Are seats the competitive advantage?

At companies I was with we were not allowed to fly business class.  Is this really a sustainable competitive advantage? And just how big and important is this market segment? And are the airlines, who have been bankrupt so often, ready to be stupid yet again? Note that the most profitable airline (Southwest) does not have special seating.

The supply chain impact of business class seats « The Operations Room

Hedging and Operating in bad Weather

Interesting how operatoins folks obsessively plan everything.

How UPS hedges against bad weather « The Operations Room

Newsvendor applications

I’m always interested in applications of the newsvendor. Here’s one that deals with tax policy and health care.

The newsvendor and the tax man: Do Americans not put enough money into flexible spending accounts? « The Operations Room