Rick Seaney, co-founder of FareCompare.com - is a world-class air travel expert.
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No wonder he's the media's go-to guy for all things air travel. He's got the answers. And he loves to share his knowledge.
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USAir sucks. The planes are dirty. You can almost see the germs. No more headrest covers on any airline. That sucks also, because they have found ecoli, fecal matter, and who knows whatelse on the head rests. Now I hear that American is going to charge $15. for your first bag.
HUH. What next. Its totally disgusting.
Sorry, just comments no query.
Why anyone would fly USair is beyond me. You know the airline sucks. Now Southwest? That airline rocks! The best !!
I won’t wax too nostalgic, but….
I miss the days when corporations were run by people from their industry — the days before the lawyers and accountants took over. Anyone remember when pilots ran the airlines?
I’m surprised to see the Continental drop. I have flown them several times over the past two years and have been very satisfied, although only one of the flights connected through Newark and I had to stay overnight before continuing my journey to the Caribbean the next day due to the schedule of flights to my final destination.
Customer service from Alaska/Horizon Air lines is deteriorating rapidly. Rather than working on improving service, they think an apology for poor service is all that’s necessary. I want no more apologies. I want improvement.
Jet Blue, Virgin America are the rising stars. Nothing but great things to say about these airlines. The get it!
The industry isn’t making money and your airfare is the same price if not cheaper then the 1970’s. What do you expect? Labor costs have been cut, moral down, fuel at an all time high and corporate greed by excutives thinking they need a bonuses and not putting it into the product. The whole industry needs new management or government regulation.
I strongly believe in equality for all. Therefore, I am strongly opposed to the move by AA to charge $15.00 to check a bag! Instead, I believe that each airlines should construct several large scales in an area before you reach the check-in kious. Each passerger would be required to place all of his/her luggage on the scale and then step on to it. For privacy, passengers sensitive about his/her weight could pick us their last suitcase as they step on the scale. A small piece of paper would then be printed with the total weight and include the passenger’s ticket number or some other reference at the airline’s discretion. If one of the bags appeared to weigh over the current 50 pound limit, the airline would have the right to weigh it individually. The airlines could then set a total weight allowance per passenger, perhaps 325 pounds for domestic flights and 375 pounds for domestic connecting to international flights. Business and first class could have different weight parameters. If over the allocated weight, the passenger would be required to pay at that time. I realize that this puts some responsibility on the passenger to know his/her approximate weight and to weigh his bags before leaving home. Perhaps a discretionary 5 pounds could be added to the equation without advertising it. In my humble opinion, this creates “true equality” among passengers. I am no longer forced to pay for the extra fuel that it costs to transport a 300 pound passenger sitting next to me from point A to point B. I realize that initiating change is not always as simple as I have suggested above. However, I would appreciate it if the airline industry would seriously consider some of my comments and let me know what they think. With rising fuel cost effecting their bottom line, causing layoffs, increased ticket cost and fewer flights what do they have to lose? Thank you.
I wonder if people have lower expectations from airlines like Southwest and thus they get rated higher?
Frontier remains my personal favorite……good customer service and good planes. Too bad other airlines do not measure up. The only negative is that their routes are limited.
About that new $15.00 baggage fee. If they are going that far, maybe they should just start weighing people and charging their tickets as a “per pound” price! I don’t want to be in a cabin with everyone trying to stow their luggage onboard so they don’t have to pay the $15.00 first bag fee. I’m not sure they have thought this out. Even security would be greatly busier with all the unchecked bags going on!
DELTA S**KS! The worst. They ruined my entire all expense paid destination wedding and honeymoon by closing boarding for my plane early, and not announcing it. ( WE were inline the entire time waiting patienty ) got to the check in counter they said …oopsy, we closed boarding early, we should have announced it ,,,,,
I think the $15 baggage fee is going to create monumental delays. People already stuff the overhead bins with far more than is allowed. Now it is going to take forever to board a plane, who is going to police the amount of stuff people bring on.
Instead of humiliating oversize passengers,as suggested by public weigh-ins, may I make the suggestion that the airlines have business class sized seats available (modest additional charge) in economy. The airlines get their money, passengers with weight or height issues can maintain their dignity and people with fat phobias are allowed to go from A to B comfy and smugly.
I find it totally outrageous that American Airlines will start charging $15 dollars for your first checked luggage. Most airlines, including American have already rise fees between 3 or 4 times due to fuel charges in the last several months. Will we now have to wear everything we need for our trip to avoid the $15 dollars fee. Whats next, a charge for the air in the cabin? American Airlines excutives should be ashamed. My staff and I will no longer fly American Airlines.
I fly all the airlines and do not have lower expectations, I have higher expections of Southwest, and they deliver every time. You can’t even get a bag of peanuts on an international flight on American any more, at least Southwest still gives you those, and I have always felt there was more leg room on SWA. Not to mention the employees are always smiling and treating passengers with more respect and dignity then American or any of the other airlines seem to!
Soooo, if they are charging for luggage…..will they guarantee they will NOT loose the one piece ya check! Probably Not!!! Also what about those yo yos that take everything but the kitchen sink on board!! Is someone going to police that issue…….probably not!!
Also, when is SW going to have a hub in Savannah??? Not soon enough!!
I flew Airtran a few times the last couple months, got in a couple days ago from Newport News VA, the same bag that had flown with them and others a million times, some air counter idiot said it was over sized, NOT overweight, and charged me $29.00, I haven’t mailed corporate a letter yet, but WILL! I even took the up grade to business, which costs more in different airports, whats up with that?
These airline executives are absolutely out of touch with their customers (if you dont believe me, try and get in touch with one of them). 24hours after a release of an industry survey that discloses that customer satisfaction is at an all time low and that baggage handling is a big part of the dissatisfaction index, some genius at American decides that part of their solution is to announce immediately that we, the customers now have the privelege of paying for that bad service…..?????…!!!! How about the remarkable idea of scrapping all these nickle and dime charges, raising the prices of tickets, which if we all thought about it long enough, we could be sympathetic with and raising the standard of behavioural and technical customer service. These are difficult times, but these airlines are dead until they get imaginative, visionary and quantifiable leadership that relates to their customers. Last point, when is someone going to put USAirways out of our misery, they are truly pathetic..
What i cannot comprehend is why airlines like Air France, Emiriates, Korean, El Al, Thai, Air China, Aeroflot (think what you will, they are not a bad airline) and other airlines are able to make a profit, provide generally good service, have cleaner planes, better frequent flyer benefits, happier employees, more cmfortable seats and better food! AND American companies treat passengers like cattle…scratch that cattle are treated better even when ont he way to the slaughter house. If AA thinks I will get on one of their planes, they have lost their minds. I really like the idea of one poster that suggested that your ticket came with a 325 lb/147 kg limit: including person and their baggage (carry-on AND checked) – this should be enough for anyone and if you go over, you pay. And to the frequent flyer that uses his seat and mine too for his love handles…put down the haagen-daaz and get in the gym!
I fly quite a bit, and have flown many airlines, but my trans-continental flight to San Francisco last week was my first flight on US Airways, and I found them to be quite a nice airline, thats not to say that i just got lucky, but the planes were clean and staff were very friendly. My favorite airline however is Continental, they are in my opinion by far the best. I’m not a fan of Southwest at all, luggage lost twice, and i hate that they dont have assigned seats. Another of my favorites however is the now defunct Independence Air, they were an excellent airline, was sad to see them go.
The airlines have to raise their prices, so just include it in the ticket price. Don’t say its for checked bags. If you are a good airline and provide great service and comfort, then enough people will still fly with you, even if your ticket price is higher. So you may not have the lowest ticket prices, but at least you will have a customer satisfaction victory.
I am flying AA next month, coast to coast, and I am so curious to see how they handle this new fee.
Personally, I think Southwest has been playing their cards right. Passengers get ticked off at American for nickle & dimeing them to death & Southwest picks up the converters. Thus, Southwest stays busy, busy, busy collecting more money, money, money. If other airlines follow American’s lead…..Southwest gets them too!