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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

#601

Post by bojangleslover »

jmull wrote: post #578
Ajedi32 wrote: post #543

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Set the floor too low and people fly less because it's too crappy. Seems like a great opportunity for an airline to be less crappy and make a lot of money selling tickets to all those people who are "flying less" on other airlines, no? So the question then becomes why hasn't someone done that already, if the floor really is "too low"?

> no? No. Because people don't know how crappy it will be when they book. They're just juggling prices and scheduled times. People who aren't flying very frequently and don't have a trustworthy source of knowledgeable recommendations -- that is, a substantial majority of people -- will never take enough flights to know which airlines are worth $X more. If they even have many options for their route and time.

Need to plug my Chrome Extension here, flyontime.app tries to help with this

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

#602

Post by bojangleslover »

missinglugnut wrote: post #564
Ajedi32 wrote: post #543

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Set the floor too low and people fly less because it's too crappy. Seems like a great opportunity for an airline to be less crappy and make a lot of money selling tickets to all those people who are "flying less" on other airlines, no? So the question then becomes why hasn't someone done that already, if the floor really is "too low"?

The last flight I was on was American Airlines. We waited in the plane while they tried to figure out to start it because the auxiliary power unit was out, and the generator American uses to start planes with no APU was also broken, so they had to borrow one from another airline. And no APU also meant no air conditioning until the plane is started. It was only a 30 minute delay but the heat made it miserable. I paid…

Was it an afternoon/evening flight, on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday? Was it in Orlando, Miami or Newark in the summer?

flyontime.app helps you with this (I know, massive plug, but hugely relevant to this discussion and 100% free with no strings attached).

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

#603

Post by thieving_magpie »

tsycho wrote: post #291
thieving_magpie wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I'll smile back knowing you're about to have a really great flight with my 3 year old :) (to be clear, I don't do this personally and pay extra to sit together but I do hope people start parking their kids all over the plane since that's what we all seem to want! It's tempting.)

So according to you: they should give up their paid seat so that you don't have to pay for assigned seats, even when you know way in advance that you are traveling with a 3 yr old? Let's ignore special cases where you didn't have a chance to buy assigned seats, and focus on the vastly more common scenario where parents can easily pay to ensure seats of their choice. Yes, it's nickel and diming by the airlines to make…

No. According to me there is probably a middleground.

You can't have it both ways that you don't want a child next to you and just expect parents to spend extra money to accommodate you.

Easily pay? I assure you it isn't easy for a lot of us. The irony of your use of entitlement.

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

#604

Post by decafninja »

jakub_g wrote: post #586
Yeul wrote: post #562

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got an email from the train company that according to their records I had a delay and they put a link in it to a online form to get my money back. I was positively surprised at their proactive communication. The money was on my account within the week!

In Italy, for regional trains, since 2025 Trenitalia gives the reimboursement automatically to your credit card if you purchased the ticket electronically. [1] [1] https://www.firstonline.info/en/trenitalia-rimborsi-automati...

Good news I guess? I was in this situation in 2024 and asked a fellow traveler who was Italian what recourse we had. He laughed and replied “none, we’re fucked”.

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

#605

Post by maxerickson »

michaelt wrote: post #566
Ajedi32 wrote: post #543

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Set the floor too low and people fly less because it's too crappy. Seems like a great opportunity for an airline to be less crappy and make a lot of money selling tickets to all those people who are "flying less" on other airlines, no? So the question then becomes why hasn't someone done that already, if the floor really is "too low"?

Many airlines offer different fare classes. For a return ticket half way around the world, I can pay $1100 for Economy, $2800 for Premium Economy, $3900 for Business Class and $6900 for First Class. It seems you have to charge a big, big premium to deliver a less crappy experience. And even then, the experience is only better in some dimensions - your checked luggage receives the same handling no matter what ticket y…

I think you are inverting the reason for the charge. Enough people are willing to pay a big premium for "less crappy".

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

#606

Post by brendoelfrendo »

googlywoogly wrote: post #523
brendoelfrendo wrote: post #488

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I'm far too cynical to believe that anyone has my interests at heart. But I will acknowledge one side as being openly anti-democratic while the other is merely spineless in the face of opposition. My opening statement being contradictory was, admittedly, my fault. I couldn't tell if you were trying to champion the right wing or if you were trying to build a both-sides argument, so I tried to cover both bases. And…

Both parties are very openly very anti-democratic and very corrupt. They openly sabotage and attack their own candidates if they don't fall in line (Bernie Sanders is one of MANY examples). They are pretty openly corrupt (look at Biden and family, look at all of the insider trading, etc), and pretty openly serve special/corporate interests like the military industrial complex. They constantly lie and try to misinform…

I am going to put this as bluntly as I can: I don't like the Democrats, but they are not the party currently dismantling our government institutions and civil liberties with gleeful abandon. You can't "both parties" US politics right now and expect me to take you seriously.

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

#607

Post by hopelite »

hopelite wrote: post #80
arrozconcosas wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One example: Chicago to New York on United, direct flight that is ~2.5 hours. $209 for economy and $381 for Economy Plus. This is a $172 difference.

Maybe karma for short jokes? Next up, $200 for head-room. You didn't think you could fly keeping your head upright for free, did you?

I guess people don’t like jokes? Or do people have chips on their shoulders?

Sad state of affairs

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

#608

Post by hopelite »

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #379
nemomarx wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of interest, which airline? I've never found a particularly good one in the us.

I absolutely love Delta. I’ll fly other airlines domestically occasionally. But I have found their customer service to be top notch and they have the best web interface/app.

What sucks in America is that basically the whole airline industry is a hub and spoke system and the airline you’re stuck with is the airline is the airline based in your city and also dominates it, which at the least prevents competition, if it’s not intentional.

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

#609

Post by BobbyTables2 »

Zak wrote: post #262

I've had four overnight delays on three transatlantic trips this year. Fortunately, EU passenger compensation rules applied to three of them; the airline must pay each delayed passenger 600€ or convince them to take a more compelling non-cash offer. I'm not for heavily regulating non-safety details of how most industries do business, but I do think it's fair to demand the true price up front and compensation when the…

I do believe such regulation is merited as airlines have a strong financial incentive to misbehave.

Too many times I’ve seen flights, closer to empty than full, mysteriously cancelled due to “mechanical issues”.

Yes things happen on their own. But others are motivated by profit.

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

#610

Post by nerdsniper »

sjs7007 wrote: post #591
baby wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a year I made more money from flying than I spent, because I kept flying ryanair or easyjet and I kept getting massive delays (one was a 20h delay, in which I spent the night at the airport squatting some of the couches in a cafe in the terminal, because small delays kept being slowly pushed on us, and we also spent 2h waiting in the final plane for it to take off, no A/C and they refused to give us water t…

Could you share more context on the water bottle thing? That makes no sense to me.

I interpreted it as they were stuck on the tarmac for a long time. People were getting dehydrated and asked for water. The FA’s refused to serve drinks on the tarmac. Passengers said “fuck it this is a health issue I’ll just get it from the galley myself”. The FA’s threatened that anyone who did that would be arrested.

Passengers only options were to either deal with the dehydration or declare an actual emergency and get official medical transport off of the plane to an ER and deal with whatever bills/consequences that might generate.

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