In message
-sept
ember.org, at 09:25:04 on Fri, 15 Jul 2016, Recliner
remarked:
the bus is the same - does it win you more extra customers than it costs to
operate.

And ISTM that the answer has to be yes

I wonder if the airport couldn't get the airlines to pay, say, £1 per
arriving and departing passenger towards the bus cost? Obviously not all
passengers use the bus, so that charge should more than cover the bus
costs,

That would be a fifth of the airline's profit per passenger. So probably
not.

and it would save the time and cost of collecting fares.

It's not their problem to collect the fares, that's done by the train
company running the bus (Luton Airport is a permanently bustituted
railway station, rather than an omnibus stop).
--
Roland Perry

On 2016-07-15 10:06:24 +0000, Roland Perry said:

What they decided was that charging for the bus was a price flyers
would be prepared to pay. Just like most off-campus airport hotels
which charge for their shuttle buses (or have "contracted it out" to
what amounts to a regular fare-stage bus) these days.

Are you talking about the LHR Hotel Hoppa thing?

If so, that was the airport's fault, not that of the hotels. They
banned the hotel shuttle buses from their land. I took a flight from
LHR at the time it was changing over, having parked at a hotel with a
cheap deal - the shuttle bus driver was talking about it.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

Neil Williams wrote:
On 2016-07-15 10:06:24 +0000, Roland Perry said:

What they decided was that charging for the bus was a price flyers
would be prepared to pay. Just like most off-campus airport hotels
which charge for their shuttle buses (or have "contracted it out" to
what amounts to a regular fare-stage bus) these days.

Are you talking about the LHR Hotel Hoppa thing?

If so, that was the airport's fault, not that of the hotels. They
banned the hotel shuttle buses from their land. I took a flight from
LHR at the time it was changing over, having parked at a hotel with a
cheap deal - the shuttle bus driver was talking about it.

Yes, the airport was trying to cut the number of mini buses clogging up the
roads round the terminals and the tunnel.

In message , at 11:58:52 on Fri, 15
Jul 2016, Neil Williams remarked:
On 2016-07-15 10:06:24 +0000, Roland Perry said:

What they decided was that charging for the bus was a price flyers
would be prepared to pay. Just like most off-campus airport hotels
which charge for their shuttle buses (or have "contracted it out" to
what amounts to a regular fare-stage bus) these days.

Are you talking about the LHR Hotel Hoppa thing?

Not especially. The same applies to Gatwick and Stansted; I've not used
other airport hotels recently.

If so, that was the airport's fault, not that of the hotels. They
banned the hotel shuttle buses from their land.

I think you'll find they imposed a toll, which is rather different.

I took a flight from LHR at the time it was changing over, having
parked at a hotel with a cheap deal - the shuttle bus driver was
talking about it.

Obviously an expert then.
--
Roland Perry

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 10:03:46 on Fri, 15 Jul 2016,
tim... remarked:

the bus is the same - does it win you more extra customers than it costs
to operate.

And ISTM that the answer has to be yes

What they decided was that charging for the bus was a price flyers would
be prepared to pay. Just like most off-campus airport hotels which charge
for their shuttle buses (or have "contracted it out" to what amounts to a
regular fare-stage bus) these days.

All part of the consumer-driven race to the bottom I'm afraid.

I've recently been looking at booking hotels in major central European
cities.

Because I eschew the 06:30 departure I have found myself having to book the
23:00 arrival.

This means that I have been looking at hotels with "Airport transfer", in
the expectation it would be a free or low cost hotel contracted bus.

but, on closer inspection I find that the charge is often more than the
pre-booked taxi fare would be, so they only "service" that they are offering
is "we call the cab for you" (for which we add on a premium)

No doubt some people who don't research how much a cab ride in X costs, are
impressed :-(

(probably the same set of people who habitually eat in the hotel restaurant
for no other reason than they can charge it to the room)

tim

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 11:58:52 on Fri, 15 Jul
2016, Neil Williams remarked:
On 2016-07-15 10:06:24 +0000, Roland Perry said:

What they decided was that charging for the bus was a price flyers would
be prepared to pay. Just like most off-campus airport hotels which
charge for their shuttle buses (or have "contracted it out" to what
amounts to a regular fare-stage bus) these days.

Are you talking about the LHR Hotel Hoppa thing?

Not especially. The same applies to Gatwick and Stansted;

The hotels at STN are walkable (to the airport)

tim

In message , at 12:30:35 on Sat, 16 Jul
2016, tim... remarked:

What they decided was that charging for the bus was a price flyers
would be prepared to pay. Just like most off-campus airport hotels
which charge for their shuttle buses (or have "contracted it out"
to what amounts to a regular fare-stage bus) these days.

Are you talking about the LHR Hotel Hoppa thing?

Not especially. The same applies to Gatwick and Stansted;

The hotels at STN are walkable (to the airport)

I've walked from the Holiday Inn Express, but the road isn't very
pedestrian-friendly. It's about a kilometre. Next door is the Premier
Inn. The Hilton is much further, it's up by the M11.
--
Roland Perry

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 12:30:35 on Sat, 16 Jul 2016,
tim... remarked:

What they decided was that charging for the bus was a price flyers
would be prepared to pay. Just like most off-campus airport hotels
which charge for their shuttle buses (or have "contracted it out" to
what amounts to a regular fare-stage bus) these days.

Are you talking about the LHR Hotel Hoppa thing?

Not especially. The same applies to Gatwick and Stansted;

The hotels at STN are walkable (to the airport)

I've walked from the Holiday Inn Express, but the road isn't very
pedestrian-friendly. It's about a kilometre. Next door is the Premier Inn.
The Hilton is much further, it's up by the M11.

My mistake

For some reason I was thinking of the hotels at LTN

tim

On 15.07.16 10:25, Recliner wrote:
tim... wrote:

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 11:44:06 on Thu, 14 Jul
2016, Neil Williams remarked:
Thy could start by having a segregated route for alighting and departing
passengers.
That way they could check the tickets at a "gate" and allow pax to
board via the rear doors instead of closing them, and only checking
tickets at the front door, meaning that everybody has to pass down the
bus to get to a free seat - something that many people are reluctant to
do once the bus is more than half full.

They could start by making it free again to encourage rail travel rather
than the use of direct coaches to London. The charge is a petty attempt
at imposing an airport premium without the actual premium service (where
have we seen that before?).

Depends who you mean by "they". The original shuttle bus was paid for by
the airport, and operated from the same fleet as the car park shuttles

But as it was a cost rather than a profit centre, they scrapped it.

That's just lazy business sense

It's not a cost cost, it's a marketing cost.

Without the bus no-one (who isn't otherwise intending on coming by car) will
use your airport, as walking access is next to impossible (even ignoring
whether the distance is something someone might walk in the first place).

Scraping it simply because it costs you some money is just lazy. You could
equally well say that you don't need to build a swish check in hall because
it costs money (and generates no direct income), and let everyone check in
at desks in an open field and then sit around on the grass until timer to go
through to the departures hall.

But they don't do that because someone calculates that poor impression such
a process gives, loses you customers.

the bus is the same - does it win you more extra customers than it costs to
operate.

And ISTM that the answer has to be yes

I wonder if the airport couldn't get the airlines to pay, say, £1 per
arriving and departing passenger towards the bus cost? Obviously not all
passengers use the bus, so that charge should more than cover the bus
costs, and it would save the time and cost of collecting fares.


O'Leary would go mental, I imagine.

On 17.07.16 9:53, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 12:30:35 on Sat, 16 Jul
2016, tim... remarked:

What they decided was that charging for the bus was a price flyers
would be prepared to pay. Just like most off-campus airport hotels
which charge for their shuttle buses (or have "contracted it out"
to what amounts to a regular fare-stage bus) these days.

Are you talking about the LHR Hotel Hoppa thing?

Not especially. The same applies to Gatwick and Stansted;

The hotels at STN are walkable (to the airport)

I've walked from the Holiday Inn Express, but the road isn't very
pedestrian-friendly. It's about a kilometre. Next door is the Premier
Inn. The Hilton is much further, it's up by the M11.

I've simply used Yotel either in T2 or T5. Reserve early enough in
advance, and the price isn't that bad.