Tagged With "crowding"
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Re: Is it time to regulate airplane seats? Chris Elliott thinks so!
I'm not sure if "mandating" certain seat sizes would do anything but raise prices, but it might be nice if they introduced a simple grading system. "A" for business/first class, "F" for the sardine can seating in the most cramped airlines. If I was less than 5 ft tall and weighed less than 100 lbs the current seating system would work fine for me. For most folks it's much too crowded, especially on long flights. All the worse if you have to have your bag under the seat in front of you. Let's...
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Re: Is it time to regulate airplane seats? Chris Elliott thinks so!
I'm not sure it's the case that mandating a decent space would raise fares...in the past, we've certainly seen that fares have a resistance point, and airlines have backed down from increases at times. Also worth noting that fares seem largely based on competition rather than actual expense involved; that's why it's often cheaper to fly NY to LA than NY to Kansas City! And, as Chris Elliott points out, having people fighting over seat space has led to expensive consequences, too...
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Re: Is it time to regulate airplane seats? Chris Elliott thinks so!
The trouble with a mandate is that it has deadlines and airlines who fly to the US would have to go through an expensive seat replacement program. That cost is one we share, or that puts the airlines in the red and in jeopardy. Makes sense to pressure them to improve, but that's just my opinion. But I do like the idea of "grading" seats. Helps me know what I'm buying. For example, Canadian airlines definitely have larger seats that American carriers. I'll preferentially fly Air Canada to...
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Re: Is it time to regulate airplane seats? Chris Elliott thinks so!
This debate seems to accept that the profit margins of Trans-Atlantic Flights are squeezed by costs outside the carriers control. The only solution they have is squeeze more seats in to control income. Last month I paid £759 ($1245) for 1 seat UK to Philadelphia - Return - with an American Airline. 7 hours in the sky. Each way. My £759 will also get me a flight to the Caribbean from the UK. 10 hours in the sky. 14 nights in a hotel. Food and drink included. And flight back. The Caribbean...
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Re: Airports, Airlines battle over passenger fees
What I dislike are when fees are not used for what they're charged for. If airport improvement fees really are used to fix up and improve airports, I think most consumers are fine with that. But when they just get put into the general revenues of a city's cash pool, that bugs most of us. What a find far more unreasonable than this are the fees to change or cancel a flight. Often they approach or exceed the value of a ticket. That's really gouging the consumer.
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Re: Airports, Airlines battle over passenger fees
The other fees that especially bother me are the ones you never see in tickets, because they come out the back door. Compare airport car rental prices with off-airport of the same brand; compare the price of gum or candy at the airport or a neighborhood store. That’s airport revenue, too, either through a direct charge (car) or super-high-rents (newsstand)
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Re: Airports, Airlines battle over passenger fees
Good points, PHeymont. I have noticed the extremely high fees imposed by airport car rentals. Sometimes these exceed the cost of the car rental itself.
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Re: Spanish town gets tough on beach hogs
This selfish attitude is what we travellers hate, it brings out the worst in people. Ban this behaviour I say!
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Crowded Skies: U.S. sets air passenger record
Nearly 850 airline passengers for 2014! To be exact, 848.1 million passengers (obviously some repeaters!) flew on domestic airlines last year, or on foreign airline flights to and from the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. The...
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Airports, Airlines battle over passenger fees
It's hard for a traveler to tell what's going on sometimes in the pot-calling-the-kettle-black wars of the air travel industry. We've covered elsewhere the dispute between the legacy airlines and the Gulf carriers over subsidies and "Open Skies."...
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Can 'smart' seats make crowding bearable?
That's sort of the idea behind some new design initiatives for airline seating. Panasonic, and some others, are betting that by designing all the elements of a seat together (seat, inflight entertainment screen, power outlets and more) the elements...
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Balearic, Canary islands consider tourist limits
Crowded beaches mean money for hotels, restaurants, campgrounds and more, but officials in Spain's Canary Islands and Balearic Islands are starting to wonder how much might be too much. It's a theme that's been echoed elsewhere, most recently by...
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Is it time to regulate airplane seats? Chris Elliott thinks so!
In a column written for USA Today, travel consumer advocate Chris Elliott suggests that the only solution to the increasing air-rage incidents and fights over seat space is for the airlines to stop squeezing everyone closer and closer—and he's...
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Spanish town gets tough on beach hogs
A Spanish town makes good on threats to prosecute people who put their things out early to "reserve" beach space for later in the day.
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Re: Crowded Skies: U.S. sets air passenger record
What the graph doesn't show is the huge dip that occurred after 9-11. And with this trend and less planes flying, no wonder the airlines think we're a captive audience.
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Re: Crowded Skies: U.S. sets air passenger record
The dip turns out to not be as huge as some of us imagined. At the end of 2003, DOT estimated the loss at 7.1%, and by the end of 2004 the figure was higher than before 9/11. I've gone back to DOT figures for emplanements (which means a passenger getting on a plane) and extracted these numbers from the month-by-month numbers for international and domestic passengers. Note that the numbers in this table are a bit lower than the figures cited above, for one reason: This is a count of people...
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Re: Crowded Skies: U.S. sets air passenger record
After 9-11 reports in the news claimed that demand for flights to the US from the UK had dropped dramatically. In March the following year I needed to be in Maryland. I tried to book a direct flight to any airport in the American north east. Any time - any date - any week before Mid- March The earliest time I could book 2 seats to fly over was in June ! Many flights had been cancelled and prices - for those still operating - had risen suddenly. After contacting many UK travel agents for help...
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Re: Crowded Skies: U.S. sets air passenger record
I believe...but haven't time for full research just now...that there was a greater drop in capacity than in demand. That results in low availability and high prices. And if you look at the numbers above, you'll note that the drop in numbers for international is much less sharp, proportionally, than in the domestic...hence Garry's experience.