US AIrways jumps on the bandwagon

[J Arp]

Originally Posted by thedeme

I say bring back the train!

No kidding. I have never flown commercial airlines... I have only flown myself privately, but ever since traveling on Amtrak I severely doubt I will ever set foot on a commercial U.S. flight unless it is taking me overseas to Europe or beyond.

[tande1n5]

Originally Posted by momof2dfw

But the extra "fees" to try and make up the difference I do NOT agree with. Just put it down as one price and build in all of the costs of doing business instead of having 5-20 extra "fees". Instead they show one "low cost" but by the time you "finalize" the deal the fees doubled the price.

BTW, I thought airlines were trying to get people to CHECK their bags instead of carrying them on. These extra "fees" are only going to force more and more people to try and carry on their bags vs checking them.

In a lot of instances, the airlines would love to throw out (many of) the fees too. Nowadays, you've got a large number of people that purchase their tickets on comparison sites, and as a result, C2B power is quite large. There also exists a surplus of seats in the market right now, and the announced reductions in service are (economically speaking) step one to equilibrium... so that advertised fare is quite important in terms of competitiveness. For a lot of folks, airline A with no fees and a high fare looks more unattractive than airline B with 49 dollar one way and fees for everything... the ol' $199 looks cheaper than $200 fallacy. Priceline, travelocity, orbitz... you name it, but they always show base fare, and the extreme competitiveness has really backed airlines into a corner.

I'd suggest that the airlines wouldn't mind you carrying on a lot of the time, as long as you abide by the size rules, bag # limitation, 3-1-1, et al. This way, no pi$$ed off people when the bag gets mishandled. The carryon rules also go along way in deterring folks from bringing the kitchen sink - which people love to do when checking.

I agree wholehartedly about paying for terrible service. The problem stems from bad attitudes toward management from the folks dealing with customer service, such as agents and flight attendants... yet so many don't realize that good customer service, and thus increased customer loyalty, could go a long way in getting out of this quagmire... d'oh!