Originally Posted by
ClueByFour
Alienating the only group of people with less elasticity in their travel plans is stupid when fares are,as you point out, going to have to go up (and thus drive out the people with elasticity in their travel plans)...The key to all of this, as has been mentioned for years, is fares that are reasonable (and yes, that in adjusted for the cost of fuel). HP apparently did this right before the merger, and lost their mind thereafter.
I mostly agree with this - fares should move in lockstep with fuel costs. Fuel costs are now about $300 per person per flight, so US would need to raise fares much more from current levels to cover this. I believe that the ala carte pricing is an attempt to avoid jacking up fares a couple hundred bucks for everyone and instead tryiing to allocate charges where the are incurred (things that are heavier, like bags, drinks, etc.) The fees arent with fuel in mind, and albeit painful, are maybe being seen as less painful than huge fare hikes.