flygirl94
Aug 6, 08, 9:36 am
Glad to know "nickle and diming" wasn't started by my airline! :D
SHADES OF GREEN System crashers
System crashersCommentary: Addiction to cheap airfares is causing travel ruinBy Chris Pummer
Last update: 7:33 p.m. EDT Aug. 5, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Return for a moment to 1981 and the dawn of airline deregulation: People Express launches a no-frills service with $29 regional one-ways and $99 coast-to-coast fares cheap enough for almost anyone to fly. To keep fares low, the discounter forgoes in-flight meals and charges 50 cents for sodas and $2 for a snack pack of salami, cheese and crackers. It earns the nickname "People's Republic Express" as passengers jam aisles bearing all manner of carry-on items short of caged chickens to avoid a $3 fee per piece of checked luggage.
Leap ahead to mid-2008: Travelers can still book coast-to-coast roundtrips for $198 -- which would be about $500 in 1981 dollars adjusted for inflation -- and add-on fees are now the industry norm. It's no wonder airlines are squeezed when we're paying 40 cents on the dollar nearly three decades later.
Call it the free market meets the tyranny of the masses armed with technology. Consumers wanted cheap fares, the Internet gave us the instantaneous means to find them, and now our tightfistedness has brought a vital industry to the verge of collapse. Even consumer advocates acknowledge the anarchy that's resulted 30 years after the Civil Aeronautics Board stopped setting fares and routes. Deregulation has spawned a second-rate system offering little more than Greyhound buses with wings that make five or more often-late stops daily throughout the country to keep seats filled.
Chris Pummer is a former senior editor for MarketWatch and Bloomberg News and a reporter for such papers as the Los Angeles Times and San Jose Mercury News.
SHADES OF GREEN System crashers
System crashersCommentary: Addiction to cheap airfares is causing travel ruinBy Chris Pummer
Last update: 7:33 p.m. EDT Aug. 5, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Return for a moment to 1981 and the dawn of airline deregulation: People Express launches a no-frills service with $29 regional one-ways and $99 coast-to-coast fares cheap enough for almost anyone to fly. To keep fares low, the discounter forgoes in-flight meals and charges 50 cents for sodas and $2 for a snack pack of salami, cheese and crackers. It earns the nickname "People's Republic Express" as passengers jam aisles bearing all manner of carry-on items short of caged chickens to avoid a $3 fee per piece of checked luggage.
Leap ahead to mid-2008: Travelers can still book coast-to-coast roundtrips for $198 -- which would be about $500 in 1981 dollars adjusted for inflation -- and add-on fees are now the industry norm. It's no wonder airlines are squeezed when we're paying 40 cents on the dollar nearly three decades later.
Call it the free market meets the tyranny of the masses armed with technology. Consumers wanted cheap fares, the Internet gave us the instantaneous means to find them, and now our tightfistedness has brought a vital industry to the verge of collapse. Even consumer advocates acknowledge the anarchy that's resulted 30 years after the Civil Aeronautics Board stopped setting fares and routes. Deregulation has spawned a second-rate system offering little more than Greyhound buses with wings that make five or more often-late stops daily throughout the country to keep seats filled.
Chris Pummer is a former senior editor for MarketWatch and Bloomberg News and a reporter for such papers as the Los Angeles Times and San Jose Mercury News.