Citing new fees, frequent fliers book away from American, United and US Airways
Frequent fliers are flying the coop because of new fees.
Over the past week, I’ve spoken with half a dozen relatively frequent fliers, who have basically told me the same thing: they’re booking away from American Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways because of the $15 first-bag charge.
A friend planning an August trip between Washington and Boston found the screen on Kayak.com registering the same $318 for flights on American, United, US Airways and Delta.
“I found myself scanning past American, United and US Air,” she told me. “It was almost unconscious, but I didn’t want to fly on an airline that charged $15 extra for that first bag. It really is a higher airfare not only a fee. What if I end up buying something in Boston and want to bring it home? I’ll be really irritated when they want their $15 fee.”
She went on to book a flight on Delta that actually cost $4 more than the American, United and US Airways fares.
She is not alone. Friends heading to Reno, Seattle, Denver and planning a ski vacation next winter have all told me they consciously booked away from the three airlines charging fees; they also paid more for their tickets for that privilege. The skier knows that he will have to pay extra to ship his skis, but has no interest in adding another $15 to the price of his ticket, plus possibly more added costs, should the airlines separate skis and ski boots and call them two pieces of luggage rather than one as most do now.
These are the customers that American Airlines is targeting with their hidden fee campaign. Mark DuPont, American’s vice-president Airport Services Planning, admitted that to Budget Travel.
We estimate that 78 percent of our customers fly us only one time in the course of a year. They are not repeat customers in a short-term sense. Many of these customers buy their tickets online. If we don’t have the lowest price on a route and if we don’t show up on the first screen of airfare search results, we will lose the business of customers.
Nothing like purposeful deceit in a marketing approach. It may backfire. Maybe you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. American and their $15-first-bag-charge buddies are aiming to fool some of the people some of the time.
This action flies in the face of clear Department of Transportation policy. This comes from a recent guidance memo 73 F.R. 28854, May 19, 2008, issued by the agency.
The Department’s long-standing policy has been to require carriers to clearly disclose significant conditions applicable to air fares. Failure to disclose such conditions has been considered an unfair and deceptive practice and unfair method of competition in violation of 49 U.S.C. § 41712 and where warranted the Aviation Enforcement Office has taken enforcement action against carriers who engage in such practices. The Aviation Enforcement Office considers such significant conditions to include limiting passengers to fewer than two free checked bags of the size and weight that have generally been free on the carrier in the past and to assessing passengers a charge in addition to the air fare for such checked baggage. Therefore, it is important that carriers provide prominent and timely notice of these baggage policies and such charges.
I’m waiting for some enforcement.
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3 Responses to “Citing new fees, frequent fliers book away from American, United and US Airways”
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I completely agree, and I’m becoming increasingly flabbergasted by American in particular. I’m a frequent enough flier of my “trusty?” airline that I had enough miles for two tickets this summer. Needless to say, I’m currently going through a messy divorce from American. I had their affinity AMEX card, and that has been quite deftly switched over to a card that is more…friendly to my skies. I plan on closing out my AAdvantage account when I complete my travel at the end of next month because I cannot bare the sight of seeing that little plastic card in my wallet any longer. I even plan on removing them from my list of airlines that I use to book travel for work, which means that they are now losing out on the corporate honey-pot that was my company card.
What makes me the most livid of all is the fact that American is smiling to my face while stabbing me in the side. They’re touting themselves as a service airline when I can get better on an economy airline like AirTran or Southwest any day of the week it seems. Why would someone in my situation, given an opportunity to spend mere pennies more for services like snacks, movies (need I mention to anyone at all that American’s fleet of MD-80’s/83’s are sickeningly under-equipped), larger and more well appointed seats and a better boarding process for frequent fliers, stay with a cruel, thoughtless partner like American?
However, I beseech you: I ask anyone else who comes across this article and has a heated anger like I do with the airline, don’t take it out on the staff. These are just some nice folks trying to put food on the table for their families and give you the best that they can as their employer takes everything they have to offer to you away from them. I’ve been on the receiving end of bad information from gate staff, forced to stay in Dallas when all I wanted to do was get home, and grounded in Florida AND New York while being told we were going to be allowed to leave…but I still cannot fault the people for being there for me, doing their best and trying to get me home.
Have a good night,
-Sam
A few years ago, I was the only one in my office who would regularly fly Southwest over the legacy airlines. After all, it is about ten miles further to head to midway over O’Hare.
However, due to all the flight cancellations at American and United, more people are heading to Midway for their trips throughout the Midwest. And the reports have been very positive - cheaper parking and more pleasant surroundings at Midway, fewer flight delays and the like. The companion ticket program has been a real hit with many of the most frequent flyers.
can we all just pitch in for a class-action and get our sky-lives back?