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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

#461

Post by raw_anon_1111 »

mothballed wrote: post #385
raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And? They are your kids. Why should someone who has paid to reserve their seat have to move because you were to cheap to pay to choose your seat. Also see, I’m not going to work extra hours because a parent can’t work late. Just because I have grown children doesn’t mean that I don’t have a life outside of work.

Ah yes I love modern society "they're your kids" until every busybody on earth calls CPS or police at the first sign of doing something they disapprove (happened to me because I shit you not, my kid is a different race and that was 'suspicious' to be a kidnapping -- thanks FOIA for the bodycam revealing that bullshit). Or when it comes time to tax the shit out of the grown kid made possible by the massive time and mo…

There is a huge difference between funding education, health care etc which I’m all for paying taxes for and subsidizing your flight.

And if you expect me to defend the police or Karyns about anything, let’s just say I grew up on NWA and “F%%% the police” and my mom constantly told me that don’t think because my White friends could get away with minor criminal mischief that I could.

Well actually she said “don’t let your little white friends get you in trouble”. But close enough.

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

#462

Post by chrisbolt »

matwood wrote: post #281
ghaff wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ro…

Seatguru hasn't been updated in ages, use https://www.aerolopa.com instead

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

#463

Post by bcrosby95 »

AtlanticThird wrote: post #423
hiroantag wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What an odd question...families travel all the time for vacations or to see grandma and grandpa for thanksgiving. You can't leave a kid at home.

He said had to, as in necessities. No one has to go on vacations, much less fly for them

Well then if the people without kids don't like it they can just not fly.

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

#464

Post by rimunroe »

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #457
rimunroe wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Then pay the extra money to choose your seat like most adults do. It's an additional expense which isn't a luxury for parents. You can't sit far from an infant for 6+ hours because they need close attention. Also, sometimes there aren't adjacent seats for you to choose. Nevertheless, gate agents are usually able to somehow make things work. I'm not sure how they do this on a packed flight though. I didn't notice an…

Flying is a luxury. It’s one thing to pay taxes to fund the school system, pre-K, health care, even state college. I’m all for that. But if you want to fly as a parent either suck it up and pay or don’t fly. There are parents who take long road trips because they can’t afford to fly. But I paid for my seat and if I did pay to sit next to my wife (which isn’t really a big deal for either of us), I would be really piss…

> Flying is a luxury.

You appear to have since edited your comment, but the version I replied to referred to being able to choose a seat as the luxury, not flying itself. As I've said elsewhere, flying is either a straight up necessity in some cases and a practical one in others. As I've also said in other places, people without kids can fly without need of choosing their seats.

> But I paid for my seat and if I did pay to sit next to my wife (which isn’t really a big deal for either of us), I would be really pissed if my seat was changed because a parent was too cheap to pay to have an assigned seat.

You can debate on whether or not flying is a necessity, but if we're flying then it's a luxury for you to sit next to your wife but it's a necessity for me to sit next to my infant.

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

#465

Post by vel0city »

cdrini wrote: post #121
hedora wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Southwest used to for all tickets, for free. They’re eliminating it because the new CEO is trying to speed-run them out of business.

I see they offer free cancellations and refunds for their two top-tier tickets, but can't find a reference for them offering it for all tickets. Do you have a link? https://mobile.southwest.com/fare-information/

https://support.southwest.com/helpcenter/s/article/policy-ch...

Before, you could cancel within 24 hours of boarding and get your full amount as at least a credit without any extra fee for any ticket class. That credit had no expiration. Now, there's a fee and expiration for this credit.

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

#466

Post by chrisbolt »

swasheck wrote: post #303

i’m hard-pressed to think of an industry whose financial principles i’m more skeptical of than the airline industry. post-9/11 the industry cratered and they said they needed to add fees to keep from going bankrupt. united created ted, their own low-cost no-frills carrier which was actually decent. once air travel recovered, they (airlines, in general) kept the fees and have been turning record profits ever since. un…

Looking at the numbers, for example:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines#Business_trend...

United had their highest revenue in 2024, and their profit margin was... 5.5%. Would reducing your ticket price by 5.5% make any difference?

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

#467

Post by hereme888 »

The entire industry generates money by means of dark patterns. Per my interactions with people, almost 100% of consumers are constantly pissed off at the unending deception. Given this is their modus operandi, I don't trust a word the industry tells me.

I'm in favor of stronger regulation, actually.

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

#468

Post by sokoloff »

rpcope1 wrote: post #390
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.

Airlines are basically as stupid and greedy as telcos. If it were up to them, GA aircraft, UAVs, model aircraft and basically anything that wasn't military or an airliner would be banned. It has strong analogs in telcos swallowing up large amounts of spectrum "cause muh 5 gee" and just squatting on it. I'm sure safety would be in the shitter too if the FAA was less watchful (not to say it's sufficiently aggressive on…

Every one of their pilots learned to fly in a GA or military aircraft, with the vast majority being GA.

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

#469

Post by butlike »

nemomarx wrote: post #368
nostrademons wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So then just pile them up without knocking them out.

Can you fit more people in horizontal than if they stood up and you had little straps to hang onto like a subway?

You can just lay them ass-to-mouth and then stack them. Come on, the slave ships and Dutch East India company taught us that one.

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

#470

Post by raw_anon_1111 »

rimunroe wrote: post #464
raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Flying is a luxury. It’s one thing to pay taxes to fund the school system, pre-K, health care, even state college. I’m all for that. But if you want to fly as a parent either suck it up and pay or don’t fly. There are parents who take long road trips because they can’t afford to fly. But I paid for my seat and if I did pay to sit next to my wife (which isn’t really a big deal for either of us), I would be really piss…

> Flying is a luxury. You appear to have since edited your comment, but the version I replied to referred to being able to choose a seat as the luxury, not flying itself. As I've said elsewhere, flying is either a straight up necessity in some cases and a practical one in others. As I've also said in other places, people without kids can fly without need of choosing their seats. > But I paid for my seat and if I did…

It’s a distinction without a difference. Just like flying is a luxury. I paid to sit next to my wife. You can pay to sit next to your infant. Don’t inconvenience me because you want to save a couple of hundred dollars.

You have to pay for all sorts of “necessities” because you have kids - just add that to the list.

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