Nickle and dimed at United
Let me put this out there, before I make my comment: Every major US air carrier sucks unbelievably, unless you are one of their top members. All of them. The question is how they suck, and in what way do they annoy you this time, as opposed to the way another carrier annoyed you last time.
So I am flying to SF tomorrow for business. My R/T ticket to SF and back is approximately $1200, for a non-refundable coach seat. When I went to check in this afternoon, United wanted to charge me $46/one-way to sit in “Economy Plus.” $46 on top of the $1200 they’ve already gotten out of us. 4% more money for a little more legroom.
Now, I understand charging that for the el-cheapo $250/RT fares, and that doesn’t bother me. But at $1200, I think they can splurge and give me somewhere to put all my legs, and not just half of them. Maybe they can even splurge for a seat cushion that isn’t designed by the Marquis de Sade, but that might be asking too much.
I know this is one of the “benefits” of their frequent-flyer “elite” program, but I think at a certain point, they should simply wave that for those of us who have to pay the absurd last-minute fares because a customer can’t commit to dates. It’s just a thought. Oh, and I’m sure they’ll want $4 for a “snack” on the plane.
This entry was posted at 2:09 pm on 10 October 2006 and is filed under Random. You can follow any responses to this entry through the post-specific RSS 2.0 feed.
I agree totally with your strategies. I was a long-time Delta flyer and Medallion for many years. Unfortunately, my new employer has “negotiated” deals with United and American—the two I’ve always avoided—so I’m trying to build up my status with them at this point.
Exit rows are great, and with Delta I could always book ahead, but United won’t let me book them, at least online. I always ask at the counter, but the “Economy Plus” thing cheeses me off to no end.
Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
Chris – As a road warrior of long tenure, I hear you loud and clear on what the big boys try to do to squeeze out a bit more revenue out of their flights. Herewith are some tips that you probably already know, but perhaps your readership will take note:
– Try to stick with flying one airline routinely with another one as a backup for things like fares, schedules, etc. The reason I say this is that it only takes about 25K miles/year on most carriers to get to the first rung of ‘elite’ status, and then they start acting very, very nice to you w/r/t seating, upgrades, etc.
– Legroom is non-existant in coach for the most part, except for the exit rows. Even if I’m not elite on some carrier, I will always ask to get seated there, even in the middle, and those are usually the last seats assigned before boarding. I have about a 90% success rate of scoring an exit seat on carriers where I’m not elite (meaning all except Northwest and Frontier), so believe me when I say that asking the front counter and/or gate agents nicely about an exit seat (on the asile too??? Whoo-hoo!) never hurts. The legroom is awsome enough to even make the middle seat palatable compared to some doofus sitting in front of you who reclines his seat such that your knees are in your face…been there, done that…
– The smaller players give you more for less money. I fly Frontier as my ‘backup’ airline to Northwest. They run Airbus A3X planes, which have a bit more spaciousness that the tin-can 757’s that NWA flies. Not to mention the seat-back video woth sattelite TV for $5. Flying them a few weeks ago on a Saturday, never missed a beat on some great college football games…awesome. And they fed us a snack too, for $400 less than NWA charged in which I would have gotten a half-can of Diet Pepsi.
Bob