In message , at 21:30:43 on Fri, 8 Nov 2019,
John Levine remarked:
In article ,
Roland Perry wrote:
It's vital to your thesis because HEx is catering for the high-end
airline passenger who has probably never visited London before, and just
wants to be spoon-fed an "airport express" service to the city centre.

If you say so, but it's hard to believe their business model assumed
that each passenger will make one trip in his lifetime.

Their business model was primarily high-end passengers who would
otherwise have taken a taxi door to door. But as it's traditional in
this group for people to be in denial about that, it becomes necessary
to look at the next layer in the demographic, and look at "why people
choose HEx rather than commuter services". And that's because they are
novices at travelling in London and the rule of thumb in big cities for
the uninitiated is "commuter services are a nightmare, catch the airport
express instead".

It's also why such people also choose to stay in familiar international
chains of hotels, rather than seek out privately-run local alternatives,
but I digress.

I cheerfully agree that if your destination is near Paddington, HeX is
quite handy,

For the people in HEx's target market (both of the two above), it's
irrelevant where Paddington is, it's simply a railhead with a taxi-rank
that's (to use London terminology) 'inside Zone 1'.

particularly if you or your travel planner are able to think a few
days ahead and book a £15 fixed date return HeX ticket.

Given the other costs of the trip - flight, hotels, and yes the taxi
from Paddington to their ultimate destination - they they think they've
done that task by identifying HEx as the quicker/cheaper[even at rack
rate] way to get to Zone 1, than a taxi starting from Heathrow.

They don't need to airbrush out HEx, and then see what the next more
gruesome option is.

Here in the US, the normal thing at an airport is to rent a car, not
to take a taxi.

I think that's a huge stretch for the kind of travellers involved. For
example the first time I flew into Atlanta from the UK for a trade show
in the city centre, a hire car would be a huge liability. As would one
have been to a similar trade show six months later in New York.

If you're just going to downtown Atlanta or anywhere in NYC you're
right, a car is a bad idea. But they are not typical of US cities or
airports. I have visted a friend who lives on the Emory campus at the
north edge of Atlanta. You can get there on MARTA and a bus, but it's
quite slow. A taxi is quite expensive since it takes hour with
traffic, and you'll typically want a car at your destination anyway
since restaurants and such are rarely within walking distance.

But we are discussing coming to London, not to cities in the USA.
--
Roland Perry