It is already a struggle to travel by plane. There is the nightmare of getting through the airport. You have to remove your shoes, take off your jewelry go through a scanner or worse get pulled out of line and get scanned with a wand. Oh and then there is the full body scan. The joke is on everybody if I need to get a body scan. Unfortunately for them I am not some curvaceous leggy blonde.
Any way there was an article in the Sunday May 12th Washington Post travel section written by Christopher Elliot which pointed out all the fees airlines are now tagging on. Change fees came about when the non refundable tickets were born. It's been awhile so no one notices those fees and everyone is just resigned to them. The one difference was that fees use to be around 50 dollars which at the time was a lot but not as bad as the $200 airlines started charging recently. Really!
In today’s world when availability of flights is online and at a person's fingertips and there is not even person to print a new ticket and give or send it to you what kind of overhead costs are we talking here. Furthermore, there really aren’t any human beings to talk to who would make the changes for you. Have you tried to call an airline lately? THERE IS NO ONE TO TALK TO AND HELP YOU. You simply go on line do all the leg work yourself and print your ticket confirmation and your boarding pass. IT might become cheaper just to buy a new ticket.
What really surprises me is that there actually are some humans that show up at the gate or a ticket counter in the airports. And if the airline figures out a way to replace them we might not see any humans employed by the airlines.
Boarding might go something like this: Good Afternoon passengers, whatever airline would like to welcome you. We are ready to board so will everyone just make a bee line to the queue and scan your boarding pass at the scanner by the gate. Please try not to trample each other. Your pilot today is Roby the Robot. There are no other crew members since there will be no food or drinks served on this transatlantic flight. We would like to mention that use of the bathrooms on this flight are still free but don’t count on that forever. The emergency procedures will be reviewed on a monitor that will drop from the overhead compartment prior to take off. And we would just like to thank you for choosing our airline to fly with today. Just remember resistance is futile.
Now they are talking about charging for carry-on bags. That is so wrong on so many levels. Other than the greedy need for revenue why do this? The answer is simply that the airlines have become greedy, do not care about customer service and here is the big answer, because they can. There is nothing from stopping them from doing it. So now if you are going away for a few days and are travelling light and want to save a little to be used at your destination, NOT !!You may be charged a fee.
Oh and you business travelers if there are any of you left, you are going to pay for it because not only is it convenient for you to carry on your luggage it saves you time to do so. Time is money. Who can afford to wait 30 minutes for the baggage carousel to start winding its way around only to find yours is the last piece of luggage to hit the belt? Meanwhile you have lost a minimum of an hour which is worth more than having to decide whether to pay the fee or not.
Wouldn't it be funny (and I say this with much sarcasm) if the airlines started charging a carry on fee to passengers who bring their own food and beverages onto the plane to avoid having to buy their lousy bologna and white bread sandwiches available for purchase on the flight .
All you vacationers add the fees into your budget. For a large family travelling it could add up to an extra ticket per person. Oh and Moms your diaper bags cha chink. And the dilemma is what can a person do? Can we, Jane the traveler start an email chain saying nobody travel on a certain day and planes fly empty or at least emptier. It certainly is a thought. It certainly would make a statement.
So much for flying the friendly skies! The best that you can hope for is that the security measures at the airport really do work and you land safely. Maybe you will even get a little shut eye on the plane so there is no baggage under your eyes.
Just in case you are interested see Christopher Elliot’s article. Here is the link.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/the-navigator-fee-happy-airlines-raise-the-bar-again/2013/05/09/12fa4d74-b68c-11e2-b94c-b684dda07add_story.html
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