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

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

#331

Post by doktrin »

AtlanticThird wrote: post #145
egonschiele wrote: post #130

> Family Seating Guarantees: Under current regulations, airlines must ensure that families with young children are seated together without additional charges. This would no longer be guaranteed under the new proposal, meaning families could face extra costs just to sit next to one another. This one is wild. You want to sit next to somebody's crying 2 year old? Go nuts. Change their diaper while you're at it.

I don't think that's what anyone wants. I think they just want families with young children to pay to sit together, like everyone else has to

> I think they just want families with young children to pay to sit together, like everyone else has to

Oh great so now I have to sit next to someone’s unattended child in the name of fairness? Am I gonna get the option to subsidise the family’s seat grouping instead of being saddled with that noise? Talk about creating problems for no good reason.

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

#332

Post by indoordin0saur »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #325
Lio wrote: post #318

> Airlines want to remove the requirement to provide automatic refunds when flights are cancelled or significantly altered. This is wild. Are they really asking to be able to take money for a flight, then cacel it and keep the money? That's crazy.

The purpose is economic extraction of the customer base. They really are asking, because they can, and that aligns with this administration's low regulation and anti consumer stance. Edit: Comment of comment value removed. Updated to increase value. Thanks indoordin0saur, I am occasionally in the wrong gear until the psychotropics kick in.

If you know it's a low value post then don't post it.

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

#333

Post by SpaceNoodled »

lumost wrote: post #89
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…

Not to mention the lack of standards on leg room/entertainment packages/food quality for any of the above combinations on any airline!

I literally don't fit in certain carriers' seats because my legs are longer than their seat pitch.

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

#334

Post by Tadpole9181 »

lxgr wrote: post #223
bilekas wrote: post #188

These two in particular : > Automatic Refunds for Cancellations > Transparency of Fees How does a lawmaker justify this being in the publics interest ? I'm not even joking, I know "well lobbyist going to lobby", but this is a legitimate question. How does a regulatory body say "Yup, that's okay with us to remove" ?

Playing devil's advocate for a moment: I could imagine airlines wanting to not allow for a full refund if passengers can be booked on a "reasonably similar" connection. (I've done this myself in the past, as far as I remember; changes of a few minutes in either direction often make an entire booking refundable.) The problem here of course would be the definition of "reasonably similar". Arriving a few hours later can…

Airlines caused automatic refunds by systematically screwing customers for a decade, doing every single thing in their power to avoid giving any refunds. This policy exists because they proved to everyone they can't be trusted.

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

#335

Post by [deleted] »

indoordin0saur wrote: post #332
toomuchtodo wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The purpose is economic extraction of the customer base. They really are asking, because they can, and that aligns with this administration's low regulation and anti consumer stance. Edit: Comment of comment value removed. Updated to increase value. Thanks indoordin0saur, I am occasionally in the wrong gear until the psychotropics kick in.

If you know it's a low value post then don't post it.

[deleted]

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

#336

Post by el_benhameen »

dweinus wrote: post #175
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

Perfect, digital bidding app on each seat so you and the person in front of you can see who will pay more for reclining control.

Just know that when this inevitably happens, it’s now on you for putting it out into the universe.

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

#337

Post by 6gvONxR4sf7o »

eadmund wrote: post #77
spartas wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, nothing is worse than the folks who didn’t pay up ahead of time who bug one, ‘may we switch seats so we can sit together?’ Some of us parents ask that question for your benefit, not ours. Do you want to sit next to my three-year-old?

> Do you want to sit next to my three-year-old? Not particularly, no. What I want is for you to purchase the seats your family needs ahead of time, not ask me for them for free. I know that travelling with kids is really tough. I sincerely sympathize! But it’s not a surprise that a kid needs a seat next to his parents. They know when they bought the ticket that he’ll be coming along, because they’re buying the ticket…

> Not particularly, no. What I want is for you to purchase the seats your family needs ahead of time, not ask me for them for free.

What happened to "if you want it, then you have to pay for the privilege?" If you want to be sure you aren't next to a kid, just pay for a first class ticket, instead of making other people pay extra for your comfort. You knew your preferences when you bought the ticket, after all. Select the seat you find necessary. /s

The point being that the status quo rolls dice that make everyone unhappy, and there are options for everyone to avoid it by paying extra. Those options are priced by the people creating the situation in order to make a maximally profitable 'pay to avoid this' scenario. I always pay for my family to get together, but blame the airline for making you uncomfortable, not the family.

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

#338

Post by panick21_ »

hedora wrote: post #114
panick21_ wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you talking about overall, deregulation of routes has not been bad for consumers. The opposite actually.

It’s been a disaster. There are fewer routes, and flying is miserable, and getting worse every year. Crashes are way up this year. Airlines profits are basically zero per ticket. Adding $10 per trip would be some sort of fantasy land windfall for the shareholders. Deregulation badly broke this industry.

This is pretty much false. If you compare inflation adjusted cost you now get a far better service for the same price, and you get access at a price that literally wasn't possible before.

> and flying is miserable

It isn't. I have flowing with budget airlines in Europe and its, basically fine. Not luxury but really its incredibly value.

On the same price as you did before, you now get luxury.

> Crashes are way up this year.

What the fuck does 'this year' have to do with it when we are talking about something that happened in around the 1980s.

Total safety is up massively, and per passenger safety is up by an absurd amount.

Any counter-argument to this is literally not credible.

> Airlines profits are basically zero per ticket.

So capitalism works? Not sure what your point is.

> Deregulation badly broke this industry.

Based on what?

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

#339

Post by buellerbueller »

ReptileMan wrote: post #326
smt88 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure why you think that would've helped. A lot of the people who won't shut up about 1984 and Ayn Rand still vote for the closest thing to monarchy they can find on their ballots.

Okay - democrats will push us in 1984 dystopia where they force you to accept that reality is what they tell you, and republicans will push us in low life high tech Cyberpunk dystopia where corporations reign supreme. Choose your poison.

oh, like that classic Democrat line "tylenol causes autism"?

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

#340

Post by unglaublich »

euleriancon wrote: post #279
mcaravey wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that part of the problem is a want versus a need. I don't particularly care if me and my wife don't sit together. We see each other all the time. But I don't want to have my four-year-old sitting in between two strangers, six rows in front of me where I can't see him. That's not fair to the two strangers, but also I don't trust strangers. I get the idea of paying for the privilege, but at the same time, it's…

This exactly. For parents it is not a choice, you absolutely must have a parent sitting by a young child. The effect of not automatically putting parent and children next to each other would just be making tickets more expensive for parents.

Don't want to play the devils advocate... but if you _must_ sit next to a person in need... you have to reserve the seats. Doesn't matter if it's a child, a dependent parent or a colleague that you need to run through an upcoming presentation with.

Currently, it's just the case that parents get a discount on the seat reservation fee.

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