Top all-time · #4826
View from the Wing
Personal blog · viewfromthewing.boardingarea.combusiness
View from the Wing is a personal blog at viewfromthewing.boardingarea.com about business. Since 2015, 16 different Hacker News readers have linked it 22 times. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (8) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link View from the Wing for airline industry analysis: baggage fees, first-class seat economics, the United passenger-dragging incident and airline business models.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 8 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Thought Leader in Travel
What Hacker News says?
It happens: https://viewfromthewing.boardingarea.com/2018/12/03/nightmar...
Comment linking /2018/12/03/nightmare-scenario-man-arrested-for-impersonating-air-traffic-control-issuing-fake-takeoff-instructions/
on “Amazon cargo plane crashes in Texas”Submitted Basic Economy Fares Don't Lower Ticket Prices, They Increase Ticket Prices as a story · 181 points
HN discussionIt's not entirely a market decision due to earlier government regulation: baggage fees are not subject to excise tax, so if an airline could charge $5 for your ticket and $600 for your bag they would be way ahead, even if you'd rather not have checked it. https://viewfromthewing.boardingarea.com/2015/04/21/the-real...
Comment linking /2015/04/21/the-real-reason-airlines-charge-checked-bag-fees-and-its-not-what-you-think
on “Trump Just Signed a Law That Changes Life Aboard Airlines”Submitted United Airlines Threatens to Engage Collections for Passengers Who Skip Segments as a story · 121 points
HN discussionMore complicated because of the way first class travel works. Somewhere between* 10% and 50% of (domestic) first class seats are filled by paying passengers. So the other 90% - 50% are either empty, or filled with elite flyers who paid for an economy ticket and got upgraded. So in almost every flight, the real cost to AA is the cost of having a golden ticket passenger filling a 1st class seat, vs. having either an e…
Comment linking /2014/12/12/many-domestic-first-class-seats-actually-sold-versus-left-upgrades/
on “The frequent fliers who flew too much (2012)”Submitted The State of Frequent Flyer Miles as a story · 76 points
HN discussionI don't know if they originated in Las Vegas but Vegas heartily adopted resort fees a decade ago and now the maximums are nearing $40/night. Frommer's travel guide aggregates the information [1] so tourists can make an informed decision about total cost. Although a clearly critical article [2] suggests the fees are to blame for lower attendance in Vegas, the Review Journal article they cite [3] has a much more balan…
Comment linking /2019/04/03/las-vegas-hotels-discover-fraudulent-resort-fees-are-hurting-their-business/
on “CEO of Marriott Statements About Hotel Fees Customers Loathe”Submitted Is It Bad Business for Airlines to Stick It to Their Customers So Badly? as a story · 7 points
HN discussionThis was actually not an "overbooking" incident in the usual sense. United wanted the seats to move some of their own crew members (reference: http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea.com/2017/04/11/real-reas... ).
Comment linking /2017/04/11/real-reason-man-dragged-off-united-flight-stop-happening/
on “US won't punish United Airlines over passenger-dragging incident”Submitted SEC Filing Shows American Airlines Profit Comes from Frequent Flyer Miles as a story · 5 points
HN discussionYou can add airlines to that list. Here's[1] an article that goes into it a bit. American Airlines actually loses money on their whole "flying people around" business. All of their profit last year was derived via selling points/miles for their frequent flyer program. And it's not limited just to American - I'm not sure about foreign carriers, but it's really common for US legacy carriers to derive substantially all…
Comment linking /2019/01/24/earnings-release-american-airlines-lost-money-flying-passengers-last-quarter/
on “The Smartest Guys in the Room Eerily Describes Tesla”Submitted Man Forgets to Put Phone in Airplane Mode, Gets $300 Bill as a story · 5 points
HN discussion* https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/18/i-dar... * https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/01/21/... * http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2013/07/abol... * http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/restaurants/a23132/why-tip... * http://www.wagehourlitigation.com/files/2015/10/cornell.pdf * https://news.ncsu.edu/2012/04/wms-rusche-restaurants/ * http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea…
Comment linking /2016/02/19/45436/
on “Why some New York restaurateurs are looking forward to the end of tipping”Submitted Leaked: United Airlines Confidential Corporate Sales Stats as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThere's a much better analysis, to your point, here: http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea.com/2016/02/16/45332/ Apparently gogo has a faster, better offering, so American could also just be suing to get themselves a better position in line to get upgraded, or preferred pricing on the faster service. Or just to be able to switch, as you point out.
Comment linking /2016/02/16/45332/
on “American Airlines Lawsuit Suggests It Too Thinks GoGo In-Flight Broadband Sucks”Submitted Air Berlin’s 60 Person E-Commerce Team Has Set Up a Website Looking for Work as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted IATA Chief Calls for End to Unacceptable Electronics Ban as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted How Boeing Is Fixing the 737 Max MCAS Software as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Uber Is Losing a Billion Dollars per Quarter as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The 10 Busiest Airline Routes in the World. None Are in the US or Europe as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Tokyo Airport Hotel Offers a ‘Superior Cockpit Room’ with a Boeing 737 Simulator as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Your Social Media Hashtags May Make You Legally Liable to Delta as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
