American Airlines wants $800+$25 for 2 seats together

[samclem]

I posted this over at flyertalk and one of the responses was basically "only those with platinum status deserve that kind of special treatment" which amazed me. I should have to fly 100,000 miles in 12 months just to get two coach seats together? Really? It shows how low the expectations for American Airlines have sunk.

You can get two coach seats together, it just costs $50. There is a way to get two seats together without paying anything "extra"--just fly Business Class or First Class. The "extras" ("all these seats are the same price!) are already bundled into the fare for those tickets.

The airlines are scraping for every dime. Special requests, good meals, movies, free alcohol--all were included when the airlines were regulated, planes regularly flew half empty, fuel was cheap, and airfares were almost double what they are today. Something had to give. I'd rather pay 50% less for the ticket and get the primary thing I want (to reach my destination safely), with an option to pay more if I want a bigger seat, a seat by the aisle, even to check baggage, etc. I do draw the line at charging passengers to use the lavatory (a plan reportedly recently considered by Spirit Air).

Choice is good. American is giving you an opportunity to save 50 bucks, or you can choose not to.

 

[nphx]

It's not just the two seats together issue. I booked on US Airways and ONLY center seats were made avaialble for selection for a east west coast flight. So to get my aisle seat i had to fork over another $25.

While our congress is making the airlines post fares with taxes included - i say make them post fares with the highest fee for class of service so this nonsense goes away. That way after you compte for a carrier selection - the onlys surprise is its $25 less for sitting in the center seat.

 

[Bestwifeever]

...

The airlines are scraping for every dime. Special requests, good meals, movies, free alcohol--all were included when the airlines were regulated, planes regularly flew half empty, fuel was cheap, and airfares were almost double what they are today. Something had to give....

Those dimes are adding up--they seem to still be pretty profitable: Fortune 500 2012: Industry: Airlines

 

[MichaelB]

We still think of flying as a high service level form of transport. It is really evolved into bus travel with wings, with a little extra attention and space set aside for business and people willing to pay.

 

[Meadbh]

We still think of flying as a high service level form of transport. It is really evolved into bus travel with wings, with a little extra attention and space set aside for business and people willing to pay.

Very true. That's why it's called an AirBUS.

 

[samclem]

Those dimes are adding up--they seem to still be pretty profitable: Fortune 500 2012: Industry: Airlines

I dunno. American Airlines (subject of the OP) lost almost $2 billion. That explains the $25 charge for certain seats. None of the airlines shown made more than 2.3% profit as a % or revenues. That's not very profitable, and when we look at other metrics the industry is even worse off.
As they say--the best way to make a million in the airline business is to start with two million.

 

[samclem]

While our congress is making the airlines post fares with taxes included - i say make them post fares with the highest fee for class of service so this nonsense goes away.

Yeah, and we could make 'em include the price for two checked bags, a scotch, and two hours of Wi-Fi.

Maybe Travelocity or one of the other web sites will include options for these items in their search and pricing criteria so you could see it that way. There's fairly stiff competition between these sites, this would be a value-added service that would bring users. It would also allow our Congress to maybe concern itself with more important matters, and stuff actually within its specified responsibilities.

 

[Nords]

Maybe it would help if you just thought of the situation in the reverse. Say you'd gone to the site and the tickets were $825 and you could get seats together. But, they also offered you a discount of $25 on one seat if you'd sit apart. Would that seem like a more palatable way of presenting the choice? It's the same thing.

This looks like the psychological heuristic of "anchoring". My spouse and I have this discussion all the time, usually after I've spent 30 minutes on the airline's website beating the itinerary & pricing out of its "user-friendly" system:
Her: "Oh, that's too much."
Me: "OK, WTF is the airfare supposed to cost?"
Her: "Airfare Watchdog says it's supposed to be $100 less."
Me: "But I don't want to take a Saturday redeye and change planes twice."
Her: "Well, if you want to fly direct then you have to pay more."
Me: "Sure, sounds good!"
Her: "But you shouldn't have to pay $100 more."
Me: "OK, how much more am I supposed to pay?"
Her: "I think you should take a look at the other airlines' websites and see if you can do better."
You married veterans can write the rest of the script from here.

Soup, would you be happier if the price didn't break out all the junk fees and if they gave you "free" food/alcohol? Well, I guess with the latter at least you wouldn't care.

Sounds like they are moving towards a no-frills airline like we have in Yorkshire.

If I see any of the Four Yorkshiremen in the cockpit, I'm outta there...

 

[NW-Bound]

If I see any of the Four Yorkshiremen in the cockpit, I'm outta there...

Have you seen their price list for parachutes?

 

[Meadbh]

Friends recently flew to another city and paid for two nights' accommodation there just so they could save $100 on a transatlantic fare. I guess it's all about choice. Me, I would prefer to have the choice of a low fare and pay for extras only if they added value. As a single traveller, I don't believe there is a God given right for families to be seated as a group, unless children are present.

 

[Notmuchlonger]

Usually I sort by duration. Sitting in an airport or plane isn't my idea of entertainment.

 

[audreyh1]

I just booked on American. Got seats assigned together near the back of the plane, but I didn't like them and went on aa.com and changed them to the two together with no center seat on the left side of the aisle. Paid extra on a couple of the flights to get the seats I preferred. I decided that it was not a problem - the base ticket price was quite low. We'll probably check one bag and fork over another $25 each way for that.

When I look at what I used to pay for tickets 8-10 years ago, it doesn't seem like airfaire has gone up much at all, so I guess I'll fork over a few nickels and dimes here and there when I see a benefit.

I guess it's the new way of things.

 

[rodi]

I don't believe there is a God given right for families to be seated as a group, unless children are present.

I flew Allegient Air to Bellingham a while back. 2 adults 2 kids. They charged for seat selection. Any seat selection. If you didn't pay - they randomly assigned you. And they did not make any effort to keep small children with parents.

I paid for the seat assignment - because I didn't want to impose my [-]bratty [/-] well behaved children on others. I was grumpy about paying extra.

But it was amusing to see the negotiation among passengers. A man in front of us GLADLY swapped seats to let a mom sit next to her 3 year old. Her seat was 5 rows back. Flight attendants were disinterested in facilitating this.... seemed annoyed that passengers did not want to sit next to OPCh (other people's children).

This airline also charged for water. I learned - and brought an empty bottle through security on our return trip - then filled it at the drinking fountain before boarding the plane.

And for carry-on luggage... unless your luggage was the size of a purse or laptop bag. $10 for a carry on bag if pre-booked. $35 if you don't pre-pay it.

Checked bag fees vary from $14.99 to $50/bag.

It definitely set the bar high for the most charges.

Fees For Our Services | Travel Is Our Deal™ | Airfare & Hotel Packages from Allegiant

 

[audreyh1]

Wow, rodi - could that be where we're heading?

 

[KingB]

After looking at this thread, my favorite low-cost airline, Spirit, sounds better and better.

They do things differently. For example:
1. It is cheaper to book at the airport than online.
2. They charge less if you checkin your bags than when you carry them with you.
3. You lose your point for 3 months of no activity.

Edit: I never pay to get a pre-assigned seating and DW and I always ended up seated next to each other.

 

[Notmuchlonger]

Funny about those low cost airlines. They don't fly out if my major city and usually not where I want to go . Air travel is cheap if you have a fair amount of disposable income.

 

[WestLake]

I usually travel alone on AA (getting close to a million miles, 930,000, but they have also changed THAT - earning miles toward that permanent gold status) and it is becoming ridiculous. Fares have gone up, especially to Europe. You can play online then your fare is "no longer available " when it's time to pay or hold. And the seat selection is beyond frustrating. About all they will show are center seats unless you want to pay extra. I will stay home rather than take a center seat in coach to Europe.

 

[rodi]

Wow, rodi - could that be where we're heading?

If I'm not mistaken - I recall Ryan Air (Europe) being similar. I looked at flights to Sicily from Genoa Italy and the nickle/dime charges were pretty intense. I didn't end up using them because our itinerary changed - but it made me do some serious math to compare the full costs (with all the unavoidable fees) of the ryanair flight to the major airlines.

http://www.ryanair.com/en/terms-and-conditions#regulations-tableoffees

Sometimes a bargain price is not a bargain price.

 

[soupcxan]

I didn't realize this but apparently there was a sale last weekend and now it costs $34 to pick a seat next to a "free" ($400) seat.

If you live in Dallas-Ft. Worth you are basically American Airline's bitch. Idiotic legislation keeps Southwest from being a competitor if you want direct flights. I looked at JetBlue before I booked this but their flight times didn't work. I have heard too many horror stories about Spirit to try them.

I remember when I looked forward to getting AA miles because you could actually, you know, redeem them for flights. It is so hard to get award tickets now that the miles are bascially worthless.

The worst part is I have to fly several more times this year for work and there really is no other option besides American for most of my destinations.

 

[steelyman]

That's insane. I took 2 AA roundtrips this year (one on frequent flyer miles and they charged $10 just to book). On the second one, the ride was so crappy - and it was a long one - the woman sitting next to me said, "What, is this pilot drunk??"

 

[samclem]

the woman sitting next to me said, "What, is this pilot drunk??"

Maybe there was confusion concerning what "AA" stood for.

ANyway, in more good AA news, the government has informed the court handling the AA bankruptcy that they will be slapping a (reported) $162 million fine on the airline for safety violations.

No problem, they'll just bump up the extra fees.

I sure hope US Air doesn't buy AA. US Air's merger with America West was pretty bumpy, and I can't see that buying American will make things better. The only thing worse than a middle seat is having to sit back there with a bunch of deadheading pilots kvetching about everything under the sun. Save it for the break room, us customers crammed back here in this can with you don't need to hear it.

 

[Mulligan]

I love Southwest! They have some new charges for early check in, but beyond that you pay for a seat and you get a seat. You want to sit next to your spouse, check in early. A lot of people don't like the open seating, but I prefer it to the games the other airlines play, not to mention the money they charge.

I wind up taking southwest because it is the only airline that flies direct to Las Vegas from my hometown. I think many people are cheapos like me and dont pay the $10 early checkin for better seating. I always lock in exactly 24 hours before and always wind up in the A's so I always can get two seats together no problem. Being retired, I can let the airline dictate when I go. Sometimes my vacation is longer because the price of paying for an extra nights hotel is a lot cheaper than waiting the following day to fly. Going to Minny over Labor Day for $120. I would spend double in gas driving there, not to mention the advantages of trading 20 hours of driving in exchange for 3 hours of airtime.

 

[Original Wally]

But really they need to raise fares , but cant because people wont pay the fares. So they nickle and dime you which apparently studies have shown people accept that.

EXACTLY - there was a noted restaurant chain that advertised a "Grand Slam" for ... what... $1.99. The KICKER - cofee was another $1.95 - even back then. You see... the revenue PER PAYING CUSTOMER had to be $X.xx. How you slice and dice it is irrelevant. Same with airlines. They NEED so much revenue. BUT to keep the "advertised" prices (which we ALL compare) low, they are going to more of an ala cart style of pricing. Look... 20 YEARS ago we paid $1,200 to fly from San Francisco to Helksinki. Today we are ticked if we pay over $1,000 to visit our daughter in Frankfurt. So today fares are CHEAP. But costs rise. So, the TOTAL revenue has to come from somewhere. Next... turnstiles on the restrooms.

 

[WestLake]

A theater-world friend is having a 40th birthday party in London. I'm invited and I have 450,000 Aadvantage miles hoarded for early retirement. So I have to go, right?

I look and find that I can get the trip for 20,000 miles each way - great! Then I see the return has one stop. Oh well not that good but only 40,000 total. So after getting a little frustrated selecting non-premium seats, I get to the check-out/ purchase page. The fees and taxes are like $450! What, this must be a mistake - a year ago that was like $125. Tried again. No mistake! There go my RE travel plans.

 

[Grainiac]

I look and find that I can get the trip for 20,000 miles each way - great! Then I see the return has one stop. Oh well not that good but only 40,000 total. So after getting a little frustrated selecting non-premium seats, I get to the check-out/ purchase page. The fees and taxes are like $450! What, this must be a mistake - a year ago that was like $125. Tried again. No mistake! There go my RE travel plans.

How in the world is that kind of fee possible? I just used Aadvantage miles to book a round trip to a Scandinavian capital late this year. A round trip in business class cost me 100,000 miles plus $41. I'm pretty sure I could have gotten economy class ticket for the same route for 40,000 miles plus $41 (low season mileage requirement). Part of the trip is actually with a partner airline, but all the flights have AA codes and I booked through AA phone desk.

I consider myself very successful booking with frequent flier miles. DW and I travel to Europe for vacations almost every year, and have not failed to get frequent flier tickets since 1996. Usually we book 3 to 6 months in advance and have several weeks of flexibility in scheduling to get otherwise exactly what we want and still use relatively low mileage. I agree though that the past two years or so it seems to have gotten a bit more difficult and we more and more often end up using one or two stop flights instead of getting frequent flier seats on the direct option. Regardless, I don't mind the extra 6 to 10 hours of extra travel time per round trip if that saves us $2000 in economy or $6000 to $10000 in business or first class vs a purchased tickets.

One principle I adopted as soon as DW and I started flying extensively for business and amassing miles: I will never try to save the miles for the future, if I can save a little money today by using them. Considering everything going on in the economy and airline business right now, IMHO there simply is no guarantee about the programs to even exist a couple years from now. This has worked pretty well for us so far. We still have never run out of miles to use for the next trip, and for the past 10 years we have saved anywhere between $10k to $25k per year with almost free flights we got with the miles. Well, not really because I would never fly first class or business class intercontinental trips if I had to pay for it, but calculating it this way makes it sound so much more impressive.