Well here's some news to brighten your day:
Last year, airlines made nearly $18 billion off your crappy travel experiences, in just the first three quarters of 2015.
And they have chosen to celebrate this major windfall by bringing back, among other things, free pretzels. Like, miniature pretzels.
Seriously? That's IT?!
"We are finally at a place where we can invest in our overall product," American Airlines spokesperson Laura Nedbal told CNN Money. "This is our opportunity to... invest in the main cabin as well."
Yes, pretzels are delicious, and we're glad American Airlines announced earlier this week that free pretzels will return to domestic flights.
But when airplane seats are shrinking, lines are growing and baggage and booking fees continue to rise, passengers would like more than free bags of teensy-tiny pieces of baked bread. If record profits make 2015 the best year for the industry in decades, as the Associated Press reports, then free snacks are not enough.
C'mon, guys. A little more legroom would be nice. Please?
To be fair, American Airlines said it will introduce TWO kinds of free snacks: Domestic flights leaving in the morning will get cookies, and later ones will get either cookies or pretzels. American Airlines is also expanding in-flight entertainment to including more movies, TV shows and music on domestic flights.
But they haven't announced that seats will be more spacious, or that high baggage fees will be reduced. Other airlines are following a similar pattern: JetBlue, for example, recently announced free Wi-Fi and more movies, but smaller seat sizes. JetBlue still has MANY perks, but the addition of entertainment while making our physical experience less comfy is troubling, to say the least.
We've also seen the return of free snacks to United, who will bring cookies and snack mix to its domestic flights this month. And airlines like Delta are supposedly "improving" their economy classes with more free movies and TV shows, the Associated Press notes.
We can only hope these "improvements" get bigger and better.
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