U.S. Congressional Action to Change How Airfares are Advertised.
#91
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#92
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"Enacting laws that help citizens" does not make a country "socialist." Have a cup of Merriam-Webster.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/socialism
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/socialism
#93
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And for some people, including me, that is also a deceptive practice (i.e. not showing the full price until checkout). It's also not universally true, such as when purchasing gas, as discussed above.
Last edited by timfountain; Apr 20, 2014 at 10:13 pm
#94
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Whats to stop cosumers seeing this now? Laziness. Americans are lazy, plain and simple, not enough people care. The way things are now, people look at the $300 fare that includes taxes and doesn't really comprehend that $50 of it are going to the goverment/airport That $50 turns into $70 because the tax goes up, most people think, greedy airline is charging me more now. Some people might hear a story about it but even those people will forget a month later and then blame the airline. When they see $250 for the airfare, click next and its suddenly $300, they realize that hey yeah, the goverments taking $50 from me (whether they think this is a reasonable fee for what the goverment does thats irrelevant). PS there is no misleading of the public by doing this, X is the amount charged by the airline Y is the amount charged by the goverment and the airports. Might be easier for the consumer but its unfair to the airline. Europe does it where they quote the total price including VAT but if I charged that much in taxes, I'd sure want it to be harder for the citizens to realize it.
Longer term you can vote for change, assuming you can find a congresscritter who will make this part of their ticket (hint no-one would).
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There's one point that everyone seems to have missed:
We pay taxes for a functioning government. The taxes on airline tickets pay for airports, ATC, security, DOT operations (including the complaints division that is often discussed on FT), customs and immigration, and other services that directly benefit airlines and their passengers.
We can argue about the efficiency and value of these services, but these are real services that directly benefit the airlines. They cannot function without them. Period.
They need to include these costs in their advertised prices (although they are free to itemize them, just as they are free to itemize the amount of the CEO's salary and the advertising budget that we pay with each airfare).
We pay taxes for a functioning government. The taxes on airline tickets pay for airports, ATC, security, DOT operations (including the complaints division that is often discussed on FT), customs and immigration, and other services that directly benefit airlines and their passengers.
We can argue about the efficiency and value of these services, but these are real services that directly benefit the airlines. They cannot function without them. Period.
They need to include these costs in their advertised prices (although they are free to itemize them, just as they are free to itemize the amount of the CEO's salary and the advertising budget that we pay with each airfare).
#97
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The New York Times has published an editorial against the proposed legislation.
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The New York Times has published an editorial against the proposed legislation.
#99
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Everyone,
Please sign the petition!!!
http://www.change.org/petitions/us-s...uiter=69006325
Go on. Please sign the petition!!!
Please sign the petition!!!
http://www.change.org/petitions/us-s...uiter=69006325
Go on. Please sign the petition!!!
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#101
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The reason local gas stations aren't forced to market an all-in price is it'd be an absolute nightmare to enforce, since taxes change from state to state, county to county, and even city to city. Imagine the burden that would put on a giant restaurant chain to print up menus for every county specifically, or McDonalds to manufacture menus for every single locality in which they operate. The taxes consumers encounter (on a macro level) by and large are not predictable. On an airline ticket they are absolutely predictable so there is no reason to not ask the entire cost be displayed.
#102
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I don't know how it works in Texas, but here in California, gas stations are required to market an all-in price.
#103
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I don't know how it works in Texas
gas stations are required to market an all-in price
And the fact that gasoline must be advertised at full-"fare" actually blows a hole in the airline industry's argument that they're the only ones forced to do so.
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And the sit down chains actually already frequently vary their menu items a little from restaurant to restaurant based on what sells well in different regions. No big deal for them to have different prices in different places either, save for the occasional nationally advertised promotions.
#105
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This sounds like when Amazon was complaining that they shouldn't have to collect sales tax because it would be too difficult to keep track of the tax rates in different cities. Now they have started collecting sales tax in several states, and this hasn't caused their computers to crash yet.
There aren't all that many different tax rates. For example, California has hundreds of cities and counties, but around 2/3 of them have a tax rate of either 7.5% or 8%. I'm sure any kid with a computer science degree could write the necessary software to handle their menu printing.