No.
Very few pax actually pay “full fare” for their tickets. Generally speaking, in coach, price a Y fare ticket versus “any class ticket.” You will usually (but not necessarily always) be astounded at the diff.
Disclaimers: I’m not talking about somewhat refundable tickets, somewhat changeable tickets, I am taling about full coach/first class/business clas tickets.
As written, this pretty much EXcludes most of the pax on a given plane.
$15 for the first checked bag. $25 for the second checked bag. $xxx for the fuel surcharge. $5 for a box of snack food. $5 to reserve an aisle seat. $x to book your ticket through a live person and not online.
I’d say we are pretty close to there.
:: nods ::
Air Canada economy YYZ to SYD (nonrefundable, nonexchangeable): around $2600. First class (total flexibility): around $13000.
American’s boarding groups are not determined solely by what row you are sitting in. They’ve got some crazy scheme that takes into account which seat (i.e., aisle, window) as well, and spreads the boarders out so that some people from each section board in each boarding group. People sitting by windows seem to go into the earlier groups, so if you want to sit up front and board earlier, get a window seat.
They apparently keep monkeying with their boarding algorithm, though, so no guarentee they’ll stick with this one.
One way to look at this is that they charge you another $15 to check a bag.
Another way to look at it is that if you don’t check a bag, they’ll charge you $15 less.
If the company is truly screwing their passengers, why not just raise their rates by $15 across the boards? They can charge whatever they like, right?
Except, they’ve got to compete against a dozen other airlines. They can set their rates at whatever they like, what they can’t do is compel anyone to purchase tickets at those rates. If this is just a way to raise rates by $15, then they’re going to sell fewer tickets than their competitors, and eventually they’ll go bust.
United does it that way, and it works great, actually, since you don’t have to climb over anyone. The last time I flew American they did it the standard way. Of course those who are high level Frequent Fliers go first anyway.
But if their competitors decide not to charge this fee, it might piss off enough people so their ridership goes down, and they go bust anyway.
This is going to slow down check-in a ton. Now, assuming you don’t have two bags, you go to the kiosk, click that you have a bag, you get the luggage tag, printed automatically, and in two seconds you are done. It is going to take a lot longer to run credit cards or get cash and make change for nearly everyone on the flight. The kiosks are about the only thing that has improved in air travel in the past 6 years - now they’re going to screw that up too.
In November I’m flying to Thailand with Jetstar (a budget airline). On the way back I’ve pre-paid for checked luggage and it’s something like $20 a person. I opted out of the extra stuff (Amenities pack - $7. Entertainment - $10. Food - $30). But for $922 to fly two people return I’m not complaining.
Come to think of it, there have been times when I’ve been near the back of the plane and have been in the second or third boarding group. I have a round trip flight scheduled for mid-June (straddling the effective date of the $15 per bag charge) and my seats for both ends of the trip are window seats in the front of the plane (row 9, IIRC), so I’ll see what boarding group I get put in.
I always use the kiosks to check my bag, and the only times I’ve been delayed were if there was some idiot who’s at one of the front kiosks with his bags scattered around him so no one can get to the other kiosks or if there was a large group trying to check in. Again, I’ll have to see how this new system screws that up.
I have no objection to a business charging the most that the traffic will bear. I do object to a business presenting its prices in a deceptive manner, by pricing necessary features as “optional extras”.
This used to be a running joke among car customers–a car would be advertised with a base price of $9,999, plus “options” like a steering wheel, tires, and headlights. I don’t hear that so much anymore, possibly because Japanese competition put a stop to the most insidious auto industry practices. Unfortunately the government doesn’t allow foreign airlines to compete on domestic routes in the United States.
The overwhelming majority of people have to bring something with them when they fly, and the airline has to provide either overhead space or luggage check. Either imposes costs. Everybody needs one or the other, so it makes no sense not to include it in the base price.
I encountered this practice first (paying for first and only checked bag) on Spirit Airlines. I was aghast. Sure, it was in the fine print, but how many people honestly read all the fine print, especially seasoned travellers. Unlike American, which is posting signs everywhere and releasing press statements, I only found out about Spirit when I reached the ticket counter.
Without condoning the practice, I can imagine how the thinking goes. Passengers who check luggage increase our costs (and not just fuel, but the need for baggage handlers, security screening, gate personnel), so let’s charge them directly rather than spread the cost out over everyone. This way, our bread and butter business client, who rarely checks bags, is not hit by higher rates. Plus, by having this a extra fee, we can still advertise on price and show up high on search lists when people go shopping for cheap flights.
Flying has gotten to the point where unanesthetized dental work is a preferable choice.
You aren’t describing full fare at all. Full fare prices are generally published and you don’t need a travel search engine to sort them out. Let’s say you want to fly to Dallas in a week. Expedia says the fare can be as low as $400. Now call United Airlines and tell them you want an unrestricted coach ticket to Dallas on the same date. They will quote you something like $1000. The advantages to buying a full fare, unrestricted coach ticket has always seemed small to me but you can change your flight times as needed and the airlines will bump lower fare passengers to ensure you have a seat on any flight that you need. Some businesses like them for those reasons.
I posted this once before but I can’t find it. It’s worthy of a repeat.
An old lady boarded the aircraft behind a younger man. He stuffed his carryon in the overhead bin near the front of the aircraft and proceeded down the length of the plane to his seat in the rear. The old lady watched him and then went to her seat, removed his carryon from the bin over her seat and replaced it with her carryon. She then called for a flight attendant with, “Miss, my carryon doesn’t seem to fit in here. Would you please check it for me?”
There are businesses (in the U.S., anyway) that specialize in delivering your bags from your home to your destination hotel. I would expect there will be an upswing in business for them, and competitive pricing. The added bonus is that they probably won’t lose them for you.
Waitaminnit! I just flew American to and from Raleigh, NC, and we were always in the back of the plane, last to board.
As for charging for luggage, I think all airlines should charge for all baggage, by weight. Flat charge for up to 30 pounds checked, 5 pounds carry-on, then a dollar a pound after that. 'Course, I take pride in packing light, checking my bags and walking onto the plane with my boarding pass and a magazine in my hand.
That’s pretty awesome! I just googled and found Sports Express and Luggage Free. They are awfully damn expensive, so yes they would have to be more competitive. For example, a 40 pound suitcase from San Diego to NYC will cost me $150-$250 one way, which is more expensive than buying my suitcase its own plane ticket.
Why not go all the way and charge for the total weight of the passenger and all his stuff. If fuel costs are so onerous, then a pound of passenger is every bit as damaging to the bottom line as a pound of luggage. Obviously, there would need to be minimum prices to keep really small people or children from flying below cost. Yes, you wouldn’t know exactly what your ticket price is, but as long as the terms are spelled out clearly, you should be able to figure it out within a few dollars using a scale and a pencil. Heck, Travelocity, et al could put a little java calculator gizmo right on the website. I don’t see many problems at the ticket counter, if they are already charging most of their passengers for a checked bag, they are already slowing things down. Privacy concerns (in an airport, yeah right) could be alleviated by weighing the passenger and bags at the same time on the same scale. I couldn’t care less about luxury, but I would be more than happy to pay an extra few tens of dollars to fly with an airline that can actually function as a proper business, with appropriate staffing levels, maintainence schedules, and enough seats for every ticket holder on every flight.
As long as we are talking about what we would pay extra for, I would gladly pay a few bucks more to fly on an adult only airline. No screaming babies, no smelly diapers, no 6 year old in front of me kicking and yelling about wanting to read their other my little pony book instead of the one they have in their hands, no having a child kicking the back of my seat for the whole flight, etc. That would make a loyal customer out of me!
Why, that’s just *crazy * talk! Whattayou, some kinda’ extremist!?
Shhhh…don’t tell the TSA. I’d like to avoid a rectal probe and all expenses paid trip to Gitmo.