From Better Off Ted: “What’s the deal with airline food? Why don’t they serve it anymore?”
Using my frequent flyer miles on USAF C-17s from Bagram, transited Turkey in Incirlik. Waiting room had a window to the next waiting room. Cost me $70 to get through the door to get back on the same C-17 parked a couple hundred yards away now going to Oman. All because my orders did not have the magic word, NATO.
At some point in the past two years I started flying Business/First class on my semi-regular flights between Raleigh and Chicago. It’s only a two hour flight, but with my mobility issues the difference in comfort alone is worth it.
When I was booking my Iceland/Glasgow trip last year on IcelandAir I didn’t even hesitate to go business class despite the cost. The range of meals I was offered was amazing. I wish I could have taken advantage of the booze offered, but my liver won’t let me.
I’m currently looking into booking a flight to Seattle, and it looks like I’ll be flying Alaska Air; much cheaper than delta, my other option for non-stop.
I have almost enough points to grab a business class flight on Singapore Airlines. It’s just hard to justify that to myself when that could get me almost three decent economy flights.
Exactly. “You wanted low fares, we gave you low fares. Now, are you bringing luggage to be checked? That’ll be extra. Food? That’ll be extra. Seat selection? That’ll be extra.”
I wonder how long it will be before we get, “Pressurized cabin? That’ll be extra.”
Asking as someone who hasn’t flown in years… do all these extra add-ons bring the price of the ticket close to the “better class” ticket? Maybe not to the price of the top of the line passage where scantily clad girls/boys massage your feet with scented oils while feeding you caviar and escargots… but how much extra do these charges add?
If I were unconscious for the entire flight, that might make it tolerable.
Might.
Sometimes, but they do allow you to pick and choose what you need. For example, with some airlines the lowest tier class doesn’t allow free seat selection and you have to purchase a higher tier to get that. My wife and I value that a lot. The higher tier comes with checked bagage and priority boarding, but we rarely care about those. So you can buy the lowest tier, pay extra for seats, and still save money. Other airlines set up the tiers so you can’t even buy seat assignments at the lowest ticket price, so we can’t play that game on those.
Some of the lowest tiers (basic economy) don’t include carry-on bags, just a personal item to go under the seat in front of you. If you want you can pay for a checked bag but that might still save you money in some cases. I’m not sure who flies with just a personal item, but if you don’t need luggage or seat assignments you can definitely save some money with those fares.
Is it possible they didn’t know? Not to absolve them, but it is possible they missed the new rules for connecting flights assuming the new requirement was for those stepping out of the international area into the rest of the airport.
Well, the price will vary, depending on what you want, but the charges add up. Yes, the carrier can get you from A to B for a rock-bottom price, but if you want anything more than a seat on an aircraft on a fixed date and time, you’ll be paying for it.
Example: My sister (in Calgary) and I (just south of Calgary) needed to get to Toronto suddenly for a family function. Sis was quoted at $650 for a one-way from Air Canada. Reasonable terms for cattle class: advanced seat selection, early check-in online, and whatnot. But although she could easily afford it, Sis is cheap. She went online and looked at Expedia, and other such discount sites. It took her about a half-day, but she finally found a one-way on Air Canada for $350. She booked it. Then she spent another half day looking for a hotel deal in Toronto.
Me? I didn’t waste a day of my time. I picked up the phone, called Air Canada directly, and booked a business class seat. Meals, booze, checked luggage, lounge access, priority boarding, the works. I could afford it, and there were no surprise extra fees or charges. Then I called my favourite Toronto hotel and booked a room. I was done in about an hour.
When I met up with Sis at the function in Toronto, she was livid. “Can you believe it? They wanted me to pay extra for this and this and this and this …” In the end, Sis paid about $650 to $700 in total for her flight, so about the same as she would have got originally. And doing so cost her a day of her time as well.
In the end, it’s up to you. Yes, you can get a low fare, but that’s all you’re going to get. If you want anything else, you’re going to pay for it, and what you want might just get the price back up to the original quote from the airline.
This sort of pricing structure is why Southwest is going to crash and burn. They went from “cheap(ish) but simple” to “indistinguishable from Spirit and Frontier”. People, including me, were loyal to the airline for years or decades because it was simple. The price is the price, you don’t have to start looking at the costs of baggage and seats and so on, and as a result (and sometimes their more point-to-point scheduling for a lot of cities) it was always an easy first choice to look at.
Having a seat at all is apparently one of those ideas Ryannair was playing with. And putting passengers in random spaces in the hull.
It’s been a rule since October of 2019, so it’s unlikely they didn’t know about it.
More likely, it was missed in the usual avalanche of emails and messages every passenger gets from the airline.
About to land in Auckland. The airline crew told us we need to do an online declaration, even if just transiting. The declarations reason for travel does not include “transit” and requires my address in NZ. I am not shitting you.
NZ is quickly sliding down my list of places to visit.
And now Southwest is changing, and not for the better. They’re going to add first-class seating, advance seat selection and will no longer offer free checked baggage. In short, they’re losing everything that made them special.
It’s only for the Uber Rich anyway. Pictures or videos are just fine for the rest of us.
Ok. Crew was wrong. Nobody asked me for this declaration and I’m in the lounge 100 feet from the gate. So assuming no more surprises when I go to board…
Ironically, most of that special sauce at Southwest was because their computer system was so primitive it couldn’t handle things like assigned seating and charging for bags.
When I flew to Auckland (not transiting) I filled out my custom declaration online ahead of time. Easy peasy. The only thing I had to declare was my hiking boots–New Zealand is very serious about biosecurity, they don’t want things like fungus, seeds or bugs sneaking in if you’ve been tramping around before flying over. I knew about the issue, having dealt with it on a previous trip so I made sure my boots were clean. Even so, the friendly customs agent sprayed them with disinfectant before sending me on my way.
I had upgraded to a “premium economy” seat for the flight over. I wouldn’t call it luxurious, but the extra legroom, better food and a few travel amenities were nice. On the way back I had a basic economy seat but lucked out and snagged a spot with no seat in front of me. I actually liked that better than the premium economy seat as my legroom was essentially unlimited. Of course neither of those seats can compare to Air New Zealand’s “Sky Couch”, but I can’t sleep on a plane no matter what the comfort level. Besides, I’d rather spend the $$$$ on nicer lodgings once I get where I’m going.
Southwest is famous today for what they last were in the 1980s. It’s a miracle of marketing. And of consumer brainwashing / consumer inertia.
When I was in Indonesia I really wanted to climb Mt. Merapi, but unfortunately it was actively erupting. I did climb Kawah Ratu, which is not active but does have hot springs. The stench of sulphur did not - incredibly - stop people from buying children’s fishing nets in order to boil eggs…
I’ve mentioned before that final aproach to Maumere airport on Flores (also Indonesia) gives a view into the caldera of an active volcano.
(Apologies for a vastly off topic post)