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The one that gets me is where they want to charge for in-person check in. There were several times last year when we tried to check in online, but were flagged for whatever reason and were forced to see a ticketing agent. Hopefully, in cases like that, the fees would be waived.
I am so sick of fees. I do everything in my power to get around them- carry-on only, sit in crappier seats (no exit rows anymore for the most part), don't pay extra for guaranteed pre-board (on Southwest), etc.
Charge me the amount for a ticket that you, the airline, need in order to operate profitably. End of story.
You want low fares, pay the fees! If they were to make the fare all inclusive to cover all the cost, you ain;t getting the low fares your use to paying now.
This has been covered before.
Airline A charges $100 for the fare but has $50 in added fees.
Airline B charges $140 for the fare all inclusive (free checked baggage, meals, no charge checkins, etc).
Airline A will be booked solid while Airline B will get the left overs.
Stupid low fare shopping travelers created the fees, blame them, not the airlines!
that why i love what my company started to do was book chapter aircaft company for flights and for the same amount it was costing to fly 10 or 20 people to a spot in south FL or north to New York it as about a $300.oo dollar basic mark up on the charter flight than if we fly on a major airline .
so now for the last two years we flew in charter aircraft and love it along with not haveing to deal with the problems of the airport getting in and out of the airport going through the hassle of dealing at the ticket counters and fees out the butt and dealing with going through the Tsa and other areas .. plus the charter company will let us hop flights with other groups of people for about the same price as a regular ticket maybe a little more once they get premission from the charter group which in turns brings down there charter price for them if they did not have a full plane load ..so if going close enough for use to land and rent a car to drive the rest of the way or take a bus or train the rest of the way is great ..
Location: Living near our Nation's Capitol since 2010
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You are exactly correct, PacificFlights. Somehow, people think that fares should NEVER be raised, fees should NEVER be charged, its a human right to fly across country for $300 (try driving it for that!). Folks, have you noticed the price at your local gas pump has suddenly gone higher, much higher? Now how do you think the same rise in fuel rates affects the airline biz?
Trust me, airline employees have taken HUGE wage cuts, benefit cuts, etc so you can continue to fly at unrealistically low fares. This is a FOR profit business...we cant continue to fly you around for less than what it costs to do so.
You are exactly correct, PacificFlights. Somehow, people think that fares should NEVER be raised, fees should NEVER be charged, its a human right to fly across country for $300 (try driving it for that!). Folks, have you noticed the price at your local gas pump has suddenly gone higher, much higher? Now how do you think the same rise in fuel rates affects the airline biz?
Trust me, airline employees have taken HUGE wage cuts, benefit cuts, etc so you can continue to fly at unrealistically low fares. This is a FOR profit business...we cant continue to fly you around for less than what it costs to do so.
Airlines need to stop catering to the once a year travelers. They need to do what cruise lines do. Start with the ticket prices at their peak, and lower them as they get closer to the travel date to fill empty seats. It will reward the business travelers who are the bread and butter but can't usually book until a week or less out.
By the way, about fuel prices... Airlines aren't as sensitive to a rise in fuel prices as typical consumers are because they hedge long in advance and lock in their fuel prices--similar to the way people lock in the price on their heating oil contract at the beginning of every fall. Unfortunately the average consumer can't do that with their local gas station.
One more thing, I've been lecturing about how dangerous lap babies are in airplanes for over a decade now. They are a projectile--even in turbulence a lap baby can bounce up high enough to land on the head of the person in the seat in front or behind them. Yes, flying is safer than driving, but if you don't buckle your kid up in the car, it's not likely to cause a catastrophic injury when it bounces off the ceiling and lands on someone's head.
Trust me, airline employees have taken HUGE wage cuts, benefit cuts, etc so you can continue to fly at unrealistically low fares.
Give me a break, you take cuts because labor costs were too high to remain competitive, it has nothing to do with doing anything for us.
My old job we take a salary reduction at one point, we didn't do it to make sure the people who purchased our GPS tracking devices could continue to do so at unrealistically low fares, we did it so we could stay in business.
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