May

21

Airlines are Cutting Back

May 21, 2007 |

As somebody who travels quite frequently, this article in the New York Times makes me anything but happy:

Meanwhile, nearly every major carrier has done away with free onboard
meals in coach on domestic flights, and has instead begun to charge for
individual food and drink items, often at hotel minibar prices. Earlier
this year, American Airlines, for example, replaced its $4 snack boxes
offered on domestic flights of three hours or longer with offerings
like Lay’s Stax Potato Crisps ($3), M&Ms ($3) and bottled water
($2) and now sells them on domestic flights of two hours or longer. On
longer flights within the United States, American offers $5 light meals like breakfast bagel sandwiches, Italian wraps or Asian chicken salads.

However:

Not all airlines are going à la carte. Continental is one of the few
that still offers hot meals on domestic flights and continues to have
blankets and pillows available for passengers. And JetBlue, which
offers complimentary Dunkin’ Donuts coffee and satellite television on
all its flights, has no plans to begin charging for these extras.

And that, right there, is why I flew 65.000 miles on Continental last year (and already 35.000 this year) and didn’t spend a dollar on any other airline - except for that free trip I got on NWA and which was the worst service I ever experienced (and that was in 1st class!)).

Oh - and maybe the airlines should consider that it is Continental that is actually making money and the rest of them are not. The idea that we want to be ripped off at every point of our trip is just to ridiculous for words. Now, does Continental charge anything more than the other airlines? Doesn’t seem to be the case.


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