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(Yahoo)   Airlines charging extra for meals, pillows and blankets; don't have pay toilets or lean-back-your-seat fees. Yet   (news.yahoo.com) divider line
227
    More: Asinine  
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6810 clicks; posted to Main » on 27 Mar 2006 at 11:42 AM (17 years ago)   |   Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook



227 Comments     (+0 »)


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gweilo8888
2006-03-27 11:45:02 AM  
Tightwads.

/that is all
 
Pope George Ringo
2006-03-27 11:45:24 AM  
the pre-flight groping at the security gate is still free
 
StarshipPooper
2006-03-27 11:45:48 AM  
Start complaining when they start charging you to ensure you get there safetly, versus just getting there at all.
 
haws83
2006-03-27 11:47:30 AM  
eh, you get to keep the pillow/blanket once you buy it though. Though depending on the length of the flight, you may return the food.
 
Daniels
2006-03-27 11:47:37 AM  
Fly the Blue. I haven't used anything but Jetblue for the last two years, never will unless I absolutely have to. The old dinosaurs can curl up and die for all I care.
 
stiletto_the_wise
2006-03-27 11:47:48 AM  
Hey, the executives and top management need to get their million-dollar bonuses and golden parachutes! Won't somebody think of the executives??
 
Gothnet
2006-03-27 11:48:24 AM  
Didn't RTFA, but hate it when they make you pay extra for beer. British Airways and American, I've flown trans atlantic on both quite frequently. Ticket prices are essentially identical. AA makes you pay for in-flight booze.

Guess which one I fly when I get the choice?
 
LandOfChocolate
2006-03-27 11:48:34 AM  
Can someone explain why they switched from peanuts to pretzels?
 
NikolaiFarkoff [TotalFark]
2006-03-27 11:48:37 AM  
"Attention passengers, this is your captain speaking. In a moment flight attendants will be moving through the cabin with a collection plate. Upon reviewing this plate, the flight may or may not become a little bumpy for a while."
 
cojofl
2006-03-27 11:49:02 AM  
On a 90 minute bus trip I wouldn't expect to be fed.
 
Old_Fark
2006-03-27 11:49:16 AM  
WHAT? Oh, you wanted a seat IN the plane? That costs extra.
 
Drubell
2006-03-27 11:50:06 AM  
[image from planearium2.de too old to be available]

There's always the alternative.
 
oddballgeek
2006-03-27 11:50:19 AM  

Can someone explain why they switched from peanuts to pretzels?

annoying people with allergies complained or sued, probably.
 
damageddude [TotalFark]
2006-03-27 11:50:23 AM  
I'd pay a buck to keep the person in front of me from leaning back.

/amazing how obnoxious you can be when someone's head is in your lap
//WA-CHooo!! Sorry sir, I forgot my extra tissues.
 
Bad_Seed
2006-03-27 11:50:30 AM  
The Economist, estimated a year ago that the accumulated unredeemed miles was worth more than all the dollar bills in circulation.

Now that is a billiantly useless comparison.
 
madcatcasey
2006-03-27 11:50:53 AM  
LandOfChocolate: Can someone explain why they switched from peanuts to pretzels?


Because of the people that have allergic reactions and go into convulsions anytime someone even says that word "peanut" on an airplane..
 
fox1324
2006-03-27 11:51:00 AM  
how is this news? they've been doing this for months, maybe more


/i know, its not news, its fark.com
 
StarshipPooper
2006-03-27 11:51:03 AM  
Pretzels also probably make you more thirsty, causing you to buy their marked up drinks.
 
Phone_Answering_Monkey
2006-03-27 11:51:46 AM  
"I'll can you good, I will!"
 
nectar_of_the_goddess
2006-03-27 11:51:47 AM  
Can someone explain why they switched from peanuts to pretzels?

Probably because of people with peanut allergies. Just a guess, though. I always bring my own food on planes.
 
Trucido
2006-03-27 11:51:48 AM  
I would guess that they switched to pretzels for allergy reasons. There are some people who claim peanut allergies so severe that just proximity will kill them.
 
sofarked
2006-03-27 11:52:07 AM  
Oh yah, you will pay if you eat the meat. With HOURS on the toilet.
 
dustman81
2006-03-27 11:52:09 AM  
If I have to pay to lean my seat back a whopping 2", I'm gonna be pissed. If I have to pay to use the blue-water toilet, I'm gonna take a huge dump, just to get my money's worth.

Plans like this are truely [asinine]. Southwest is eating the other carriers lunch and making a profit. How? They hedged their fuel contracts, which worked well. They also don't use the 'hub and spoke' system. They make stops like a bus does, at every airport along the way to drop off and pick up passengers.

Face it legacy airlines, you either need to cut the bloat or go out of business. I, as a taxpayer, am sick of bailing you out because you can't make a profit. And if you keep nickeling and diming me, I'll just fly one of your low cost competitors.
 
Tekdude
2006-03-27 11:52:25 AM  
I really hate humanity... Burn this miserable planet out of the universe now please.
 
popain
2006-03-27 11:52:32 AM  
the funny thing is, airlines enacting these fees will likely lose more customers and thus lose more revenue. very poor decision. want to increase overall revenue? how about dumping deep pocket execs and re-investing all those millions towards providing quality safe service.
 
LandOfChocolate
2006-03-27 11:53:52 AM  
madcatcasey: Because of the people that have allergic reactions and go into convulsions anytime someone even says that word "peanut" on an airplane..

Lousy allergists. They're worse then smokers, inflicting their habits/alleries on the rest of us.

Take a bus next time you inconsiderate jerks!
 
Dirtball
2006-03-27 11:54:35 AM  
The old war horses, United, Northwest, American, Delta, Continental, US Airways, need to wake up and change their formulas. Southwest and Jetblue (among others) are killing them because passengers are looking for the lowest cost constantly.

If I were one of these dinosaurs, I would scrap my old business model and completely redefine my business structure to mimic the low cost carriers. Many of these airlines exist because they are simply too big to just fade away or change their ways.
 
Fallout Boy
2006-03-27 11:54:48 AM  
I hope these airlines go completely out of buisness when they chase away customers who want better services.

/feel no remorse for big-time business losing money
//am concern though that airlines arent as profitable as they used to be. travelling may get VERY expensive in the future
 
Rapmaster2000
2006-03-27 11:55:20 AM  
[image from cnn.com too old to be available]

These pretzels are making me thirsty.
 
fuzzycuffs
2006-03-27 11:55:25 AM  
They should also charge every single human on board, regardless of age.

I was on a flight back from Dallas the other day, and I had a window seat. The two people two had B and C were a husband and wife... and their 11mo old child.

Oh god, I thought to myself. Don't tell me these are their seats. What about the kid? Turns out, the kid was going to ride in the lap of the mother the entire time (who was seated next to me). I had to endure crying, feeding, and even changing. Yes, she changed the baby in her lap right next to me. C'mon now, you can go to the bathroom for that sort of thing.

I firmly believe that parents should have to buy a ticket even for little babies. They can use this space to sit the kid down if they are old enough, or allow them to crawl around there and play, or even use it as a baby station for all their multitude of crap that they have to carry because of the kid. This baby riding on their lap thing is rediculous and needs to be stopped.

The baby crying is something that, although got me pretty annoyed, is nothing I nor the parents can really do anything about. Babies cry, that's 1/4 of what they do (eat, shiat, and sleep are the other 3/4). But parents need to realize that other people have to share confined spaces with them, and because they have a baby does not mean they are the most important people on the plane. Have a little consideration for the people flying with you.
 
justanotherfarkinfarker
2006-03-27 11:55:32 AM  
SWA still has peanuts. Still make money too.
 
DarthBrooks
2006-03-27 11:55:33 AM  
Last time I was in Orlando, I bought a steak dinner at the Outback-to-Go shop in the terminal.

It's fun landing a 12-oz ribeye and a baked potato on the little snack tray, while the goober in the next seat gets to nibble on Rold Gold pretzels for a two-hour flight. Yeehaw!
 
lexslamman
2006-03-27 11:55:41 AM  
Not asinine - CAPITALIST, but not asinine.

Hey, can't blame them - the airlines must be made profitable some way or another if they are to survive, the government is no longer able to afford the millions and millions of dollars it is taking to bail them out every 5-10 years.
 
ctenidae
2006-03-27 11:55:46 AM  
You should pay the person behind you if you're going to lean your seat back.
 
nectar_of_the_goddess
2006-03-27 11:55:50 AM  
Lousy allergists. They're worse then smokers, inflicting their habits/alleries on the rest of us.

You *could* get back at them by smearing peanut butter underneath the seats...
 
greaser_77
2006-03-27 11:56:23 AM  
LandOfChocolate: Can someone explain why they switched from peanuts to pretzels?

"These pretzels are making me thirsty." Now you have to buy a beverage to cure that thirst.
 
clownpenis.fart
2006-03-27 11:56:41 AM  
Southwest.
AirTran.
JetBlue.

That is all.
 
Gwendolyn
2006-03-27 11:56:52 AM  
We all flew to Alabama over Christmas. $4 for a snack box. They didn't even have real meals you could buy. Then they stuck us in a plane for 2 1/2 hours that was so small I bumped my head every time I stood up. I'm 5'5" so it was a small plane.

The seats were about 4 inches smaller than the other plane too. That was fun. Family of five squished into three rows. They also moved our seats around and didn't see why my 7 and 8 year old daughters couldn't sit in different parts of the plane from us and each other.

We also played for our 6 month old to have his own seat. Which seems to be usual because every check in person and flight attendant kept informing us that we had to check our car seat and he should be on a lap. The five tickets I handed each of them didn't seem to register.

Someone hurry up and figure out teleportation.
 
LandOfChocolate
2006-03-27 11:57:18 AM  
DarthBrooks: Last time I was in Orlando, I bought a steak dinner at the Outback-to-Go shop in the terminal.

It's fun landing a 12-oz ribeye and a baked potato on the little snack tray, while the goober in the next seat gets to nibble on Rold Gold pretzels for a two-hour flight. Yeehaw!


Yeehaw to stinking up the plane with your disgusting food.

I bet you microwave popcorn at work too!
 
Trolley_Dolly
2006-03-27 11:57:46 AM  
OK, first of all, if you are using the pillows and blankets, you are a BRAVE soul. Do you think I clean those things in the course of a 5 leg day? Nope. Sometimes, they don't even get cleaned overnight.
As for the meals, my airline (carrier for UAX and DL) doesn't serve meals, or even offer stuff for sale. Everyone brings their own food on anyway. Hell, I carry a whole backpack full of energy bars. You think the airlines feed me, an employee? NO. They barely even give us breaks.
 
BunkoSquad
2006-03-27 11:57:57 AM  
I flew JetBlue for the first time a couple weeks ago. It instantly became my new favorite, mostly for the channel on the TV screen which shows you constantly-updated maps of where you are. I love that
 
Major Thomb
2006-03-27 11:58:19 AM  
LandOfChocolate: Can someone explain why they switched from peanuts to pretzels?

I got peanuts on my last flight three weeks ago on Delta.
 
Sold My Soul to Rock and Roll
2006-03-27 11:58:48 AM  
I like to bring my own peanuts on flights. If you've got allergies, you need to stay the fark away from me.

But you know what really bugs me about flying? Most airlines have gone to a boarding system where First Class boards first, followed (roughly) by back of the plane window seats through just-behind-first aisle seats. It's supposed to promote rapid seating.

Now why the fark would you let First Class board first? These are already people dumb enough to pay an extra $1k to get like two inches more of legroom and a footrest, so they're not the sharpest knives in the drawer when it comes to stowing their luggage. So the rest of the passengers have to wait to get through First while these bozos are still trying to figure out how to hammer their eight pieces of jumbo-sized carryon luggage into the overhead bins.

It's time to abolish First Class. It's just ridiculous.
 
Rapmaster2000
2006-03-27 11:59:02 AM  
Dirtball
If I were one of these dinosaurs, I would scrap my old business model and completely redefine my business structure to mimic the low cost carriers. Many of these airlines exist because they are simply too big to just fade away or change their ways.

I would do what Delta is currently doing. Stop trying to compete with Southwest (because they can't) and dropping all their short haul routes and increasing their higher margin transcontinental and international flights. Southwest is just too efficient and too low cost. Too bad in Atlanta I can't get either Southwest or JetBlue. They don't fly here.
 
Daniels
2006-03-27 11:59:14 AM  
Southwest and Jetblue (among others) are killing them because passengers are looking for the lowest cost constantly.

Jetblue is more than the lower cost. For the lower cost you get a comfy leather seat with leg-room and your own 36 channels of cable tv, instead of some stupid movie you probably don't want to watch with headphones you have to buy. This vs a tiny, uncomfortable seat with a head in your lap.
 
zn0k
2006-03-27 11:59:25 AM  
i hate southwest with a fiery passion.

*averages about 3 round trips a month for work*
 
DarthBrooks
2006-03-27 11:59:44 AM  
LandOfChocolate:Yeehaw to stinking up the plane with your disgusting food.

I bet you microwave popcorn at work too!

No, at work I usually microwave my liverwurst & sauerkraut sandwiches.
 
oddballgeek
2006-03-27 12:00:37 PM  
passengers are looking for the lowest cost constantly.

i'm not always looking for the cheapest. if some airline would pull a few rows of seats from their planes and charge you more for the legroom, i'd pay. i'm not paying for meals, i'm not paying for pillows or blankets and if the beer is $5, i'm not paying for that, either. but if i can fly and be reasonably comfortable without the ticket-price gouging that comes in first class, i'm there.
 
DrZombie
2006-03-27 12:00:47 PM  

the funny thing is, airlines enacting these fees will likely lose more customers and thus lose more revenue. very poor decision. want to increase overall revenue? how about dumping deep pocket execs and re-investing all those millions towards providing quality safe service.


See, I think this is the solution to a lot of corporate problems. I feel very strongly that there are a lot of MBA's out there who are either qualified, or good but lacking experience, who would gladly step in to the reigns of one of these positions for something like $250,000 per year, with a luxurious corporate house/apartment provided by the company (like the deans of large universitys get), and maybe even a deal to pay back $X of their student loans per every year worked there + increased revenue.

Sure, the house would be expensive, but it's a one-time purchase, and $250k/year is a good amount of money if you don't have to pay off a mortgage. All in all, you can provide a good salary + good benefits & still pay far less than a lot of these high-level execs are making now.

These are all just off the top of my head, and I'm sure the old "why would they work for less than they could make elsewhere" argument will be thrown at me. And that's a fair assessment. Of course, the airlines can't afford those huge salaries in the first place, so why are they paying them now?
 
madcatcasey
2006-03-27 12:00:57 PM  
justanotherfarkinfarker: SWA still has peanuts. Still make money too.

Did anybody see that episode of Airline where that kid said he was hyper-allergic to peanuts, so the crew spent like 2 hours cleaning the plane so he wouldn't have a reaction? While the rest of the passengers waited? I'd be kickin' that kids allergic ass all over the airport...
 
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