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US airlines are pushing to remove protections for passengers and add more fees

travelandtourworld.com

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Re: US airlines are pushing to remove protections for passengers and add more fees

#281

Post by matwood »

ghaff wrote: post #50
izacus wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hundreds of dollars for legroom? Are you... sure? For what kind of flights?

I'm most familiar with United. Economy Plus (which is mostly about a bit more legroom) does have a modest premium absent sufficient status that gets you it for free. But Premium Economy that gives you somewhat wider seats as well as legroom gets into the hundreds of dollars. International business has lots of benefits including legroom and lie flat seating but that usually gets into the thousands.

EP is just economy with slightly more leg room. PE is closer to business than EP. The food is upgraded along with the service. The seats are more recliner like and you generally have more room. Additionally, the PE seats are often the quickest to deplane if that's important. I can also work in PE seat, whereas EP not so much.

The problem with PE is that it's often not that great of a deal. Unless it's a super busy route, you can usually keep shopping for an upgrade and just go all the way to lay flat business. Side note, when going business class, understand that not all plane layouts and seats are the same. Check seat guru.

Source - I fly back and forth to the EU quite a bit.

Re: US airlines are pushing to remove protections for passengers and add more fees

#282

Post by jghn »

JustExAWS wrote: post #271
doodaddy wrote: post #16

> Instead of the clear, itemized pricing system that passengers currently rely on, airlines could hide fees until later in the booking process… They call what we have now “clear”? Where when looking at a page of flights I don’t know how much the multitude of economy/economy+/economy++/premium economy/business/business++ seats will cost until I click on each flight? Where every carrier offers slightly different variat…

Well rule #1 is never to book a flight on a third party travel portal. When things go wrong, you now have to deal with the travel portal and the airline.

Many people will do things like use Google Travel to narrow down an initial set of potential flights based on times & cost, and then go to the individual airlines from there to book things. The GPs post is still a problem in this scenario.

Re: US airlines are pushing to remove protections for passengers and add more fees

#283

Post by googlywoogly »

nerdponx wrote: post #227
wartywhoa23 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

"Voting doesn't work" is a right wing authoritarian propaganda lie. Don't fall for it.

The right wing very vocally and openly calls for votes every election. In countries like the US and Canada voting is very obviously a scam - you get to vote for a few preselected candidates, and what determines the winner is actually the media and special interests who decide how much and what kind of coverage a candidate gets. Then, after the election, whoever wins just serves the special interests and is free to go back on every promise they made (and they always do). If you look at Canada (probably US too), every federal government for the last ~50 years, regardless of party, has had multiple corruption scandals involving various types of fraud and embezzlement of public funds. The RCMP, who are meant to investigate this, are top-down directly controlled by the PMO, who are free to block or shut down any investigation - and they do so routinely. There have been essentially zero punishment or repercussions for anyone involved and the scam continues.

Re: US airlines are pushing to remove protections for passengers and add more fees

#284

Post by nyc_data_geek1 »

thombat wrote: post #83
nyc_data_geek1 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is your form stamped? There's no stamp on it.

This is your receipt for your husband. And this is my receipt for your receipt.

We're all in this together, kid.

Re: US airlines are pushing to remove protections for passengers and add more fees

#285

Post by o_1 »

The airlines and the FAA have been reducing seat size and weight for "safety reasons". 21" width minimum required in 1995 only 18" width in 2025. These seat requirements directly corrolate to fuel cost savings, and passenger density. Simple statistical manipulation with the increase in passengers shrinks the fatality and accident rate because the sample is larger. The airlines are to the FAA as what wall street is to the SEC.

Re: US airlines are pushing to remove protections for passengers and add more fees

#286

Post by devoutsalsa »

DangitBobby wrote: post #27
eadmund wrote: post #17

> [Elimination of] Automatic Refunds for Cancellations Does this mean when the passenger cancels or when the airline cancels? If it’s when the passenger chooses to cancel, this seems fine and fair: he paid for a flight; he chose not to take it. If it’s the latter, then it seems very unfair. > Transparency of Fees This seems patently unfair. Folks should know what they’re going to be paying ahead of time. > Family Sea…

> If you want to sit together, pay for that privilege. Agreed. I think they leave too much money on the table. Use of window shades and lavatories could be behind a subscription service as well, with Sky Comfort+ affording you the privilege of multiple lavatory visits for those who have chosen the luxury IBS lifestyle. I'll let you know if I think of anything else those pesky airline passengers take for granted.

I'm waiting for airlines to offer a budget First Class called Number Two Class. You get exclusive use the lavatory for the entirety of the flight.

Re: US airlines are pushing to remove protections for passengers and add more fees

#287

Post by lstodd »

gpderetta wrote: post #241
lstodd wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OTOH it would overwhelm baggage reclaim and everyone will get stuck there instead.

that's a problem for the airport. Faster turnaround for the airline though!

nope. airport gets overwhelmed, aircraft get stuck because of processing, airline costs rise, ticket prices rise.

it's a single pipeline. every single one bottleneck has to be removed.

let's start with TSA.

Re: US airlines are pushing to remove protections for passengers and add more fees

#288

Post by scarface_74 »

trzy wrote: post #277
JustExAWS wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well rule #1 is never to book a flight on a third party travel portal. When things go wrong, you now have to deal with the travel portal and the airline.

Google Flights isn’t a third party portal! It takes you directly to the airline web site to book. It attempts to estimate the fare price but that’s becoming increasingly difficult with variably priced seats and other “gotcha” expenses that get figured in deep into the booking flow.

And in that case, this was never regulated by the government. The airlines shouldn’t be responsible for how their products are presented on a random aggregator.

Re: US airlines are pushing to remove protections for passengers and add more fees

#289

Post by jeltz »

eterm wrote: post #200
jghn wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd pay $99 so that the person in front of me *can't* recline their seat

You get that for free on some Ryanair planes.

One of the few nice things about flying with them.

Re: US airlines are pushing to remove protections for passengers and add more fees

#290

Post by CPLX »

carefulfungi wrote: post #169
wartywhoa23 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Everyday I think to myself, "Biden and Trump sure do govern exactly the same - I can hardly tell anything changed!"

Odd comment on an article that is a specific detailed example of a distinction between the two approaches.
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