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Parker Threatens End of Changes/Change Fees to Non-Refundable Fares

Parker Threatens End of Changes/Change Fees to Non-Refundable Fares

Old Sep 18, 2018, 11:24 pm
  #16  
 
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Originally Posted by LovePrunes
oh great...more government regulation of private industry. Because we all know how well more of THAT usually turns out.
do you favor government passing laws on minimum space between seats, too?
let the free market decide.
You mean how the EU government has imposed higher consumer protection for passengers, like EU 261 compensation? Even when LCCs like Ryanair exist? That's a bad thing?
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Old Sep 18, 2018, 11:24 pm
  #17  
 
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Originally Posted by keitherson
You mean how the EU government has imposed higher consumer protection for passengers, like EU 261 compensation? Even when LCCs like Ryanair exist? That's a bad thing?
"Don't feed the trolls" is a useful rule in situations like this
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Old Sep 18, 2018, 11:33 pm
  #18  
 
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Originally Posted by LovePrunes
oh great...more government regulation of private industry. Because we all know how well more of THAT usually turns out.
do you favor government passing laws on minimum space between seats, too?
let the free market decide.
Except it doesn't work that way. M&A has consolidated a vast majority of the airlines, and many routes are only served by one airline. The barriers of entry are too high for new airlines to be profitable or get gate space. Carriers are basically free to charge whatever fees they want and the customers generally just have to put up with them.
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Old Sep 18, 2018, 11:48 pm
  #19  
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Originally Posted by LovePrunes
oh great...more government regulation of private industry. Because we all know how well more of THAT usually turns out.
do you favor government passing laws on minimum space between seats, too?
let the free market decide.
The US airline passenger service market is anything but a highly-competitive free market. And the more concentrated market-power a firm or oligopoly has, the greater the consumer benefit that may arise from regulation.

Isn't there already de facto regulation in place that results in there being a required minimum allowed space between seats, something to do with the need to evacuate planes in an emergency? Or do you prefer to see the passenger death counts increase in an emergency due to retarded evacuation rates due to overly-tight seating arrangements and "let the free market decide"?

If AA manages to largely end the option to change refundable tickets for relatively reasonable change fees, then it is yet another sign that the market for AA's services isn't as competitive as it should be for consumers and that maybe some regulation is not entirely uncalled for.
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Last edited by GUWonder; Sep 19, 2018 at 2:28 am
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Old Sep 19, 2018, 12:44 am
  #20  
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Originally Posted by LovePrunes
oh great...more government regulation of private industry. Because we all know how well more of THAT usually turns out.
do you favor government passing laws on minimum space between seats, too?
let the free market decide.
ya free market has been deciding resort/destination fees over the last few years.. some decisions huh..

travel industry controlled by very few mega corporations is not free market
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Old Sep 19, 2018, 5:37 am
  #21  
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Originally Posted by donotblink
Except it doesn't work that way. M&A has consolidated a vast majority of the airlines, and many routes are only served by one airline.
It's not routinely true that major (or even middling) demand domestic routes have only one carrier. High demand city pairs will often have four, five or even six carriers. As for just one carrier on a route like Chicago-Bangor, well, there are connections.
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Old Sep 19, 2018, 5:49 am
  #22  
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Shades of US Airways circa 2002.

US Airways Bans Reuse Of Nonrefundable Tickets: Business Travel News

US Airways Bans Reuse Of Nonrefundable Tickets

August 27, 2002
US Airways today said that effective immediately it will disallow the application of an unused nonrefundable ticket toward any future travel on the airline. The new rule applies to flights within the domestic United States and Canada, and flights from the United States to Europe.

Passenger air service is an area where bad ideas just won't die.
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Old Sep 19, 2018, 6:08 am
  #23  
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I see this as a calculated half-full threat. AA won't eliminate the change fee for inflexible tickets, but may well eliminate SDC. That would leave the standard domestic change fee for the typical inflexible ticket at $200 and not drop it to $75 or $0 on the day of travel. People who require flexibility will purchase flexible fares and the revenue from change fees is protected.

The reality is that UA & DL will move in lockstep and that will leave WN in a pickle. It cannot survive taking over broad swaths of business which changes "for free" constantly or it will suffer the same problems others suffer now. Or, its fare structure, not exactly a bargain today, will take a significant jump.
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Old Sep 19, 2018, 6:10 am
  #24  
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Several years ago (with much more competition) many (most?) US carriers were (nearly) bankrupt; now with only 3 BIG alliances all VERY profitable AA wants to "turn the screw tighter" on its pax--it is NOW time for legislation to reign in the airlines, USA261 is needed.
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Old Sep 19, 2018, 6:25 am
  #25  
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Didn't PMUS (and old US preAW) try to implement this idea and failed because the market reacted so badly (corporate accounts threatening to switch). The Company I work for makes frequent changes and just eats the $200-or more precisely bills the client. Since we're in an AA hub I'm not sure if our travel policy would shift away from AA but a number of corporate accounts would.
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Old Sep 19, 2018, 6:39 am
  #26  
 
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Originally Posted by Science Goy
Or if you buy domestic Basic Economy.
I'm surprised only one person has brought this up. More and more, BE is available on every route and is the default shown on sites like Google flights. That is to say, a typical non-elite customer buying the cheapest available coach ticket already has a non-changeable-at-any-cost ticket.

This is not news from Parker. The legacy industry is already moving in this direction. To me the question is not whether the big 3 will follow (they already have for BE), but whether WN will follow. WN is already popular among business travelers who do a lot of short haul (and thus value upgrades less) because they can make unlimited free changes. My guess is that if WN keeps free changes then big 3 will limit this to BE. If WN eliminates free changes, I would expect the big 3 to roll this out to all discount coach tickets.
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Old Sep 19, 2018, 7:15 am
  #27  
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What I have to wonder is will AA get rid of the "flat tire rule" (albeit informal) and require that anyone checking in late (or too late to the gate) be forced to pay a change fee and refare. Based on the experiences I've seen of others agents have been willing to either put someone on the next flight or at worst make them go standby. Now in all of these cases they've shown up either right after cut off time not something like 3 hours late. But think of the additional $$ AA could make if they no longer allowed any flexibility.
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Old Sep 19, 2018, 7:26 am
  #28  
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Originally Posted by newyorkgeorge
What I have to wonder is will AA get rid of the "flat tire rule" (albeit informal)..
It aint informal:
Flat tire rule and Basic Economy / BE
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Old Sep 19, 2018, 7:46 am
  #29  
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Originally Posted by nrr
Several years ago (with much more competition) many (most?) US carriers were (nearly) bankrupt; now with only 3 BIG alliances all VERY profitable AA wants to "turn the screw tighter" on its pax--it is NOW time for legislation to reign in the airlines, USA261 is needed.
Actually, the time was several years ago when the government should have disallowed the AA/US merger, if not also UA/CO (and heck, maybe DL/NW).

Not to get politically OT, but this was one of the bigger foul-ups of the Obama’s administration IMO (DL/NW was Bush though IIRC), and evidence that corporations/big money own Dems too...
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Last edited by ijgordon; Sep 19, 2018 at 7:52 am
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Old Sep 19, 2018, 8:09 am
  #30  
 
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Originally Posted by keitherson
You mean how the EU government has imposed higher consumer protection for passengers, like EU 261 compensation? Even when LCCs like Ryanair exist? That's a bad thing?
If I wanted to live in the EU with EU types of interventions and laws, I'd move to the EU. Not in favor of bringing that compensation requirement or anything like that to the US. Ever.
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