Fuel is Down...So whats up with the charges

abrutus

Well-Known Member
I recently was on the lookout for a flight to San Jose (SF Bay area) and was amazed at realising that a lot of airlines charge an extra fee for your 2nd check bag and some even for your First one!.. (Nothing new...) but where im going is that.. Oil has gone down!! Even below 40bucks per barrel!. Im pretty sure the airlines came up with this making money strategies or whatever to make up for the huge loss they were making with oil at $100+ per barrell... But now that it has gonne down... Can we expect any changes in all those nasty fees for passanger travel?... Or will the airlines just keep them to try to make up for what they previously lost'?....
 
Hey, that's why i fly Southwest. None of those fees to begin with.:)

hahaha... I ended up buying the tickets on Southwest for that reason (given that the price diference was minimal vs other airlines)...

As for my thinking they were going down or out (the fees).... Nop..Im not that dumb... But hey! whats wrong with wanting to think a little positive!... trying to be reasonable about things... :D
 
I recently was on the lookout for a flight to San Jose (SF Bay area) and was amazed at realising that a lot of airlines charge an extra fee for your 2nd check bag and some even for your First one!.. (Nothing new...) but where im going is that.. Oil has gone down!! Even below 40bucks per barrel!. Im pretty sure the airlines came up with this making money strategies or whatever to make up for the huge loss they were making with oil at $100+ per barrell... But now that it has gonne down... Can we expect any changes in all those nasty fees for passanger travel?... Or will the airlines just keep them to try to make up for what they previously lost'?....

I've got three symbols for ya!

$ $ $

American's showed that they wanted "a la carte" pricing in the airline business...
 
Frankly, given that in recent years that airfares haven't kept up with the rising costs of airline operations (the only cost to go down was labor) this doesn't surprise me.

A fare hike was necessary across the board, and now that they have it, I hope they never give it back.

No more free ride for you, America. Pay the value of the service or ride the bus.

Frankly, more and more people just get roll-aboards and carry on anyhow. Then they throw their coats up next to it and don't leave any room for any of the other four passengers in their row.

It's the way America does it.
 
Same with flight schools. When oil prices went up this summer, they added fuel surcharges. Now that oil prices are one third of what they were when the surcharges were added, guess what happened to the surcharges? Still there!
 
Have you seen ice cream lately? They now come in 1.5 qt containers. They recently switched to that from 1.75 qts when fuel was high. Price stayed the same but you got less. It's happening in all of the food industry, to make you think prices haven't gone up.

It's hidden inflation.

The airlines actually raise their prices but do so under the guise of a la carte pricing.

Fuel is now down to what? 5 year lows? That was the reasoning for everything going up in price. Now the only thing going down now is gas prices.

Also I doubt the introduction in bag fees actually compensated for $4/gal jet-a, but it did slightly offset it. I'm actually wondering if the airlines will post substantial profits this quarter, fuel was a MAJOR expense, it's now been cut to 1/2 of what it was. That is BILLIONS for the typical major airline.
 
I would argue it takes a while to recover from the hike in gas prices. It pushed us deeper into the recession. Besides, who even knows if these low oil prices are sustainable? Give it 3-6 months time.
 
I still say SWA is not the cheapest airfare out there.

Not always...but you have to look closer....

SWA's fully restricted fares are sometimes a little higher. But their unrestricted fares are much lower than other airlines. Refundable and changeable fares, too.
 
Also I doubt the introduction in bag fees actually compensated for $4/gal jet-a, but it did slightly offset it. I'm actually wondering if the airlines will post substantial profits this quarter, fuel was a MAJOR expense, it's now been cut to 1/2 of what it was. That is BILLIONS for the typical major airline.

Nope.
 
Same with flight schools. When oil prices went up this summer, they added fuel surcharges. Now that oil prices are one third of what they were when the surcharges were added, guess what happened to the surcharges? Still there!

There's a simple solution to that, find another place to get your lessons from and encourage others you know to do the same. If they start asking why you're leaving, tell them why.

My club/school dropped them and not surprisingly people started flying more. Now if the FBOs at the field would get the hint and drop their prices for 100LL, maybe the base rate would slide a few bucks as well.
 
Bag fees and my knowledge of the treatment of bags is why my rule of thumb is...if I cannot fit all of my stuff into carry-ons, then my planned trip is too long.
 
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