U.S. Airlines can’t come up with any new ways to charge their customers

by Scott Carmichael on

Some sad news from Reuters this afternoon (for the airlines at least).

U.S. based airlines may have finally run out of new fees for their passengers.

Indeed, after years of moving things that used to be free into a fee based category, there simply isn’t anything left they can charge us for.

Some airlines, have increased their revenue by over $2 Billion a year, just off things like meals, drinks and baggage charges.

These are all things that used to be included for free with your ticket, but now add as much as 25% to the price of your trip.

Of course, when an airline claims it has run out of ways to screw us, I suspect they are just getting warmed up for the really nasty charges they are preparing. There are plenty of ways they can still make a few bucks off us, until the point where your ticket is nothing more than a piece of paper that entitles you to getting to your destination “sooner or later”.

I’ve written about some of the insane ways airlines come up with “exciting” new products, and quite frankly, I don’t think their creativity will end until the last accountant has left the building.

(Via: RickSeaney.com)

United Airlines matches American’s double elite miles promo

by Grant Martin on

It’s a good time to be a traveler. United Airlines just matched the American Airlines promotion that went live earlier this week, and they’re offering they’re own Double Elite Qualifying Miles promo.

Yes, that means that between now and June 15th, all new bookings will earn 200% elite points, making Premier, Premier Executive and 1K only 12.5k, 25k and 50k miles respectively. So if you were holding off on booking that springtime trip to Jakarta or Abu Dhabi, now is the time to get it done.

Why the wealth of airline promotions of late? Nobody wants to spend their hard earned cash on travel any more and airlines are feeling the pain. So they’re dangling the proverbial carrot in front of us to get us moving. Problem for folks like me? I never slowed down.

Check out United Airlines’r promo page here to sign up, or if you missed out on American’s, you can find that here.

Good idea or bad idea? A US airline ponders installing air bags on its planes

by Jeffrey White on

There is an American airline company that is reportedly considering installing airbags throughout its entire fleet, according to the industry Web site Flightglobal.

The airbags would actually be mounted in seatbelts. The company that has developed the airbag, Amsafe Aviation, says it is in “serious negotiations with an airline that is thinking of doing a fleetwide retrofit because they think it is the thing to do and they want to be first.”

In reality, seatbelt-mounted airbags might soon be found in many national carriers, as they scramble to meet new requirements this fall for tougher passenger safety standards. Starting in October, new aircraft in the US must have seats capable of standing up to a 16g dynamic longitudinal acceleration in a crash and, more significantly, be specially equipped to protect against severe head injury.

That’s where the airbags come in. Most seats on a plane already meet these standards. However, certain seats — bulkheads, exit rows — do not, and carriers are likely to install these air bags in these areas on the plane in order to better comply with safety regulations.

Would airbags make a difference in a crash? If this were 10 or 20 years ago I’d probably be a cynic and say no. But there’s evidence that more people are surviving plane crashes these days, thanks to better-built planes, so airbags seem like a smart addition to limit as much as possible serious injury.

Virgin America jumps on the charge for a checked bag bandwagon

by Jamie Rhein on

Virgin America is joining the lets get more money from somewhere routine and is beginning to charge for the first checked bag. Unlike other airlines that charge more for the second checked bag and even more for the third, Virgin America is only going to charge $15 per bag up to ten bags. Ten bags!!! Wow. That’s for one person.

Listen folks. If any of you are thinking of moving, I’d move to where Virgin America flies and head there. With an 70 pound weight limit per bag that’s 700 pounds of goods for just $150. Of course, thinking about what 10 bags of 70 pounds each would look like in the check-in line is a bit mind boggling. Not to mention getting it all to and from the airport. (Think what a couple could move with for just $300.)

Put into effect yesterday, this baggage fee applies to flights booked on or after May 5. Although Virgin America is adding a charge for the first checked bag, it’s lowering the cost of changing or canceling reservations online from $75 to $50.

These fees only apply to those flying in the main cabin with non-refundable tickets. First-Class passengers can bring two checked bags for no extra charge and those with fully refundable tickets can bring one checked bag. [See Virgin America’s press release outlining the changes.

A prescient video about the airline industry?

by Jeffrey White on

A lot of people think of 2008 as the year of the fee among the major airline carriers, when they began charging for everything from peanuts and water to luggage. We’re constantly speculating about what new costs might be on the horizon: Pay toilets? A surcharge for fat people? A fee for booking a ticket online?

Given what skinflints the airlines have become, this 2007 skit from Mad TV looks prescient, as if it knew that things were about to become pretty ridiculous for air travelers.

Can things get worse?