I'm an ideas man. Always have been. If I have my way, always will be.
I'm a good problem solver. Give me a situation, I'll sort it out. An example of both came up today. My friend who works for an airline got promoted to some global sales position. That's good an all, but one question: why am I not in charge of sales for EVERY company?
Within about 5 minutes I came up with some brilliant ideas to get airline profitability way up. For this fictional example, let's use American Airlines.
Idea 1: Paint the planes blue. Most planes you see around are silver. Boring. If you walked into a car lot, and all the cars were lame silver and then there was one nice looking dark blue one, which would you buy? Exactly. Same works for planes. Another option I just came up with: glow in the dark planes. You look up in the sky at night and see the shining spectacle, you want nothing more than to BE on it.
Idea 2: Benches instead of chairs. Chairs are cumbersome. Too big. It's hard to get past someone when you go to the bathroom. They don't lean back very far. Basically, they're overrated for sitting on. So take away the pleasure all together and put on a bench. People sit on benches for long football games all the time. They wouldn't mind for a plane ride. You'd fit in MORE passengers and save money.
Idea 3: All-You-Can-Eat. No one wants to pay 5 bucks for a sandwich because 5 bucks for a sandwich is a ripoff. So tell them this: 30 bucks for all you can eat the whole flight. It seems reasonable, and your profit margins are through the roof. Because really, all you're giving them is the same cheap ass sandwiches over and over until they're full. I don't care about food on a plane anyway, I'm usually asleep within 10 minutes. But other people may like it.
Idea 4: Luggage valet. Why do you have to get off the plane and meet your luggage at baggage claim and then wait for it to be thrown on the conveyor belt, battered, and eventually get to you? Half the time I can't recognize my suitcase because I never get around to putting a clever marker on it. Let people pay a bit more and have it brought to them valet style. Take advantage of the rich snobs who don't want to wait, and give those rich snobs the option of giving you their money.
Idea 5: Less pilots. Does there really need to be a co-pilot? You don't see cabbies or truck drivers needing assistants. Give the flight attendant a few lessons in case of emergency, but otherwise, let the guy fly the plane by himself. Also, why make him wear a uniform? It probably pisses him off to put on, and that's why he drinks before flying. Jeans and a t-shirt. With the airline logo so it's professional.
Idea 6: More entrances. This might take a large redesign of the American hangar system, but using both the back and front of the plane lets loading and unloading go that much faster. Cut 5 minutes on take-off and arrival, and at the end of the day, you've got enough time to work in another flight. I hate waiting for old women to drop their overhead luggage on their heads, or the 350 lb guy to collapse into the aisle.
I could probably come up with more, but I've cut at least a billion right there. Maybe tomorrow I'll tackle another industry. All in a day's work.
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