This is just a very minor thing I noticed but ...
I needed to book a flight from Singapore to Hong Kong. I checked and the prices
were pretty crazy.
$69 for Tiger (which is rated 1 out of 5 stars)
$105 for JetStar (rated like 1.5 out of 5 stars)
$520 for Singapore Airlines
That's it! There's no sliding scale. The 3rd option is 6x the first option!!!
I asked some friends what they would pick. Some said pick Singapore Air because
sucky travel experience ruins everything. Others said the flight is only 4hrs
so don't worry about a bad experience as it will be over quick.
I ended up going with Singapore Air mostly because they had a flight time that
fit my schedule. I needed to get into Hong Kong with plenty of time to get to
the city before it gets dark since I'm going to an AirBnB and not a hotel and
it will be harder to find. Too early and I'm stuck with my luggage for several
hours. I am cry about the cost but what−cha−gonna do.
Anyway, that's all beside the point.
The point is, as I was flying from Tokyo to Singapore (different flight) on
Singapore Airlines the headphones they gave me were broken. I checked a couple
of things and was able to mostly conclude the problem was the headphones, not
the entertainment system.
But, ... While I was doing that it got me thinking. Because there's a lower
price option I start to feel entitled to better service. If I fly from SG to HK
for $520 and something is broken or service is bad I'm likely going to be
extremely upset that I paid 6x the price of the cheap airlines and didn't get
flawless service.
Before super cheap airlines when the diff was say 10% it wouldn't have been a
big deal but now ....?
No idea if that will have any real pressure or not on non super budget airlines.