Originally Posted by
redtop43
At least the airlines allow you to sit your butt down in a seat and go from A to B without any mandatory fees. Well, then again we have "fuel surcharges" in some cases. But at least it's generally in the advertised price.
It has only been that way since early in the Obama administration. Before that the airfares could be advertised without the taxes and fees.
Some airlines - especially ones like Spirit - have been pushing to do things like before. Spirit would love nothing better than to advertise a fare as $9 (or some other low amount) and load up not only the taxes but the MANDATORY AIRLINE-IMPOSED FEES they've invented so that the $9 becomes at least $50 or $60.
In other words, they want to be able to bait and switch.
They have such a jaundiced view of their customer base that they simply don't believe they can sell as much by playing it straight.
In Spirit's case they ALREADY have some pretty bogus fees in place, like the "passenger usage fee" (for booking online rather than at the ticket counter) and the "regulatory compliance fee" (which should be just a cost-of-doing-business like it is with everyone else). It's only because of that DOT regulation that they have to give the price including the mandatory fees now, and airlines keep trying to attack that.