经济学人下载:微笑服务和免费花生

Southwest messes up occasionally. Last month it earned angry headlines after asking two heavy passengers to wait for the next plane. (It also asked them to buy an extra seat each.) And in April it cancelled 700 flights after one of its ageing Boeing 737s suffered an ominous crack in its roof. But still, Americans seem to like Southwest more than most. In the current issue of Consumer Reports it was rated America’s favourite airline.

有时西南航空也是会出错的。上个月因为要求两位体态肥胖的旅客推迟到下一趟航班，愤怒的旅客将西南航空投诉上了报纸的大字标题。（西南航空而且要求两位旅客各自另外买票。）今年四月份，由于其中一架运行老龄化的波音737号飞机机顶出现了不祥的一个裂缝，迫使西南航空取消了700次航班。即使如此，西南航空仍然是美国人的最爱。现刊“消费者报告”上显示，西南航空在美国是最受欢迎的航空公司。

It is the small things that make the difference. Southwest still gives out free peanuts, an oddly emotive subject among travellers. It lets passengers switch their flights often, for no extra charge. Most importantly, perhaps, it does not charge for checked-in luggage. Bob Jordan, Southwest’s vice president for strategy, reckons that charging for bags would have given the airline an additional $300m a year. But bag fees are so irritating that Southwest decided to go without.

小不同则有大差距。西南航空仍旧提供免费的花生米，这也是使旅客情绪上产生奇妙变化的东西。西南航空时常允许乘客们调换航班，并提供无偿服务。可能最重要的，西南航空不为托运 行李收费。其战略副总裁鲍勃.乔丹认为，行李收费每年公司会额外盈利3亿美元，但因为行李费用是另旅客们相当困扰的问题，西南航空决定不为其收费。

Executives crow that this has allowed Southwest to poach customers from rivals, which has made up for the forgone fees. Meanwhile, Southwest has no qualms about charging for extras that irk passengers less, such as those early check-ins, and this generates a happy whack of cash.

主管们高调的声称，这个举措使得西南航空从其竞争对手那里吸引了不少旅客资源，这也就弥补了托运行李上所花费的费用。同时，对于额外服务收取额外费用，例如提早登机手续办理，旅客们不怎么在意，西南航空也没什么顾虑，高高兴兴地又为公司赢得了大笔的钞票。

Other airlines could imitate Southwest’s original approach to smiles and peanuts. “Anybody can copy anybody, right?” Mr Jordan concedes. But he argues that the others have grown so addicted to the extra revenue from bag fees that if they change, the hurt will linger like a jumbo grounded by a snowstorm.

其他的航空公司当然是可以模仿西南航空公司最初为乘客们提供微笑服务和免费花生的举措。  乔丹先生也承认：“任何人都可以模仿任何一个人，是吧。”但他同时也表明因为其他的航空公司太过投入于从行李收费中获取额外收益，使得其很难有所改变。如果改变，所受的创伤犹如暴风雪刮后造成飞机停飞的后果一样严重持久。