WalletPop:
The airlines have some mighty long sleeves. How else can you explain all the dirty tricks they're able to pull out of them? The newest one: Almost all of the legacy carriers in the United States have, within hours of each other, decided to charge you another $10 if you fly on the year's busiest travel days.
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It's not the $10. The airlines do have seem to remain competitive so I understand that part of it is just business. And newer airlines can shake things up, like Virgin America and Southwest remind the older airlines that they cannot get complacent in competitive pricing.
My issue is how all these charges are obscured as 'fees'. You go to a website and the airfare is "advertised" as $X. Then by the time you go to pay, you can see anywhere up to 1/3 of the final price attributed to fees. In fact, in some cases I have had colleagues who have observed their fees are more than 50% of the final cost of the flight. That insane. And it's not just in the US. I think the worst culprits for outrageous 'fees' are outside of the US.
I don't know about other people but it just irks me that airlines are allowed to do that. I know there is that annoying asterisk next to the advertised prices but really? If the fuel surcharge is always charged just make it PART of the advertised fare... then we, the consumers, can attempt to compare apples to apples. I would prefer to go with an airline that is more upfront of the total ticket cost than one that hides behinds 'fees' and 'surcharges' just to make themselves look more enticing.
Over the years, the airlines have gotten one federal bailout after another. Maybe it would have been better to put some of that money into an efficient, reliable, high speed rail system.
Airlines are not jerking rates up for the hell of it like credit card issurers. Most aren't making money. It seems reasonable to me to charge for extra bags if someone needs to take their entire wardrobe on a trip, or add some fees if you want to fly on the busiest day of the year, or most convenient time of the day.
Flights remain reasonably cheap and if you look around and negotiate with a carrier you can get some sweet deals. Especially if you are flexible. My last flight was less than 380$ from Atlanta to Chisinau. Of course to get that I had to change planes 3 times and enjoyed a long layover in Vienna.
Sure am glad I haven't had to fly anywhere for about 20 years. Doubt I will for the rest of my life.
Let's go ridin' in the car, car.
Let's go ridin' in the car, car, car, car :)
Get to see a lot of the world that way, don't you?
You don't seem to relate to those who cannot travel overseas, either on their own dime, or someone else's.
It'd be one thing if the airlines were making money hand over fist, but they can't even break even. The airlines are bleeding money left and right. There are two solutions to this:
1) They can raise prices for select individuals by a lot. People who bring on more bags, people who want food, people who want more space, etc, etc.
or
2) They can raise prices for everyone.
But they have a budget shortfall. Someone has to pay for the jet fuel, salaries, etc, etc. The airlines collectively are $5 billion in the red.
It's like all things in life. You want universal health care, you want roads, you want fire and police services, state of the art military. Great. But don't whine about it when the bill comes.
Everyone's always looking for a free lunch.
We should Nationalize all major airlines and get back to putting safety first and foremost as well as regularity and dependabil
Airlines are a lot safer than you are when you're behind the wheel.
Many people think the crisis is over and are reentering into the stock market like lemmings, but the final shoe may be yet to drop. I would not be surprised if there is another shock to the financial system in the coming months involving one or more of the following companies; Bank Of America, Jp Morgan, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, General Electric, or Lehman.
good articles; http://www
More toxic assets I suppose. Bad loans and defaults like 2008. Then a retest of March lows? maybe
Airlines should go all the way and sell all the tickets on 'Dutch' auctions. Simple, you punch in the max you will pay to fly a given flight and everybody on the flight pays the same highest price that just fills the plane.
Everything about flying smacks of Benny Hill airlines. I thought he was joking - turns out he was a regular Nostradamus
It's called the Happy Effin Holidays Fee. Your so welcome.
or you could take the train.
When we need to fly, we do it on Southwest. I hate United - had terrible experiences flying with them on 3 occasions years ago and have not flown them since. When we flew overseas last year, we flew British Air and had an excellent experience. I feel sorry for people who are trying to get home to see loved ones on the holidays and dealing with these issues- but be creative and try and find ways NOT to fly these major airlines- and write and tell them what you are doing and why!! We need regulation, but until then, boycotting will have to do!
Stop yer yappin...H
With Democrats controlling congress and the whitehouse, I'm a little alarmed that this is allowed to happen.
I'm shocked.. shocked... as well....
How is it that this isn't considered an illegal enterprise? Is it a cartel (not sure if I'm using the right word). When the all move the prices together, it seems as though that would be an illegal move.
I think price fixing is illegal.
On the other hand it's not a necessity.
It isn't bad enough that the fares themselves are sky high during the holidays? They have to tag on a holiday surcharge?
Supply and demand.
These airlines owe their very existance to the largesse of taxpayers. They were bailed out again and again. It's past time for regulation. Sadly we have a spineless president.
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First Posted: 09-29-09 11:08 AM | Updated: 11-22-09 04:32 PM