Once upon a time, to fly was to be pampered at 35,000 feet.Northwest's plan is similar, though cheaper, than what I just experienced on my United Airlines flight to Hawaii. United now has something called "Economy Plus" which is a section of rows with 5" more legroom. Five inches doesn't sound like much, but when you're confined to that seat on a 6 hour flight, it's a big deal.
Flight attendants sprang into action to offer passengers hot meals, snacks, beverages, magazines, pillows and blankets, all for the price of a ticket.
But most of that service is history now -- or at least the days of getting it for free are gone -- as struggling airlines look to cut costs and keep ticket prices low by eliminating amenities or making passengers pay for them.
Northwest Airlines is expected to announce today that it will begin charging customers more for seats with added legroom, including coveted emergency exit row and some aisle seats. The price: an extra $15 for each leg of the flight. Northwest calls them "Coach Choice" seats.
For our flights to and from Hawaii United charged $54 each way per seat to upgrade to Economy Plus. Because I'm 6'5" tall, I paid the money. What distressed me was that once the doors to the plane closed, other folks in the cattle car section moved up to the cushier seats at no charge, and the flight attendants didn't care. I later complained to the airline and received some travel vouchers as compensation.
A few years ago American Airlines began a big push by refitting their coach sections with additional legroom. Their "more legroom in coach" slogan was heavily advertised, and for awhile, their flights were much more comfortable. About a year ago they began changing the planes back to the their original cattle car configuration, and my last flight on American was as cramped as the old days. The whole trip to Dallas my face was only inches from the seat back in front of me.
By the way, if you're getting ready to book a flight and want to avoid picking bad seats, here's a website for you: SeatGuru.com - Your Enlightened Guide to Airplane Seating. This site has all the airlines and aircraft they operate, and can tell if you there are problems with certain seats, or help you pick good ones. It's pretty handy.
Air travel, which used to be considered glamorous and something that people actually dressed up for, has now become little more than aerial bus service. Meals in coach have gone the way of the horse and buggy. If you want to eat on the plane, you now need to either bring the food onboard yourself, or buy a $5 snack box from the airlines. There is talk that on some routes free soft drinks are also being eliminated, and the article I mentioned above indicated that some airlines could even start charging for every checked bag.
Luggage restrictions have gotten tougher and tougher. I remember traveling with the quartet to Texas in the late 90's and early 00's and checking 12 items for the 4 of us, including several they weighed over 50 pounds. The standard back then was 3 checked bags per person, and overweight charges weren't assessed on anything under 70 pounds. Now most airlines only allow 2 bags, and the maximum weight is 50 pounds. When you're packing for 8 days on the road, it's not always easy to make those limits, and more than once we've found ourselves trying to move items from one bag to another to make the weight limit.
No question increased fuel costs have hit the airlines hard. Just today Southwest, the poster boy of the no-frills low-cost carriers, increased their fares due to fuel costs. However, I think there will be a move among many travelers back to quality, and those airlines which can provide more comfort while still controlling costs will win in the long run. I know that if I have a choice between Southwest and a carrier that has assigned seats, as long as the fares are not ridiculously different, I'll go with the assigned seats and avoid the long wait in line and the stampede to find a seat. And if JetBlue is going my way, they're choice number one.
If you've ever flown JetBlue, you'll wonder why you'd ever fly anyone else. They have increased legroom, nice seats, and DirecTV at every seat. I flew them round-trip to Washington D.C. last May and the trip was far superior to an identical trip on American Airlines that I took two months later. Unfortunately, JetBlue doesn't go where I most often need to go, so I'm unable to use their services as much as I would like. The question is, how long will they be able to maintain their level of service and pricing?
When you combine the increasing costs with the decreasing customer service, and add in the increasing airport security hassles, air travel is not the joy it once was. Too bad. I still love the act of flying itself, I just don't love everything that goes into getting off the ground.
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