It’s difficult to find a credible airline expert who doesn’t favor common-sense reregulation of the domestic airline industry. No surprise, considering that the tide is turning against a laissez-fare government.
Sure, there are still a few fools who would defend anything the airline industry does. One commenter named “Ann Truly” comes to mind. Ann’s IP address matches that of the Washington law firm of Zuckert, Scoutt & Rasenberger, which is on the airline payroll. (As far as I can tell, it doesn’t have an employee named “Ann Truly”).
I also know of a colleague or two who surprisingly are defending a recklessly deregulated airline industry — even when it obviously hurts passengers. I won’t name any of them in the post, except to say how disappointed I am that they prefer to misrepresent my argument than to debate the issues.
My argument — and it’s the argument of many other reasonable industry observers — is that deregulation didn’t work. It created an oligopolistic, customer-hostile industry that is damaging the American traveler and economy.
The strict deregulationists insist we would settle for nothing less than complete reregulation — a return to the days of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB). That’s completely wrong. No one is advocating a return to the government setting prices or controlling which airline flies where.
Instead, here are a few of the tenets of the modern reregulation movement:
• Airlines should not be allowed to sell more seats than they have.
• Airlines should be required to honor the price they quote for an airfare.
• The price of an airline ticket should include all taxes, fees, surcharges, drinks and meals (on longer flights) a piece of checked luggage and a carry-on bag.
• Air carriers shouldn’t be permitted to engage in “predatory” pricing that kills new competitors.
• Passengers shouldn’t be imprisoned on a plane for hours without food or water.
• Airlines should be required to treat passengers at least as well as pets. Which is to say, given water, food and a minimum amount of space.
• Airlines should be required to tell the truth about delays and cancellations.
• Airlines must disclose the total number of outstanding award miles, the number of award seats available, and clearly state your odds of getting an award seat or upgrade on a given flight. They must notify customers in writing if their miles are about to expire. Oh, hell – let’s just ban loyalty programs entirely.
Got any more points to add to this list? I’m listening.
And next time someone tells you the modern reregulation movement wants to bring back the CAB and price controls, tell ‘em they’re full of hot air and send them to this post.
By the way … Ann Truly. I’ll approve your comments if you use your real name.
Truly, I will.
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I would also institute a policy giving passengers compensation for delays or cancellations within the airline’s control, either that, or allow passengers delayed for circumstances beyond their control to change without fee.
Right now, if the flight is delayed, you are entitled to absolute nothing, but if you are delayed yourself (and you neglect to tell the airline ahead of time) you are SOL for your entire fare.
SirWired
I can see why the airlines needed to overbook flights back when fares were refundable, but I don’t understand how overbooking remained necessary after most fares became non-refundable and the airlines began charging change fees to boot.
I think airlines should be offered a choice — you can either overbook flights or you can sell fares with cancellation penalties and change fees, but you can’t do both. If an airline opts to make any fare class non- or partially refundable and then bumps a passenger from an overbooked flight, a hefty fine would result. Otherwise, return to the practice of making a full refund on a canceled ticket and you can use yield management practices to estimate how many seats you can oversell.
Following EU rules, all refunds, penalties, and bumping compenstation (both voluntary and involuntary) be required to be made in cash/check. All forms of certificates/vouchers for future travel should be banned.
Of course the U.S. airline industry needs to be regulated and many, if not all, of your suggestions are good ones. The sad thing, however, is that so many of them are just common sense or common decency or both. How can regulation prevent the rampant greed, arrogance and stupidity that has made U.S. air travel the nightmare it is today.
I just read a news article that said air travel was down significantly in September and the airline industry is all flustered about it. Excuse me? They treat their customers horribly and then are shocked – shocked!!! – when their numbers are down. Duh! Apparently I’m not the only one who has elected to either stay home or find an alternative mode of travel instead of allowing myself to be victimized by this industry.
Oh! Here’s another suggestion for your list: no scheduling more flight arrivals and departures than the airport can physically accommodate.
How about not placing you on another airline without you knowing about it. Using share partners is fine, but when you book a flight and expect to be on airline X and in a wide-body plane, and then find out you are now on airline Y in a narrow body plane that’s just plain bate and switch.
Also, you mention it as do the others, Communication!!! They must be required to notify passengers of any changes, delays or cancellations immediately and give the reason why. I want to know if they have crew issues. I want to know if it’s weather related and where.
I try to avoid the legacy airlines as much as possible. I love Virgin America. They like their jobs, they treat you like you matter and provide little things to make the flight enjoyable. I choose to fly them as much as I can. I wish they flew to Hawai’i. Try booking a reasonable fare there now! Ha! It doesn’t exist any more.
• Airlines should not be allowed to sell more seats than they have.
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Overbooking is actually a good thing. It prevents flights from going out with empty seats because passengers book seats and/or NO SHOW. Once that flight takes off without a passenger in it, that’s LOST REVENUE. The airlines could go to a USE IT OR LOSE IT way of pricing their tickets like many other industries do.
You dont get to RE-USE a boardway ticket if you dont make it to the show. You dont get to RE-USE a sports event ticket if you dont make it………..etc…etc…etc.
Airlines have CHANGE FEES just for this purpose. It discourages passengers from changing flights at the last time. Which helps reduce the amount of seats that may go empty on the flight. They recoup abit of that loss by charging a fee. That seat may have gone unused, and now you require another seat for your changed plans!
• Passengers shouldn’t be imprisoned on a plane for hours without food or water.
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Sheesh, there’s over 30 THOUSAND FLIGHTS PER DAY in this country. Yet, everyone remembers an ICE STORM in New York where Jetblue got stranded on the tarmac for most of the day. Or American, during severe storms in Texas. Northwest in DTW, years ago. THESE ARE RARE INCIDENTS.
Just who released these airplanes in the first place——> THE FAA. I rarely hear BLAME directed at them! They operate the aviation system.
The carriers have gotten out of hand. Apostasies such as charging for the first baggage, charging for water, charging to change itineraries, the ala carte nonsense. The airlines’ disregard for the “contract of carriage” when its benefits redound to the customer, and the worthless cynicism shown when flaunting that same contract in customer’s faces when its benefits redound to the carriers. Their rationing of available seats to drive up fares. The oligopolistic practices every carrier indulges. Their rude, “empowered” employees, predatory pricing, “f*ck you”-style customer service culture. Their lies, sometimes with an Indian accent, sometimes not. The carriers’ incessant, shrill whining about “not making any money”. The credo that people ‘lose their minds’ when they get to the airport. The airline shills muddying internet discussions of the issue and its remedies. All done in the name of the “low fare” illusion. To quote Kay Corleone, “It all must end”. Additionally, and I’m sure St. Michael would agree on this point, retribution must be had. Reregulate them every bit as strictly as the CAB did until 1978. For at least thirty years. No excuses for doing otherwise. In fact, rewrite this “contract of carriage” to require airlines make full disclosure of their responsibilites when breach occurs, every time, all the time. And provide strict, painfully punitive penalties for non-compliance. America had an air transport industry that was the envy of the world; now we’ve got a Delta-Northwest merger. Air transport is a utility; none of that nonsense about driving or taking the bus or train, at least not until those modes cruise at 520 mph. It’s good to see the free market going the way of the dinosaur. While its too late for this holiday travel season, please, let’s have them reregulated by the time next year’s summer travel season rolls around. Air travel shouldn’t hurt. If it does, something’s wrong. I hope everyone in favor of reregulating the airlines is in contact with their respective Congresspersons. I know I am.
The European regulations are a joke too, by the way. Airlines simply ignore them and hope you don’t go up the food chain to complain. I’ve been fighting for more than a year with Clickair over a 40 hour delayed flight and still haven’t heard anything except “we’re working on it”.
Each airport should have an independent claims office to handle any type of irregularities with the airlines’ service. This would quickly show what goes wrong and allow foe quick mediation in cases of abuse (by passengers or airlines).
I agree with some of your ideas, but not all. The problem is who will decide which of these ideas is really necessary and which aren’t. Do you really trust the government that well? To keep it short, here are the ones I disagree with:
1) They should be allowed to overbook, but compensation for involuntary denial of boarding should be increased significantly. Leave it as an economic decision for the airlines, but change the risk/reward factors.
2) Surcharges that the customer cannot avoid must be included in the quoted price. I fail to see what is wrong with charging extra for services that cost the airlines money and that many passengers can avoid, such as baggage or food service. The airline should not need to be a free restaurant or free freight shipment service, though for health and safety reasons, water should certainly be free to the passengers.
Frank – I believe that if the airlines started throwing people out of the airplanes at 30,000 feet, you would defend their actions as a great energy-saving program.
On October 30th, 2008 at 6:25 am MarkieA said
Frank – I believe
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And, your comment contributes to the topic, how?
In fact, it’s childish.
I’ve been flying (as a pax) 30 of my 40 years. I currently fly approx once every 6 weeks. So I’m no road warrior, but I’m not a once-a-year-its-summer flyer either.
Yes, dealing with TSA and security is the pits. Yes, the seats/leg room have gotten smaller (& yes I’ve gotten bigger) and smaller to where it is uncomfortable.
No, not every airline employee is out to get you or ruin your trip. I would say they are no better or worse than your average coffee-house, family restaurant, retail, etc employee attitude. No, the flying experience is NOT as bad as some like to complain.
What’s wrong with charging for a checked bag (although $50 is steep)? I think they marketed it wrong. It should be “no checked bags — get a discount”. If someone doesn’t use that service and the employee time involved, why pay for it? I don’t agree with the idea of charging for carry-on, I’m schlepping my bag around, not an airline/airport employee.
Yes, I do avoid the legacy carriers as much as I can; I try to support the new upstarts and regionals or fly non-American flyers. This isn’t always possible and I still have ok flights on a legacy.
Going in with a bad attitude isn’t going to get you to a good flight. Yes, sometimes there will be bad flight experiences. My experience though is I’ve had far more good experiences than bad.
I think part of the comment from DaveS is ridiculous and certainly
ignorant of reality. Exactly how is it that luggage is something people
can avoid? Unless you are a “commuter” or going just overnight,
get real….most people traveling are going to have luggage!!!!!
And please don’t EVEN suggest sending it via a courier-type service…
that’s ain’t free either!
Sheesh!
A few more thoughts…
All tickets are either fully refundable or may be used on any other flight
on that route or credited to another flight on that airline for at least 1
year. No change fees as a few clicks on a keyboard aren’t worth 50-150
dollars. No charges for standing by for another flight on the same day.
If an airline takes your money, they are obligated to get you to your
destination at around the same time you were supposed to fly. If they cancel
a flight, they have to arrange the flights on another airline.
All fares and restrictions have to be publicly posted and the airlines
have to allow you to purchase a lower fare if it comes available before your
flight at no extra fee.
Return the baggage to 2 checked 70lb bags plus a 22 inch carry on
which was the standard for years rather than the one bag you suggested.
No code shares. Joint fares are fine, but each flight has 1 and only one airline name and flight number.
Free means NO CHARGE. If you offer free tickets you can’t charge fees on them.
Nothing personal, but, I suspect Michelle is one of the airline shills I spoke of yesterday. She used the term “pax”, airline jargon no disinterested passenger (or one unable to identify their own interests, only their employer’s) would know or use. She clearly has no issues with paying for checked baggage and disregards the fact airline pricing experts have already taken into account baggage weight in calculating the fare. Her reasoning is a prime example of what I spoke of earlier. She has no interest in paying for a checked baggage; she incurs the opportunity costs of not spending that $50 elsewhere, and is blind to the fact that the cost of the ticket has alredy been calculated into the fare she has paid. Forty years ago no one charged her for a checked bag or three. There is no reason for her to be charged here in our 2008. But if she’s so willing to pay a surcharge, she should post her email so all of use who are indignant at paying for something twice can bill her instead; people with that logic would go ballistic if they were double charged for a doctor visit or to have their carpets professionally cleaned.. Again, please, contact your Congresspersons and lobby them to reregulate the airlines as strictly as possible, regardless of what shills say.
Lewis Lipps made an excellent point. Any of the airlines REDUCE the
cost of a ticket when they started unbundling? NOPE. He’s right. Tickets
are calculated on their total cost of what service is provided. If you take
a service away all together or start charging for it separating, then the
ticket price should be reduced to reflect the loss of service. So technically
they raised the cost of the ticket, because they were providing less
services. And should one purchase an ‘unbundled’ service, there’s more
money. They just DOUBLED the cost of checking bags.
It’s the same crap the food companies pull…they make the package
smaller (and of course don’t tell anyone) but their PR dept says we’re
holding prices steady. Does the public not like being talked down to…
like we’re stupid??? Duh, guess they think we’ll fall for it.
While we can boycott a food company/product, it’s much harder to do
that when we need to use the only viable option for getting across
country. Yes, contact your elected officials to force the airlines
to follow the rules stated in the original post (the word
‘re-regulate’ isn’t what these rules incurr especially as price-setting).
Sorry Lewis, you’re wrong. I am not an airline employee and I have no affiliation with any airlines. My use of “pax” is due to my frequency of texting and shorting words. Get with the times.
I also don’t pay a checked bag fee. Did you not read the part about me not using the legacy carriers? Also, I travel with a carry-on bag only most times. Not due to fees, but for the ease of travel without large un-necessary bags.
I proof-read my post, but let me apologize in advance if I didn’t properly spell out all my words. Nice attitude by the way.
Michelle thank you for the kind comments about my attitude; I just wish more people took ownership of their responsibility for the ASOT as far as the air transportation system is nowadays, and recognized the value of agency. Thank you for reminding me about the propriety of proper spelling and punctuation, but the issue remains: airlines are clearly out of hand and need reregulation. The costs of services and items the airlines are unbundling and ala carteing have already been accounted for in the fare charged. If you are charged for a bottle of water, a first checked bag, to sit in an exit row ( Isn’t this a safety issue? Is the FAA too busy promoting air transport to ensure able-bodied people are seated in those rows?) or any of the other tomfoolery the marketing alchemists at the airlines concoct, you are paying twice. IMHO perhaps certain people don’t mind paying twice for a service rendered once, but I’m sure most rational people take offense to such a practice. BTW, have you researched the city pair segments you travel most frequently, and compared fares you pay under this deregulated nonsense to fares charged before deregulation (adjusted for inflation of course)? The low fare justification for the persistence of deregulation remains exposed as a lie and an illusion. Have you ever researched legislative history behind the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938, and not discovered how strikingly similar the evils afflicting air transport today are to the evils Congress sought to addres with that Act? I repeat: the airlines need vigorous reregulation as soon as possible, and I urge everyone to lobby their representatives in Congress ASAP to achieve that end. TTYL.
On November 1st, 2008 at 1:23 am Lewis Lipps said The costs of services and items the airlines are unbundling and ala carteing have already been accounted for in the fare charged. If you are charged for a bottle of water, a first checked bag, to sit in an exit row ( Isn’t this a safety issue? Is the FAA too busy promoting air transport to ensure able-bodied people are seated in those rows?) or any of the other tomfoolery the marketing alchemists at the airlines concoct, you are paying twice.
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Interesting how many other (service) industries price this way. Ever go to a Baseball game? A broadway show? A bottle of water is NOT included in the price of your ticket. Either is that hotdog/glass of wine or those choice seats behind the catcher’s mound/or balcony seats.
THE PRICE OF YOUR TICKET GETS YOU FROM POINT A TO POINT B. All other services are EXTRA…………You’re NOT “paying twice.” Everyone’s simply upset that the “same product” actually costs more now because the airlines are charging, services rendered. That those 69.00 dollar fares to florida are now gone. That you may have to actually PAY MORE then you would if you drove the route your flying!
Frank..you’re WRONG. and I believe out of touch with the real world.
You wrote:
THE PRICE OF YOUR TICKET GETS YOU FROM POINT A TO POINT B. All other services are EXTRA…………You’re NOT “paying twice.” Everyone’s simply upset that the “same product” actually costs more now because the airlines are charging, services rendered.
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NO, people are NOT upset about the same product costing more.
First people have NEVER liked getting nickeled and dimed to death.
Second…Lewis Lipps IS correct. It would also seem
that you didn’t read my post backing him up. If you ONCE got a service
that was bundled into the price of the plane ticket and then they TAKE
THAT SERVICE AWAY and DO *NOT* lower the ticket price accordingly,
you are STILL PAYING FOR A SERVICE YOU ARE NO LONGER
RECEIVING! That’s bad enough…and it SHOULD be illegal. They
are still charging for a service they are not providing…it’s called “theft” of
passengers money.
AND if they now charge separately for that service, then you ARE paying TWICE!!!
And by the way…POOR comparison of theatre/baseball tickets…NEVER
have the food, etc been part of their ticket prices. Don’t ever join a
debating team….they’ll mop the floor with you.
HELLOOOOOO….Frank…is there ANYONE upstairs?
On November 1st, 2008 at 12:13 pm Heather Collins said Frank.. If you ONCE got a service that was bundled into the price of the plane ticket and then they TAKE THAT SERVICE AWAY and DO *NOT* lower the ticket price accordingly,
you are STILL PAYING FOR A SERVICE YOU ARE NO LONGER
RECEIVING! That’s bad enough…and it SHOULD be illegal. They
are still charging for a service they are not providing…it’s called “theft” of
passengers money.
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So, I guess the airlines should charge you based on the price of oil, daily. right?
Because at my airline, for every DOLLAR that oil increases, that ADDS 40 MILLION DOLLARS in increased COSTS, the cost of oil to operate those aircraft you fly on. They are trying to keep ticket prices reasonable by charging you extra’s. NO ONE IS FORCING YOU to buy a soda or check a bag. That COST will now be determined by YOU, not the airline. WAKE UP, HEATHER. The industry’s pricing model has………………..CHANGED. The industry is always evolving. Remember travel agent commissions? Paper tickets? Chicken or Beef? CHANGED………….and………………….GONE.
and, YOU have it backwards, they reduced services which kept fares more reasonable, had they had to raise them to cover the fluctuating oil price. sure, oil is down, what about 3 months from now? Could the Middle East perhaps reduce oil production to raise the price up again? Everyone who flew this summer, flew cheaply. (WITH THE EXCEPTION of last minute fares) because they purchased their tickets, when?….MONTHS IN ADVANCE. Those fares didnt cover the increase in fuel costs for the entire summer. So, the airlines had to reduce costs by unbundling services. Why unbundle? So, the airline can recoup expenses, because it now COSTS MORE to fly you. Simple Business 101.
And, NEWSFLASH……….it doesnt matter that theater and baseball parks didnt give away free products to it’s customers. The airlines, which have on average, 50 TO 100 MILLION customers PER YEAR can no longer include these freebies in the ticket price. I suppose YOU always expected a trip to Florida to cost 79.00 bucks. SEEMS you’re out of touch and LACK serious knowledge of the industry that I’ve spent my entire life doing.
MOP THAT!
Re-regulate the airlines now. This industry is a vital public utility whose safety margin and technical sophistication is beyond the comprehension of the average duped “cheap fare” consumer AND the industry executives and marketing hucksters who don’t know one end of an airplane from another. The airline industry is vital not only to the nation’s economy but also to the national security. I’ve seen troops bound for Iraq and Afghanistan to fight terrorists have their deployments delayed because airlines trying to do things too much “on the cheap” lose their bags and take forever to find them.
For too many years airlines have ruined any semblance of quality or even reliability by selling tickets below the cost of providing the service the cutting staff, services and even maintenance to a level that it is impossible for an airline to run reliably much less have any quality of service. This was even before the time-wasting nickel and dime “ala-carte” fees which wouldn’t be necessary if airlines would simply refuse to sell the product at below cost. The obsession with “market share” even at a loss is something akin to shooting yourself in the foot to prove you have good aim!
The other disgraceful thing has been the wholesale “screwing” of not only employees–through pay cuts, layoffs, pension theft and benefit cuts–but shafting most creditors and stockholders like by abuse of the Bankruptcy laws. Of course, those CAUSING the airlines’ problems–the kleptocrat CEOs and top executives–have been spared the abuse done to everyone else in the Bankruptcy process. The only parties to have BENEFITTED from this idiotic deregulation and the lax Bankruptcy laws have been kelptocrat executives, corporate lawyers and the “cheap is all that matters crowd” and everyone else–stockholders, public, creditors and employees–be damned. At least partial–if not full 1970s CAB–reregulation is needed NOW!
FIRST, airlines should be PROHIBITED from selling a ticket BELOW the cost of producing it. Doing so makes it impossible to run an airline in a quality, even a reliable way regardless of poorly employees are paid or treated. There should be a MINIMUM ALLOWABLE fare in every city pair (ie; ATL-NYC) pegged at what AVIATION KNOWLEDGEBLE experts (not marketing hucksters or desk jockey bean counters) say it cost to run an airline in a safe, reliable and quality fashion. Above that price competition will be allowed, but running an airline’s quality and dependability in the ground for the sake of “cheap fares” will not be allowed.
SECOND, “Performance Standards” requiring airlines to CONTROLLABLE items such as lost bags and non-weather, non-air traffic delays to a minumum set by the the DOT or face sanctions should be enacted to prevent the higher that current below cost air fares from just going into the pockets of kelptocrat CEOs but instead properly providing the quality airline service that existed before 1978.
THIRD, the Bankrputcy laws must be reformed to prevent airlines from using them as a strategy to deprive workers of decent wages, benefits and working conditions as well as unfairly shirk obligations to creditors and devalue the stockholders interests. The Railway Labor Act should be amended to properly reinstate the requirments that Bankrutpcy Courts not allow any voiding of contracts which unfairly places any cost cutting on the backs of rank and file empoyees.
FOURTH, and this applies to ALL corporations, not just airlines; corporate governance laws must be changed to give stockholders a BINDING (not just non-binding) say on how much CEOs and other top brass are paid. It is despiciable for CEOs of even failing companies to make millions of dollars while demanding employees take pay cuts to the near poverty level. There is nothing “socialist” about this as the “plutocrat lobby” accused President Obama of for even wanting a NONBINDING stockholder right on CEO pay. What could be MORE CAPITALIST than the OWNERS (stockholders) or a corporation deciding what the HIRED HAND CEOs will make? CEOs and other top executives–in cahoots with puppett boards of directors (who are supposed to represent the STOCKHOLDERS, not CEOs) must think they are some super priveledged higher class of persons somehow exempt from the havoc they wreak of everyone else.
Dennis Michael Smith, Marietta, Georgia
I like the points brought up in this article (including those mentioned in the comments) but the title of the article is misleading. “Reregulate U.S airlines? Hell, yeah — and here’s how” Chris states what he would change, not how. I have a few questions:
1. Where will the funding for Re-regulation come from?
2. Do you think that the government bailouts are more expensive than shouldering all the airlines in the U.S?
3. What will it do to ticket prices?
Thanks!
If a group CITIZENS did what Airlines do, namely hold people in planes indefinitely, they would not only be charged with kidnapping and false imprisonment, they could be charged with terroristic acts and torture under the Feds own fanciful Patriot act, et, al. People talk about waterboarding as bad. How about stuffing the worst offending Airlines’ corporate officers into one of their own tin cans, baking on the tarmac, without air conditioning, water, or flushing toilets. Let them connect to WiFi for their laptops and smart phones let them bid their way out of their predicament with proceeds going to Airline / TSA victms. Like that’ll ever happen. Some are more equal than others.