Jaunted

Something Needs to be Done

I am a hardcore republican, so government involvement is not my thing...but this is out of hand. Remember the good 'ol days when you only had to pay for a bag if you traveled on a ULCC like, say, skybus? I feel that by definition of a 'full service' or 'national' carrier, that charges like these should be forbidden. Now, I am aware that US Airways is registered as an LCC, however the majority of other airlines are not. I am sure as hell not seeing airfares getting in the range of an LCC, so why am I faced with all these additional charges as well?

nothing can be done

Until all the airlines start selling tickets with everything included, nothing will change. Say that one airline sells a ticket for $200 and charges extra fees, but then another airline charges $300 for the same ticket with everything included. Almost everyone is going to pick the $200 ticket and then bitch and complain when they have to pay fees. Airlines simply cannot sell tickets anymore if they include everything because no one would buy them. It's very sad. I am a flight attendant for a "low cost carrier" (which they all are these days) and I am constantly amazed by the expectations and entitlement that people come on board with. First of all let me just say that I was LIVID when I found out that we were going to start charging for checked bags. Mostly because now we have WAY too many carry ons and not enough room on board for them, which has added to the things that passengers yell at me for, but I've come to see it is neccisary. Think about it, airline tickets have not gone up with inflation much since the 60's or 70's. Have you looked around the airport lately and seen the trailer park trash that can regularly afford to fly? Sure it sounds like a "brilliant idea" to just make the ticket price higher and include everything in that one price (which paying a higher price for everything would be one of your options if you bought a ticket from my airline's website) but if you understand the industry at all, you know that just raising a ticket price $4 can cause sales to plunge. It's just not that simple, they have to make revenue somewhere. I also understand those of you saying that these fees were put into place when fuel was high and since it's gone down you don't understand why the fees are still here. The answer is simple, the extra fees they charged didn't come close to absorbing the fuel costs the airlines were paying so they had to borrow millions of dollars in order to keep operating. They are now trying to pay those millions back. Some of you might say "that's not my problem". Unfortunatly, if you want to fly, which is an amazing privilege in my opinion, than it is very much "your problem". I have taken 2 pay cuts in the past year (which wasn't much to start out with) and all I have to say is that I want at least some of my pay back before passengers get anything for free. In the mean time, do not take any of your frustrations on this out on the flight attendants. We are in this mess being mistreated WITH you.