http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ipgk6niNMROJEPE2t6gEFjxZ4XbAD9GCJCK00 So what say you, Wordforge? Should the government do something about low cost airlines entering the market, driving the price artificially low, and then going bankrupt and hurting the industry as a whole? Fares are nearly certain to rise, but arguably we'd see a rise in service standards.
I think people have expectations for airline travel that are increasingly incongruous with reality, as evidenced by increasing fees, fares, and airline difficulties. Sky travel was once the province of the rich, and the common man had to make due with trains. I'm not saying that airlines will completely disappear, but I think the future will be cattle cars and private jets, with nothing in between.
I'm torn on the issue, to be honest. All I know is that as it stands now, to say this industry sucks ass is an insult to sucking ass everywhere else.
No, don't bring back airline regulation. Bring back the notion that failing to run your company efficiently and/or turn a profit means you go out of business and someone else takes your place.
No. There are two problems here. The first is the customer expects five star stuff for one star prices. (not everyone of course but enough people) Two the airlines don't have the balls to tell the customers to shut the fuck up and if they want five star service to pay for it. If I ran a discount airline I'd have passengers sign a document that tells them that the price of their ticket gets them a seat and some luggage space and NOTHING ELSE. We are a bus with wings. Don't like it? Go pay the higher rate for first class at some other airline.
While I agree passenger expectation may be too high, airline assness is also too high. While I should not expect more than my seat and what else I pay for, I should be able to expect my seat and that the airline is not overbooking the flight. It is also reasonable to expect honest timely commo and courteous knowledgable staff. These things should be regulated by the feet and dollars of the consumer though, not the gov't.
I suppose I should be thankful for shitty airline service, because it drives the people who can afford it to use swanky corporate jets. True story: One of our guys was in uniform at IAD and got accosted by a Greenpeace activist trying to push their agenda. He got annoyed and replied: "Listen, I'm here to pick up a private jet. We're going to take a firehose and spray it all over with de-icing chemicals, fly it empty to Aspen, load up a bunch of seafood platters and burn 700 gallons of gas to fly ONE GUY home. Do I really look like Greenpeace material to you?" I about laughed my ass off when I read that.
I'm dubious that increased regulation will result in "better service." It's more likely it would just make flying more expensive. In any event, I'd rather have flying with occasional hangups that I can afford, than flying that I can't. (I fly 2-3 times a year, mainly short-range (< 1500 miles) domestic. Although at times things are rushed and I don't receive "personalized" service, I feel the service is almost always adequate. I've had only a couple of significant delays, and they weren't too bad. All-in-all, I felt I got good value for the money.)
Agreed. Increasing administrative burden isn't going to help costs in any way. Who are they trying to kid here? A la carte is a fact of life for pretty much every service industry with all of them fighting to control costs. An industry that combines such high overhead as this one is going to be rough to stay alive in even in the best of times.
God, it pains me to say it, but apostle has a point. If you are really unhappy with being treated like cattle, pay an extra $500-1000 for a first class ticket. Get in the fucking airline club that gets you access to their ultralounge. You'll still have to deal with the TSA monkeys, but you get shorter lines at ticketing, a great place to wait for your flight, you get to board first, you get food and free booze, comfy spacious seats, and you get waited on hand and foot by the stewardesses. If you aren't happy with flying coach then pay for the first class ticket. Don't force the rest of us to pay significantly more for possibly marginally better service.
I'm not for a full re-regulation. I'm willing to put up with less than 5 star treatment in exchange for being able to afford to fly across country (or around the world). there are some things that I think could be changed without being tremendously burdensome. I think Spirit's idea of charging for carry-on bags is the way to go. Everyone should get one bag checked for free. If you want the convenience of carrying on a bag pay, for it. That would take part of the strain off unloading. I recently flew Southwest and very few passengers had carryons. That made a huge difference in getting the plane cleared and ready for the next flight. I also don't have a problem with an extra fee for priority boarding. Southwest gets $10 each way and I gladly paid it to avoid the cattle car boarding process. I felt that I got something extra by paying extra. Adding the baggage fee is just extortionate. 1 freebie for domestic, two freebies for international. Of course, they're not really free because the tickets would be more expensive, but so what? It would be worth it to have a level playing field. To me the real problem is that except for Southwest and JetBlue no one has figured how to price tickets properly to make a profit by flying passengers from point A to point B.
I'm not for a full re-regulation. I'm willing to put up with less than 5 star treatment in exchange for being able to afford to fly across country (or around the world). there are some things that I think could be changed without being tremendously burdensome. I think Spirit's idea of charging for carry-on bags is the way to go. Everyone should get one bag checked for free. If you want the convenience of carrying on a bag pay, for it. That would take part of the strain off unloading. I recently flew Southwest and very few passengers had carryons. That made a huge difference in getting the plane cleared and ready for the next flight. I also don't have a problem with an extra fee for priority boarding. Southwest gets $10 each way and I gladly paid it to avoid the cattle car boarding process. I felt that I got something extra by paying extra. Adding the baggage fee is just extortionate. 1 freebie for domestic, two freebies for international. Of course, they're not really free because the tickets would be more expensive, but so what? It would be worth it to have a level playing field. To me the real problem is that except for Southwest and JetBlue no one has figured how to price tickets properly to make a profit by flying passengers from point A to point B.
