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> Instead of the clear, itemized pricing system that passengers currently rely on, airlines could hide fees until later in the booking process… They call what
by doodaddy 1y ago
> Instead of the clear, itemized pricing system that passengers currently rely on, airlines could hide fees until later in the booking process…
They call what we have now “clear”? Where when looking at a page of flights I don’t know how much the multitude of economy/economy+/economy++/premium economy/business/business++ seats will cost until I click on each flight? Where every carrier offers slightly different variations of these seats such that I can’t cross-shop on Google Flights?
Is that the clear and transparent system the airlines are complaining about?
- code_for_monkey 1y agoyeah, now imagine when its even worse
- Mistletoe 1y agoI’ve seen the movie Brazil and I wish more people had so they would have voted better.
- nyc_data_geek1 1y agoIs your form stamped? There's no stamp on it.
- thombat 1y agoThis is your receipt for your husband. And this is my receipt for your receipt.
- nyc_data_geek1 1y agoWe're all in this together, kid.
- smt88 1y agoI'm not sure why you think that would've helped. A lot of the people who won't shut up about 1984 and Ayn Rand still vote for the closest thing to monarchy they can find on their ballots.
- mr_toad 1y agoIn the end they will lay their freedom at our feet, and say to us, "Make us your slaves, but feed us."
- forgotoldacc 1y agoWe're at a point where people would be glad to starve if they think it pissed someone else off.
- recursive 1y agoI think most of them would say that right up until they could actually feel the hunger. People spend hundreds of dollars on drugs that just make them less hungry so they eat less. So I don't think so.
- wat10000 1y agoSome people see "don't tread on me" as "don't tread on people," while others see it as "don't tread on ME specifically."
- nerdponx 1y agoDon't tread on me but please do tread on those other people I've been indoctrinated to dislike.
- red-iron-pine 1y ago"tread on them especially hard"
- ReptileMan 1y agoOkay - democrats will push us in 1984 dystopia where they force you to accept that reality is what they tell you, and republicans will push us in low life high tech Cyberpunk dystopia where corporations reign supreme. Choose your poison.
- wartywhoa23 1y ago[flagged]
- carefulfungi 1y agoEveryday I think to myself, "Biden and Trump sure do govern exactly the same - I can hardly tell anything changed!"
- CPLX 1y agoOdd comment on an article that is a specific detailed example of a distinction between the two approaches.
- ceejayoz 1y agoYour sarcasm detector needs a retuning.
- tialaramex 1y agoAssuming you felt the /s tag was superfluous I'm with you. Change is the only constant in the universe, if you only want different then voting really was a waste of time, that you are getting for sure.
- red_rech 1y agoSure, but what then? The people would rather slaughter each other than reject their favorite entertainment personalities.
- wat10000 1y agoWhere did these regulations come from that they're trying to roll back now?
- nerdponx 1y ago"Voting doesn't work" is a right wing authoritarian propaganda lie. Don't fall for it.
- dfee 1y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil_(1985_film) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil_(1985_film) Looks interesting!
- pstuart 1y agoIt's a must watch movie -- there's multiple editions and you should watch the directors cut.
- lisper 1y agoI know that "me too" comments are frowned upon, but I really feel the need to chime in here. Brazil is my favorite movie of all time. It is eerily prescient. It's important to keep in mind while watching it today that it was made forty years ago. And yes, the director's cut. Absolutely the director's cut.
- scrps 1y agoDon't forget the inverse can happen, like when tech-bros read sci-fi and end up thinking Bad Thing is a good idea... :|
- bryanrasmussen 1y agogeez, can you people stop tearing down the torment nexus for just one minute!
- MurkyLabs 1y agoAh yes, the Torment Nexus from the popular sci-fi book, "Don't build the Torment Nexus!"
- herval 1y agoI love/hate how many people in tech watched Black Mirror and went "that's a great idea! I'll build that"
- MangoToupe 1y agoI see the causality as reversed: the show is based on extrapolating current tech trends to produce near-future dystopian sci-fi.
- caycep 1y agoit was worse in the 80's-90's...I guess the past few years of enjoying refunds was not meant to last...
- OhMeadhbh 1y agoIt absolutely was not worse in the 80s. Unless you mean more expensive. Yes. It DEFINITELY was more expensive. When I booked through a travel agent or over the phone with the airline, the fees were pretty transparent. I sorta feel for the airlines here because before deregulation they had to commit to unprofitable routes before they realized HOW unprofitable they would be. That cost was spread over the profitable routes and ultimately everything was more expensive. But... oh man... remember when you could get on a flight where only about 25% of the seats were filled and the food wasn't great, but was free? I remember being able to lift the arm-rests on seats up and stretch out and take a nap on the plane. Those were the days. Before American's MD/SD-80s started falling out of the sky, I would fly out to DFW from SJC each week and it was delightful. And baggage handling systems are much better than the 80s. It's been 5 years since an airline has lost checked luggage for me. But of course, it's been 5 years since I checked luggage, so who knows? I really miss Yamato 宅配便 from when I lived in Japan. Americans really don't know how to travel correctly. Meh. The dollar is probably going to be devalued soon so the dream of air travel for the typical American will likely only be in the rear-view mirror. We'll all be lost in wistful nostalgia about the time when normal people could afford air travel. So... SOME things were worse in the 80s/90s. Not all things related to traveling.
- ardit33 1y agoNo sure why this comment got downvoted. The 90s were more of no hidden fees at all. You paid the ticket, and that's it. Usually 2 baggages were included in the flight (standard), and food was free. US inland trips had crappy snacks, and some soda, but international ones all had food and drinks, including alcoholic ones. Prices of tickets were more expensive for sure, so air travel was more of a luxury. The era of the hidden fees started during the late Bush era, and with the advents of online booking, and with the rise of the 'cheap airlines' like RyanAir, Spirit, etc... They had hidden fees as part of their busisness model. The larger carriers started following suit with more restricitons for the cheapest base tickets (no luggage) and more fees for things that used to be included before. This is completely different from the 90s, which you paid and things were more upfront.
- lotsofpulp 1y agoIf each flight leg is a different price, how can the website show you the total until you select both (or all) legs?
- nerdponx 1y agoThat doesn't mean it's not opaque and complicated.
- lotsofpulp 1y agoThe context is making pricing more opaque than it needs to be in order to earn more money. I don’t understand how it could be made simpler, unless you want every flight to cost the same, which is stupid. Hence the complaint does not make sense.
- terminalshort 1y ago"We can't tell you the exact price because you haven't told us what you want to buy yet" isn't opaque or complicated.
- nerdponx 1y agoKind of? The way flights are sold and priced is opaque and complicated IMO. That doesn't make it bad necessarily: maybe there's no good alternative, I don't know. But it really is opaque and it really is complicated. I think my opinion is at least somewhat educated, having done some crude flight price modeling for work in the past.
- sjm-lbm 1y agoFWIW, at least as of today, American Airlines' website attempts to show you round trip prices. When choosing your outbound leg(s), they show a price inclusive of the cheapest return journey on the day you selected to return using the class of service on your outbound leg. So, there's all sorts of ways for it to be incorrect - maybe you want a different class of service, maybe the cheapest return has a stop but you'd like the direct, etc. - but it's still really useful for figuring out the best options for your flights.
- lumost 1y agoNot to mention the lack of standards on leg room/entertainment packages/food quality for any of the above combinations on any airline!
- SpaceNoodled 1y agoI literally don't fit in certain carriers' seats because my legs are longer than their seat pitch.
- ahmeneeroe-v2 1y agoYou want regulations on in-flight entertainment packages??
- supertrope 1y agoYou can always buy an economy plus ticket.
- jacobgkau 1y agoThe point wasn't minimums, it was that you don't even know what an "economy plus ticket" will get you since it's not standardized.
- FinnKuhn 1y agoAt least Google flights shows you an estimate for the airline
- xenator 1y ago[flagged]
- ericmay 1y agoIf you drove your car across 17 countries in Europe would you expect to pay the same at every station you come across? I don't think what you're saying is even the norm within European countries, is it?
- anal_reactor 1y agoBig difference is that prices shown include all taxes and other fees.
- bc569a80a344f9c 1y agoGas station prices in the US are always inclusive of all taxes and fees. One of very few products where this is true.
- ghaff 1y agoFilling up at a gas station in the US (or buying booze or many other food/drink items at a store I guess) actually are cases where the advertised price actually is the price. (OK, some gas stations have member rewards prices but you still know up front.)
- mgkimsal 1y agopetrol is one of the few things we buy that has tax built in. you pump $23.72, that's exactly what you pay. You prepay with cash - you're having to estimate what, say, $15 will get you. Delta of $2.80/gal vs $3.30/gal - yeah, it's a bit different, but nothing is hidden. Sales tax on literally everything is fairly different state to state (and within sometimes) but petrol is a major daily thing that is tax inclusive.
- tshanmu 1y agoyou would know before consuming how much you would end up paying. not so in the land of the free.
- JustExAWS 1y agoWell rule #1 is never to book a flight on a third party travel portal. When things go wrong, you now have to deal with the travel portal and the airline.
- trzy 1y agoGoogle Flights isn’t a third party portal! It takes you directly to the airline web site to book. It attempts to estimate the fare price but that’s becoming increasingly difficult with variably priced seats and other “gotcha” expenses that get figured in deep into the booking flow.
- scarface_74 1y agoAnd in that case, this was never regulated by the government. The airlines shouldn’t be responsible for how their products are presented on a random aggregator.
- khuey 1y agoFor domestic flights, perhaps. It routinely refers me to third party OTAs for the cheapest prices on flights to less common international destinations.
- jghn 1y agoMany people will do things like use Google Travel to narrow down an initial set of potential flights based on times & cost, and then go to the individual airlines from there to book things. The GPs post is still a problem in this scenario.
- scarface_74 1y agoThat seems like a Google problem because of a poor interface. Unless you want each airline to standardize their offerings. Even then their would be differences based on loyalty programs, which airline you have a credit card for etc. The legislation nor the regulations were geared toward third party aggregators.
- 1y ago
- ahmeneeroe-v2 1y agoThis is a pro level feature set. I don't think most flyers feel bilked that they can't do this. Absolute price sensitivity (meaning bottom line, not "cheapest business class") is the factor for most people and that is easy to see on any of the flight search engines.
- bluGill 1y agoFor most perhaps, but I want to know what I'll really pay. I already know I'm going to check luggage (or not, but now that I have kids and am going for longer vacations checked bags is not something I'll do without), so I want to see the price with checked bags. Likewise I know I'm willing to pay for the legroom of economy plus (the rest of my family doesn't care, though my kids are soon hit their final growth and soon will). I've just added $1000 to my actually price, but all I see is the per person ticket price with no options... There is a reason I took Amtrak last vacation. Too bad they doen't go do where my next vacation will be.
- BeetleB 1y agoWhat airlines are you searching on? Whenever I search (admittedly mostly on Southwest), I get everything up front.
- kindatrue 1y agoThose are all optional fees. What they want is a return to the old pre-Obama days where all the taxes and mandatory fees (government and stuff they made up) were only displayed at check out. Kind of like resort fees on hotels.