Personally I think he has a great idea. Back in the 90's I used to fly from EWR to BOS or BWI or DCA to cover events as part of my work. In those days you could get cheap fares by planning ahead and flying was pretty easy to deal with. Since late 2001 flying has become much more difficult to deal with and the fares on those routes when up quite a bit so I started driving or taking AMTRAK. No two hour waits on two ends of a day trip, free internet on AMTRAK, room and time to get some editing done on the train so when I arrived back at home I could actually go to sleep at a reasonable hour.....So tell me again how raising fares made the airlines more money from me?
I am retired now and most of my flying is between EWR and LAS, 4-5 trips a year at an average cost of under $400 per RT. If Mr. Kirby has his way and that cost rises to $800 or so per RT is it just another incentive for me to just move to LAS full time and enjoy more time with my grandchildren.
Mr. Kirby, under your leadership we have seen wonderful things like fees fro baggage, fees for priority check in, fees for food in economy, seat pitch shrinking more and more, fees for an extra 3 inches of seat pitch, fees for changes, fees for international upgrades, devaluations of the value of our miles, longer wait times at counters, fewer and fewer real people, more and more machines....Should I go on? I fly because it is a quick, sometimes, and efficient way for me to get where I need and want to go. When it is no longer quick and cheap I will find another way.