American's $15 first checked bag

Flying is easily becoming a luxury item.

As we see capacity reduction, and overall industry consolidation pricing power will return to the airlines. As such, we can also expect to see demands for certain services (meal, snacks, etc) returning as prices finally reflect what it costs to provide the service, plus an additional surcharge to promise a profit.

Great!
 
madmax said:
I flew on an airline today that only gave out drinks, any type of food was at least $3 (pack twizzlers or some pringles or something), I know I will never book a ticket on this airline for that reason. Especially after flying the same distance on CAL for $170 and getting a full meal.

WSJ quoted some AMR higher ups, and it sounds like they know it's a bad idea but that they have run out of ideas.
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They do this on American already. DFW-LAS - No snacks/peanuts unless you want to pay $3 for a cookie.
 
Sad thing is.

Joe Six pack will take the nickle and diming over paying an appropriate fare for the services rendered.

I really want to just knock some sense into customers who complain about ticket prices and the lack of services. O RLY? Well, if we charged you 25-30% more, and you paid it. . .you might actually get some sort of service that isn't Greyhound of the skies.
 
Like I've said, irregardless of how pilot groups feel about JetBlue, from what I've experienced as a PAX they have a great product. And while they make act like a LCC, they are not, of course.
 
I have realized that the common citizen is a complete idiot when it comes to airlines. I just laugh at people when they talk about ticket prices nowdays.
 
JDMcFly said:
People would accept a $15 fare hike over costing $15 to check a first bag.
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No they wouldn't. They will go on expedia, and if the big bold price for one airline is $99 with the $15 checked bag fee in the fine print that they don't read, and the other airline had a $102 big bold price with no fine print, they will take the $99 airline, end up spending more in the long run because they didn't read the fine print, and then complain that ticket prices are too high and they have a God given right to check luggage for free.
 
well if I'm supposed to get what I pay for, I'd better be sitting in a leather (heated) chair and getting a massage, along with meals on fine china next time I go across the pond. I'm looking at tickets for the honeymoon and they're about $1250 each! - that's about $850 base price and $400 worth in taxes and fees. Yikes!


ETA: I'm also looking at buying a ticket to get home (SLC-DTW) for various wedding showers and whatnot, I can't find a ticket below $461 (on Southwest) but the other air carriers are within about $20 of them as well. So these days that you guys are talking about of the $200 fare to fly across the country, and too bad you don't get your peanuts, those are gone. I'd be really ticked if I paid over $400 and then had to pay to check a bag and get a little snack pack thing and then to get headphones and then to pay for the movie etc etc.

I understand what you guys are saying, you get what you pay for, but when you're shelling out over $400 I expect quite a bit
 
Before fuel prices went crazy-go-nuts (this most-recent time), it cost an airline between 12¢ and 14¢ per nm to carry a butt somewhere.

SLC-DTW is 1481 miles, so at 15¢ per mile that works out to $444.30 per round-trip. Plus, hell, 20% taxes makes it $533.16 per person.

SLC-FRA (for example) is 5217 miles. 15¢ per mile is $1565.10 per round-trip. 20% taxes makes it $1878.12 per person.

It only looks like fares are approaching reality. Fuel is about 40% of the cost of moving a butt. There's been almost a 95% jump in fuel prices since a year ago, which works out to about a 38% increase in the cost overall (not counting the markup to the other 60% caused by higher energy costs).

That 12¢ to 14¢ per nm from a year ago is probably more like 16¢ to 19¢ per nm today.
 
PGT said:
I have realized that the common citizen is a complete idiot when it comes to airlines. I just laugh at people when they talk about ticket prices nowdays.
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Don't attribute malice to ignorance. I was one of those ignorant to airlines. It didn't make me stupid, it made me uneducated about the way things work.

Once people understand, they generally adopt the pragmatic view.

Until they understand, though, you'll have a lot of people insisting that a $200 RT from LA to NY is written somewhere in the Bill of Rights.
 
TheShortOne said:
well if I'm supposed to get what I pay for, I'd better be sitting in a leather (heated) chair and getting a massage, along with meals on fine china next time I go across the pond. I'm looking at tickets for the honeymoon and they're about $1250 each! - that's about $850 base price and $400 worth in taxes and fees. Yikes!
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That may sound expensive sure, but the fact of the matter is, its not as expensive as it will cost the airline to fly you there. Immagine you own a business and you sell a product. It costs you $5 to make that product and you sell it for $20. People tell you that the product is not worth $20 so you must lower your price to $15. Now you are selling a lot of your product because people are willing to pay $15 and believe it is a good value. But now immagine you have a competator who sells it for $10. Eveyone will buy from your competator unless you also lower the price to $10. Now immagine the cost of manufacturing your product increases to $11. Don't you think it would make sense to increase the price of your product. Perhaps you try, but when you do your customers complain that they think the cost should be $10. They refuse to pay more than $10. What do you do? Well you'll have to increase revenue somehow. If they won't pay more than $10 for the product, you might try to charge for accesories for that product, that used to be included for free. Even then you barely breaking even, if not losing money, and your customers are upset that you won't give away your product for less than what it costs you to manufacture it.

People just don't realize that airlines are offering flights at such low fares that sometimes it would actually save them money if they flew empty. Back in the 50s and 60s only the wealthiest people would travel by air due to the cost. Over the years as inflation and fuel prices have increased, the cost of a ticket has actually gone down. And it baffles me that people think they have a God given right fly wherever they want for less than cost. So when I say you get what you pay for, I literally mean, you're lucky they even give you a seat to sit in for what you actually pay for.
 
PGT said:
I have realized that the common citizen is a complete idiot when it comes to airlines. I just laugh at people when they talk about ticket prices nowdays.
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If this isn't the truth, than I don't know what is. Take it from someone who works in customer service, for an airline. People really are ignorant, when it comes to the airlines. Some of the stuff I hear, is literally laughable.

BTW, I believe it was United who initiated the $25 fee for a second bag. The other airlines have followed. We will see how this $15 fee for the first bag works, with American, but it wouldn't surprise me to see other airlines follow, and do the same. Or, if it doesn't work, increase the second bag fee to $50. Fees for everything else have gone up, as well.
 
Minuteman said:
Before fuel prices went crazy-go-nuts (this most-recent time), it cost an airline between 12¢ and 14¢ per nm to carry a butt somewhere.

SLC-DTW is 1481 miles, so at 15¢ per mile that works out to $444.30 per round-trip. Plus, hell, 20% taxes makes it $533.16 per person.

SLC-FRA (for example) is 5217 miles. 15¢ per mile is $1565.10 per round-trip. 20% taxes makes it $1878.12 per person.

It only looks like fares are approaching reality. Fuel is about 40% of the cost of moving a butt. There's been almost a 95% jump in fuel prices since a year ago, which works out to about a 38% increase in the cost overall (not counting the markup to the other 60% caused by higher energy costs).

That 12¢ to 14¢ per nm from a year ago is probably more like 16¢ to 19¢ per nm today.
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That's assuming everyone pays the same price, which we know they do not. Airlines offer a select number of discounted seats per flight with the hope of getting you on a full or greater ticket on another flight - and also the chance to cross sell products they offer, sign up for our loyalty card etc. Cheap seats are subsidized by the expensive ones.

I'll always look for the best deal (note; best deal does not equal cheapest). If AA are cheaper online and I know they charge $15 and I have one bag to check.......then I know how much the fare will cost.

I'm sitting next to "Joe Sixpack", identical seat and identical basic fare. I have one carry on bag. Joe SixPack has a carry on and 2 bags to check. Why shouldn't my fair be cheaper? - it is cheaper for the airline to carry me.

For all those complaining about not getting or paying for a tiny bag of pretzels....bring your own food on board next time. Larger portions, better tasting and cheaper!!
 
TheShortOne said:
ETA: I'm also looking at buying a ticket to get home (SLC-DTW) for various wedding showers and whatnot, I can't find a ticket below $461 (on Southwest) but the other air carriers are within about $20 of them as well. So these days that you guys are talking about of the $200 fare to fly across the country, and too bad you don't get your peanuts, those are gone. I'd be really ticked if I paid over $400 and then had to pay to check a bag and get a little snack pack thing and then to get headphones and then to pay for the movie etc etc.
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Well, seeing as how fuel prices have increased exponentially in recent years, it doesn't surprise me that the former $200 fare is now north of $400. Those $200 fares were around when oil was in the sub-$60/barrel range. Now that it's more than twice that, you gotta figure that the $200 fare is toast, and rightfully so. Add to that airlines are probably reducing the number of discount seats per flight, you probably woulda had to book that flight 9 months in advance in order to get said discount ticket.

A lot of that $461 ticket probably has to do with when you're travelling. Just for S&Gs, I look at SWA 30 days out, and they've got SLC-DTW for $217 still available. Still $200 cheaper than what I found on Orbitz. What can I say, I'm bored. On top of that, SWA is advertising specials of $29 each way to several cities. Now, there's no telling how many of those are actually available per flight. Could be 3-5, could be 10-20. Depends on the route I would guess along with the load factor. Then you have to dig into the restrictions: 21 day advance purchase, taxes not included, non-refundable, may not be available during holidays or busy travel periods (ie summer and weekends I'm betting), and any schedule change could cause a fare increase. So, sometimes, the cheapest ticket isn't the best. I've seen a lot of people complain that they didn't get a low fare compared to someone else, but they only difference was the one that got the lower fare left on Sunday morning and the one that paid the higher fare left on Saturday morning. Sometimes just staying over a Saturday night can unlock lower fares.
 
"Whadda ya mean I have to check my carry-on?! You're just trying to get another fifteen bucks out of me"

Repeat twenty times per flight.
 
Minuteman said:
"Whadda ya mean I have to check my carry-on?! You're just trying to get another fifteen bucks out of me"

Repeat twenty times per flight.
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According to AA.com, this fee does not apply to any carry on bags that have to be checked, at the gate, but only bags being checked at the ticket counter.
 
TheShortOne said:
I'm looking at tickets for the honeymoon and they're about $1250 each! - that's about $850 base price and $400 worth in taxes and fees. Yikes!
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My wife and I decided to stay in the US because of costs. No, it wasn't exciting, and we would've had a blast in the Carribean. What'd we do with our wedding money instead? It went toward a down payment on our first house. We don't regret it one bit.
 
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