Airfares

A new set of rules governing the airlines as dictated by DOT recently went into effect that dictates that airlines must reveal discount fares including taxes and fees when advertising. Two airlines are already bending the rules!

American Airlines is advertising the low fare on one leg of a R/T route when the return portion can be as much as 6X to 10X the outbound flight and one cannot purchase a one way segment to get that fare. Spirit Airlines, the king of add-on fees just announced a Department of Transportation Unintended Consequences Fee in response to the DOT Rule that airlines must hold a reservation for 24 hours without payment. This fee of approx. $2/each way is a definite attempt to circumvent the intent of the new rules.

Wowser. No surprises here. The Airline's job is to screw you out of as much $ as possible.
I've used "Flight Networks", and others, successfully here - Canada, but you have to walk them through the process. For example, they don't get Mx airlines, such as Volaris. But I've found that once you clue them in, great stuff can happen, and it makes their jobs more interesting. Let's face it, they're young, underpaid, and bored. Stimulate them. They'd love to get to Mx on the cheap themselves. For instance, few of them know of the Volaris - Chicago to Guad Flights.
The PV - Guad route is very interesting. Any airline has to compete with the buses or fail. It could be doable with a Dash 9 or comparible(sic). I'd be willing to pay $150 or less for that leg.

The airline industry is so unprofitable I can't figure out why people invest in it, let alone run businesses. Spirit airlines is simply demonstrating once again that excessive meddling by the government rarely produces positive results.

You all are complaining about the wrong culprit. As usual, it is government assuming you don't have the brains to sort out what flights actually are going to cost you.

Here we go again! This isn't politics 101. I suppose that you will blame the Ryanair bathroom use fee on Obama's Government too?

You just cited direct results from the regulation you cited. Are you having trouble getting the connection between the two?

American Airlines is advertising the low fare on one leg of a R/T route when the return portion can be as much as 6X to 10X the outbound flight and one cannot purchase a one way segment to get that fare. Spirit Airlines, the king of add-on fees just announced a Department of Transportation Unintended Consequences Fee in response to the DOT Rule that airlines must hold a reservation for 24 hours without payment. This fee of approx. $2/each way is a definite attempt to circumvent the intent of the new rules.

I suppose that he who doesn't care for Govt. Regs will argue that the deregulation of the airline industry was a bad thing. You would get agreement from:
Conversely, in a June 2008 former CEO of American Airlines, Robert Crandall stated,
“The consequences of deregulation have been very adverse. Our airlines, once world leaders, are now laggards in every category, including fleet age, service quality and international reputation. Fewer and fewer flights are on time. Airport congestion has become a staple of late-night comedy shows. An even higher percentage of bags are lost or misplaced. Last-minute seats are harder and harder to find. Passenger complaints have skyrocketed. Airline service, by any standard, has become unacceptable."

The fact of the matter is that the industry as a whole tends to be clueless on how to run and manage an airline on a profitable basis. On the other hand, Southwest appears to have it figured out without having to add artificially created fees with one excuse or another. Check out this comparison that doesn't even have the latest Spirit Airlines add-on fees:

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Actually, I remember when I tried to join the SeaBees during 'nam, the recruiters flew me from west Texas where I was working to Albuquerque for the pre-induction physical. Fortunately I flunked because of very bad hearing, as the doc put it, "you can't hear incoming mortar rounds." The price of that ticket was about what it costs today to fly coast to coast.

I think deregulation is a good thing and I think most people who fly can figure out the bottom line cost without government help. Some airlines may chose to play the add on game and some may cut right to the chase but in either case, we can figure it out without Big Brother's help.

Never mind the prices. Just running the gauntlet at the airports is a demeaning and insulting experience.

Then, once you are on the plane... well, the sob's (and we ain't talkin' South of the Border here) have you in their clutches and if something goes awry you are just plain SOL. You might be there for the next day-and-a-half while they are busy undoing whatever bull-poop they screwed up in the first place.

And...are they officers of the law??? No.
Have you committed some crime for which they should detain you?? No.
No... they will keep you all on the freakin' plane, even with no services, no ventilation, overfull commodes (yuk),etc.

Cattle are treated more humanely and with more dignity.

Screw the airlines. Lizzy

http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/08/10344838-thatll-be-2000-extra-for-your-aisle-seat-mr-nader

Looking ahead, I guess we can expect another anti government rant from MC especially because of who is involved in the above fiasco. But if one follows the logic of American Airlines, it isn't hard to grasp why people are so darned fed up with their treatment of customers.

Not sure why you posted this but you don't seem to understand it very well or how airline seats are priced these days. Basically, the airlines hold back some of the better seats for higher fares as the flight time approaches. Nothing new about this and it has little to do with government.

Here in Mexico, theoretically you can get big discounts as a senior traveling by first class bus. However, they will only allow so many seats on the bus to be sold at the discount, so if you don't get there early enough, there's no discount.

Similarly, U.S. airlines do not make all of the seats in coach on a plane available at the same fares. The deepest discounts go first. And they are also charging more for aisle seats in some cases. So does Volaris BTW.

Nader's problem was that all the aisle seats available at the full discount had been sold before he tried to book. The article makes this plain.

Next time spend your efforts understanding what you're reading instead anticipating, incorrectly, what another poster might post about an article.

You are treated like cattle when going thru the airports. Invariably they screw things up royally. One of those things is not having a wheelchair when I'm flying handicapped after I've told the bumb broad on the phone reservation 2 or 3 times that I'm handicapped. She still screws that up. And sometimes they don't have enough people to handle the wheelchairs, but that's not the airlines fault, that's a separate company.