jetsetter

I was on the plane yesterday talking to a mother with 4 kids, and she paid $75 x 4 = $300 to move up to an earlier shuttle flight, so her kids could get home earlier enough to go to school. Also the flight was so full they could not find seats for the family to sit together.

I spoke to her for a while, and she seemed like an ordinary consumer without any special or particular knowledge about the inner workings of the airline industry. The only data point about her that may be relevant is that it seemed the family was very well off financially so I don't think the $300 made any difference to her in a way or matter of speaking.

I asked her if she tried to get the airline to waive the fee, and she said she was uncomfortable asking for something like that, but that she felt her husbend certainly would have asked to have this waived, and he generally I guess you could say was more aggressive trying to get things waived.

I am always astonished on the bus etc. or hearing people talk about their travel experiences.

But this lady is typical, and if people are just whipping out their credit card paying $300 for a change like this that used to be free $0, its no wonder the airlines charge it.

If for instance it took 15 minutes of hassling with customers to get them to pay each fee, that would seriously slow down airport operations, delay flights, causelong lines, cause staffing issues, etc.

I wonder if someone who is growing up now feels less jaded and disgrunteld about the way things are now, because such a person may never have experienced the "good old days?"