The Bipolar US

[UPNAWAY]

Art, at the end of the day what difference does it matter if a ticket is inclusiveness or a la carte?

If you are paying $300, $400, $500 what does it matter how it brakes down? Even the taxes?

 

[Art at ISP]

Art, at the end of the day what difference does it matter if a ticket is inclusiveness or a la carte?

If you are paying $300, $400, $500 what does it matter how it brakes down? Even the taxes?

E, it matters because if you collect the same amount as the tax and keep it, calling a fare increase, you are being somewhat dishonest with your customers. Some of your competitors are NOT doing that, so you again reinforce your reputation as being one of the most consumer unfriendly of all the major carriers. It's unethical at best. If you wanted to raise fares, you should have done so separately, and not in line with the FAA shutdown. This was just opportunistic and cheap on US part...and NOT all of your competitors did it, so you look worse by comparison.

If you want to cry about making money, price your product in accordance with the cost of providing the service. If your costs are too high, do something about it.... you guys are incurring costs you could easily avoid if you could look up from the spreadsheet once in a while.

I won't argue the point here, but it is just plain wrong.... but it looks like the government as dysfunctional as it is may step in and make you pay it to the FAA or give it back...so good luck while it lasts.

 

[SparrowHawk]

Art, at the end of the day what difference does it matter if a ticket is inclusiveness or a la carte?

If you are paying $300, $400, $500 what does it matter how it brakes down? Even the taxes?

Yeah it kinda does and i'll tell you why.

Spirit and US are the perfect compare and contrast in this regard.

Spirit, God love them would have coin toilets and vending machines if allowed. If there is a fee, they charge it and make absolutely no bones about it. So I went and found a route that US and NK fly the A321. NK doesn't have a First Class exactly but they do have "The Big Seat Up Front. So I priced that and all appropriate fees and came up with 654.00 ALL IN! I should tell you that the seat is as nice if not nicer than US offers in F.

US Airways- who promotes themselves as a full featured Low fare carrier priced with bag fees at $759.00 all in for a non refundable ticket.

So now we have a comparable price with the primary difference being no meal and no free cocktails on Spirit. So the question then becomes given my love for Gin and Tonic how many can I buy with the $105.00 I save? @$5.00 a drink I'd be liquified on NK.

On a strictly dollars and sense basis NK offers a better value as I can stop at the Wawa on the way to ACY and bring better food on board like a nice freshly made sub, some fresh fruit and still have enough money left over from the fare difference to get a really nice buzz on and still have spent less.

BTW you knock out the taxes and Spirit is even less. Seems the web site prices through with the taxes. Spirit's fees and fares are communicated clearly and concisely with little room for confusion. Their revenue has grown 20+ percent without resorting to confiscation of what should be tax revenue. Could the lack of obfuscation be part of the reason? Oh my Bad the trip was PHL-LAS on US and ACY-LAS on NK. Sorry I must have had gin and tonic on my mind

 

[signals]

Thanks, Hawk

I am truly shocked that Spirit didn't collect the fee and made a laughing stock of the self-proclaimed Low Cost Carrier! LCC my US

 

[SS255]

Art, at the end of the day what difference does it matter if a ticket is inclusiveness or a la carte?

If you are paying $300, $400, $500 what does it matter how it brakes down? Even the taxes?

It really doesn't matter.....until something like this happens, and to starts to matter. 😉

I flew US on 7/23, and I don't expect to ever see my tax money again. US is not helping me recover it, and I'm certainly not going to spend the time petitioning the IRS for it, because my time is worth far more than the refund.

I was shopping flights to AVL for the fall, and when you click on the "taxes and fees" link, they are still showing the taxes and fees as a separate charge. It sure looks on paper like US is charging taxes today for future flights. My presumption is that US is still allotting for the taxes when they sell tickets so they don't get stuck paying them out of pocket at some future date. This is totally understandable, as long as they refund the money if the flight is flown prior to the taxes once again becoming collectible.

What a mess.

 

[SparrowHawk]

It really doesn't matter.....until something like this happens, and to starts to matter. 😉

I flew US on 7/23, and I don't expect to ever see my tax money again. US is not helping me recover it, and I'm certainly not going to spend the time petitioning the IRS for it, because my time is worth far more than the refund.

I was shopping flights to AVL for the fall, and when you click on the "taxes and fees" link, they are still showing the taxes and fees as a separate charge. It sure looks on paper like US is charging taxes today for future flights. My presumption is that US is still allotting for the taxes when they sell tickets so they don't get stuck paying them out of pocket at some future date. This is totally understandable, as long as they refund the money if the flight is flown prior to the taxes once again becoming collectible.

What a mess.

Yeah and who's going to take it in the shorts given the way this bunch operates? The Customer or the Company?

 

[Galaxy]

If you are making a purchase decision you care about one thing, the price of the product or service compared to your belief in the value received.

Do you care how the dollars (price) are distributed after you make the decision to purchase? No..

A passenger is willing to pay a certain price and no more for transport. If the price drops (airlines do not increase prices to make the drop in taxes and fees neutral) demand increases. But the industry has very high load factors and there is little to no room to accommodate more demand.

Over time capacity would increase to create a new equilibrium and passengers would see lower fares. In the short term airlines must either increase fares or lower discount inventory to equalize demand to capacity.

 

[StewGuy86]

I'm sure you'll be pulling the lever for Obama in 2012 for your government handout.

So tell me, since you're apparently such a good free market capitalist (and quite likely a conservative Republican like the vast majority of pilots) why don't you just go ahead and vote to get rid of any kind of union representation, so that you can gladly accept what the company decides to pay you? That's TRUE free market capitalism right there. For you and your fellow pilots to band together as organized labor and demand things from your employer certainly doesn't sound very "conservative capitalist" to me. A good, solid, god-fearin' conservative would just be glad to have a job, accept what the company decides it can or will compensate him, and try not to feel "entitled" to anything more than that. I'm sure Beck, Limbaugh, Palin, Bachman, Boehner and Hannity would agree with me. When the employees try to hamstring management with all sorts of compensation demands, it just gets in the way of a company's ability to run a profitable business and take care of its stockholders.

Ya know, I've never quite understood the hypocrisy of pilots in general when they spew all sorts of right wing conservative propaganda from their mouths (and in the voting booth) at the same time they're vocal members of organized labor. I mean, everyone knows organized labor is a synonym for "socialist," right?

 

[SparrowHawk]

So tell me, since you're apparently such a good free market capitalist (and quite likely a conservative Republican like the vast majority of pilots) why don't you just go ahead and vote to get rid of any kind of union representation, so that you can gladly accept what the company decides to pay you? That's TRUE free market capitalism right there. For you and your fellow pilots to band together as organized labor and demand things from your employer certainly doesn't sound very "conservative capitalist" to me. A good, solid, god-fearin' conservative would just be glad to have a job, accept what the company decides it can or will compensate him, and try not to feel "entitled" to anything more than that. I'm sure Beck, Limbaugh, Palin, Bachman, Boehner and Hannity would agree with me. When the employees try to hamstring management with all sorts of compensation demands, it just gets in the way of a company's ability to run a profitable business and take care of its stockholders.

Ya know, I've never quite understood the hypocrisy of pilots in general when they spew all sorts of right wing conservative propaganda from their mouths (and in the voting booth) at the same time they're vocal members of organized labor. I mean, everyone knows organized labor is a synonym for "socialist," right?

You know there was this guy about 2000 or so years ago who ran around the Middle East pointing out the hypocrisy of others and developed a loyal following. In fact people follow or purport to follow his teaching to this very day. Seems, however that his activism really pizzed of the powers that be, so they literally nailed him to a cross for his trouble.

And now for something completely different:

This just in:

Delta to refund ticket taxes for some
By Kelly Yamanouchi
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Delta Air Lines said it will refund federal ticket taxes paid by travelers who booked tickets before the Federal Aviation Administration partial shutdown started July 23 and who travel during the shutdown.

Entire Article