A really bad idea from US Air

G

gecko

2,500+ Posts
US Airways to charge extra for certain seats

The bad idea isn't charging extra for certain seats, it's opening up the premium front rows of coach to anyone willing to pay an extra $5. If I was an elite flier on US Air I would be howling about this.

.....And we wonder why the people who run these airlines can't seem to make any $$ (Continental mgmt excepted). Seriously, could they be this stupid...? They actually want to crowd out their most loyal fliers for an extra $5...!
 
United already does this.

I usually try to sit in the exit row, if available. The exit rows on United flights are "Economy Plus" seats, which I refuse to pay extra for.

I took a flight from IAH to Denver, and it was nearly empty. Tried to get some work done, and some douche in front of me leaned his seat back all the way, closing my laptop. I sat scrunched up with the laptop screen barely visible until I lost it and told the stewardess that I was moving and an empty plane with "restricted" seats was crap.
 
Fuel is at an all time high and ticket prices are about the same as they've been for the last twenty years, adjusted for inflation. But nobody can raise ticket prices because there's too much capacity out there right now for too little demand. Once the Delta/NWA merger goes through Continental will merge with United and eventually we might have few enough seats out there to raise prices enough to offset the price of fuel.

Make a little money and the employees can quit taking pay cuts and would probably provide a little better customer service. Then everybody's happy except the customer who buys a ticket based on nothing more than price. He'll be pissed that he can't get from Austin to Buttfuck Iowa for $89. Even if he can he'll still be pissed that it's not on a 777.
 
Scareways is the worst of the bunch.

Economy Plus is great. If I weren't Premier I'd pay for it. Those seats actually have a few extra inches of legroom. Worth the $15-25 IMO, particularly for longer flights.

Just about everything else about United sucks though. I'm afraid their suckage will rub off on Continental after the merger.
 
1. I think a fuel surchagre is warranted, but giving away the premium seats for $5 to disguise it is BS. The people that actually keep these planes flying of the FF'rs who typically are paying a hell of a lot of $$ for the premium seats. US Air is a joke.

2. I'm not convinced the Delta/NW thing will "fly". My bro is Delta pilot and the guys in the cockpit are skeptical - no surprise there.

3. Rumor among some is that American has made an overture to Continental as well. Really hard to imagine that happening.

4.The unknown on the Continental/United deal is whose management runs the airline going forward. The smart $$ says Continental's but the words "smart" and "airlines" don't belong in the same sentence.

5. $80 million loss is chump change compared tho what the others will be sowing.
 
The Delta pilots just agreed to a small raise with the merger. The NWA pilots are still totally against the whole thing, but their management has basically said we're giving you a little time to work something out on the seniority integration, but eventually we're moving on this with or without your approval. I don't think the Justice Dept will stop the merger. It's not really much of a reduction in competition. Delta and NWA only have 12 common routes.

At United, their CEO will be gone soon. He's already on his way out and has said he's open to letting the other airline's management run any new airline in the case of a merger. I think the United pilots would probably let that place burn down before they'd let him keep the reins. I think CAL/UA will happen. They compliment each other. CAL doesn't have much presence out west and United needs any willing partner they can find.

Don't know much about AA. Their already so huge it's hard to see what else they'd gain from a merger, except less competition, and then you'd have a harder time getting it approved.
 
Continental/United makes the most sense. That leaves AA and Scareways... if I were an American flyer this would worry me to no end, but they're the only two left not dancing.

And yes, $80 million is chump change by comparison. AMR reported Q1 losses today of $328 million.
 
I believe part of a travelers bill of rights should include enough legroom to allow for a passenger to recline his seat without encroach upon the traveler behind him. I usually recline my seat and I admit, it sucks when you're trying to get work done on your laptop and the person in front of you closes your laptop.
 
DO the seats really recline that much? Most seats recline, what, 4 inches back? Maybe I'm just used to sitting in seats like a G, but for me the "reclined" position is merely tolerable.
 
Given the current leg room allowance, the seat pitch should be restricted. When you can't even extend a standard laptop into the open position, something is seriously wrong.

Thankfully my system for securing upgrades has me sitting fat about 75% of the time.
 
It's odd that apparently nobody with the power to make it happen has ever really thought of giving people good legroom. I'm 5'8" and even the best flights just barely give me a decent amount of space where anyone 6-foot-even or more would definitely still be cramped.
 
It seems that was really bad PR work. They could have announced that from now on the middle seats would be $5 cheaper than all other seats. Then people might be happy to get a bargain rather than mad that they were being charged extra.
 
I remember SW's legroom campaign from a few years ago. It was way overblown, the minute amount of extra room hardly made a difference. So, I didn't fly AA, but my experience is the idea still hasn't seriously been tried.
 
There's no right to a laptop on airplanes. Millions of flyers have gotten by on books, CD players, tape players, MP3 players, magnetic chess, etc. for decades without freaking out. If it's for work, do you work ahead of time. If it's to pass the time, do some of the above.
 
Delta is apparently going to start putting a new seat design in its 777s and 767s. They've got footrests and lumbar support, and when they recline, they don't back into the space of the person behind them. I like the idea of being able to lean against the side of this "cocoon" to sleep. We'll see how it works in reality...

cozy2.jpg



cozy suite
 
When my DL buddies sent me a link to that Cozy Suite I thought it was an April Fool's joke.

as for legroom - the government mandates a minimum amount of legroom. Guess what most airlines use? just a bit above the minimum. I think the absolute minimum to operate in the US is 29 inches of seat pitch, which you only find on charter flights. I think AirTran has the tightest pitch of most scheduled carriers at about 30" on their 717 and 737s, but I think they make up for it with their seats being just a touch wider than most.

US Airway's idea is terrible because they aren't charging for better seats. It's the same lousy seat you get anywhere else on the plane. United's Economy Plus truly is a better product and is worth the extra $.
 
CharileMike - I'm guessing you don't fly much. The point is, all the airlines reserve premium seating toward the front of the cabin for their most loyal (and frequent) travelers. To make those seast unavailable to their frequent fliers for a mere $5 is absurd.

The frequent fliers tend to book close to departure and pay premium fares. Now those seats go to the leisure traveler booking weeks in advance...? Again, its a really bad idea.
 
You are right in that I don't fly that much, at least not commercialy. I guess the way I was looking at it is that those premium seats are not being filled by their frequent flyers,
so they are trying to fill in the holes by offering the upgrade.

Now if their frequent flyers are truly getting eliminated from all those seats, then yes I would agree thats going to really rub some people the wrong way.
 
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