Does it bother you that the travel industry is getting laughed at?
On Monday night, Jay Leno used the new miscellaneous airline fees as part of his monologue. He poked fun at U.S. Airways for charging passengers for water, JetBlue for charging for pillows and blankets and Delta for their second-bag price hike to $50. It was hilarious when Leno said, “People are just going to be wearing all their clothes as they travel. People getting on the plane with six pairs of underpants, three pairs of shorts. Everybody will just be waddling up to the plane,” but in reality, is it funny at all?
Yesterday, when American Airlines Flight 31 had to make an emergency landing, someone used Fark to make a joke that passengers would probably be charged $10 to be evacuated.
Why are travelers being hit so hard and when do we consider it below the belt?
Wireless hotspot provider Boingo wants you to turn to them for a little pain relief. They are offering discounted Wi-Fi day passes as aspirin. [Updated 5:25 p.m.: The original version of this post said the passes were free.]
But is there anything that can really make us feel better? Now that gas prices are (slowly) going back down, does that mean fuel surcharges will too? And how will we know if they do?
Web Buzz: Here are some other blog posts that are discussing the state of the airline industry:
> Upgrades and Downgrades – Delta SkyMiles insults us all, Frontier’s standby sits down, OpenSkies closes coach, Google Maps goes afoot, and United shoots itself in the foot. [Upgrade Travel Better]
> Are the number of airline complaints about to take off? [Elliott]
> United considers charging for meals internationally, drinks as well. [The Cranky Flier]
But it’s the passengers who aren’t laughing. Vent and share your most recent travel gripes.
I’m not talking about something that happened to you two years ago. Tell us about a fee you recently paid that you thought was unjust — or even an act of bad service that wasn’t warranted considering everything you’re having to put up with as an air traveler these days.
– Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel & Deal Blogger
[Image: boingo.com]
4 Comments on “Does it bother you that the travel industry is getting laughed at?”
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August 6th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
USAirways recently tried to charge me $50 to fly standby on a flight that left 1 hour before my scheduled flight. I’m a United freqflier and USAir supposedly gives the same privileges to United FFs. Three different people told me that I couldn’t fly standby without paying the 50$. (I went to 3 different desks because, quite frankly I didn’t believe it). Finally, someone with a heart from USAirways paged me over the loudspeaker and told me they were able to put me on the flight 1 hour earlier to get home. Of course, the flight had plenty of empty seats.
August 6th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Isn’t the old saying that if you don’t laugh, you cry?
As an industry - and a company that is peripherally part of the industry - we do know what it’s like to travel, and we try to help people stay connected and get work done at the airport. Sometimes people get stuck, sometimes you have delays, sometimes your plane doesn’t take off for five hours because of other cities … but you sit and grin and bear it.
Heck, I’ve had people at airports note how easy-going I am in those situations.
So, you sit down, you have a coffee and a muffin and you login and you work, you blog, you watch videos. That’s what we try to help people do: stay connected while traveling.
[Editor's note: Mr. Pepper is a publicist for Boingo.]
August 6th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Oh, and quick correction - two day-passes for $9.95, not free.
We’ll be doing those types of promotions again, though, in the future. :)
August 8th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
It will be interesting when in the near future (read: now) on the airline site we have a series of checkboxes with various options: water, water with ice, pillow .. and prices next to each … Then there will be a promotion - free pillow with purchase of flight