Agree that status makes a big difference. Bags are not an issue, boarding group is usually 1 or 2. If you book basic economy at least with United, you can even change your flight within the 24 hour period. I do check and use southwest for my S when I’ve found it to be comparable or if he needs bags checked in. [ He doesn’t get the same bag privs as we do].
Flights have become cheaper overall in some ways - but as a traveler, you need to be smart and play the game. Know if you need to check bags or can manage with a carryon. Compare different airlines - if you don’t want basic economy, uncheck that option while using a search engine like google flights. And yes, lots of credit cards give you several perks as well - free miles, free bags, free lounge access.
@bgbg4us - did you have a “basic economy” fare that restricted the size of carry-ons? Some of the airlines don’t allow on-line or mobile check-in because they want to see the size of carry-ons for basic fares. If too large, they charge you more. I know United has operated this way - at least in the past - I don’t know currently policy. And, it may vary by airport.
My understanding is that basic economy fares will not guarantee seats together for family groups.
Probably so they can overbook their flights more, knowing that (statistically) more people will miss the check in window (so that they can be denied boarding without being paid denied boarding compensation, and have to pay extra to rebook) due to delays getting to the airport or in the queue at the airport for the agent, baggage drop, or kiosk.
Doubt it. Having people miss flights causes more work and chaos. Plus there are X number of seats on Y number of flights. Reshuffling people doesn’t create more seats. I don’t think airlines are that intentionally nefarious.
Plus airlines do tell you to show up way early. If travelers don’t plan accordingly, that’s not the airlines’ fault.
@Igloo, by poor treatment I meant mostly how uncomfortable the seating is. I’m 5’2" and not overweight. I fit into those super economy seats - just. I can’t tell you how often I sit next to some 5’11 man who is also not overweight, but not skinny, either. And he CAN’T FIT. How safe is that for him? For me, should we need to evacuate, and the guy can barely move? What are the odds of him developing a blood clot sitting folded like a pocket knife into a child-sized seat?
That’s what bugs me the most. It’s not even a question of comfort. It’s a question of safety and health.
I’m 5’-9" and have long legs. It is VERY uncomfortable to sit in most airplane seats. Especially on a 12-hour flight! I guess I’ll have to start paying extra to get a couple inches more space.
“Those who fly first class, do you pay for it or is it upgrades?”
We pay for it. For me it’s not just the legroom. It’s not being in a 3 across seat configuration so either hubby or I have to have the middle seat ( or a stranger between us). It’s the much more comfortable seat. It’s the service with a smile from beginning to end. One example. In my husbands wallet his Id window is tight. One of the last times we flew coach we were in line to check luggage and the agent was exasperated by the extra Minute it took to get his id out.he apologized and got “I need your Id NOW!!” A month later we were flying first. Same airport and lo and behold same agent ( same first and last name as my niece so we noticed). My husband started to apologize and the agent sweetly says “ Oh take your time. No worries!” ( btw, I made him take out I’d ahead of time the next time anyway).
You always get TSA precheck with First IME even though we don’t have it. Your luggage is tagged as “ prioritiy” so it comes out first and they seem to ensure it gets there for sure. And you get 2 70 lb suitcases included. When we moved our kid the difference in the price of first equaled what we would have paid to ship the stuff we could bring without paying extra) You are given a blanket on every flight. Not to mention pretty good food ( we’ve been surprised how tasty it is).
Is any of this necessary. No. But I do not enjoy travel. At this point in my life I just would rather stay home than go coach unless we are traveling for a true necessity like visiting family and SW is the only real choice.
I will say that people are somewhat stunned that we pay for first. I recently took the entire family to Florida flying first. It wasn’t a huge first class section so we were like 1/3 of the section. The guy who is behind me in line who saw I had a first class ticket said wow you must have huge status to get the upgrade. I have hi status but I couldn’t get an upgrade on this flight . When I told him we paid OOP he was stunned. I think the cost was 489/ pp instead of 350.
Most airlines intentionally overbook their flights, indicating that they can be that nefarious. Also, if the passenger misses the check in window, the airline can just make it the passenger’s problem, rather than the airline’s problem.
489 vs 350? That is not bad. That sounds more like the difference between regular economy and basic. The flights I take would be over $1,000 for first vs $3-400 economy. I don’t understand about that ID thing. You don’t show ID when you board, do you? My reaction to the gate would be so different if she really changed so much for first class passengers. She would be b***h to me whether I am flying first or third class. Not isn’t flying first great. Aren’t we a bit stuck up?
I think you are placing too much blame on airlines.
It’s called yield management. It’s a good business practice and allowed by the FAA. It’s not nefarious. Airlines know a certain percentage of passengers won’t show up and use pretty sophisticated algorithms to manage their loads. It benefits customers indirectly through lower airfares. Airlines have gotten much better over the years in using effective yield management, having entire departments devoted to such things but weather, equipment problems, etc. make it imperfect at times.
Customers have options if they are worried about missing flights - allow plenty of time for check-in or buy refundable tickets. I’m not too sympathetic to those passengers who don’t plan accordingly.
“Those who fly first class, do you pay for it or is it upgrades?”
We pay for it too. Only on long flights - Ord to California. Much better treatment. Shorter lines. Board first. Free drinks. Decent food. More room. Free checked bags. What’s not to like. I can only do about 2 hrs in economy before I’m one of those people who try to open the doors.
I travel frequently for work, and our travel policy doesn’t allow the expense of business class or first class. When the “basic economy” level debuted, my employer said we could book regular economy; we didn’t have to do the basic. Fortunately since I travel so much I now have status on American, so get upgraded a lot. My employer also pays for TSA Precheck/Global Entry.
When I have to fly on an airline where I don’t have status, I do notice the difference.
‘I don’t understand about that ID thing. You don’t show ID when you board, do you? “
This is the agent where you check luggage ( I’m not a light packer and always check luggage) . At O’Hare. You go to a desk when you do that and must show ID at the time. Indeed you don’t have to even give a ticket or record locator. They take your ID and find you.
We recently took a long overseas flight. Flew first class/business for the overseas portion (combination of points for one ticket and creative scheduling by the agent for the other made it reasonably priced) BUT the second leg on the partner airline (Alitalia) was terrible. Their definition of “business class” (they didn’t have first class) was the first few rows of the plane not putting someone in the center seat! And putting a pillow/blanket in that seat. No audio, not video screen-- NOTHING but a little bit of mediocre food. Meh.
But, the Delta One portion taken on the longer overseas portion (with individual bed thingys and more food than you cold possibly eat) was excellent.
We have yet to pay for an economy comfort or first class ticket for a domestic flight, even though we fly across country often, but we get upgraded to economy comfort periodically and to first class occasionally/ rarely, but sometimes (it just happened on our last flight). Once we were flying from Phoenix- and they offered an upgrade from coach to first class for……… wait for it……… $20!! We jumped on that.
I have worked to get/maintain Delta Gold status (DH used to have platinum when he travelled a lot, but now he is a big nobody and is only silver status, which is much of nothing). But they do treat you better with Gold (the Delta agent worked with us for over an hour on the phone to coordinate the overseas flights we just took, found the domestic portion of that trip at a fare we absolutely could not find while we were looking on the computer simultaneously (she got us a fare at half the cost we were seeing - no clue how she did, but no complaints). If I was not Gold, we would not have had that kind of help form the agent.
With the current Amex Delta card I have I will get a free companion first class ticket (used to be a free coach companion ticket with the platinum card and I currently have the reserve card) so maybe we’ll book one of the cross country tickets in first class. Also, with the Delta Gold status I seem to get vouchers for free drinks, so if I am flying coach and want to sleep, I use one and get a glass of wine, which puts me to sleep.
You really do have to check the aircraft to know what you might encounter for Business vs First vs Economy. When I first started doing my Asia runs, United’s Business Class was the same type of seat (angle back) that Cathay Pacific sells for significantly less (as in 1000s less) as Premium Economy. Cathay Pacific has flat bed Business Class. I don’t know if that’s still the case - I haven’t wanted to try United.
My favorite “service” was flying United to Heathrow and having them tout their wonderful in-flight movie service which requires that I use my own Iphone or Ipad with no charger available. Because I hadn’t upgraded to the most recent United app, I couldn’t access anything.
We’ve found a huge disparity on pricing for first class. Totally depends on the route and time of year. Sometimes it’s a no brainer cheap, other times it’s ridiculously expensive.
I.e. they know that passengers who wait until they get to the airport have lower yield because they are more likely to miss the check in window. So by requiring passengers to check in at the airport, they can overbook by more based on the lower yield. And since passengers missing the check in window is the passengers’ fault, not the airline’s fault, the airline need not accommodate them in any way.
What other reason could there be for not allowing passengers to check in on the web or phone app before arriving at the airport?
