Originally Posted by
Frequentlander
People want predictability.
If a person cashes in a voucher for a companion seat, they don't want to find at the time of booking that, without any notification, the rules have changed and they are going to be squeezed for a seat selection fee. The cost of the seat selection fee may be trivial, but the way this has been done isn't. People remember being nickel and dimed because its petty and annoying..
Read the website, ask an agent (before booking) and if you have to, pay the fee, then you can predict you are not entitled to something for nothing. No lack of predictability as much as failure to investigate.
People will still fly crammed like sardines in a tin because they can go 2,000 miles for what it used to cost on Greyhound. But... with a proviso.... if they suffer ten times like that they then earn the right to fly like they are paying $2,000 a ticket vs. $200 and at the end of they day, they aren't.
Or fly AC if it's cheaper which I suspect it is not. Or Flair, Swoop, whatever, then you know everything is extra and it won't knock people over with the vapors when the airline wants money for a service.
Harping here won't make the fees go away. I am personally hoping they next up the cost of Plus at check-in to earn more than the marginal cost by double or triple, or get rid of it so I don't have to sit next to people wanting a Bloody Mary at 6 a.m. "because it's included".
At some point WS might even be a decent investment. The dividend is not bad but they need to make money.