Currently one can build terminals to handle passengers. If a high quality building is constructed this will increase the Ratings for all Passengers that are beeing handled by the terminal. However it is rather expensive to build one (armortization takes over a year). If we look into reallife we find that only few airlines build their own terminals.
What most airlines do offer are Lounges.
Lounges are smaller areas within a terminal that offer a comfortable waiting environment for airline passengers. Often these Lounge are reserved to Premium Passengers.
So my idea would be to just rename "Terminals" into "Lounges" and offer an option to assign them to specific travelling classes (e.g. Business Class). By that one could really focus the impact of additional comfort to those passengers who really look for it(First and Business), as Economy Passengers often prefer a lower price over additional comfort. As Business and First only account for about 20% of the over all passenger demand, the lounges would take a much smaller investment and are therefor more affordable to build.
I think this is a great idea and could counteract the problem of negative ratings for long dist flights with first class… That is really starting to bum me out.
Excellent Idea. Depending on how much ratings are increased by lounges relative to terminals, we could do away with terminals all together and offer lounges. The only reason for having both would be if terminals still give a higher rating than lounges. But how will capacity at lounges be managed?
This could be an excellent feature for alliances. So all members of an alliance pay a small fee for being part of that alliance, and in return make use of alliance lounges. Directors and Managers of the alliance spend the money upon some agreement. On a slightly side note, I also think alliance members should have discounted IL costs.
Very simple , one would build a lounge like a terminal (select capacity, quality and assign it to seating classes - e.g. 4000 pax, 4star, Business only or 700 pax, 5star, First only). Overcapacity could be leased out to other airlines the same way it was possible with terminals.
@AS-Team : You could use the same interface as for the terminals, just change the wording. And then just make it a factor in the rating of the classes which are assigned to the lounge. I don’t think this would take you very long to program…
I’d like to see Terminals stay, with lounges added. Another big benefit of terminals is that they decrease PAX handling fees. I can’t see my lounge staff also dealing with the technical and laborious handling duties. However, I also cast my vote in favour of making lounges class-sensitive. This idea has me excited.
Another perk of a lounge could be that it increases the amount of time a passenger is willing to wait for a connecting flight. The increase could be relative to the number of stars assigned to the lounge. If it has showers and beds, what’s the rush, whereas if it’s simply regular row seating with a fancy name, why would I wait longer?
