Considering airfares are the cheapest they've ever been in the US, I don't know how that's even remotely true. More of "the masses" are able to fly than ever before.
That's a deeply misleading summary of the data. The table excluding inflation is meaningless in the context of parent's comment, so I won't even touch that.
Real prices have dropped 14% in the past 19 years, and have been basically flat since 2004, except for an obviously anomalous dip during the financial crisis (2009/2010). The prevailing trend lines are a steady drop of 1.7% per year from 1995-2004 and then a flat-line (.15% increase per year) 2004-2014. To go back a bit further, airfare dropped over 50% 1978-2006[1]. That is, the trend in the late '90s didn't start in '95.
So no, parent's comment isn't quite literally true (prices have gone up 1.5% in the last decade), but historically prices clearly trend down, which I think is the point.
Airfares are most definitely higher than they were in the mid 2000's. The global recession saw a big cut back in capacity and that capacity hasn't been added back in to the system to offset the ever stronger economy. Flights are fuller than they've been in a long time meaning higher fares etc.
> Airfares are most definitely higher than they were in the mid 2000's
We've established that. The data shows that flights this year were about 13% higher than at the lowest point, which was 2009 (recession). They are a little under 5% higher than the lowest point during the "mid 2000's". These numbers (~.25% increase per year over 10 years) are fairly insignificant when you look at the broader trends (>1% decrease per year over 3-4 decades).
How much of that is down to taxes and fuel prices? Oil has dropped recently but for most of the past 5-6 years it's been much much higher than it was back then.
Even if that's true, that would ignore all the new fees for services you used to get for free. Some new fees you now have the pleasure of paying:
- Fee to check even one bag. You used to be able to check at least one under a certain size for free.
- Fee to pick reasonable seats on many flights. Those isle and window seats are available, and they can be yours for only $10!
- Fee to board at a reasonable time. Otherwise you're stuck at group 5, which is really group ~15 after the platinum, executive platinum, star, super star, golden star, etc. groups that go before group 1, which you can pay an extra $10 to join!
"Fee to check even one bag" means that people traveling with small amounts of luggage can pay less.
"Fee to pick reasonable seats" means that people who prefer a lower price can pay less in exchange for getting worse seats, while people who insist on better seats have to pay.
"Fee to board at a reasonable time" either means that people with more carry-on luggage pay more, or it means that people who don't understand that being on the airplane earlier doesn't make you arrive earlier pay more for no reason. Either way, it's more opportunity for people who want to pay less to do so.
I'm not a big fan of airlines, but I don't see the problem with paying for optional services. Why should each ticket come with a free checked bag? Sure, it's nice when I'm actually checking luggage, but it means I've basically lost out on $25 (or whatever) on those occasions that I don't. Maybe you think, well, I never travel without checking a bag. But lots of people do, and there's no reason they should pay the same price when they don't need the same service.
"people who don't understand that being on the airplane earlier doesn't make you arrive earlier pay more for no reason"
Being on the plane, where I no longer need to be paying attention, is less stressful. That's not worth a lot to me, but it's not worthless.
On the topic more generally, my biggest objection to piling on the fees after the fact is a lack of price transparency - it makes it much more difficult to compare the same thing across airlines. Of course, that's a problem we could solve with software...
Well then if it's worth something to you then it should be worth paying for.
Price transparency is a problem, but not a huge one in my own experience (yours may, of course, vary). Airlines are rarely close enough in price for things like baggage fees to tip the scales, and when they are it's not too hard to see just what their policies are.
"Well then if it's worth something to you then it should be worth paying for."
Agreed - that wasn't intended as an objection to paying, but as response to your implication that it was silly to want to. I understand that it wasn't intended very strongly; I was just sharing a view from the other side. I'd happily pay ten cents to board first. I wouldn't pay $100. Whether I'd take any given intermediate price depends on a lot of things...
"Price transparency is a problem, but not a huge one in my own experience (yours may, of course, vary). Airlines are rarely close enough in price for things like baggage fees to tip the scales, and when they are it's not too hard to see just what their policies are."
I've definitely spotted a case or two where different baggage fees made the difference as to which flight was cheaper, and even when I'm not looking for the absolute lowest price I'd like to know just how much I'm trading away against all the various other variables (time of day, number and length of layovers, past experiences with the airline, &c).
Trying to wrangle all the other variables is interesting. I don't think we can blame the airlines for much of that, but it doesn't ultimately matter whose fault it is, we have to figure it out anyway.
I imagine you've seen it, but Hipmunk at least takes a stab at balancing some of those issues into a single "agony" score you can sort by.
> "Fee to check even one bag" means that people traveling with small amounts of luggage can pay less.
"Pay less" is how the airlines would like to phrase it, but as a consumer I care more about the comparison to what I paid yesterday. And today, if you're not paying for those services, you're actually paying the same amount that you used to. They're just charging other people more.
It's not like the prices went down when they converted these previously-free services into paid services. They just decided to start charging extra for something they used to give away for free and are busy enjoying the extra profit.
Sure, they're a business and they can charge whatever they want for whatever they want. But don't try and spin it as a win for the consumer so they can choose to pay less.
Airline tickets are cheaper than they have ever been. And there's pretty decent variety in what gets included in the ticket price versus what's an extra fee, so if you feel that baggage fees are a ripoff, pick an airline that includes a checked bag with your ticket.
From a link posted above[1], the Department of Transportation Statistics would seem to disagree with your assertion about ticket prices. Someone simply dismissed it as "misleading," but that wasn't exactly convincing. Especially since as a consumer, I care about the average fare I'm having to pay.
I do think baggage fees are a ripoff, and I don't pay for them. That doesn't mean that I have to like the fact that they've started charging for services that should be a part of normal service (like checking a bag the airplane has to fucking carry anyway). Nor does it mean that I have to believe their claims that it actually benefits me as a consumer to be nickled and dimed for everything I'm worth.
I'm surprised they haven't started charging more for seats that recline. Maybe that will be next.
it's cheaper because more and more jobs require constant travel so they have much more of the good predative revenue. for example at work I've never seen a 300 mile trip for less than 350. ever. let alone the la-Chicago for 100 they mention in the article. that would look like a bug in my employee's booking system.
what they get from the rest is just icing.
so, convince yourself of that lie all you want. but the system continues to be awful and inefficient. only the demand changed. to their advantage.
You're not looking very hard, and you're seeing discount hub connections. It's incredibly easy to get a 600$+ ticket for that many miles. [I'm not talking about business or first class tickets.] The cheapest you can go is about $60 on advanced LA-SFO OW tickets. (Outside of Southwest or the discount flights).
How far ahead and what days are you traveling and how many days apart is your start and return trip. I fly RDU -> SFO regularly. If I'm 21 days out and my trip is 3 days or more I can get it for $500 - $600. If I reduce it to 2 nights it goes up to nearly $1000. So "cheap" tickets still exist but they're much harder to find than they used to be.
