• Zemvos@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    58
    ·
    1 year ago

    Airlines charging for seat selection. I remember the days when that was just a right you got for “free” by purchasing the ticket 🤷

    • j891319@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Recently went on a flight and paid 30 USD for seat selection online. Then when we go to the airport our friends who didn’t check in online could select it free at the airport anyways…

      • pascal@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        If you’re flying as a family or with friends, some cheap airlines actually “randomly” puts your seats all across the airplane if you don’t buy the seats.

    • Caveman@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      Those things actually make flights cheaper by shifting the cost towards people that value those features. Same with bags, leg room, food, drinks etc.

        • pascal@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Frequent flyer for the last 20 years. It wasn’t normal at all until a few years ago. You just validated this whole thread.

          • severien@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            I meant “normal” as in “ethically acceptable”. A widespread practice can still be immoral.

      • A1kmm@lemmy.amxl.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        I think it is more a drip pricing scam to increase revenue for the airline, especially when it is for things that don’t have an incremental cost for the airline. Can’t compete with other airlines? No problem, advertise a lower price than your competitors, but then dream up things your competitor offers as included that almost ever customer wants (and perhaps even try to create problems for customers but charge to make them go away). Now you get customers in the door for the lower initial price, but almost all customers end up paying more than if they had just gone with the competitor.

        It is not beneficial to the customer because it reduces the efficiency of the market (and hence competition) by making it harder to quickly compare prices and get the best overall offer.

        Other industries do the same - insurers with exclusions, retailers trying to make warranties an optional extra (where regulations allow them to do it), ISPs trying to drip price extra charges.

        If a business has absolute upfront honesty about all extra charges, but they genuinely have a reason to charge extra for some customers doing things that cost them significantly more, then that is a different matter, and not necessarily bad for their customers. But the second they try to conceal part of the price and progressively reveal it, it really is a form of scam.

        • Caveman@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          You can still book flights with full service airlines like Turkish, Emirates, Swiss etc, but if you go for a cheap airline and take advantage of modern day cheap flight prices this is how the game works. In the future they’ll even have more options probably.

          Not saying it’s ethical, nice or anything. This is just how modern low cost airlines make money.