Unbundling And Fees Explained

Airlines generally promote the “unbundling” of airfares as a means of giving consumers more choices on an a la carte menu of options, but it is really a euphemism for imposing fees for things that used to be included in the base fare. Joe Brancatelli exposes some other issues this practice has kicked up, including the difficulty it causes consumers in comparing fares and the cover it gives airlines to dodge taxes. Read about it in his illuminating Portfolio column.

Capacity Up, Fares Up, Profits Up For Airlines

Airlines are getting profitable again, and I’m having a hell of a time finding low fares to Spain. These things are not unrelated.

Delta Air Lines reported a $467 million quarterly profit on Monday and United Airlines followed with a $273 million profit today, as the Associated Press reports. Analysts expect all nine of the country’s largest airlines to post profits, with the exception of American Airlines,  which expects a small loss, Terry Maxon reports in The Dallas Morning News.

It is all about, as we learning in Economics 101, supply and demand. Airlines have been trimming capacity for the past few years, but never quite enough to meet the decline in demand. Suddenly the economy is improving, if only slightly, planes are fuller and the airlines have less incentive to offer sale fares.

The importance of keeping capacity low to keep profits up (this is called ”supply discipline”) was brought home by an interesting movement in the stock market. After Delta announced that it intended to increase capacity a modest 1 to 3 percent next year, its stock fell — despite the impressive earnings it had just reported, according to the Wall Street Journal.

So what does this mean to us, the lowly leisure travelers? It means higher fares. But let’s face it, that had to happen. Nobody’s going to keep selling  a service at a loss forever. The airlines have squeezed pretty much everything they could out of their unfortunate employees, added fees for everything they could train a price gun on and cut back on everything else.

Speaking of fees, now that the airlines are, at least temporarily, fatter and happier, will the fees go away? Not a chance.

The Associated Press reports:

United is getting some $400 million a year in baggage fees, but [company President  John] Tague said on a conference call that he personally thinks they could eventually collect $1 billion in baggage fees alone.  … “It’s my own view that over time you’ll probably see bag fees become ubiquitous,” he said.

As for me, if I get to Spain, it’s going to cost me.

Report: Airline Food Unsanitary

Much of the food served on airliners is prepared in unsanitary conditions, USA Today reports. I would find this much more alarming if I could remember the last time I got food on an airliner.

300 Passengers Held On Jet For Hours At Bradley

The latest horror story about passengers being confined on a grounded aircraft comes from my own back yard, at Bradley International Airport, as the Associated Press reports.

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Southwest Sale For Fall Travel

Traveling domestically this fall? Southwest Airlines is having one of its better sales for flights between Sept. 8 and Nov. 17.

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Don’t Pay For Boarding Passes

It has become a pernicious habit of Las Vegas hotels to charge guests to print boarding passes for their return flights, but there’s no need to pay for that.

Sure, it’s a good idea to check in online well in advance of your flight, as a means to protect your seat. If you’re flying on a standard fare on Southwest, it’s critical to check in early if you want to get a good seat. The good news is that if you don’t have access to a printer, you can check in without printing the pass.

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Spirit Airlines Wants You Back

Spirit Airlines has resumed flying after a strike by pilots and is promoting “strikingly low fares” to win back the customers it abandoned six days ago. 

Oh, ha-ha. Get it? Strikingly? That light-hearted banter must warm the hearts of the passengers whose vacations were ruined and those who were stranded far from their homes and jobs, forced to buy excruciatingly expensive walk-up fares because Spirit made absolutely no provisions to meet its obligations to them.

To make it all right, Spirit CEO Ben Baldanza has issued a bland apology and promised to win back customers’ trust with lovely gifts and prizes. Spirit is offering a $50 coupon with a flood of fine-print restrictions and 5,000 extra frequent flier miles for new bookings.

I’m sorry folks, but if that woos you back to Spirit, you’re no smarter than the abused spouse who caves to a bouquet of roses and a little whimpering. Put some ice on that black eye, renew the restraining order and don’t fly Spirit Airlines.

Spirit Airlines, Exposed For What It Is

I’ve done some vigorous complaining here about my treatment at the hands of American Airlines on a recent flight, and about the general decline of airline customer service.

But my experience was nothing like — could not hold a candle to – the treatment Spirit Airlines is dishing out to its customers right now.  I could tell you the whole sorry story but let me refer you instead to Joe Brancatelli’s Portfolio.com column. He has, as usual, nailed it, leaving me to post his link and go get another cup of coffee.

What Spirit Airlines Is Up To: No Good

Joe Brancatelli holds forth on Spirit, which is trying to get stranded passengers to accept vouchers instead of refunds:

 ”Pretty sleazy, huh? Well, that’s what Spirit Airlines does best. It is an airline built entirely around playing off passenger ignorance, regulatory laxity and pushing the envelope of legality to the the breaking point.”

 Want to read the rest? You have to subscribe to Joe’s business travel site: joesentme.com. It’s well worth the $49 a year.

Why Airlines Suck

The story of American Airlines Flight 1233 on June 12 is basically the same old story. A flight from Dallas to Bradley International was diverted to Boston by thunderstorms and the passengers were abandoned for hours with no information about how they would get home.

We’ve all heard some variation of this tale 100 times. It happens regularly in an industry that, with few exceptions, can no longer muster the resources, the decency or the compassion to take care of its own customers.

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