Travel Smarts - Airlines - Air Travel Today
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Do passengers benefit by no frills flying?
No meals - Reduced baggage allowance!
ARE AIRLINES TREATING PASSENGERS UNFAIRLY?
Air travel seems to have changed for the worse in the
past few years. While increased security checks are understandable and
necessary after 9/11.
The joy of airplane travel has in my opinion deteriorated to a point that if there was an alternative, many airplane passengers today may perhaps choose not to fly.
Services that airlines provided to passengers seem to be declining gradually. Most airlines have now cut down on basic things like snacks and meals on many of their flights.
Airlines of course want us to believe that they are
doing all this for the price conscious customers. I wonder how much of
these savings are being passed on to their customers?
Consider the following:
√
Now some airlines
are offering to knock off $5 from your ticket if you don’t
have
carry on baggage.
√ I took a trip to
two bags each weighing up to 70 pounds were
allowed for passengers
traveling to
has been reduced by 40 pounds per passenger. Instead of up to 70
pounds
per bag, it is 50 pounds per bag.
√ Approximately 250
passengers and the reduced baggage weight add up to
10,000 lbs of less weight
which I would assume means considerable fuel
savings
for airlines. How much of this is passed
on to the passengers?
√
Some airlines are encouraging passengers to print
their own boarding passes
from their home computers.
√
On May 12, 2007 before my scheduled flight from
received an
email from my airline informing me that I could print my
boarding
pass. Of course the airlines are doing all this for our convenience.
I
wonder how much money the airlines are saving on printing
paper and toner
costs for printers as passengers start printing
their own boarding passes.
√
Some airlines are encouraging passengers to check
in from their home computers. Of course they say its
only to save
time at the airport and for the passengers
own convenience.
As more and more passenger’s pre-check themselves before going to
the
airport, then who needs the airline clerk to check passengers in.
Wonder if
this is saving the airlines some money?
√
Meals on short haul flights are of course a thing
of the past.
What I am surprised is that the criteria of short haul
appears to have been changed to cover flights that are lasting almost five hours.
For my
Perhaps passengers seated on the tail
end of the airplane, especially the last two rows deserve a discount
because I have seen this happen many times.
What I find strange is that even though the airlines are cutting off all the frills to save us money on our fares. I am paying more for my travels compared to what I paid some time back when meals were indeed provided and my baggage allowance was much higher than what it is today.
In the last two months I have made trips from
Are airlines in some way forming a monopoly leaving
the customers no choice but to accept what is in the market? I wonder
who is speaking for the common passengers? Unless passengers speak up
they can continue to expect less for their travel dollars and suffer
with inferior service.
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