Babu

Time for Gordon to get of his a**, and replace his bean counters—seems like they’ve missed a plethora of opportunities!

·Meal fee$10; special meals $15
·Alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks $5 on board (warm tap water $1)
·No EUAs 72 hours prior to departure (it will force you all to purchase that precious F seat).
·Rentals fee for oxygen masks and life vest (seats occupied by passengers not wishing to pay the fee will not have such amenities)
·Alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks in PCs $5 (warm tap water $1)
·Lavatory fees
·Award redepoist fee: $100.
·All change fees on rewards to be applied at the same rate as if it were a revenue reservation
·Advance seat selection: $25. Selections in elite coach section: $50. Exit rows: $100.
·$25 per check bag
·1st Carry On fee: $10; each additional carry-on $5 each. Wallets and keys exempt from policy.
·New to Onepass? $50 activation fee.
·Onepass $50 inactive fee (annually).
·Online Onepass access fee of $20 annually.
·Partner rewards? $50 fee.

I think I'm sending Gordo my resume.

Viajero Joven

Babu, you're scaring me.....

I can honestly see some of these being justified and instituted.

RiceGradStudent

You're missing:
* Corkage fee: $2/fl oz of beverage brought onboard
* Tray table fee: $25/segment
* Use of space underneath the seat in front of you: $50/segent
* Weight increases fuel burn surcharge: $2/pound on both pax and luggage
* Delayed flight surcharge: $2/hour (we have to pay our crew...)
* Early arrival surcharge: $10/hour (or wait on plane until official arrival time)
* Never flown on CO? Continental flight initiation fee: $50
* Speaking to an agent surcharge: $20
* Frequent Flyer Mile recovery surcharge: $0.05 per elite mile, plus $0.02 per bonus mile

TransWorldOne

Is that with or without salmonella?

aparsuites

It's actually $1 for the first million colonies and $0.00002 per colony thereafter. Just the same as if you were ordering a pizza.

LLZ

Drug-resistant strains will be discounted

sowalsky

$1 light fee
$1 A/C fee
$2 window fee
$5 bathroom surcharge
$2 jetway fee (otherwise take the stairs)
$3 reclining fee (per usage)
$10 stewardess call button fee
$2.50 boarding pass charge (each)

Beef or Chicken?

The airlines, particularly big-mouth led CO, need to be reminded of the concept of "cost of doing business."

NJDavid

$5 tax to give you a free ticket
$20 to send you a ticket you bought
$50 to give you a free ticket near your flight (plus the $5 tax)

Oh, wait...I'm sorry, were these supposed to be fictional and sarcastic?

bocastephen

Don't be giving Bethune and his henchmen any ideas Well, honestly, I think the overwhelming problem here is that senior Airline executives (not just at CO, but especially at CO) have in a sense, declared war on their customers...and it seems the better a customer you are, the more you are to blame for "taking advantage" of their "perks". Until this attitude goes away, these companies will never be able to win our business back. Gordon Bethune, both in his policies and his practices, clearly shows an intense dislike of his customers (essentially blaming us for his company losing money), and holds us responsible for pushing the competitive envelope in this industry that resulted in alot of these perks to begin with. It has been discussed dozens of times here, but CO's FF program is designed to hand out miles and upgrades, but not flight awards. IMHO, the only true value of the OP program is for Elite members to receive complimentary space available domestic upgrades on any fare...if this is eliminated (either because of the delta/nw/co codeshare or because of further "enhancements"), then the OP program essentially becomes totally worthless, and offers no true value. Many customers fly CO for the domestic upgrades (a perk not available on any other airline except their partner NW), and the upgrades only. Take those away, and CO's frequent customer base has no reason to stay. If I have to use segment upgrade points, off I go to AA or UA...or possibly to DL if I can make Platinum there. If I have to sit in coach, then to AA I go for sure. I fear for the next batch of "enhancements" to come out of Houston. No more upgrades on Q or T...needing segment upgrade points...etc, etc. This will certainly be the last straw for me, as for many of you as well.

The nickel-and-diming of the customers has to stop. We are not responsible for run-away fuel prices. We are not responsible for run-away labor costs. We are not responsible for increased industry competition (none of us on this board started a new discount airline recently, I dont think). We are not responsible for increased security costs. We are also not resonsible for airlines creating all of these new marketing incentives, but we are certainly blamed for using them.

Instead of the airlines continually "punishing" us frequent flyers for using these "perks"...why dont the airlines call it a day and just get rid of all these marketing incentives they came up with over the past 10-12 years (by the way, I saying this part sarcastically).

1) cancel all FF programs and give everyone two years to use their miles or forfeit them
2) shrink First Class cabins back to the 8-14 seats they used to be many years ago, cancel the "A" type fares, and sell those seats only for "F" fares (costing a couple thousand $$)..and no more upgrades for anyone.
3) raise all fares back to the pre-deregulation years when a flight from MIA to LGA cost $400, or JFK to LAX was $500-800.

The airlines created the competitive environment they are in now...they need to cut costs, sure...but they can find other ways to do it through operational improvements, aggressive labor negotiations, and finding more efficient ways of doing everything from the ground up. I am sure there are some ways they can cut costs, yet provide even more value to their best customers. Honestly, I have little sympathy for the customer who flies 1-3 times a year, and spends 3 weeks bugging travel agents and websites until they find the lowest fare, often choosing which carrier was $10 cheaper than the next. These are not loyal customers. Those of us who are at least Gold Elite (or equivalent on other airlines suffering the same indignities), have invested time, money, and loyalty into our relationships with these carriers...and deserve to be given the perks we are offered with a smile. Mr. Airline Exective, if you dont want to hand out the perks to reward us with our loyalty, and cant do it without a smile, then dont do it at all. Stop the insulting attitudes and the nickel and diming! For anyone who wants a real insight into their thinking, a previous post on the board talks about an exchange they had with Gordon Bethune, when complaining about standard award availability...and his response was something like "we are not in the business of giving away free product". If so, then dont offer the FF program to begin with! The equation is simple - we pay for tickets...we fly the flights...we accumulate enough paid revenue to justify a free trip (or upgrade), then you give it to us! Anything else is pure bait and switch (or outright fraud)...and should not be tolerated anymore.

Enough said...if the executives think us passengers are such a burden, then stop flying pax and just fly cargo.

BackOfTheBus

Coin operated bathroom: $2.
Seat belt fee: $5.
1 can of coke: $3.

Flipping off Gordon Bethune from the window of your new carrier's airplane: Priceless.

There's airlines that are a masochist's favorites. For everyone else there's Southwest.

venk

bocastephen, an excellent and raw expression that captures the sentiments of a lot of us frequent fliers precisely.

thezipper

Taking a page from FCTSTY's book...

odnyc

Continental has declared war on its customers? Come on already. I am an almost totally satisifed platinum who regards CAL as one of the best services I pay for. The standard at CAL is almost uniformly excellent. I do not (thank God) own stock in CAL and I do not work for CAL and I (me that is) pay 100% of the cost of my travel. Maybe somebody thinks its wise to run down CAL because of old grievances or that one time you didn't get an upgrade or because (now) you call the airline 3 hours before your flight and cancel and they want you to reschedule your deeply discounted fare and want you (heavens) to pay a change fee. I endorse quite a few of these fees because they are far from unreasonable. And I'm going from EWR to Cleveland this weekend on a 73 (probably up front) for $107 R/T. My NYC to EWR taxi ride will cost me $51.00 Fare: $35 tolls: $16.00. So excuse me for believing that if I want to have a beer on board I should pay $5 since I often pay that much or more in cramped, noisy and smoky airport bars. I am John Q. Continental customer and yet I feel extremely well treated when I deal with CO.

BackOfTheBus

I would take advice from a person who declares JetBlue to be a 'scam' and 'rip-off' with a grain of salt.