From Reuters | Paying for extras has become routine for airline passengers but it
doesn’t mean they like it, with a poll showing more than half all
travelers hate having to fork out to choose their seat.
The online poll of nearly 2,000 people by website Airfarewatchdog.com,
asked respondents which airline fees they despised the most. Paying for the privilege of picking their seat was the biggest bugbear
for 52 percent of respondents, followed by paying to change flights –
something which irked a third of passengers.
Get the full story: reuters.com.
This is the price people must pay for the lowest airfares in history. The average airline fare is only $222 and based on inflation, fuel prices, and cost-history is the lowest fares have ever been. Yet, fliers just don’t seem to get it. You want cheap fares, which I would bet 90 percent do, you will get what you pay for. Bad customer service, additional fees, no food, and crammed airplanes. Deregulation led to lower fares because of increased competition but it also set the benchmark for a ‘greyhound’ in the sky. It will only get worse before it gets better. You will start paying fees for soft drinks, pillows, and for not arriving two hours in advance.
This is the price people must pay for the lowest airfares in history. The average airline fare is only $222 and based on inflation, fuel prices, and cost-history it is the lowest fares have ever been. Yet, fliers just don’t seem to get it. You want cheap fares, which I would bet 90 percent do, you will get what you pay for. Bad customer service, additional fees, no food, and crammed airplanes. Deregulation led to lower fares because of increased competition but it also set the benchmark for a ‘greyhound’ in the sky. It will only get worse before it gets better. You will start paying fees for soft drinks, pillows, and for not arriving two hours in advance.
When I was a kid back in the mid-to-late-fifties, anticipating a family vacation via airplane was a thrill! We were fascinated by the giant silver birds and wondered how anything so big could get off the ground? We all took turns at the window seat, watching a Lilliputian world beneath us drift by. Pilots were idolized and every girl wanted to become a stewardess. How an industry could so thoroughly destroy such top-level goodwill should be a case study in every business school.