Warbird Information Exchange

In response to today's announcement that major airlines are beginning to charge $15 for the first checked bag, having already begun charging $25 for the second, with surcharges for aisle and window seats on the horizon:

"The major airlines are truly a la carte now — you don't get anything free any more," said Parsons, chief executive of the travel Web site Bestfares.com. "You get a tin can in the air, and anything else you pay as you go."

August

Nex they'll be charging for a seat belt, use of the john and seatage
next to someone without BO

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Don't touch my junk!!

How much surcharge do you suppose there will be for 'No Crying Babys' flights?!

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It's what you learn after you think you know it all, that counts.

It's only going to get worse. Most of the majors are going to charge for every little thing. One of the major carriers just announced this week, that they were going to start charging for water on the flights as well as soda pops/Coke. I've heard there is consideration being given to make passengers pay for the priviledge of using the onboard toilets. It's getting absolutely ridiculous and out of control. It's going to piss the public off and create a backlash, IMO.

Not sure, but that would require eliminating a lot of passengers to get a "no crying babies flights". The public is getting exactly what they're paying for. If you think the traveling public is "being screwed", then you've either forgotten the era of regulation or are too young to remember how expensive airline tickets used to be and should be now. Adjusted for inflation, the cost an airline ticket today is ridiculously low thanks to our politicians who've decided that cheap, frequent air travel accesible to the masses is d*mn near a constitutional right. The industry has been partially re-regulated since deregulation in part to prevent a total collapse but to ensure a chaotic state of "competition" at the leisure of pandering politicians looking for a populist issue and another opportunity to pose for holy pictures on the backs of private industry. The party may be over soon since domestic capacity is being slashed and fares and surcharges will be pressured even further upward. I hope that's the case so the industry can start eeking out even modest profits while oil company oligopolies are allowed to thrive and build astronomical wealth unfettered by the US Justice Dep't antitrust referees.

I guess that once again the years of massive losses by the Oil Companies during Carter and then after Black Monday don't count for anything anyomore, much less that their profit margin and gross profits are still less than that of most other industries, including tech giants like MICROSOFT, APPLE, and IBM, or the fact that the Oil Companies re-invest 75% of their profits into research and development of advanced technologies and alternative energy sources voluntarily.

Get off the mindless drone train that sits around plotting how to bite the hand that feeds them and realize that if you want the oil companies to stop making profits that you'll have to stop using it and to do that you basically have to stop surviving as oil is used for almost everything you use today.

BTW - the airlines are in the situation they're in because they got complacent. Add to that the opressive and hostile relationship they have with the unions and you've got a recipie for disaster.

CAP,

Whoa now...I totally agree with your take on the oil issue--my point/angle was the pols don't seem bothered by oil industry consolidation and the resultant reduced competition but go nuts when there's the least hint of possibility the airlines might merge or competition in the industry reduced through consolidation. I don't begrudge the oil companies their profits--they're doing what companies do--pursue profits and value for their shareholders. Your point about the airline complacency and antagonistic labor relations is valid too, but gov't meddling has also had a huge negative impact on industry health. I agree with ya, just clarifying where I was coming from.

August,

That avatar is a riot!!

My apologies then for misunderstanding your point.

As for Airline consolidation, personally, I'm not sure where your basis for the "uproar" is because the AAL/TWA merger and USAir/AmWest mergers were approved with very little handwringing but the first major step to finally getting rid of an outdated and honestly unconstitutional law (the Wright Ammendment) took years and years to get taken care of and it was one of the most monopoly supporting pieces of legislation in the aviation industry ever passed.

Those mergers didn't involve two relatively large carriers coming together so it didn't raise the ire of the pols or Justice Dept. Hopefully the pols realize consolidation may be necessary for the industry to stay healthy.

Yah the Wright Ammendment...unbelievable a law like that could be passed in this country, then again maybe not. The pendulum has since swung to the other extreme with deregulation and the gov't aiding and even incentivizing low cost carriers to spring up, get gates, coveted slots etc. and unfairly shortcut into markets they wouldn't have otherwise been able to penetrate so quickly and easily. On the shiny side, they've kept big boys honest and forced them to get their houses in order but some of them are now being exposed as empty shells with smooth talkin CEOs. Hopefully there will be an equilibrium at some point where airlines are allowed to grow and consolidate and find some stability, yet keep a competitive environment free of harmful gov't meddling and artificially induced chaotic competition.