Sunday, November 11, 2007
Underpromise your way to success.
Airline executives should rush to the Haunted Mansion in the Magic Kingdom. Our heads sank when we approached and saw the sign advertising a 15-minute wait. Despair turned to elation when we were ushered into the spooky entry hall in just a few minutes. This experience was repeated time and again—at rides and restaurants—where promised delays of 20 minutes miraculously shrank in half. After a few days, it became apparent that this might be a conscious strategy of underpromising and overdelivering. Which is precisely the opposite of the tack airlines have taken lo these many years. The carriers continually promise that planes will leave or arrive at a specific time when they know the probability of an on-time departure is only slightly greater than the probability of your suitcase's being the first item to hit the luggage carousel.Daniel Gross.
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Airlines have increasingly adopted this approach with travel times, padding the estimated arrival times of flights by margins large enough to absorb a slightly delayed departure and still land at the destination ahead of schedule. I supect there is more of this going on elsewhere in the airline business then Daniel Gross appreciates. One challenge: airlines have significantly less control over the traveller's airport and travel experience then Disney does inside the Magic Kingdon.
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