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It’s just unbundling, it’s not the end of the world, relax. Most “basic economy” is already like this. This seems like a result of people buying primarily base

by ericd 2y ago

It’s just unbundling, it’s not the end of the world, relax. Most “basic economy” is already like this. This seems like a result of people buying primarily based on price via Kayak et al without seeing the full picture, and tools like Google flights have already started correcting for it by adding baggage into the all-in price that they display/sort by. We should frankly make flying much more expensive than it is, it has an outsized effect on global warming.

MrDOS 2y ago
It's only “unbundling” if the basic fare goes down by the carry-on cost. If the total ticket price goes up, it's called “gouging”. Hope that helps!
- School-Cotton 2y ago
  > If the total ticket price goes up, it's called “gouging”. Or just rising with inflation. Or the business deciding to raise prices for their own internal reasons. Do you consider it “gouging” every time a business decides to raise prices? What’s your definition of “gouging”, exactly?
- arcticbull 2y ago
  Airlines are extremely low-profit commodity businesses. Most US carriers have low single-digit margins, and AC is high single digits. If unbundling allows them to lower the sticker price -- or avoid raising it because of e.g. inflation -- in what world is that "gouging?" There's a subcategory of "every price change I don't like is gouging" but in reality, gouging is generally defined as raising prices to an unfair or unreasonable level in response to a shortage during a crisis.
- ericd 2y ago
  You can consider that they might've had to raise the fare by that much to keep up with inflation/rising costs, but instead, they're keeping it constant. Like the sibling comments have already mentioned, it's an extremely competitive, extremely thin margin business, there is no way you can call what they're charging "gouging". I don't love this change either, but we don't need to be hyperbolic about it.

by ericd 2y ago

MrDOS 2y ago

It's only “unbundling” if the basic fare goes down by the carry-on cost. If the total ticket price goes up, it's called “gouging”. Hope that helps!

School-Cotton 2y ago
> If the total ticket price goes up, it's called “gouging”. Or just rising with inflation. Or the business deciding to raise prices for their own internal reasons. Do you consider it “gouging” every time a business decides to raise prices? What’s your definition of “gouging”, exactly?
arcticbull 2y ago
Airlines are extremely low-profit commodity businesses. Most US carriers have low single-digit margins, and AC is high single digits. If unbundling allows them to lower the sticker price -- or avoid raising it because of e.g. inflation -- in what world is that "gouging?" There's a subcategory of "every price change I don't like is gouging" but in reality, gouging is generally defined as raising prices to an unfair or unreasonable level in response to a shortage during a crisis.
ericd 2y ago
You can consider that they might've had to raise the fare by that much to keep up with inflation/rising costs, but instead, they're keeping it constant. Like the sibling comments have already mentioned, it's an extremely competitive, extremely thin margin business, there is no way you can call what they're charging "gouging". I don't love this change either, but we don't need to be hyperbolic about it.