I'm with maxalt on this one. Quoting 2 specific FR fares is totally meaningless. I can easily sit here and find 2 specific fr, or any other airlines, fares on a day I want to go somewhere that would appear expensive.
As maxalt says, the public only want a cheap headline fare. In this, the great unwashed are essentially stupid*. They only care about the headline fare, not the total actual cost, and, oftentimes, the penalties involved in cheaper fares, such as out of the way airports, the appalling fr service, poor times etc. EI is merely responding to the (false) perceptions of whats cheap that the public has. Its human nature to fasten on to the numbers in big print and ignore the final figure, particularly if the final number is less palitable.
People also like to boast about how little they paid, although of course they didn't pay that little, as they neglect to mention all the extras. They will never admit that they paid FR extortionate money for a fare, which is what a whole lot of FR fares are.
The reason EI cost a little more is that you will get looked after better. I have seen it as a pax on EI what the service level is, both if all is well, and particularly if it all goes wrong.
On FR on the other hand, in all honesty I couldn't give a flying f##k what inconvenience the pax suffer if we have a problem. Why? Becuase the company don't care about me, you or anyone else, so why should I put any effort in for no thanks whatsoever? If you fly FR, thats your problem, not mine. My advice to pis$ed off pax: fly with someone else.
* - before you all start shouting at me, some pilots suffer this problem too. For example anyone that voted for frs new 4 year deal ignored the small print, which is that the whole thing is a pay cut.
DONTTELLTHEPAX -
your so-called facts are utterly meaningless
