Airline hate, round #234984839

[firecat]

From my NWA Weekly Deals newsletter:

"Northwest is saving some preferred seat assignments (including exit, aisle and window seats) for domestic and international travelers until check-in. With Coach Choice, you can confirm these preferred seat assignments 24 hours prior to departure for a modest fee. Domestic seats range from $5 to $35."

It would have gone over better with me if they had said that people willing to sit in a middle seat were getting a discount. But there's no way to sugarcoat that they seem to be taking away the ability to choose a window or aisle seat when you purchase your ticket.

Comments

[snippy]

My first thought was "they must really be doing poorly to decide to add yet another small fee." After all, fuel prices are down! (Did aviation fuel go down too? It must have.) Actually what would annoy me far more would be if other airlines adopted United's practice of charging $25 to check the first bag. Not the second bag, the first. This after how many decades of them encouraging travelers to check bags instead of overstuffing the overhead bins? If they let people with no carry on bag in the bin (just a small one under the seat) off the plane first, that would be cool.

I'm groused that my natural gas company raised rates twice last year, but they're not going down now. And the public transit raised the price of bus tickets and passes because of the high gas prices last summer, but they're not going down now--it actually costs less, including gas and oil but not the price of the car or insurance, for Mark and me to drive to work than to buy two monthly bus passes.

[firecat]

I think airlines are doing really poorly right now, because the recession is causing people to avoid flying.

Yeah, it doesn't seem like shipping rates have gone back down due to the fuel price drop, either.

And yes, charging for checked baggage is worse. I assumed all the airlines had adopted that policy already.