New Yorker: Why Airlines Want to Make You Suffer
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But the fee model comes with systematic costs that are not immediately obvious. Heres the thing: in order for fees to work, there needs be something worth paying to avoid. That necessitates, at some level, a strategy that can be described as calculated misery. Basic service, without fees, must be sufficiently degraded in order to make people want to pay to escape it. And thats where the suffering begins.
The necessity of degrading basic service provides a partial explanation for the fact that, in the past decade, the major airlines have done what they can to make flying basic economy, particularly on longer flights, an intolerable experience. For one thing, as the Wall Street Journal has documented, airlines have crammed more seats into the basic economy section of the airplane, even on long-haul flights. The seats, meanwhile, have gotten smallerthey are narrower and set closer together. Bill McGee, a contributing editor to Consumer Reports who worked in the airline industry for many years, studied seat sizes and summarized his findings this way: The roomiest economy seats you can book on the nations four largest airlines are narrower than the tightest economy seats offered in the 1990s.
Boarding for non-élite flyers has also become a miserable experience. There are far more efficient ways to load planes than the current back-to-front method, which is actually slower than random boarding. The process takes longer still thanks to the practice of letting flyers with status board out of turn and thanks to luggage charges, which compel fee-avoiders to cram their bags into overhead compartments. Airlines lack a real incentive to fundamentally improve boarding for everyoneby, for example, investing in methods such as filling both ends of an airplane at once. It would make life better and also defeat the status racket.
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The fee model isnt the only reason air travel has become more miserable in recent years. Airlines also benefit directly by throwing more seats into economy, because they have more to sell. But as mergers reduce competition airlines can more safely collude to provide poorer levels of service, and everything that adds to and increases differential experiences drives fee income, which is the most lucrative side of the business. Perhaps thats why Deltas new cabin plan offers five different classes of service, and why one unnamed major airline is reportedly considering introducing a level called economy minus, with even smaller seats than basic economy.
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http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/airlines-want-you-to-suffer?intcid=mod-most-popular
cyberswede
(26,117 posts)I rarely fly, and I'm glad. Jeez louise.
villager
(26,001 posts)Perhaps it'll come with an extra TSA frisk-down, if you're flying "too cheaply!"
MADem
(135,425 posts)unrepentant progress
(611 posts)You don't say.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)I travel by rail pretty frequently now. It's great. So comfortable.
May the executives of the airlines all suffer from sciatica and restless legs as they age. They deserve it.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)From the explosive diarrhea fairy, either.
1monster
(11,012 posts)took a trip from Florida to the D.C. area. By plane it cost me $264 for two round trips, plus a $50 fee to check two bags round trip. A slightly shorter round trip to D.C. by rail would have cost me so much more that I didn't even consider it. (Traveling by rail at non-peak times can be more economical.)
HERVEPA
(6,107 posts)They have some type of algorithm they use.
And how would you fill both ends at once?
jeff47
(26,549 posts)One door at the front of the plane, and another at one of the rear doors of the plane.
OrwellwasRight
(5,170 posts)Many airports banned it after 9/11 because of "security." I now can't remember the last time I boarded front and back on Jet Blue.
Many European flights unloaded front and back (they don't even have a gate; they load you onto busses and drive to a gate), but they don't let you board that way.
quadrature
(2,049 posts)Moliere
(285 posts)Remember the RyanAir standing seats?
Manifestor_of_Light
(21,046 posts)"They might as well just put a stick up your ass!!"
I'm glad I'm short enough and narrow enough to sit in those seats. I got picked on for being short a lot when I was younger.
MisterP
(23,730 posts)the incentive for service has been lost: the brake lines have been cut
mackerel
(4,412 posts)Triana
(22,666 posts)Until then, travel in the US (perhaps the world), is ridiculously miserable comfortwise and costwise.
HERVEPA
(6,107 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)I'm not going to pay some corporation to jerk me around, it just encourages them.
gladium et scutum
(803 posts)Flying use to be a relatively enjoyable experience, decades ago. Now it rates somewhere between colonoscopy and root canal on my fun meter.
phantom power
(25,966 posts)who knew?
rock
(13,218 posts)And felt more like cattle than human when I flew. That's when I gave up flying. I couldn't understand why there wasn't a huge wave of travelers giving it up as well.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)If we wanted to go to the family's Christmas festivities, we had to get across the country.
Our options were 1) fly or 2) don't go.
Rail, bus or driving would require adding many days to our trip, which was not possible due to having a job.
Also, work gets a bit upset about traveling for 8 days to a 3 day conference. So even if we decided to forego seeing our families, there's still going to be other times where there are no other options.
rock
(13,218 posts)There were no situations that required me to travel by plane.
CTyankee
(63,769 posts)there are some decent carriers going there. I generally stay away from KLM, tho...Air France was the best and even had decent food...
rock
(13,218 posts)And doesn't sound like a really hard burden on you. After all it's not like it's a weekly trip to Europe. Some people would even enjoy that!
CTyankee
(63,769 posts)so you are confined for long periods of time. The way back is harder for some reason jet lag wise. So I try to get non stops getting back because I fly into JFK and it takes a long time to get back to CT on the limo (bus). My stop is always last. So I try to get earlier and shorter flights back. I'm still pretty much cooked for a couple of weeks trying to get over the jet lag. Wish I knew how to fix that. I've tried but so far no luck.
HERVEPA
(6,107 posts)It's not wonderful, but nowhere near as bad as some here are making it out to be.
It's cheap, relatively, and you can get across the country in four of five hours.
It's not the worst thing in the world to be stuck in a small seat for a few hours.
rock
(13,218 posts)Long delays, people leaning their seats back in your lap. Boy, is the NSA gonna have a tough time with you. (I mean assuming you ever have a piece of information that they're wanting!)
I have a long delay maybe one out of 15 times at most.
About 1 in 10 with people leaning back. If they're too far back, I ask them if they'd mind moving it up some and they usually will move it up all the way.Babies cry. Deal with it. People have babies and sometimes want to travel with them. Maybe even to visit their grandparents.
rock
(13,218 posts)that allows you to adapt to such inconveniences.
HERVEPA
(6,107 posts)(Not sick or dying, just in my 60's). Am living my life to its fullest.
peacebird
(14,195 posts)We used to think nothing of hopping a flight for a quick getaway. We stopped a dozen years ago when flying became so onerous.
Now we drive, or take the train. Just got a little R-Pod travel trailer to make the trips with our dog. We won't go back to flying. It used to be FUN to fly, you got nice meals, people were happy, the stewardesses were pleasant and the entire experience was good. Nowadays, ugh. Everyone is stressed, irritable, crammed into increasingly tiny seats, rude flight staff, impossible tsa cretins. Totally miserable experience.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)IDemo
(16,926 posts)And may be again, who knows?
OrwellwasRight
(5,170 posts)first class passengers are invited to board on the 'red carpet.' What are they, royalty because they spent more? It's gross.