On Sep 30, 8:22*am, Jay Furr wrote:
On Sep 30, 9:23*am, Peach wrote:





On Sep 30, 7:06*am, Jay Furr wrote:

On Sep 30, 5:26*am, "Hoover" wrote:

Service is pathetic - repeated mechanical problems. I hope they go bankrupt,
along with every other line that is ripping off the public.

Every airline sucks -- they're all in duck and cover mode vis-a-vis
their various reasons why a flight can't take off on time.

What ticks me off is...the whole charging for baggage now. *I never
check my luggage...I always have a small pilot case I use for all my
business trips. *If it doesn't fit in the case, I don't bring it.
United loads the aisle seats last. *As I was leaving Newark last
Sunday, the person on the loudspeaker announces, "Those of you who
have some carry ons still may have to check your baggage, as the
overhead flight compartments are filling up." *I turned to the guy
next to me and said, "Oh, no I'm not....I'll throw myself on the
ground and have a tantrum." *(Of course I was--partially--kidding.) *I
boarded the plane with my pilot case and there seemed to be plenty of
room. *I wondered if they just needed the money.

Peach

They definitely need the money.

See, passengers flying for personal/vacation purposes *always* book
the cheapest fare, no matter that the connection time between flight A
and flight B is seven and a half minutes and you have to switch
terminals, or what. * This is what leads to a lot of the situations in
which people claim that the airlines screwed them and caused them to
miss their flight and lose their luggage and stuff -- THEY accepted
the insane connection time that the website kicked out, and THEY
therefore put the airline in a situation where a slight delay on
flight A made it impossible to catch flight B or get their bags to
flight B.

Airlines have learned this. *They've learned to mask or hide all the
extra fees until the point in the purchase process where it's really
too late to back out and you've already bought the ticket or at least
are one step away from purchasing it, or in the case of bags, wait
until you got to the airport.

If there was a travel website that actually showed the *real* cost of
each airline's ticket, including fees and so on, the results would be
ordered far differently than on a regular travel website.

United and other airlines dare not unilaterally tack on a "gas is
REALLY REALLY expensive" surcharge every time the price of gas goes
up, so they hide it in fees at the time of purchase that aren't
included in the originally stated price and try to recoup as much as
possible in the baggage fees.

Airlines have started to have problems with people trying to take on
two full-sized rolling suitcases and a computer and a purse and have
started being really firm about "one carry-on and one personal item."
Recently, I've seen many, many people told that they have to check
their bags, no matter what, and in a few cases were told at the time
of boarding that they had to go BACK TO THE TICKET COUNTER to check
them (generally when it was obvious what they were trying to pull).

They've also had to station flight attendants in various parts of the
cabin to prevent people from jamming their bags into the first
overhead space they come to that's open instead of taking it back to
their actual row and seat.

I actually do sympathize -- I know that the airlines don't actually
enjoy all the flak they get about the baggage fees, but with the price
of gas what it is they've got to make it back somehow.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Those greedy passenger bastiges!!11! I did see that
happening...passengers putting their bags wherever--not over their
seats. Fortunately I was able to get the space over my seat both
times. It ticks me off that those of us that *obey* the rules with the
one small carry-on and one personal item get penalized, though. I
even tuck my tiny travel purse into my suitcase to avoid having
something extra besides the laptop.

Peach