Determining factors affecting the upselling acceptance of business class seats among Filipino passengers: An extended theory of planned behavior approach

Upselling of business class seats has been implemented by many commercial airlines as part of their revenue management strategies. The purpose of this was to determine factors affecting the upselling acceptance of business class seats among Filipino passengers by utilizing an extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) approach. A total 323 Filipinos voluntarily answered an online questionnaire that was distributed through a purposive sampling approach. The questionnaire consisted of 41 items that covered various factors such as Price (PR), Perceived Value (PV), Social Status (SS), Facilitating Conditions (FC), Hedonic Motivation (HM), Subjective Norm (SN), Attitude (A), Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC), and Intention (I). Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) showed SN was the most significant factor affecting passengers' intention to accept business class upselling offer, followed by PBC, PR, A, and FC. In addition, PV, FC, and A had significant effects on PBC which subsequently led to I. Furthermore, HM, P, and SS had significant effects on A which subsequently led to SN and I. Meanwhile, only two hypotheses were not supported by the study. This study is one of the first studies that explored the upselling in the business class seats using behavioral factors and additional variables to determine their intentions. The results of this study could help the airline industry to evaluate their strategy in revenue management. Finally, the findings of this study add to the current literature and help airlines’ marketing strategy and promote seat bidding.