens that airlines want to make a lot of money during the May Day holiday, but they can't attract passengers, so they have to reduce prices.
The fact seems to be the same, according to the data of Feichang Zhun, the total take-off and landing of domestic airports during the May Day holiday this year is expected to be 151,600, with an average daily take-off and landing of more than 30,000 flights, an increase of 8.99% year-on-year during the May Day holiday last year and an increase of 36.2% year-on-year in 2019.
Compared with the price of air tickets in the week before May Day last year, domestic air tickets only fell by 1.13%, and last year was also a long May Day holiday when Wangding was not prosperous, and the price before the holiday was only a little higher than this year, which illustrates another problem, that is, airlines often seem to have suffered from holiday production arrangements this year, and they have to cut prices sharply to fill up the plane near the holidays. Similarly, during the Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day holiday in November last year, the price of air tickets also plunged near the festival, and the price of early bird tickets for some passengers was reduced by 50%, and some passengers even lost thousands of yuan. For example, some netizens flew from Kunming to Taiyuan, bought a ticket for 2,400 yuan in advance, and dropped it to 1,200 yuan when they were close to the eleventh.
Although the ticket is market-oriented, the loss of travel expenses before departure still makes ticket buyers anxious, and many people plan to return their tickets and buy them again, even if there is a refund fee. However, tickets purchased in advance cannot be operated unless the right to cancel or change the date is purchased at a higher price. China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines have launched a 24-hour guaranteed reserve price, and if the price of the ticket is reduced within 24 hours, the difference can be refunded, but it is only within 24 hours. The price difference is so large, and the range of price reductions is so wide, I believe that people who get on the plane will inevitably have a little resentment.
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There is a well-known loss aversion in psychology, which refers to the fact that people feel more pain in the face of loss than they feel when they get the same gain. Specifically, the pain of losing a dollar is stronger than the joy of getting it. In other words, people are more sensitive to losses, and losses have a greater impact on people's psyche. When people face a loss, they feel uneasy, anxious, and fearful, and these emotions can further amplify the impact of the loss. In view of this, in the pricing operation of merchants, it is necessary to avoid letting customers fall into the mood of loss as much as possible. Of course, technological progress has made industrial products cheaper and cheaper, and consumers have become accustomed to the alternative cost-effective logic of FMCG - starting early, bringing more satisfaction and consumption value one step ahead, which is off-topic.
Loss aversion psychology is particularly prominent when consumers buy the biggest commodity in their lives, real estate, and after the price of the purchased commercial housing has dropped significantly, many owners spontaneously organize themselves to ask the developer for explanations in an attempt to recover the loss.
In fact, the airline's pricing principle also avoids trapping travelers into the trap of loss aversion, that is, planning early to get the best of the price. Of course, the sooner the better, and the vast majority of travelers have not yet started planning their trip. Usually, the best way to save money on air travel is to book tickets more than two months in advance, when the discounts are relatively small and the airline does not take into account the flight arrangements that far away. After entering the customer accumulation cycle within two months, the ticket price will be discounted first and used for "stocking". At this time, the airline does not consider the profitability of the ticket price for the time being, and first raises the passenger seat of the flight to a certain level, so that the revenue of the flight can at least cover the cost. The more long-distance passengers will plan in advance, and the airlines will accumulate passengers earlier, and the ultra-short journey, passengers will not be so anxious, and the airlines will be half a beat slower accordingly. In short, according to the travel arrangements of passengers, airlines choose a suitable time to make the flight earn back the cost as soon as possible, so the opening period of medium-haul flights is generally 2~4 weeks, and short-haul flights are basically 1~2 weeks before departure.
Figure | Photo.com
After the advance, the airline has the bottom in mind, and it is time to think about making money, so when the take-off is approaching, the air ticket soars, and the ticket price on the day of take-off is almost the original price, which is the "punishment" for not making plans, traveling recklessly, and saying to go. It can be said that the interaction between airlines and passengers has formed the pricing principle of early bird and early affordability. Such a principle, in fact, is not the most beneficial to consumers, planning early will inevitably change things quickly, but it is one-sided for airlines, and the competition with friends in the airlines dynamically adjust routes and prices, first lock in profits, and then maximize profits.
The early-bird principle is almost the lowest principle of flight pricing, and once it is broken, flight pricing may be out of control. When consumers realise that early bird may not have a good price, they are likely to be reluctant to plan ahead and rush to buy tickets before the long holiday, causing the market to be disrupted and airlines losing customers due to the chaotic pricing system.
I think the fault lies in their eagerness to make money and miscalculation of the purchasing power of consumers. Airlines have lost nearly 400 billion yuan in the three-year epidemic, while under normal circumstances, their annual profits are only about 10 billion, which means that it will take thirty or forty years to recover the losses. The annual long holiday and the Spring Festival rush are the most profitable moments in the aviation industry, and airlines are working hard to come for this moment, so even with the lessons of last year's November price cut, companies are not willing to believe that the source of customers will collapse. Even if individual companies have their own research and judgment, in the face of competition, no one is willing to give up their share easily, so there is a phenomenon of 8.99% year-on-year growth in flights during this year's May Day.
As for consumers, from last year's Wangding was not prosperous, and the growth rate of tourism in third-tier cities far exceeded that of first- and second-tier cities, it can be seen that tourism does not pursue long-term and luxury, but short-distance, sinking and cost-effective.
The May Day holiday slowly unfolded, and there were long queues on the road leading to the outside of the city. For northerners, May Day is the beginning of long-distance outdoor travel, after this season, the wind from the sea is soft, the wind blowing in the valley is moist, and there is no worry about freezing joint disease when traveling outdoors. For the southerners, the bitter summer has begun, and they have to go out to take a breath. Just as the plan of the year lies in spring, May Day also has the meaning of opening an outdoor life. The most exuberant tourist season of the year has begun.
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Hopefully, airlines will realize that their last-minute "price gouging" is not doing much but filling up their own planes. It is also hoped that the Holiday Office can pay attention to the very different tourism characteristics of the long holiday after the epidemic and before the epidemic, and help enterprises guide adjustments from the policy level, reduce disorder, and make the aviation market have a regular follow.