Flying High

Back home again, but taking two quick trips two weekends in a row has provided a nice reminder of the current state of the airline industry. No surprise--it's not so great.

With gas prices on their way up, there's no way that can't be reflected in the cost of tickets, but those increases aren't even enough to cover the price of fuel; therefore, we're stuck with the new fees for luggage. We paid $15 for one suitcase, and my understanding is that we'd have paid another $25 for a second one. I wonder what the upshot of such a policy is. Oh, wait! Passengers are going to avoid paying the extra money. Most of our flights this past couple of weeks have been pretty full, so the storage bins have been flooding over. On the first of our connecting flights home today, the storage bins were full before everybody was onboard, and the flight attendant announced that people still boarding would have to check their bags. So are they subject to the $15 fee? Are they being penalized for having arrived later than other passengers (though not so late that they're making the flight at all is in question)? That's hardly fair, of course, but considerations like that have never been uppermost in the minds of corporations.

How will it all end? With the economy going sour, air travel will become more of a luxury activity. But even if that weren't a factor, I still think more and more people will start taking a pass on going places to where they need to fly. Nobody wants to be nickel and dimed (they were charging for snack food on our flights, too), and they'll only put up with it for so long. It may take a little time, because we'll have to get used to making other arrangements, but spending good money after bad will ultimately overpower even the best of us.